The cigars Banacek smoked were actually George Peppard's private stock of Panatelas from The 21 Club in New York (they were the same cigars he smoked as Hannibal Smith in "El equipo A (1983)").
The show had good ratings and was set to go for a third season until George Peppard pulled out. He was going through a divorce at the time, and he quit to prevent ex-wife Elizabeth Ashley from receiving a larger share of his earnings. Sadly, this permanently ended the show's run.
Peppard originally signed to star in a weekly hour series, but NBC instead chose to make "Banacek" a 90-minute show that would alternate with two other series on NBC "Wednesday Mystery Movie." Peppard's contract was not modified, however, leaving him free to leave the series after two seasons to pursue other projects.
Peppard's total salary for the T.V. Series was $ 4,655,000.00, or $ 4,815,000.00 if adding the salary of the Premiere Movie.
None of the strange, supposedly "Polish" sayings liberally quoted by the lead character is genuine. They were all invented by the script writers with humorous effect in mind. On top of that, "Banacek" is a typical name from Slovakia, not Poland.