Baretta
 |
The cover of the Baretta Season 1 DVD set. |
Baretta was a
detective series which ran on
ABC from
1975 to
1978. It starred
Robert Blake as Detective Tony Baretta. The show was a recasting and reshaping of the successful 1973-74 ABC series,
Toma, starring
Tony Musante as chameleon-like, real-life New Jersey cop Dave Toma. When he left the series over creative differences after a single season, the program was retooled as Baretta, with Robert Blake in the title role.
Baretta was a single cop who lived in a run-down hotel with his pet
cockatoo, Fred. Other characters were Inspector Shiller (
Dana Elcar) and Lieutenant Hal Brubaker (
Edward Grover), Baretta's supervisors, Billy Truman (
Tom Ewell), an older and sometimes drunk ex-cop who cheerfully ran the hotel Tony Barreta lived in, and Rooster the streetwise pimp (
Michael D. Roberts), who was one of Tony's favorite informants.The theme song, "Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow," was written by
Dave Grusin and performed by
Sammy Davis Jr.
