Wiseguy (TV series)

This article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (July 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Wiseguy
Season 1 title card
Genre	Crime drama Mystery
Created by	Stephen J. Cannell Frank Lupo
Starring	Ken Wahl Jonathan Banks Jim Byrnes Steven Bauer Cecil Hoffman
Composers	Mike Post Walter Murphy
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	75 (3 unaired)
Production
Executive producers	Stephen J. Cannell David J. Burke Stephen Kronish
Producers	Brent-Karl Clackson Rod Holcomb (pilot) Alfonse Ruggiero, Jr. Alex Beaton
Running time	45–48 minutes
Production company	Stephen J. Cannell Productions
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	September 16, 1987 (1987-09-16) – December 8, 1990 (1990-12-08)

Wiseguy is an American crime drama television series that aired on CBS from September 16, 1987, to December 8, 1990, for a total of 75 episodes over four seasons. The series was produced by Stephen J. Cannell and was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, to avoid the higher studio costs associated with filming in Los Angeles.

Wiseguy originally starred Ken Wahl as Vinnie Terranova, a Brooklyn native and Fordham University graduate who was a deep cover operative for the FBI under the supervision of senior agent Frank McPike, played by Jonathan Banks. The primary cast was rounded out by Jim Byrnes, who played an information operative known as Lifeguard (real name Daniel Burroughs) who assisted Vinnie in the field.

After the third season, Wahl departed from the series. Steven Bauer was brought in to replace Wahl as the lead, with Cecil Hoffman joining as a fourth regular cast member alongside Bauer and the returning Banks and Byrnes. Wiseguy ended its run midway through the 1990–1991 television season with three produced episodes left unaired.

Synopsis[edit]

The series followed Vincent "Vinnie" Terranova, an undercover agent of the OCB (Organized Crime Bureau), a fictional division of the FBI. The show kept its focus on both the mechanics of being deep undercover and the consequences of the protagonist's actions.^[1]

Unlike similar series of the day, Wiseguy was serialized over multiple episodes telling a self-contained story that would conclude in the final episode of the cycle. This gave rise to the industry term "story arc".^{[citation needed]} Some cycles were short while others were extended, but each new story had a specific set of central characters exclusive to it who would appear over the course of multiple episodes.

Season 1[edit]

Sonny Steelgrave storyline[edit]

FBI undercover agent Vinnie Terranova is released from prison after serving an 18-month sentence to establish his cover. After his training agent is murdered by Dave Steelgrave (Gianni Russo), an Atlantic City Mafia boss, Vinnie vows to infiltrate the organization and take the Steelgraves down. He earns the trust of Sonny Steelgrave (Ray Sharkey), Dave's brother, and after Dave's death and the apparent defection of one of the Steelgrave captains, he is made Sonny's second-in-command. Over time, Vinnie feels conflicted by his genuine feelings of friendship towards Sonny, and having to lie to his mother about his work for the government in order to maintain his cover. After an attack lands her in the hospital, Vinnie tells his mother the true nature of his work rather than risk her going to her grave thinking him a criminal. Vinnie's contacts Frank McPike and Lifeguard learn of this breach in protocol through surveillance but conceal it from their superiors using an edited audio recording.

With Vinnie's info, OCB sets up concealed video cameras at the venue for Sonny's bachelor party. Sonny murders "Pat the Cat" Patrice, his chief Mafia rival, at the party. When he finds police have surrounded the building, Sonny realizes that Vinnie, who knew about a hit Patrice put on him and said nothing, must be an undercover agent. About to be arrested for his crimes, Sonny commits suicide rather than face prison. The story arc ends with it in doubt whether Vinnie will be able to overcome the guilt he feels over his betrayal of Sonny and continue to work as an undercover agent.

Mel Profitt storyline[edit]

Vinnie, using his reputation as part of the Steelgrave crime family, makes contact with a hitman/assassin named Roger Lococco (William Russ). However, Vinnie soon discovers a much bigger target: Roger's boss, the manic depressive billionaire arms dealer Mel Profitt (Kevin Spacey) and his sister Susan (Joan Severance), with whom he has an incestuous relationship. Mel is addicted to prescription medication (always administered to him by Susan) which further contributes to his unstable emotional state. He is also a believer in Malthusian economics. Matters are complicated by Vinnie falling in love with Susan and beginning a sexual relationship with her.

