Sun, Sep 26, 1976
Three liquor-store robbers, two men and a woman, kill a cop while escaping. The woman and the younger man get away, but the older killer is captured. When allowed to make his one phone call, he talks in Greek to the younger robber, telling him about Kojak's niece and the birthday party she is having in East River Park. The killers stake out the party and kidnap the little girl, demanding the leader's release as a ransom for letting the child go. Kojak uses a painting the little girl included in a ransom note to figure out where they might be headed.
Sun, Oct 3, 1976
The police investigate the bombing of a restaurant in which several people were killed, including the mistress of one of the detectives working of the case, who doesn't tell the others about his relationship with her, and who is unaware that the person who committed the bombing is his own emotionally unstable wife.
Sun, Oct 17, 1976
In an episode originally scheduled as the season opener (it was pushed back a few weeks to allow "Birthday Party," considered a better audience draw, to get the slot), a serial killer plunges a knife into anyone who stiffs him consumerwise -- six murders to date. The chief suspect is a troubled young man who sprays graffiti on walls talking about the character "The Grim Reaper."
Top-rated
Sun, Oct 24, 1976
Kojak's team snares child molester Dettrow, who they are forced to release because he has diplomatic immunity and is helping out the FBI. Kojak won't give up on nailing the arrogant serial sex offender, and doubts the FBI's pledge to keep Dettrow under wraps. Dettrow's psychiatrist counsels Kojak that such a compulsive is most likely to nab a child when he's under pressure. Kojak's shields tail the elusive Dettrow to prevent another molestation, so when they spot the East German embassy chauffeur sweating through a furtive meeting with a Red Chinese, Kojak fears Dettrow will soon snatch another boy.
Sun, Nov 14, 1976
Two longshoremen are murdered, but Kojak can't break through the code of silence of their co-workers and get any of them to testify against the mobsters who killed them. The workers are more concerned with dealing out their own justice on whoever of their own may have helped set up the victims.
Top-rated
Sun, Nov 21, 1976
A young man is killed by police after he attempts to kill an assistant district attorney at a courthouse. Kojak learns that the young man was a boyfriend of an ice skater who is in prison for the murder of her mother two years before. But when he tries to look further into the case, he gets pressured to drop it, with the orders ultimately coming from a powerful political operative.
Sun, Nov 28, 1976
A nun is shot in a churchyard by an assailant. Later she escapes from the hospital, and Kojak learns she is not a real nun but a dethroned Yugoslavian princess who, with the help of her bodyguard, is planning to get back the family jewels lost in World War II that are now in the hands of the mob.
Sun, Dec 19, 1976
A young woman comes to police headquarters and tells Kojak that she just recognized a man on the street as an old neighbor of hers, a mobster who was reported killed a year ago. She fears he is going to kill her because she knows he is alive. Kojak takes her home and convinces her she was probably mistaken. But shortly afterward, she is killed in a fall from her window, and Kojak is guilt-stricken for not believing her.