We have been watching an episode of Baretta every night, and I never saw it in the 70's, but we are loving it. My son thinks Tony Baretta is a combo of Starsky and Hutch rolled in to one. Every episode I have watched has had a really great storyline, and they are very complex, and thought out, and well written. I love that. I love the song it starts too, and sometimes they will start playing it, and singing it when something major is happening, like a car chase...and it is: Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow...I love that song- and I never heard it before, I don't know if it was a hit, or just off the show?? Anyway....I totally recommend Baretta to anyone. Robert Blake was so funny, he seemed like such a real person, with the charcater he played, and he was always a good guy-but he knew how to deal with the bad guys on a level where they all respected him. It is really cool. I miss the 70's too, sometimes just as bad as the 80's. I have heard that Robert Blake is out on parole now, but I never really followed his real life, and that whole drama with the shooting of his wife. But, I did see a little clip on Oprah, where Barbara Walters interviewed him, and he went a little off the edge, did anyone see that entire interview??
Posted by StevenHW (Member # 509) on :
The "Eye On The Sparrow" song was composed specifically for that TV show, and it was sung by Sammy Davis, Jr. I don't think it was a Top-40 hit, though.
"Baretta" was actually an imitation of another (and earlier) TV show called "Toma", which starred Tony Musante as an undercover cop who occasionally used disguises. But the main difference is that "Toma" was based on a real-life cop from New York.
"Baretta" came at a time when it seemed fashionable to have cops doing undercover work or other things that were out of the norm from their usual work in their local precinct. I would say that it was probably started by the 1973 movie "Serpico", which starred Al Pacino, and also was based on the exploits of a real-life New York cop who refused to be corrupted.
I haven't seen "Baretta" in a long time, but considering that Robert Blake is now on trial, I'm sure that I would now have a strange feeling watching that show all over again. Especially when he is being accused of murder!
And as the Baretta character would say, "...And that's the name of THAT tune!" Posted by stitch groover (Member # 2895) on :
This is probably completely wrong, but in Sister Act 2, Lauren Hill sang a duet which I downloaded the other day and it was called "His eye is on the sparrow". Being how it sounded religious, it's probably not the same song from a cop show, but hey you never know.
Posted by isis9968 (Member # 1780) on :
Hmmmm....I don't think Sammy Davis is singing this version...it doesn't sound like him, and I think I saw the end credits and said who it is performed by, and that wasn't it-maybe I goofed on who wrote it, and who sang it. It is funny, because we watch an episode every night of Baretta, and tonight the episode we are going to watch is titled "Keep your eye on the sparrow"-so I'll be on the look out. He could kick some serious butt, and I like how Tony Baretta talks, and calls everyone a "Rummy"...I think that means like a bad guy. It really does have some very well written storylines, they are pretty complex. Some of them I want to watch again, because they are interesting, and I feel like I maybe missed stuff the first time. Does anyone have any idea how many seasons Baretta was on for?? And if they are releasing any more? I was going to go look it up today. I gotta get me some more tv series to watch. Him being involved in the death of his wife-I thought would be weird watching it, but I haven't followed that at all, and like I said...celebrities are people, and people confuse them with their "character". Robert Blake had a hard life in real life. I doubt he was the role model that he portrayed, but I like seeing a good person portrayed on TV...cause that's what I want to believe exists. Now days...your watching their real life portrayed out there-and people in reality are not like that, everything is the exact reverse of what it use to be.
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