Lococco (who turns out to be a CIA agent) encourages Mel to finance insurrectionist Louis Cabra of the Caribbean nation Il Pavao, but Mel becomes convinced that Cabra put a death curse on him. Cabra's rival insurrectionist Emanja Mora offers Mel help, but takes advantage of his trust to steal the crystal which Mel believes houses his soul and gives it to Lococco, who smashes it in front of Mel. As a result, Mel suffers a complete mental breakdown. In a mercy killing, Susan injects Mel with a lethal overdose of amphetamines and gives him a Viking funeral. Susan goes insane (with help from Lococco, who gaslights her in order to obtain signed withdrawal slips for Mel's accounts) and is committed to a mental facility.

The Profitt connection is part of a plot by the CIA to train mercenaries and install a puppet regime in Il Pavao. With info given him by Vinnie, Lococco learns his training officer and immediate superior Herb Ketcher is running the operation as a front for an American corporation. Lococco turns state's evidence. Shortly after his testimony, Lococco goes off the grid. Ketcher, after being exposed, takes his own life before consequences can be dealt him. As the arc comes to an end, Vinnie announces his resignation from OCB.

Stephen J. Cannell, producer of Wiseguy, stated that the character Jim Profit from the short-lived Fox series Profit (which Cannell also produced) was named after and partially based on the Mel Profitt character. Writer/artist John Byrne has acknowledged that his characters Desmond and Phoebe Marrs, main cast members of the 1990s comic book series Namor the Sub-Mariner, were heavily inspired by Mel and Susan Profitt.^[2]

Season 2[edit]

White supremacy storyline[edit]

At the beginning of the second season, Vinnie is living at home with his mother and brother, Father Pete (Gerald Anthony) and working for a friend at a gas station as everyone in his neighborhood still believes he is in the Mafia. McPike is dispatched to find Vinnie by the new director of OCB, Paul Beckstead (Ken Jenkins). McPike must either debrief Vinnie to accept his resignation, or bring him back from sabbatical. Vinnie refuses to go along.

Vinnie's friend gets an eviction notice and nearly is driven to sabotage in an attempt to protect his business. A patron of his turns him on to the teachings of Dr. Knox Pooley (Fred Dalton Thompson), who leads a nativist group with white supremacist leanings called the "Pilgrims of Promise". His right-hand man, Calvin Hollis (Paul Guilfoyle), is an extremist, and leads a group of Pilgrims in an attack on a synagogue. Pete goes on television condemning the attack; shortly after he is run down in an alley.

After agreeing to return to work, but only on his terms, Vinnie arranges a gun sale to Calvin, against the advice of Beckstead, who believes the Pilgrims of Promise are harmless kooks not worth pursuing. Vinnie calls off the sting when Calvin shows up at the exchange with Ritchie (Tim Guinee), a young neighborhood friend. Ritchie confesses to Vinnie that he helped Calvin get the money for the guns in an armed robbery in which an off-duty police officer was murdered. Vinnie takes Ritchie under his wing, guiding him as an undercover agent in hopes of reducing his inevitable sentence as accessory to murder.

Vinnie finds Pete's personal effects in the grill of a car parked at a Pilgrims of Promise rally, but refrains from exacting vengeance, instead setting up his brother's killer for arrest at an arms deal. Hollis murders a talk show host who ridiculed the Pilgrims of Promise on the air. This leads Pooley to disown him. Ritchie recovers the murder weapon, allowing a warrant to be issued for Calvin's arrest, but Calvin perishes in a home invasion gone awry. Ritchie is sentenced to 18 months. Pooley escapes prosecution by claiming to be just a con man and getting Calvin to exonerate him from any involvement in the murders in a recorded phone call. He moves on to selling beachfront real estate in Florida.

Garment trade storyline[edit]

David Sternberg (Ron Silver) and his father Eli (Jerry Lewis) run a clothing business, and are being squeezed by garment district kingpin Rick Pinzolo (Stanley Tucci). David goes to the OCB for help; thus Vinnie is recruited to act as security for the Sternbergs. In the episode "Next of Kin," Vinnie is hit by a taxi cab and replaced by agent John Henry Raglin (Anthony Denison), a philandering family man who was on a leave of absence after he blew the covers of two OCB agents during an interrogation. (This was done in order to allow Ken Wahl to recover from a broken ankle he suffered in an on-set accident.) John finds that Pinzolo has no way of profiting from his antagonism of the Sternbergs, leading him to the realization that Pinzolo is in fact merely a pawn of David's cousin Carole (Patricia Charbonneau), daughter of the company's founder. She blames Eli for taking the company from her father and seduced Pinzolo in order to get him to do the dirty work.

