Sweeter Than Life

"Theo Kojak's" nephew gets in serious trouble and Theo has to find him and help find, then find him again, then help again.

The 17-year isn't a punk, but he has a friend who is, and always make bad decisions. Our boy isn't strong enough to stay away from the punk and gets himself into a bad situation.

Here's another example of why your mother always told you that who you hang with is extremely important.

It's an interesting story, one that starts off with a robbery of Theo's camera at his birthday party and winds up being a story about drug addiction and murder.

Off all the characters in the story, to me, the best was "Sonny South" played by veteran actor Neville Brand, a tough-guy with more lines in his face than a you-know-what. With that face, Brand made a career out of playing villains....but he's a good man in this episode. He's very good as the guy who tries to get the drugs out of Kojak's nephew's system.

The episode begins with two junkies seeing their dealer killed by his supplier. Unfortunately for the pair, the supplier sees them and is determined to shut them up...permanently. The twist is that one of the two is Kojak's nephew...and this makes this a very personal episode, as Kojak finds out what happens and works to get his nephew clean and catch the killer before it's too late.

This is a very gritty episode and I was impressed at the acting and how they made up the teens to look like real junkies. It was pretty harrowing to see. My only complaint is that Kojak's sister was very poorly written...and her dialog was pretty dopey...a sharp contrast to the realism in the rest of the episode. Another TINY problem was the shooting scene. It was obvious the actor never fired a gun and he acted as if he was firing a cannon...not a .45! His arm jumped ridiculously and folks who know about guns will probably laugh at this scene.

By the way, the character actor Neville Brand played a most unusual role as a reformed junkie...and I was very impressed by his performance.

When Theo Kojak's camera gets lifted at a Kojak family party it's the start of a case where Kojak learns the sad truth that his 17 year old nephew Michael Mullins is a drug addict.

The camera is fenced by Mullins and his friend for money to score some dope. But later they see the pawnbroker it was fenced with murdered. Mullins is now a witness to a homicide and has nowhere to turn.

Neville Brand as a former drug addict who runs an SRO hotel is who Telly Savalas deposits Mullins with to take a cold turkey cure. Brand is just outstanding in the part. Similar to a role he did in the John Wayne film Cahill, US Marshal.

Brand steals this one completely.