BURBANK, Calif. — "Baretta" star Robert Blake joked recently outside court at his civil trial that he was ready to get off this "series," the sordid courtroom drama about who was responsible for the 2001 shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley.

Jurors began deliberations Friday afternoon in Blake's wrongful death trial, which means the drama's leading man may soon get his wish.

Blake, 72, was acquitted of murder charges in March after the jury in his criminal trial spent 35 hours over nine days to conclude that prosecutors did not convince them beyond a reasonable doubt that the actor shot and killed Bakley on May 4, 2001.

But the standard of proof in his civil case is lower. For Bakley's heirs to prevail, nine of the 12 jurors must believe that Blake "more likely than not" intentionally caused Bakley's death by shooting her himself or arranging for her to be shot.

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If they find Blake caused his 44-year-old wife's death, the panel must then devise a dollar amount for how much Bakley's "love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society and moral support," would have been worth to her four surviving children, who have brought the suit against Blake.

Jurors may not award damages for grief, sorrow, mental anguish or pain and suffering.

"If you decide the estate of Bonny Lee Bakley has suffered damages that will continue for the rest of their lives, you must determine how long the decedent would have probably lived," Judge David Schacter told jurors during his reading of the instructions this morning. "According to California jury instructions, a 44-year-old female is expected to live another 38.5 years ... Some people live longer, some others will die sooner."

Blake's former handyman Earle Caldwell is also named as a co-conspirator in the suit. For Caldwell to be held liable, jurors must agree that the handyman was aware of Blake's alleged plan to have Bakley killed and agreed that it needed doing.

A 'good-bye, toots'

Jurors in Blake's civil trial were privy to evidence not brought forward in the criminal trial — including testimony about other potential killers and secretly taped conversations between Bakley and her two lovers, Blake and Christian Brando.

Blake's defense suggested that Bakley, a successful mail-order porn purveyor, could have been killed by any number of the men she had scammed and swindled out of money — including a blind man she once married named Johnny Ray, who wanted her dead, according to Bakley's own letters to Blake.

Christian Brando took the stand, and then repeatedly took the Fifth Amendment privilege when asked about his involvement with the main characters in the murder drama.

Defense witnesses testified that a friend of Brando named Mark Jones, a homeless drug addict who committed suicide after Bakley's murder, heard Brando say someone should put a bullet in Bakley's head. The defense believes he is a potential suspect in Bakley's murder.

But it was Blake's cantankerous seven days on the stand that jurors might remember most as they consider his financial fate. Blake's testimony was the stuff of hard-boiled TV cop dramas, as if ripped off from '70s "Baretta" scripts.

Blake was a straight shooter about his idiosyncrasies, telling jurors he was a lonely old man who enjoyed Bakley's company because she would sleep with him and "get on the bus" without asking too many questions. He said he loved her like one loves a pet dog, but he denied ever wanting her dead, despite the testimony of several witnesses who said he obsessed over having his wife "whacked."

Blake showed humor and hubris on the stand, usurping the judge by sustaining his own objections to questions, calling his dead wife "toots" and calling the plaintiff's attorney "junior," "chief" and "liar."

Jurors got a glimpse of the anger that lies beneath the congenial showman's smile when Blake became so enraged over personal questions about his family that the judge had to draw a picture of a button to remind the actor that his were being pushed, and he should calm down. "Thank you, your honor," was Blake's constant reply.

The nine men and three women selected to deliberate the case have also had a chance to express themselves during the trial. The jurors were allowed to submit their own questions in writing for attorneys to ask the witnesses.

One dubious female juror wanted to know why, "if Mr. Blake was concerned" about the strange men he claimed were lurking around his neighborhood before Bakley was killed, didn't he just write down their license plate numbers?

A male juror asked why Blake didn't use the anger he exhibited on the stand to insist to police and paramedics that they allow him to comfort his wife as she was dying.

"She deserved at least a 'good-bye, toots'," the juror wrote.

The panel must now decide if a "good-bye, toots" is all Blake owes Bakley and her four children.