A shipment of dresses modified by Pinzolo to lack sufficient flame retardant brings on a wave of class action lawsuits, toppling the Sternberg company. David goes over the edge, kidnapping Pinzolo and attacking bank security guards with a gun, prompting them to fatally shoot David. Suddenly fearing Pinzolo will have her killed in order to prevent her incriminating him, Carole goes to Pinzolo in hopes he will say something incriminating for her tape recorder, but he kills her instead. Having failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing and allowed everyone who might have testified against Pinzolo to be killed, John simply murders Pinzolo.

Dead Dog Records storyline[edit]

Upon his recovery, Vinnie is informed that music label Dead Dog Records was seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration, who traded it to the OCB. Vinnie proposes to infiltrate the music industry in search of corruption as the new executive of Dead Dog. Fast-talking, puppy-dog-eyed talent agent Bobby Travis (Glenn Frey) talks Vinnie into taking him on as a minority partner; Vinnie realizes Bobby is washed up in the industry but can show him the ropes and be the public face of Dead Dog so that his cover is maintained. Bobby tells him about cleans, music products sold overseas and left off the accounting books, thus bypassing taxes and royalties.

Hoping to raise Dead Dog's profile so he can connect with people selling cleans, Vinnie signs fallen idol Diana Price (Debbie Harry) and funds a recording of her song "Brite Side" under brilliant but violent tempered producer Johnny Medley (Paul McCrane). English-American record mogul Winston Newquay (pronounced Noo-kway, rather than Nyoo-key in the English fashion) offers to buy Dead Dog Records, but Vinnie distrusts him and instead turns Dead Dog over to the husband-and-wife owners of Shakala Records, Isaac (Paul Winfield) and Amber Twine (Patti D'Arbanville). Isaac proves to be as crooked as Newquay; on an overseas business trip Bobby finds Isaac has released a bootleg EP consisting of "Bright Side" (Price's only song with Dead Dog/Shakala) and some standards recorded by Price soundalikes. Newquay, played by Tim Curry, is Price's former manager and lover, and Vinnie sends her to Jamaica for fear she will sign with Newquay again.

Vinnie tries to tempt away Newquay's hottest act, singer Eddie Tempest (Billy Wirth), with the opportunity to work with Medley and hit songwriter Monroe Blue (Ron Taylor). The fight over Eddie becomes moot after Isaac, a compulsive gambler, loses Shakala Records to Newquay in a poker game. Eddie discovers Newquay has been siphoning off his accounts after one of his checks bounces; he tries to get revenge by seducing Newquay's wife Claudia (Deidre Hall), not knowing she routinely has extramarital affairs in order to spice up her relationship with Winston. During sex they fall through a skylight to their deaths.

OCB's efforts to build a case around Newquay's selling of cleans prove fruitless, since Newquay is savvy enough to keep the profits from the cleans overseas. A sting operation in which Isaac offers Newquay an unreleased Eddie Tempest tape yields a recording of Newquay planning to sell cleans of the tape. The case is dismissed as entrapment, but the recording leads many artists to abandon Newquay after Bobby shows them loopholes which allow them to exit their contracts while retaining the rights to their recordings. Isaac dies when sex with Amber elevates his heart rate to the point of a heart attack. Grief over the sex-caused deaths of Claudia and Isaac (who was both Newquay's business rival and his best friend) drives Newquay to a mental breakdown. Now believing himself to be Elvis Presley, he is institutionalized and the running of his company turned over to a trustee. Amber relaunches Shakala Records from the ground up. Dead Dog Records is turned over to Bobby.

