Shark Bytes

Ive read where Blake was perhaps the most difficult actor in Hollywood history to work with, with the possible exception of Jackie Gleason. He was brutal on directors. I hated that he had huge muscles, yet lost every fight he was ever in. Why do they do that? Then, suddenly he started crying every episode. Well, he should be laughing now, dont you think? He committed the crime but did no time.

I used to have a mad crush on Robert Blake when he was playing Tony Baretta. I was a kid and never told anyone about the hots I had for that man! LOL. Robert Blake played the role very well and I used to go around singing the theme song so much I drove everyone crazy! Great show. Wish they would show reruns.

As far as Robert Blake today, I feel sorry for him. Who knew his personal life would turn out like this? I'm still a fan of his though.

Excellent show. This was one of the first cop shows that serviced as a dividing-line between the unrealistic and campy old police dramas like Dragnet and the newer, more gritty shows that presented cops in a less than perfect light, and didn't really mind showing us the seamier side of life.

From Guest: Hunky Robert Blake's arms were the main feature. Is this show on dvd? Baretta was an all-out fun show to watch.

Maaaan, Barretta was the coolest show. It never jumped the shark. I remember being 7 years old when I saw this one episode where this little Puerto Rican kid steals some steaks from the super market and he takes them back to his dingy apartment where his mom is sleeping on the couch. She looked like a black lady to me. But anyway, I'm not sure what her problem was, I think she was a druggy or something. She wanted him to play a lottery number for her, I think and he didn't do it and she was in trouble with some hoods or something. Does anybody remember this episode? I was really captivated by that episode when it aired. One thing that I did notice when I caught the reruns at a much older age was how utterly tight Robert Blakes pants were on Barretta. "My goodness!" (said like the Richard Simmons sound bite from the Howard Stern radio show.) Damn, his pants were tight! They were so tight, they were shining! Now you KNOW that's tight!! When I got older, I really got a kick out of Barretta's pearls of wisdom. "Kid, life ain't gonna give you nuthin' but a hand full of stones and a pocket full of pennies.".......(I totally made that up) Or some crap like that! I love it! "Listen sugar, if you ain't got love you ain't got nuthin' but empty suit cases and coffee cup full of rain." LOL, wtf.

I too loved the opening theme song, never knew Sammy sang it until I read these posts. The best part of the song was the last shot of Baretta rolling over the hood of that car. As a 13 yr old boy what impressed me and my friends most was the huge guns Blake showed off with his short sleeve sweat shirts. We couldn't believe an old guy (to us 40 was ancient) would ever pump iron.

BARETTA was another show that never came close to jumping the shark thanks to the sizzling screen charisma of Robert Blake. This guy was one hell of an actor who could be funny and touching and mean-spirited and terrifying and silly all in twenty minutes of screen time. This was a great show that I never missed. And Sammy Davis Jr.'s rendition of the theme song was a classic.

The show JTS in the opening credits! The theme song is so funky and on point (a complete surprise that Sammy D did it at that) that the show for me couldn't live up to its own theme song! I solely watched this show just for the theme song, and even though Robert Blake is OK, Baretta the character wasn't as bad as the theme song.

When SWAT and Baretta crossed over this is when BOTH of these shows jumped the shark. I mean, you have the same actor playing 2 parts in the same show! And the show sucked, they obviously didnt care what happened in that episode, only that it would be cool to do it. SWAT got cancelled not long after and Baretta a few years down the line

I'm all for people expressing their views on whether or not the quality of a show has gone downhill, but I'm gonna say this and I'm going to say this only once. A show cannot, repeat, cannot go downhill after it has ended. It doesn't matterwhat the star has done in his/her personal life. Hogans Heroe's didn't jump because Bob Crane was a philanderer and a sex fiend and was murdered. I Love Lucy did not go downhill because it's now known that Desi cheated on Lucy. So Baretta can not go downhill because Robert Blake is accused of murdering his wife, more than twenty years after the show has ended. Do we understand each other?

Never jumped the shark. I only wish it lasted longer than it did. Blake's real life situation today has no bearing on a nearly 30 year old TV show. People need to separate fact from fiction. After I'm done typing this I'm going to purchase the entire Baretta catalog on DVD so I don't have to depend on unreliable reruns. Thanks Bobby Blake for a truly original character named Tony Baretta.

the show jumped the shark in an episode where a nun sings the sparrow song to a bunch of orphans while fred bops his head to the lyrics, man that was really bad. but the show was cool enuff i guess even tho it was, indeed, quite corny. robert blake is one of the greatest actors of all time, simply for his work in IN COLD BLOOD, the most underrated film of all time. this movie is up there with Coppola's, Welles' and Kubrick's best works, but never got the attention it deserves; athough it is known as a cult classic, but not to a large scale audience. robert blake rules, and he should've had a better movie career (also watch 'busting', 'corky', 'treasure of the sierra madre' and 'electra glide in blue' but avoid 'coast to coast') so then he wouldnt've had to do a corny, though nostalgicly classic, TV show. but hey, baretta was fun nonetheless. it's too bad scott wilson couldn't play his partner in a few episodes, that'd've been pretty neat - he and blake were the most superb villianious duo in movie history!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ps i know why the guy thinks blake ad-libbed - he seemed, at times on the show, a bit too relaxed... but good actors will do that occasionally... and you must remember blake was in movies since the age of 4 (which is why he is in such trouble nowadays - child actors almost always eventually lose their minds, in robert's case: sixty five years later)...

Yes, it is possible for the later-in-life actions of actors to mess up a show that otherwise wouldn't jump the shark. This is the reason it used to be a tradition to never make statues of living persons, and to wait a few years before putting their images on stamps, in case they turned out to be wife-murderers or pedophiles or something. I have mentioned, some places on this site, watching old television shows with my dad because, well, he had problems which made it hard for him to walk around and we watched a lot of television, together, and my memories of some great shows are inextricably entwined with memories of my dad. I recall that he liked this show and I didn't care for it, much. One day I said to him, you know, that song--? "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time...Beretta...BAH-RETTA!" Isn't it like the song is saying BERETTA is the one doing the crime? And he was like, no, no way, it's just the theme song of the show. And I was all, like, couldn't they fit mor e words in there? Clarify it or something? "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time...HERECOMESBERETTA...Bah-retta!" And he thought that would be stupid or something, so I let it drop. But, in retrospect, it's KINDA EERIE. There are some things that throw off an old show. The death of an actor...well, it's kind of sad, but if the movie ages well you don't think of it too much. Unless it's Bob Crane of Hogan's Heroes, holy shit. But when they OFF THEIR WIFE?! You can't get it out of your mind while it's dragging on, needing resolution, but it's not yet resolved...hey, it blows everything. And what's sad is that's when the old actor REALLY NEEDS THE RESIDUALS, to pay their lawyer.

This show never really jumped, but download the theme song, you'll howl - Sammy Davis Jr. rocks on it. "Don't go to bed with no price on your head."

Even though I was only 10 or so, one of the coolest scenes I remember on TV was an episode of Baretta. Strother Martin and an accomplice played crooks in a shootout with Baretta. The other guy gets hit and Martin walks out, hands up, stunned. He looks at Baretta and moans in that classic raspy voice: "Ya shot ma budddddy"