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Rating:  -
Season two will most likely not be released anytime soon as the first season's sales were not what the studio had hoped. I read that out of a magazine last month so don't hold your breath for season two. sorry for the bad news.
Rating: -
I have one thing to say to you, I am Dying and my will before I die is:
MY FELLOW FREINDS (FANS OF BARETTA), IF YOU ARE STILL ALIVE WHEN SEASON TWO OF BARETTA IS RELEASED TRY TO ENJOY EVERY MOMENT AND PLEASE REMEMBER ME, I THINK I WON'T MAKE IT, I THINK THIS IS THE BIG ONE :)!!:):):)!!??
Rating: -
Although Robert Blake gave the impression he hated his own show by the time the third season came about, he will always be remembered for his finest role in television history. Baretta appeared on television after Tony Musante refused to continue it's predecessor "Toma"(1973-1974), based on the true life exploits of Dave Toma (another excellent gritty cop show, but short lived). Unlike "Starsky & Hutch," Blake carried the show as a single force out the clean up the streets. It was a tough act, but he carried it out with excellent results, with the back up of Billy (Tom Ewell), his old and faithful buddy, and "Rooster" (Michael D.Roberts) his imformant, and the scene stealer; his pet cockatoo bird. The series premiered "Jan 17th, 1975, the same year as Starsky & Hutch. By just the second episode (on this DVD set) "The Five-And-A-Half-Pound Junkie" concerning a young girl addict ready to have a baby, you knew by watching the acting, that this series was going to be a hit, and it was. The first season has 12 episodes, and it is a very enjoyable DVD set, with attactive case and sleeve insert. It's on 3 DVD's. The only drawback is that Universal released this set in 2002, with no word on future releases of series 2 and 3, I would be leary on purchasing other box sets they come out with in the future, until they verify they will release the full series. Thanks for releasing Baretta, but please get off the old duffs guys and get series 2 out soon.... Please!
Rating: -
Baretta was not the longest running cop shows on television in the 1970s. But it is perhaps the most identifiable, and one which left a lasting impression on many.
Baretta is a short man of Italian heritage, with a few good friends and a cuckatoo, working in what has to be the bleakest looking cityscape you have ever seen, with some bad, shady, weird, and wonderful characters.
He is a cop who will go to any lengths using what little he has to go on. These are his few steady friends, his beat up car, his street smarts, and a willingness to dress up and masquerade as someone, being as stereotypical as he can be in order to con the bad guy.
He is not always a success in the job, and unlike other cop shows, he isn't a success story. He loses his soon-to-be wife in the first episode, and this haunts him thereafter. He doesn't ever think himself better than anybody, and unlike other reviewers, his colorful speech may seem today politically incorrect. But to me, this actually makes him far more believeable as a character. After all, what do you base your disguises on, and the part you play when you wear them? He carries them off like someone who is trying to be a part, and if that sets on a stereotype that don't sit well in minds today, so be it. Back then, I don't think it would have been a cause for concern.
This is the same era that brought up Blazing Saddles (Far more colorful in all respects "politically correct"), The Warriors, All in the Family, The Jeffersons, and Welcome Back Kotter. Compared to this fare, Baretta's an altarboy.
What I really remember about him best is that he was a cop that was rarely sipping coffee at the station house. Too many cop shows of that era had a stationhouse as a backdrop. Baretta is a cop that gets his hands dirty, knows his neighborhood, and is respected for it because he is always seen working within it.
I enjoyed this when I just started my teens, and I really enjoy it now that I don't have to watch it on VHS anymore. While you could give a kid something better to model himself on, Baretta is the kind of person you'd probably like to have around. No B.S., straight-talkin' cops that go after real crimes, and don't see every rule in the book as something you hammer people with just because you can.
Rating:  -
The quality of "Baretta's" early seasons may come as a surprise to people who lump the series in with some of its lesser contemporaries.
The series gets off to a great start with "He'll Never See Daylight." As Baretta goes after the mob boss (Joseph Mascolo) who orders a hit on his girlfriend (played by the sublime Madlyn Rhue), he methodically terrorizes the gangster, using a variety of disguises to get close to him. The direction is inventive, and Blake immediately establishes both the quirky impishness and uncompromising toughness of the title character.
Ann Prentiss is enjoyable as a duplicitous photographer in "The Half-Million Dollar Baby." When she uses a lovestruck Baretta to help her steal $500,000, we're able to feel his pain and yet not want any harm to come to the Prentiss character. The script is tight, and believable enough by most TV standards.
"Walk Like You Talk" is another standout from this 12-episode first season, as Baretta is accused of taking payoffs from drug dealers. In this era when "Serpico" was still fresh in viewer's minds, this episode has some interesting things to say about police corruption, and how it tarnishes even innocent cops.
"The Secret of Terry Lake" features a gorgeous Margot Kidder as a gangster's moll who fingers her lover as the killer of a mob boss.
On the downside, the show's insensitive tone creates some truly bad moments in "Woman In the Harbor." First, in a restaurant, Baretta asks African-American guest star Brock Peters, who plays an old buddy, if he'd like some fried chicken and watermelon. Yes, they're old friends, but the moment is jarringly awkward. Later, Baretta sneaks in to confront a bad guy by impersonating a black masseuse, wearing an afro wig and burnt cork, and speaking in a dialect that's flattering to "Amos and Andy" creators Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll.
Elsewhere, we see Baretta playing a flaming, sashaying homosexual, and a Mexican that might pass for one of those fat, lazy crows in "Speedy Gonzales" cartoons.
The problem with antics like this, which isn't that they're politically incorrect; the issue is that Baretta comes across as a buffoon out of a Mad magazine parody. It's one thing to have the character be playful, so that we laugh with him -- it's another for us to be put in the position of laughing AT him.
As television season-length box sets such as this roll out on DVD, there's always a question of whether or not to buy the first season if the show was a midseason replacement, as "Baretta" was. Certainly if you're a fan of later seasons, it pays to give the studio reason to release those sets by buying Season One. But it must be said that this set is overpriced at $39.95 SRP (and even with the Amazon discount), so for some, it will make more sense to get these discs used.
One other note: The show's celebrated theme song did NOT include Sammy Davis Jr.'s vocals in this first season. They were heard at the start of the second season (1975-76). Some people believe the vocals weren't included here because of rights issues; this is not the case. The set was released by Universal, the original rights holder of the series.
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