Baretta: Has Enough Time Passed? Or, Ever? (2 Viewers)

Hi, Everyone -

First, I'm not sure how I even feel about this, but do you think enough time has passed regarding Robert Blake's personal life to where more Baretta could be released? After all, it's about the show, not Blake, right?

And, maybe then all of Hell Town as a bonus on the complete series box set (ha ha)?

I could see it as an MOD release. They released his Our Gang shorts in that manner-although to be fair I think there was a lot more to motivate that decision than Blake's appearances.

But it's not like we don't see full releases of other Blake performances (and O.J. Simpson movies still get released, for that matter), so anything is possible.

Baretta has been on my wish list ever since the first season was released years ago. I'd also love to see Hell Town get a release someday. Who cares about his personal life???

They released the first season in 2001, and that was that. They only did it to capitalize off of Blake's murder trial, which was a stupid reason.

Then there was the Universal fire in 2008, which destroyed the pre-existing transfers for the show. The original negatives for the show DO exist, but Universal does not find it profitable at this time to go back to them.

Yeah I say release more of the show! The show shouldn't be shut out because of Robert Blake. I bought Electra Glide in Blue on BLU last year from shout.

Vahan_Nisanain said:

They released the first season in 2001, and that was that. They only did it to capitalize off of Blake's murder trial, which was a stupid reason.

Then there was the Universal fire in 2008, which destroyed the pre-existing transfers for the show. The original negatives for the show DO exist, but Universal does not find it profitable at this time to go back to them.

Click to expand...

I think this is the real reason Baretta has never been completed, not because of his personal life. I'm sure if the transfers would have been available, it probably would have been released by Shout!.

Exactly. The fire is the reason the show will hold the record for longest stalled title in perpetuity. And the fact nno back-ups were existing outside the Universal vault is itself a testament to how Blake's personal life made "Baretta" seem like poison to cable channels in that period.

the show Toma which I learned about while learning about this show on the wed sounds just as interesting. I'd love that on DVD too!

Powell&Pressburger said:

the show Toma which I learned about while learning about this show on the wed sounds just as interesting. I'd love that on DVD too!

Click to expand...

I remember watching Toma when I was growing up. I loved that show and thought it was better than Baretta.

Yeah the fire is the hold up on Baretta, not Blake's personal life. I don't know how the sales for season 1 went but if video transfers were available I'm sure Shout would have snatched this one up a long time ago.

The one thing about Baretta that I always found rather annoying is the setting. It's supposed to be New York city and the makers did a very good job of making it look like New York when it was filmed in LA. However, every once in a while a palm tree would slip in and spoil the illusion.

Yeah the fire is the hold up on Baretta, not Blake's personal life. I don't know how the sales for season 1 went but if video transfers were available I'm sure Shout would have snatched this one up a long time ago. The one thing about Baretta that I always found rather annoying is the setting. It's supposed to be New York city and the makers did a very good job of making it look like New York when it was filmed in LA. However, every once in a while a palm tree would slip in and spoil the illusion.

Click to expand...

I don't think that a specific city was ever really mentioned on the show. Maybe we presumed that it was New York but they never said this. Like almost all of the cheapo Universal series, its mostly shot on the backlot with minimal location shooting.As for the sales of season one, they were horrible. Like 8,000 units sold. Bad sales + no existing transfers is a bad combination for a release. Only way this will ever see the light of day again would be if they get a big sale to a cable network who foots the bill for new transfers to be struck.

Neil Brock said:

I don't think that a specific city was ever really mentioned on the show. Maybe we presumed that it was New York but they never said this. Like almost all of the cheapo Universal series, its mostly shot on the backlot with minimal location shooting.

Click to expand...

No, a specific city was never mentioned in the series. It was always referred to as just 'the city' but an awful lot of effort went into making you think it was New York. The opening credits, the dirty grimy streets, the back alley settings. It was only when Baretta was driving around (mostly at night) that the actual location being LA was a give away. Long streets with no big high rise buildings and then the occasional palm tree.

Neil Brock said:

As for the sales of season one, they were horrible. Like 8,000 units sold. Bad sales + no existing transfers is a bad combination for a release. Only way this will ever see the light of day again would be if they get a big sale to a cable network who foots the bill for new transfers to be struck.

Click to expand...

I only happen to run across the season 1 set by accident one day. I was just shopping the TV on DVD aisle when I spotted it. This was long before I new about the tvshowsondvd.com site. If I remember correctly, this was when TV on DVD was pretty much in its infancy. I'm sure that little to no promotion was done to let people know that the series was available. Sort of like season 1 of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Brian Himes said:

Yeah the fire is the hold up on Baretta, not Blake's personal life. I don't know how the sales for season 1 went but if video transfers were available I'm sure Shout would have snatched this one up a long time ago.

