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Baretta is an American detective television series which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1978.
The show was a revised and milder version of a 1973–1974 ABC series, Toma, starring Tony Musante as chameleon-like, real-life New Jersey police officer Dave Toma. When Musante left the series after a single season, the concept was retooled as Baretta, with Robert Blake in the title role.
"Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow," the show's theme music, was composed by Dave Grusin and Morgan Ames and sung by Sammy Davis Jr., in addition to being a chart hit for two other artists.
Baretta is often seen with an unlit cigarette in his lips or behind his ear. His catchphrases include "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time", "You can take dat to da bank" and "And dat's the name of dat tune." When exasperated, he occasionally speaks in asides to his late father, Louie Baretta. He drives a rusted-out Mist Blue 1966 Chevrolet Impala four-door sport sedan nicknamed "The Blue Ghost" (license plate 532 BEM). He frequents Ross's Billiard Academy and refers to his numerous girlfriends as his "cousins".
The series came about as a reboot of Toma when actor Tony Musante chose to move on after completing his single season commitment to the series.O'Connor, John (1974-07-24). "TV: Star of Dropped Toma Tells What Happened". The New York Times.
The theme song, "Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow", was written by Dave Grusin and Morgan Ames; initially an instrumental, lyrics were added in later seasons that were sung by Sammy Davis, Jr. Every episode of Baretta began with the song, which contained the motto, "Don't do the crime if you can't do imprisonment." According to Blake, studio executives did not want Davis's vocals for the theme song for fear that audiences would think Baretta was a black series. Blake threatened to leave production if Davis's recording was rejected. His bosses relented.
The song was released as a single in Europe in 1976, reaching number one in the Dutch Top 40 as "Baretta's Theme". The music for the theme song was performed by Los Angeles-based Latin influenced Rock band El Chicano. El Chicano also released the song as a 45 and also as a track on one of their albums. The Baretta theme song by El Chicano was a huge hit in many countries including Turkey, Malaysia, Singapore, France and The Philippines.
The song was released as a single in the US, but only charted as high as #42 on the Adult Contemporary Chart, while it "bubbled under the Hot 100" at #101.
Fred the cockatoo was portrayed by two named Lalah and Weird Harold, the latter used as a stunt double for flying sequences.
"I put Baretta in the top 10, I tried to make a human being out of a cop and I tried to do a cop show and make social comment," he added.
In a 1996 TV interview with Tom Snyder, Blake stated that he hated being committed to the series and compared it to screwing a gorilla. " Baretta was a terrible experience," Blake stated, "you do a series so you can work with giants in."
| +Release dates !DVD name !Ep # !Region 1 !Region 2 (France) | |||
| Season 1 | 12 | Oct 29, 2002 | February 26, 2014 |
| Season 2 | 22 | N/A | July 26, 2017 |
In Taskmaster Live, a 2016 show at the Edinburgh Festival contested by five television executives, Jeff Ford, the UK Managing Director of Fox Networks Group and SVP and Content Development Manager for Europe and Africa, described Baretta as a "lesser known 1960s vehicle".
In the Barney Miller episode "Copycat", Detective Arthur Dietrich tells a copycat criminal that cops and committing a crime are not like they are depicted on television, and ends by saying, "And dat's the name of dat tune."
In the film Reservoir Dogs, protagonist Mr. Orange steels himself before meeting main antagonist Joe Cabot by saying "You're not gonna get hurt. You're fucking Baretta. They believe every fucking word 'cause you're super cool."
In the sitcom That '70s Show, in the season one episode “Stolen Car”, Bob Pinciotti tells his wife Midge, "you can't tell me anything while I'm watching Baretta, it's complicated."
In the Party Down episode "Investors Dinner" (2009), the opening scene is an argument about why Tony Baretta is named so, with two characters arguing that it's because he carries a Beretta pistol.
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