Ving Rhames is a bona-fide movie star, and an excellent actor. we ALL lost a great (fictional) role model, when they passed on this show. i grew up watching Telly Savalas' interpretation of Kojak, and even as a kid i thought it was ham-handed, stilted, and goofy. this generation's Kojak should have lived a long, melancholy life, but the options were dropped. i don't know if it was because he was Black (political designtion, not ethnic), or because NBC/USA would not use the balls God gave the male department heads (every pun intended), and back this show properly. i remember thinking it had a crap time slot, and would not survive where it was; FUNNY, how they will do freakin' back-flips for hack crap, poorly executed, so long as the right producer is behind it...or the right actor is in front of the camera. in my opinion, this was never meant to survive--or maybe they had to make a budgetary choice, regarding Mr. Rhames' salary? i'd LOVE to sit down with him, to ask!