Today I have an item that I picked up at a thrift store years ago, just because I'd never seen it brfore. It's a mint, still in the shrink wrap, kid's record of.....Kojak!
Yes, in 1977 Peter Pan Records decided that kids loved the TV derective so much that they would buy a full length album with four "exciting" stories about him!
Now, I don't remember being all that interested in Kojak (I was more into Barney Miller, I guess), but apparently some kids liked the lollypop sucking detective enough to sit through four stories (with sound effects!) featuring actors who had never actually been on the show.
Here is the back of the album, in all its comic book glory.
Here you go.
Kojak!
If you listen to all of it, let me know if I'm missing anything interesting. If you don't, I totally understand.
Until next time, keep searching for treasure!
Weird... just weird. A "kids" album? Of Kojak? Okaaay then. I never watched Kojak, no idea what was on opposite it back then. Was it Barney Miller, like you said? I did watch quite a few episodes of that.
ReplyDeleteIn my wildest imagination (and I do have a pretty wild imagination), I can't imagine more than a handful of copies of this album bring sold. And I can't imagine any, ANY kid sitting through 4 hours of this! I only got to a minute and 13 seconds on the YouTube channel that you so graciously linked to. ;-)
Who came up with this concept anyway?!?! Did they get fired afterwards?
A weird, but humorous item in your attic, Stu. Thanks.
I'm not sure if Barney Miller was opposite it or not, but I do know that I watched it a lot more than Kojak! I bet most kids did, in fact. Kojak was pretty dry, as I remember it, and since we both have the same opinion of the record, we'll just assume it is too.
DeleteI looked up Peter Pan Records, and they did other shows too, lile Star Trek. At first I thought that one might be pretty cool, but when I thought about Kirk and Spock being voiced by other people, I kind of lost interest. If I spotted it in the wild, I'd snatch it up, but I won't go hunting for it!
JB, I beat ya! I made it to 2:13 and then stopped. The most entertaining part of listening to that record was reading the Closed Captioning -- because they really screwed up LOTS of words. Rather comical, but sad if you can't hear. The story won't make any sense.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I ever watched Kojak OR Barney Miller. I was more of a Columbo fan. But thank you for sharing, Stu.
Actually, Columbo was probably the best of the three. The whole "bumbling detective noticing every detail" thing was cool..
DeleteOh, before I go, I have one more question...