Tony Baretta is a street-smart, maverick undercover cop with the NYPD, who won't hesitate for a second to toss the rule book out the window if it stands between himself and taking some bad guy off the street. His unconventional methods often land him in hot water with his boss (Inspector Schiller, later Lt. Brubaker), but as long as Baretta was getting the job done, there wasn't much they could do. Ex-cop Billy and Huggy Bear-wannabe Rooster were Baretta's main men on the street, and Fred was his pet cockatoo.