Some website I came across (while researching Kojak) claimed that Kojak joined the NYPD in 1970. Season 1 of his series began in 1973.

What, from patrolman to detective lieutenant in 3 years? That’s unlikely, right.

Just reminds me of how many presumptions/assumptions and misinformation is on the internet. A bit like the site which claimed Kojak inspired and influenced The Sweeney. It feels like some writers on sites conflate things, make presumptions/assumptions, and then type misinformation.

Based on what I saw, I’d say it’s more likely that Kojak became a detective lieutenant in 1970 - rather than joining the force in 1970. Because otherwise, that was a quick promotion!

More than likely, he might have joined the specific department three years prior.  I didn't really watch the series, as our CBS affiliate was too far away to get a good signal, with our tv (and we didn't have a roof antenna).

The series itself, spun out of a tv movie, The Marcus-Nelson Murders, which was about a historical case, where an African-American man is wrongfully charged with the crime, until a second investigating team identifies the real killer.  That case occurred in 1963.  Savalas played a character named Kojack, though not quite the same as the tv series.  It's actually a Polish name, but they made his heritage Greek, because of Savalas' own background.

The character, after a fashion, turns up in Robert Mayer's novel, Super Folks, as the neighbor of the hero, Mood Indigo, in his civilian guise David Brinkley (after the ling time NBC News co-anchorman).  The novel is filled with pop culture satire and references, with the hero being a pastiche of Superman and plot elements similar to some of Alan Moore's stories, including "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?"  There is a criminal, called Pxyzsyzgy, who is an analogue to Mxyzptlk.  David Brinkley/Mood Indigo comes from the planet Cronk, where the only thing that can hurt him is "Cronkite," (as in Walter Cronkite, the legendary CBS anchorman and reporter, who was a correspondent, in WW2, at Normandy and other locales).

Sixty years ago today, The Munsters debuted on CBS:






Seems there was a magazine:

Incidentally, wasn’t “Frankenstein” a public domain name in 1966? Any particular reason they went with Herman? Anyone know?

Did anybody here ever buy the magazine? I didn’t even know TV tie-in magazines would have been a thing back then (I’m thinking about how TV tie-in magazines seemed to come about in the 90s over here, from the likes of Titan, who published mags devoted to the likes of Star Trek and Babylon 5).

Ha!

Yeah, but Frankenstein is the creator; he was referred to as Herman's creator, in the series, if my memory is correct.  My Question is how does a hommunculus and a vampiress have a wolf boy for a child?  Someone's got a secret, there!

TV and movie tie-ins weren't unknown; The Shadow began as a companion to the Street & Smith Detective Story Hour radio program, which featured stories adapted from Detective Story Magazine.  Originally, the character was just the host of the show, but people kept asking for the magazines featuring the character that they commissioned one, which led to the pulp series and radio show and cinematic adaptations (short films, serial, tv pilots, motion pictures, etc...).  Western Publishing made a lifetime of adapting tv and movies to comic books, first in conjunction with Dell, then with their own Gold Key imprint.  The Munsters appeared in 16 issues of the Gold Key series.

The Man From UNCLE had a tie-in magazine and so did some others.  Heck, merchandising is as old as the business.  Kids in the 30s and 40s had Buck Rogers Rockey Skates and Helium Pistol, Red Ryder BB Guns (Tell 'em Ralphie Sent you!), Lone Ranger stuff (back in the radio and serial days, before the tv show), Tom Mix, Hopalong Cassidy, etc, etc.

Most were story and puzzle magazines, with publicity photos from the series, rather than fanzines.