Season 3[edit]

Mafia Wars storyline[edit]

At the beginning of the third season, Vinnie has not been assigned any recent cases, but, in usual Wiseguy fashion, a case finds him. Vinnie's stepfather, Don Rudy Aiuppo (George O. Petrie) is shot and wounded, leaving Vinnie the temporary head of the local Mafia commission (to Frank McPike's delight). Vinnie investigates the other members, including Albert Cericco (Robert Davi). Eventually, Vinnie brings down most of the commission, only to find that Aiuppo has been manipulating him to exact revenge on some rivals. An enraged Vinnie angrily tells Aiuppo that, stepfather or not, he wants nothing more to do with him. Aiuppo in turn tries to drive a wedge between Vinnie and his mother by implying that he has learned of Vinnie's undercover role from her. In reality, he had bugged a payphone outside his hospital room, thinking that the various Mafiosi visiting him would be using it just after taking their leave; Vinnie had used it to contact Uncle Mike.

Washington, D.C., storyline ("The Capitol Conspiracy")[edit]

Vinnie is summoned to the Justice Department and put in charge of an investigation of Japanese yen counterfeiting, unaware that the whole thing is a setup by certain unscrupulous government figures who seek payback for damaging fallout from the Mel Profitt case. Based on the real-life Operation Bernhard, the conspirators aim to undermine the Japanese economy by printing large amounts of counterfeit Yen, smuggling them into Japan on cargo aircraft, and then announcing it, all in order to devalue the currency. After the revelation, a convenient scapegoat is supposed to take the blame; in this case, the scapegoat is Vinnie. When the plan is foiled en route, Vinnie nevertheless becomes the focus of an investigation, and is only saved when a third party "connects the dots" for the investigating committee.

Lynchboro/Seattle storyline[edit]

Vinnie is made a deputy of a small town called Lynchboro in Washington state, where local strongman Mark Volchek (Steve Ryan) is essentially treating the town like his own personal dictatorship. Vinnie works under Sheriff Matthew Stemkowsky, nicknamed "Stem."

The assignment takes an unexpected turn when recent murders, including several of Stemkowsky's deputies, are determined to be the work of a serial killer based on the then real-life unsolved Green River Killer cases. As a large federal task force is on its way to Lynchboro, Volchek, fearful of the disruption and attention, is determined to identify the killer through his knowledge of the town and residents. Vinnie, however, is convinced it is Volchek. Volchek displays a curious obsession with the movie Mr. Sardonicus, which becomes a factor later in the arc.

The night before the task force is to descend on Lynchboro, Volchek works with McPike to try to narrow down the possible suspects through a rapid series of deductions. Eventually, a frustrated Stem cracks under the intensifying pressure and confesses his crimes.

However, rather than face justice, Stem chooses to violently kill himself with a stun gun in front of his deputies. Vinnie immediately begins having flashbacks of Sonny Steelgrave's death and goes off the grid, making one phone call to someone who owes him a favor.

That person turns out to be Roger Lococco, who himself had gone off the grid two years earlier once he testified in the Mel Profitt investigation. He replaces Stem as sheriff and immediately begins looking deeper into Volchek, who had a dream to build a hospital focusing on cryogenics. After fate turned against him, however, Volchek eventually was talked into loosening his grip on the town. In a cameo appearance, film critic Jeffrey Lyons appears as himself to deconstruct the movie that Volchek was obsessed with. Re-enacting part of the movie with Volchek as the main character becomes part of his recovery.

Vinnie, meanwhile, winds up in Seattle with $42 to his name, which he uses to rent a room in a transient hotel. He takes a job with a waste removal company called Health Elimination Services that specializes in dumping medical waste. Vinnie, working for $100 a day, discovers that one of his jobs, dumping bodily fluids into a storm drain near an elementary school, results in a hepatitis outbreak at the school and that the company is aware of it.

Embroiled in the company manager's desperate attempts at covering up, Vinnie flees in repulsion from hired assassins as well as from his own burgeoning violent impulse, which results in his violently beating the manager and disposing of two of the assassins. He finds respite in a city church. Just as McPike finds him in hiding there, a would-be assassin's bullet misses Vinnie and critically wounds McPike, propelling Vinnie on a final pursuit of justice.

Season 4[edit]

After the third season ended, Ken Wahl left Wiseguy over a dispute with CBS over the direction of the show. Steven Bauer was brought in to be the new lead character, a former United States Attorney named Michael Santana who had recently been disbarred. Jonathan Banks and Jim Byrnes returned in their regular roles, and new addition Cecil Hoffman rounded out the cast. A new theme song by Mike Post, who wrote the original theme, was commissioned and had a more Latin flair. The series also found a new timeslot, moving to Saturday nights at 10:00 pm Eastern.

