Baretta (TV Series)

The 5½ Pound Junkie (1975)

Robert Blake: Det. Tony Baretta

Quotes 

• Sue Lee : How did you become a cop?

  Det. Tony Baretta : Well that was kind of a promise I made to my old man. See my folks came over on a boat, and they didn't know nothing just ignorant. My mother did whatever she had to on the streets to support us. She died when I was 10, she sure loved me a lot, I never could figure that one out. Now my old man, my old man was the greatest street hustler in the history of the world. He had himself the sweetest little book. He ran numbers, and on a pool table, he can just shoot the eyes right out of them. By the time I was 10, he taught me everything was to know about the streets. When he wasn't in the joint, we had good times together. Anyway, when I was 17 before he died, I promised him I figure out some way to use everything he taught me so I won't wind up in the slammer myself, and when me and old Fred bailed out of the merchants, we talked it over, decided I'll become a flat foot, and that's the name of that tune.