My Brother, My Enemy

Superstar Sylvester Stallone guest-stars here as a young, trigger-happy cop. He has a good intentions to help people but "Det. Rick Daly" is a little quick to pull the trigger and he winds up killing a young boy.

Some of the scenes afterward are, of course, very dramatic.

Stallone doesn't really have a lot of lines in this but he handles what he has well. After he is declared innocent in the shooting, things pop up here and there which begins to make Theo doubt whether the cop is innocent or is trying to cover up his tragic mistake.

There also is a knife killing in here which seems to spark all the trouble. That killer is played by Charles Napier, a familiar face to TV and movie buffs.

Other than the above two, a lot of actors and actresses are a part of this story and all perform well. The show turns out to be more of a drama than anything else, but it's well-done.

Plot In A Paragraph: Rick Daly (Sly Stallone) is a young cop with good intentions to help people. In response to a knife-killing, he gives chase and accidentally kills a young boy. Kojak (Telly Savalas) attempts to protect Daly when the public reacts furiously, demanding revenge, but he gets suspicious when cracks appear in Daly's story. Now the tables are turned, the cops feel Kojak is persecuting Daly, but Kojak is intent on finding out the truth.

In possibly the best episode of "Kojak", Telly Savalas, does what Telly Savalas does as Kojak, Future Rambo 2 co star Charles Napier, is here and in great shape, it must be said. But this episode is all about Sly Stallone. He gives the best performer of his career so far. (Including his great turn in "Lords Of Flatbush") this is a million miles away from his performance in "Death Race 2000". He is displaying the sort of acting talent that got him nominated for an Oscar a year and a half later for "Rocky". Which he should have won in my humble opinion, but the Academy sympathetically decided to give Peter Finch a posthumous Oscar. The scene on the rooftop with Telly Savalas is some of the finest acting of his career, and he shows great promise for more important roles.

In 1976, Sylvester Stallone went from a mostly unknown actor to a world famous super-star thanks to the success of his film, "Rocky". This episode of "Kojak" is something he did just before writing (for which he earned an Oscar) and starring in "Rocky".

When the story begins, two detectives are on patrol looking for some cat burglar. However, a man is murdered nearby and the cops respond. One of them, Detective Daly, sees the assailant running and shoots at the guy...but instead of hitting the killer, an innocent boy is killed. Kojak initially is very supportive of the detective...but after a while, discrepancies in the story make him question just how innocent the cop is.

This is a rather gritty episode of "Kojak". After all, most 1970s police shows tended to always portray the police in the best light...but here the story finds many of the police creating a 'blue wall'. In other words, cops all working together to hinder an investigation to help out a cop in trouble. And, as a result, Kojak has a tough time learning what really DID happen. Well written and very interesting.

Joining the Manhattan South Detectives in this episode are Detectives Sylvester Stallone and Stephen Pearlman. They hear a radio call of someone being stabbed in the hallway of an apartment. Stallone gives chase up to the roof, but when he sees a shadow he shoots and it's just a 10 year old kid attending to his pigeons.

Although he hates to admit it, Telly Savalas has lingering doubts about the veracity of Stallone's story. Even Theo Kojak can make a mistake in judgment about who should be on his squad. Has he made one here?

A nice performance from Sly Stallone in his pre-Rocky days. Great confrontation scene on the rooftop where it all happened with Stallone and Savalas.

This episode drags terribly and is made even worse by having the moronically Neanderthal Stallone as the main player, with all of his wooden acting included. Oh my god, so so so boring.

This episode is undeniably the worst Kojak episode up to this point. Avoid watching it and you will not regret it.

How this actor rose to such heights really beggars belief.

The only purpose this episode could possibly serve is its "dilation of time" effect, by making 45 minutes seem like three hours.

If you have the box set, I highly recommend that you just burn the disk containing this episode. You can thank me later.