The fourth season was only done as part of a realignment of CBS' primetime programming lineup that saw switches of other programming, along with some cancellations.^[3]

Guzman storyline[edit]

The season begins with a raid on a drug warehouse in Miami run by the Medellín Cartel, with United States Attorney Michael Santana leading the raid. The head of the cartel is put on trial and is headed for a near certain conviction. However, as the jury deliberates, a Miami policeman comes forward and reveals he coerced a confession which led to the warrant being issued. Santana's misconduct after finding all of this out results in the dismissal of the case and eventually his disbarment.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, a now-bearded McPike has fully healed from the gunshot wounds he sustained at the end of the previous year and Director Beckstead is looking to have him assume desk duty. McPike, after all he has been through over the recent months, does not agree and leaves frustrated.

Soon, however, that becomes the least of his problems. A phone call to Lifeguard reveals a surprising bit of information: Vinnie has suddenly, and abruptly, stopped checking in with him. Since this is highly irregular, considering how Vinnie and Lifeguard keep their check-in schedule, McPike decides to find out more info and sets out to find Vinnie himself. Since his last known location was Brooklyn, McPike heads to his apartment. Here, he finds that Vinnie’s shower is on and running in his bathroom, the television set in his living room is turned on, and a pot of pasta is cooking on the stove. Vinnie, however, is not there, and McPike discovers a handprint on the door. Getting back in touch with Lifeguard, the two men deduce that Vinnie could not have left his apartment willingly and was likely abducted.

Trying to find answers, and convinced that someone is hiding something from him, McPike drops in on Carlotta Terranova and Don Aiuppo to find out more. One of their neighbors, a Catholic priest, had been murdered by a right-wing death squad in El Salvador, and Vinnie had been assisting the family in trying to find answers. Since Vinnie had made contact with Michael Santana before disappearing, McPike travels to Miami to meet with him and confirms that Vinnie was indeed taken by force from his apartment.

Soon, McPike and Santana find Amado Guzman (Maximilian Schell), a Cuban-American businessman who works for the cartel as a money launderer. They also find out that Guzman is offering support to the Salvadoran death squad, which in addition to murdering the priest is responsible for Vinnie's kidnapping. With the help of U.S. Attorney Hillary Stein (Hoffmann), who had been working the original case as Santana's AUSA before his removal and disbarment and was his love interest, they take Guzman's operation down.

Despite this, OCB is never able to locate Vinnie. He is presumed dead, being killed by the same death squad he had been investigating, and a memorial service is held in his honor. McPike speaks at the service, where he reveals the truth regarding Vinnie's services with the FBI and OCB.

OCB disbands[edit]

With the Guzman investigation closed, McPike convinces Santana to become an official OCB agent. However, Director Beckstead is forced to shut down the task force due to budget cuts. Instead, McPike and Santana are sent to the New York FBI office to work in tandem with the U.S. Attorney's office there. They are immediately thrust into an investigation into a scheme involving the deaths of several naval pilots in crashes involving faulty plane parts. Former AUSA Stein, meanwhile, has joined her family's law firm and taken on the case, but after the firm's partners elect to not go after the partmaker she turns her attention to finding justice for the families affected by the crashes. Through the work of McPike and Santana, as well as the continued covert work from Lifeguard, the head of the company is arrested and brought to justice.

Cancellation[edit]

Following the first low-rated episode of the fourth season, CBS halted production on Wiseguy pending an increase in ratings.^[4] It is unclear whether production ever resumed after this point, since CBS offered no further updates on the status of the show, but following the broadcast of the episode "Witness Protection for the Archangel Lucifer" on December 8, 1990, Wiseguy was cancelled,^[4] leaving three produced episodes unbroadcast.

The program was never the strongest ratings draw, despite the positive feedback from critics. The loss of Ken Wahl combined with the move to a traditionally low rated Saturday night spot depleted the ratings further.

