‘Baretta’ TV title, 1976
Baretta (a re-tooling of the cop show, Toma) originally ran on ABC from January, 1975 to June, 1978. The police drama stars Robert Blake as undercover detective, Tony Baretta, who works without a partner in an East Coast-based city (though the show was mostly filmed in Downtown, Los Angeles).
Bartetta is assisted by an informant named Rooster (Michael D. Roberts) and is rarely far from his pet cockatoo, Fred.
Baretta and Fred. Awwwww. (1976)
Baretta lives in a run-down hotel, dresses in t-shirts and jeans, blends in easily with the rough crowd and drives a beat-up ’66 Impala. The streetwise detective is often heard uttering his catchphrases; “Dats da name of dat tune” and “You can take dat to da bank.”
Co-stars included; Tom Ewell, Edward Grover, John Ward and Sharon Cintron. Blake’s real-life wife, Sondra Blake, made a few guest appearances.
Previously on Show Toppers: ‘Struck by Lightning’ (1979)