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Baretta’s coworkers are Detective Foley, an
irritating, stick-in-the-mud; Fats, a gravelly-voiced black detective who goes on
stakeouts with Tony; and Detective Nopke, a rookie cop who admires Baretta‘s street smarts.
Tony’s street contacts included a funky,
fancy-dressed pimp named Rooster; Little Moe, a midget shoeshine guy and
informant; Mr. Nicholas, a mob boss whom Baretta sometimes deals with; and
Mr. Muncie, the owner of a liquor store at 52nd and Main. Off duty,
Baretta lives in a dumpy hotel room with Fred, his pet yellow-crested
cockatoo. Billy Truman, the elderly hotel manager/house detective is
Tony’s close friend. Billy used to work with Tony’s father at the 53rd
Precinct.
While on the job Tony often wore a variety of disguises to
gather clues to solve a case. When not in disguise, Baretta wore a
T-shirt, jeans and a cap pulled over his forehead. He often carried an unlit
cigarette in his hand or stuffed one behind his ear. His catchphrase was
“And that‘s the name of that tune.”
Tony drove a dilapidated 1966 oxidized
blue Chevy 4-door Impala sedan nicknamed “The Blue Ghost.“ [License Plate:
532 BEN]. He hung out at Ross’s Billiard Academy and referred to his
numerous girlfriends as his “cousins.” Tony’s old world Italian-American
father is Louis “Louie” Baretta. See also -
Fred the Cockatoo
Publicity Still from the TV Series
TRIVIA
NOTE: Born Michael Gubitosi in 1933
in Nutley, New Jersey, Blake, a child star, began acting in Our Gang
comedies at the age of 5. He changed his stage name to Bobby Blake in
1942. He reported to People magazine in 1993 that his childhood was
filled with abuse from his parents James and Elizabeth Gubitosi, a song
and dance team. He alleged that he was "locked in a closet and left (me)
there all day long. They made me eat on the floor like a dog."
Blake's screen credits
included the film version of Truman Capote's
novel In Cold Blood (1967); in
which he portrayed Perry Smith, psychotic mass murderer; the TV Movie
Judgment Day: The John List Story (1993) in which he played a man who
went home one day a killed his entire family; and a bizarre man who solves
the murder of a couple being stalked in the David Lynch film, Lost
Highway (1997).
After Blake's role as Tony
Baretta, he appeared in a short lived drama entitled HELL TOWN/NBC/1985 in
which he played Father Noah "Hardstep" Rivers, a priest in a tough,
impoverished East Los Angeles neighborhood. Reruns of BARETTA have been
aired on the TV LAND cable channel.
In 2001, the 68-year-old
Robert Blake was charged on conspiracy charges in the murder of his wife
of six months, Bonny Lee Bakley. He allegedly killed her with a gun in the
parking lot of Vitello's Restaurant in Studio City, California in May 4,
2001. Blake had previously been married to actress Sondra Kerry in
1964. They had two children, Noah and Delinah but later divorced.
Preliminary
trial hearings were held on December, 6, 2002 and Blake was denied bail.
After a March, 2003 hearing, Blake was freed on $1.5 million bail. On
Wednesday December 1, 2004 a
jury of seven men and five women was sworn to sit in judgment of actor
Robert Blake for the charges of slaying of his wife. On March 16, 2005, a
jury in Los Angeles acquitted actor Robert Blake of murdering his wife.
BARETTA/ABC/1975-78
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Robert Blake |
as |
Detective Tony
Baretta |
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Tom Ewell |
as |
Billy Truman |
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Edward Grover |
as |
Lt. Hal Brubaker |
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Michael D. Roberts
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as |
Rooster |
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Chino 'Fats"
Williams |
as |
Fats |
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Dana Elcar |
as |
Lt. Karl Shiller |
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John Ward |
as |
Detective Foley |
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Angelo Rossitto |
as |
Little Moe |
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Titos Vandis |
as |
Mr. Nicholas |
|
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Paul Lichtman |
as |
Mr. Muncie |
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Ron Thompson |
as |
Officer Knopke |
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Lala the Bird |
as |
Fred the Bird |
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