Ken Wahl said that the entire fourth season concept was "ridiculous" because it got away from what Wiseguy had been about: Whereas before the show was more character driven, CBS wanted to make the show more of an action-based crime drama and Wahl felt he could not continue in the role if that was where they wanted to go.^[5]

Non-arc episodes[edit]

There were also several stand-alone episodes between the arcs, most of which dealt with the personal lives of the main characters. For instance:

"Aria for Don Aiuppo"[edit]

Mama Carlotta Terranova falls for and marries an old flame, Rudy Aiuppo, whom she had formerly given up when he chose a life of crime. Aiuppo switches places with his recently reconciled (and dead-ringer) brother, who is deported to Italy, while Aiuppo fades back into the old neighborhood.

"Stairway to Heaven"[edit]

Frank's wife is dying of liver failure, and cannot get a transplant due to her alcoholism. Frank uses money given to Vinnie by Roger in "Date with an Angel" to obtain an under-the-table liver transplant, saving her life. However, feeling that Frank was the cause of her drinking, she demands a separation, and Frank temporarily moves in with Vinnie.

"White Noise"[edit]

Vinnie goes undercover in a corrupt mental hospital, but not by choice: disgraced former OCB chief Daryl Elias (John M. Jackson) edits Vinnie's cover as a violently unstable patient into hospital records, and Vinnie is committed when he tries to check out after a physical exam. Through a series of hallucinations of Sonny Steelgrave, Vinnie resolves his guilt issues.

"Call it Casaba"[edit]

Vinnie, Frank, and Lifeguard go on a camping weekend, but Lifeguard has his daughter's marriage on his mind. This isn't helped when the daughter shows up at his cabin. This episode is a fan favorite, and was especially a favorite of co-star Jonathan Banks.^{[citation needed]}

"Sleepwalk"[edit]

After the "Dead Dog Records" arc, Vinnie has a liaison with Amber Twine, who was widowed when her husband suffered a heart attack during the main story. He attempts to live in her world of late nights with musicians but finds he has no interest in it, and she has no interest in his world. This sequence featured a cameo by blues harp player Kim Wilson and his band, The Fabulous Thunderbirds.

"How Will They Remember Me?"[edit]

Vinnie discovers his late father's old diary and sees his very honest father faced the same temptations from criminals that Vinnie faces today. This is the only episode of the series not to feature Jonathan Banks as Frank McPike, due to the episode mostly taking place in flashbacks.

"People Do It All the Time"[edit]

Lifeguard's family troubles continue as he comes to grips with becoming a grandfather. He steps in when his son-in-law gets involved with an unscrupulous construction company.

"The Reunion"[edit]

Vinnie attends his high school reunion, where he is reunited with an old flame who now works for the NYPD. This episode brought back Mike "Mooch" Cacciatore from the Garment Trade arc as Vinnie's high school buddy.

"Meet Mike McPike"[edit]

Frank has family problems when his father, Mike McPike, gets thrown out of yet another nursing home.

"To Die in Bettendorf"[edit]

Steelgrave's cohort, Sid Royce (Patrice's Harvard-educated accountant), is arrested, but discovers Terranova is a federal agent. Royce is given immunity, turns state's evidence, and he and his wife enter witness relocation, against McPike's protests. However, McPike is allowed to choose Royce's destination and Royce consequently becomes a Foot Locker-type shoe salesman named "Elvis Prim" in Bettendorf, Iowa, far from the bright lights of New York City. Despondent, Royce's wife leaves him for a cowboy, causing him to have a mental breakdown. Royce then goes off the grid and tracks down McPike just as McPike and his separated wife are on the verge of reconciliation. McPike kills Royce in a hostage situation (Terranova offers to do the deed but McPike turns him down).

"Romp"[edit]

Vinnie attends the bachelor party of his friend Jimmy, and helps Jimmy get out from under a loan shark's thumb.

Main characters[edit]

Vincent Terranova[edit]

Vincent Michael "Vinnie" Terranova (Ken Wahl) is an undercover agent who is 30 years old when the series begins. His job is to infiltrate criminal organizations, gather evidence, and then destroy the organization to bring the guilty parties to justice. At the beginning of the series, he is estranged from his family because of an eighteen-month prison sentence (meant to establish his "wiseguy" credentials with the criminal underworld) and continued ties to criminals, and OCB regulations forbade Vinnie from telling his family the truth. However, his brother Peter (Gerald Anthony), a Catholic priest, knew the truth (Vinnie had revealed everything under the seal of the confessional), and in the first season episode "Prodigal Son" when his Italian-born mother Carlotta (Elsa Raven) is hospitalized after being mugged, Vinnie reveals the truth to her (with McPike and Lifeguard concealing Vinnie's confession from the OCB Regional Director), thereby reconciling mother and son. Carlotta calls him "Vincenzo" but his legal name is Vincent. Vinnie was often seen wearing Fordham University sweatshirts and hats as he and Peter are Fordham graduates.

