BARETTA
1975-1978 ABC
You can all read backwards, right?
BARFETTA
MAD #183, June 1976
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Angelo Torres
Tony Baretta (Robert Blake) was one of several TV detectives in the 70s. His investigations were all undercover and he was known for his “dese-dem-dose” accent. The comic relief was his pet, a talking cockatoo named Fred.
On the street he hears about a Mafia protection racket. At the station they're wondering about him.
He's supposed to investigate cheating at the local high school but that can wait because the mafia has kidnapped Fred.
Part of Baretta's investigation was he always asked about the word on the street from local pimp Rooster (Michael D. Roberts)
He has a plan to go undercover at a massage parlor with their cooperation.
Malapropisms were another of Baretta's traits.
Baretta offers to have Fred testify that he was kidnapped but Lt. Brubaker (Edward Grover) fires him for ruining another case they were working on.
The show was also mentioned in
TV Spinoffs Yet to Come in MAD #206, April 1979, written by Tom Koch and drawn by Harry North, Esq.
In the foreground is Richard Kiel as James Bond villain “Jaws”
BORETTA
Cracked #132, May 1975
a:John Severin
Baretta's friend Billy (Tom Ewell) brings in a kid who has been told his grandfather is dead but he thinks there's more to it.
(In the foreground is George Kennedy of the cop show
The Blue Knight.)
His cases often stayed at his home.
He finds out what he can at a pizza place disguised as the janitor (The in-joke here is that the janitor is
Cracked mascot Sylvester P. Smythe).
He infiltrates the pizza place again using one of his disguises.
He's solved the case but now there's just one thing.
From
Cracked #140, March 1977.
If King Kong Made Appearances on TV drawn by Howard Nostrand.
BOORETTA
Crazy #17, May 1976
w: Len Herman
a: Murad Gumen
Another case broken by Baretta. This time he was disguised as the getaway car!
He's promoted to a desk job which he refuses because he belongs in the streets. While he's there, he's told to bust up the crime syndicate.
They used the same joke as
Cracked of him disguising himself as a bulldog. I wonder if they stole it. Sometimes
Crazy was as much a
Cracked imitator as a
MAD imitator.
There was a law passed in the seventies that said all cartoonists must make criminals look like Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson. I couldn't find one that said all mob bosses must look like Jimmy Durante.
At the meeting, the criminals all kill each other thinking the other is Baretta in disguise, including ones that look like Dean Martin and Bat-Mite.
PARETTA
Sick #116, August 1977
w: George Kashdan
a: Jack Sparling
This was a typical 70s TV plot of a cop going undercover to bust rapists. I never understood the logic behind this trope and don't think it really existed.
I think 'Phony' is supposed to be capitalized, like it's a pun on his name, and not an adjective used to describe him, but the typesetter (or typist in this case) didn't get it.
Baretta has to crack the case of mobster Clucky Hoochiano (pun on Lucky Luciano).
Clucky's onto Baretta and tries to figure out how he's always being one-upped. Meanwhile, Baretta's asking Rooster about the word on the street.
Baretta's now at home, and he has to give a lecture to girls on the street (Hookers? Neighbors? I have no idea what this is in reference to.) and the mob comes to rub him out.
The mob wants to find out the brains behind him first. They think it might be his neighbor Billy, but it's Fred the cockatoo.
CARETTA
Car Toons #85, September 1975
a: Bob James
The other cops are Serpico, McCloud, Kojak, Police Woman, and the Mod Squad
UPDATE:
Sick #118, December 1977, from larger article about violence in television introduced by Dr. Joyce Brothers. That's supposed to be her at the end and it sets us up for the next chapter/parody.
