# Baretta (1975)

> A cynical, street-smart undercover detective bends the rules to solve crimes in 1970s Los Angeles.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/3058

## Facts

- Seasons: 4
- Episodes: 83
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: Stephen J. Cannell
- Network: ABC
- Cast: Robert Blake, Dana Elcar, Sharon Cintron, Burt Young, Michael D. Roberts, Val Avery, Joshua Shelley, Richard Jaeckel
- TMDB rating: 6.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072471/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: cynical, suspenseful, wry, gritty

## Synopsis

Baretta (1975-1978) is an American ABC police detective series created by Stephen J. Cannell. Robert Blake plays Det. Tony Baretta, a streetwise, cynical plainclothes detective who prowls the city's underworld and bends procedure to get results, with Dana Elcar as his exasperated superior Inspector Shiller and Burt Young as the informant Solomon. Each episode is largely a self-contained case of the week, with a few arcs running across the four seasons. The show is a milder successor to Cannell's earlier and more violent series Toma, and it stays grounded in gritty urban police work rather than spectacle. Its tone is wry, suspenseful and amused, with a hard edged realism and a soft spot for the working class characters who drift through its precincts and back alleys. Fans of Kojak, The Streets of San Francisco and Toma will find resonance in its blend of crime, tension and character driven detective work. The series is a classic example of 1970s network crime drama set in the gritty urban America of its era.

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