The one thing about Baretta that I always found rather annoying is the setting. It's supposed to be New York city and the makers did a very good job of making it look like New York when it was filmed in LA. However, every once in a while a palm tree would slip in and spoil the illusion.

Click to expand...

Wow .... so that's the reason (fire). Regarding season 1's release, I always thought it came out before Blake's issues.

In addition to the occasional west coast plant, I think you'd also see some West coast brands of gas, etc.

A really cool show, with a huge impact on pop culture ... I think it would be huge - remember how omnipresent this show was for a spell?

If anyone doesn't know yet, two episodes of Toma are floating around - it's no Baretta, but was certainly cool, and a little more realistic.

Has any of Hell Town surfaced at all?

What a heck of a box set we could have ...

IMO, Baretta was popular enough during it's original run and Blake was a big enough name to warrant a release of the rest of the series someday..."and dat's da name of dat tune!"

Well, like Neal said, until Universal or someone else pays for all new transfers from the original film elements, this show ain't happenin'.

There are a few other Universal shows that are in the same boat because of that fire. Heck Ramsey is one that is often mentioned. I'd almost lay money that all of the rest of the NBC Mystery Movie series are in the same state. I don't think that many people are clamoring for DVDs of Faraday and Company, Tenafly, Cool Million, Madigan, Amy Prenstiss, McCoy, or Lanigan's Rabi. Some maybe but not a lot. Heck Ramsey has, in my opinion, the best chance of good sales. At least enough to get both seasons out, but again, until new transfers are made from the original film elements...not happenin'.

But keep in mind that "Snoop Sisters" was released post-fire by VEI, so it's possible there are other titles from that list of Mystery Movie ones that escaped destruction. But let's not forget that "McCloud" does exist in full and needs to be resumed/finished in R1! (along with the original version S1 episodes that were released in R4).

Brian Himes said:

No, a specific city was never mentioned in the series. It was always referred to as just 'the city' but an awful lot of effort went into making you think it was New York. The opening credits, the dirty grimy streets, the back alley settings.

Click to expand...

That could describe most any major American downtown city and is certainly not unique to NYC. Just because most shows take place in either NYC or LA doesn't automatically mean that they are the only two settings. HILL STREET BLUES for example was in an unnamed city, but many people took it as Chicago since the establishing shot of the police station was from an actual one in Chicago. Even LA has some urban locations, mostly downtown, but largely is not what you picture when you think of a gritty inner city milieu. Yet POLICE STORY did a good job there, so it's all a matter of how you film what you have.

Jack P said:

But keep in mind that "Snoop Sisters" was released post-fire by VEI, so it's possible there are other titles from that list of Mystery Movie ones that escaped destruction. But let's not forget that "McCloud" does exist in full and needs to be resumed/finished in R1! (along with the original version S1 episodes that were released in R4).

Click to expand...

Yep, The Snoop Sisters was a huge surprise. I couldn't believe that it actually got released. I couldn't hit the pre-order button fast enough.

As for McCloud, the correct 1 hr season 1 episodes were found in England. Australia contacted Universal about them and Universal claimed that the only versions of season 1 left were the 'telefilm' versions. So, Madman just got very lucky to have found them at all. At this point, I have all 7 seasons of McCloud from Australia and wouldn't buy Region 1 sets if they were released. Granted, I'm not the majority of the buying public.

Professor Echo said:

That could describe most any major American downtown city and is certainly not unique to NYC. Just because most shows take place in either NYC or LA doesn't automatically mean that they are the only two settings. HILL STREET BLUES for example was in an unnamed city, but many people took it as Chicago since the establishing shot of the police station was from an actual one in Chicago. Even LA has some urban locations, mostly downtown, but largely is not what you picture when you think of a gritty inner city milieu. Yet POLICE STORY did a good job there, so it's all a matter of how you film what you have.

Click to expand...

True, but like I said they certainly went to an awful lot of effort to make you think it was New York. I can't quite described what it is that I mean, but every time I watched the show (in its original run, re-runs on ABC late night and the season 1 DVD set) it looked like it was supposed to be New York. Until a palm tree popped up.

As for Hill Street Blues, I always thought it was New York as well but I never watched the show all that often.

I never got a NY vibe from "Baretta" at all because if it were NY you'd think they could have given us one establishing shot of the familiar skyline in stock footage! (this is also BTW why I never bought into "Bewitched" being set near NY because they never gave us a shot of that either). As for "Hill Street Blues" the establishing shots were always of Chicago, which is the vibe that city gave me. It had ultimately a Chicago-Pittsburgh-St.Louis vibe more.