Swellest Of The Sleuths Part 2

To resume where I left off in an earlier entry, deconstructing the  swellest of the sleuths. I had a eureka moment and realized I forgot to mention

a certain diminutive detective by the name of Tony Baretta.

Baretta  was actually

based on 1973's shortlived Toma series, which starred an ever intense Tony Musante. When Mr. Musante was

asked to renew his contract, he declined because of the demanding hours necessary, and also that he

had plans to focus more on that ol' silver screen. Musante would go on appear in a few giallo (see my article allo giallo) and independent releases.

The magical Mr Musante

 Robert Blake would then be approached to continue the 

saga of the now acclaimed Toma. Blake , always with his purist boots on, put his foot 

down and gave a "no can do," he refused to portray an already established character. Ipso

facto, a Baretta was born.


The Baretta series, was intended to be a diluted version of the hard-edged Toma, albeit the Baretta series, still maintained it's own hometruth grit and

had a touch more realism than the contemporaneous police procedurals.

Keeping his eye on the sparrow and Fred too.

It also never hurt that Robert Blake, being a closet comedian, would close each show religiously with a quintessential quip, he wrote on his own. Now you can't call him a jamoke can ya?