Courtroom Television Network said it will pursue in-court coverage of the
trial of actor Robert Blake, arrested Thursday for the murder of his wife, Bonny
Bakley Blake.
The arrest of Blake, who starred for years as TV's
Baretta,has
already produced a media frenzy recalling the chaos of the O.J. Simpson murder
trial. News choppers have been hovering over Blake's home, and legal pundits
have been already hovering over the news networks.
Court TV's reasoned approach to Simpson's trial for the murder of his wife and her
friend was actually a contrast to much of the other media coverage, but the media
debacle outside of the courtroom set back the cause of cameras in the courtroom
for years, and it was cited by judges and legislators in opposing
televised trials.
Blake's celebrity at the
time of his arrest probably does not match Simpson's, and his legal fight would
seem unlikely to gain the same kind of overwhelming attention.
Simpson was an undisputed sports superstar, a National Football League Hall
of Famer who had remained more in the public eye through high-profile, if not
stellar, performances in films, commercials and as a sports commentator.
Blake, who was arrested after nearly a yearlong investigation, has
been semi-retired in recent years, but the one-time Our Gang kid was extremely well
known in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, and he was an Emmy Award winner for
Baretta.
As a child actor, he appeared with Humphrey Bogart in Treasure of the
Sierra Madre.
His breakthrough performance was as a mass killer in the film In Cold
Blood in 1967.
