Baretta
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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 sometime 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.
Baretta used to refer to his handcuffs as klinks. In one episode, he went to handcuff a bad guy, and his boss Lt. Brubaker was there. As Baretta went to cuff the guy, he realized he didn't have any handcuffs with him, so he said to Lt. Brubaker, "Boss, I ain't got any klinks."
In several episodes, Baretta would tell Billy Truman to call the PD for help. He would say to Billy, "Call out the troops," or "Call out the federales."
Baretta drove an old piece of crap Chevy that he called "The Old Gray Ghost."
The theme song, "Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow," was performed by Sammy Davis Jr.