Baretta

When I was a little kid I would watch Baretta starring Robert Blake (known as child actor who played in "Our Gang") who later domineered his career as an adult actor. This cop has something that most cop series don't have humor, good times and bad times. Robert Blake was an excellent choice for street police detective Tony Baretta.

Thursday nights just wouldn't have been the same growing up without Baretta. The show was tough and dirty and gritty and all the things my middle class suburban family upbringing wasn't. It was a view of the outside world, and Tony Baretta was the tour guide to all of the foul things that were waiting out there in "The City." He was the protector. The show was effectively lightened, though, by comedic parts by Rooster, the pimp/informant, and by Baretta himself, who could don some pretty outrageous costumes when he went "undercover." TV in the '70's didn't allow any profanity, of course - but even at age 12, I knew Baretta would have cursed like a sailor. Baretta was real - he lost people he cared about to crime, and he went on drinking binges and lashed out at people he cared about when he got emotional.

The first season on DVD is a must-have if you like crime drama. Along with "Hill Street Blues" and "CSI," Baretta defines the genre and set the stage for the others by giving us substantive supporting characters and an ensemble cast that only got better with successive seasons. Hopefully, with the recent acquittal of Robert Blake, season 2 will be released on DVD soon.

Baretta has always been my favorite TV show. The character, Tony Baretta, created by Stephen J. Cannell and played so perfectly by Robert Blake, is one of the finest characters I've ever seen. The titles of the episodes are creative, the plots are very interesting, and the show provides a good balance of emotion. Baretta had a big influence on my early writing style. I still value the show today. >

As with most police dramas that were on television during the 1970's,this was one of those shows they threw the overall police procedure out the window and the main character was a maverick detective who was working for the police department who went by his own set of rules. Most of the time he wore disguises on the job either by dressing up as a nun,an old lady or some lowlife who used unorthodox methods to capture the baddies and bring them to justice. "Baretta" was that show.

"Baretta" was the brainchild of producers Stephen J. Cannell and Roy Huggins,the same ones who were behind the critically acclaim short-lived police drama "Toma",which ran for one season when "Baretta" came in as the mid-season replacement in January of 1975. "Baretta" was the milder version of "Toma" with much of the violent content tone down for good measure. And just like "Toma",the reviews that "Baretta" got during its first season were minimum. But the public loved it and this is why the series ran for three seasons on ABC-TV,producing 82 episodes from January 17,1975 until May 18,1978,under Roy Huggins' production company Public Arts Productions in association with Universal Television. Say what you want about this upbeat crime drama/police story series with Robert Blake in the title role as Tony Baretta.

Baretta was an police detective/unorthodox plainclothes cop who lives with Fred,his pet cockatoo in a rundown apartment on the mean streets of New York. Like his model David Toma,Baretta wore many disguises on the job,but the way he used those methods to catch the lowlifes and scums of the city were impressive,and without the violent content. And just like Toma,Baretta had a gun he used for measure when necessary,but never fired it. Each episode followed the same formula,and it became quite the format that went with the standard basic cop show routine that dominated much of the 1970's.

With a great supporting cast that included Tom Ewell,along with Michael D. Roberts, Dana Elcar, Edward Glover, John Ward, Chino Williams, and Ron Thompson,"Baretta" became one of the most popular cop shows of its day. The episodes were interesting as well as creative and the plots interesting to watch to see what Robert Blake's character would come up with next. Not to mention one of the greatest cop theme song ever made sung by the great Sammy Davis,Jr. One of the best from that era.

I also learned not to go to bed with a price on my head. That I should also always keep my eye on the sparrow when the going gets narrow. That I shouldn't roll the dice if I can't pay the price, and that I should never run my feet down a dead-end street. Solid lessons. The way TV used to be.