Frank McPike[edit]

Frank McPike (Jonathan Banks) is Vinnie's superior officer, who assigns Vinnie to cases, supplies him with important information and coordinates backup support. He became OCB Regional Director (RD) and Vinnie's immediate superior after Vinnie was released after completing an eighteen-month sentence in the Newark State Penitentiary (Frank was responsible for ensuring that Vinnie served the full term in order to cement his cover). Since McPike is a known law enforcement official and Vinnie is deep undercover, McPike will often have Vinnie arrested on a trumped-up charge so that he can talk to Vinnie without revealing his identity. Frank has a troubled marriage. He separates from his wife after diverting some money recovered from a gangster to pay for a liver transplant for her.

Daniel Benjamin "Lifeguard" Burroughs[edit]

Lifeguard (Jim Byrnes), with whom Vinnie communicates almost exclusively by telephone, is Vinnie's other contact person. Vinnie (ideally) calls him every morning with the latest updates on the case, and Lifeguard provides him with quick updates. He also, under the name of "Mike Terranova", provides Vinnie with an emergency contact number (555-4958, a play on Vince's agent number), without revealing Vinnie's true identity. (The cover location is "Sailor Hardware"; the code phrase "Uncle Mike" indicates an emergency request for assistance.) Daniel is a double-leg amputee who uses a wheelchair, and on occasion prosthetic legs. Like McPike, Daniel is divorced as a result of his work; his ex-wife stays in close contact, apparently because Daniel has resources she wants, and Daniel endures this with resentment. Eventually he forms a relationship with OCB's West Coast Lifeguard operator when Vinnie's investigations take him to Washington State.

Michael Santana[edit]

Appears in season 4 only as the focal character in Terranova's absence, Santana (Steven Bauer) is a recently disbarred United States Attorney who becomes allies with McPike and the OCB.

Hillary Stein[edit]

Appears in season 4 only Stein (Cecil Hoffman) as Santana's fellow U.S. Attorney and love interest.

Episodes[edit]

Series overview[edit]

Season 1 (1987–88)[edit]

Season 2 (1988–89)[edit]

Season 3 (1989–90)[edit]

Season 4 (1990)[edit]

TV film[edit]

In 1996, ABC commissioned a reunion film with the possibility of a revival series in the works. Ken Wahl, Jonathan Banks, and Jim Byrnes all reprised their roles.

In order to explain the disappearance of Vinnie, a story was devised which effectively retconned the series and disregarded the events of season four. Following his desertion after witnessing Stem's suicide during the Volchek case in Washington state, as well as his problems with his stepfather, the FBI pulled Vinnie out of OCB and reassigned him to a wiretapping detail where he was still working at the time the film began.

Vinnie is ordered to infiltrate the organization of criminal boss Paul Callendar (Ted Levine). The movie had many of the same themes as the TV show, including Vinnie's constant conflict in betraying the people he had grown to care about.

Under the title of Wiseguy, the TV movie premiered on May 2, 1996. While the movie was a critical success, ABC aired it against NBC's Thursday night Must See TV lineup and it failed to draw many viewers.^{[citation needed]} In addition, Wahl suffered a broken neck in 1992 in a fall that left him temporarily quadriplegic and by the time the Wiseguy reunion was commissioned, he had been in near constant pain after he regained the use of his arms and legs and would likely not have been physically capable to take on the demands of the role. Thus, the movie was the last time the original Wiseguy cast appeared in their roles. The movie was rerun on Sleuth in 2008.

While never released on VHS or DVD in the United States, the movie was released overseas on Video CD (MagnaVision CW071-003001) but is no longer commercially available.

Home media/streaming/rebroadcast[edit]

In May 2009, Mill Creek Entertainment announced that they had acquired the rights to release Wiseguy on DVD in Region 1.^[75] They subsequently released the complete first season on August 25, 2009.^[76] On March 9, 2010, Mill Creek released Wiseguy: The Collector's Edition, a 13-disc set featuring 67 episodes from all four seasons. However, due to rights issues with the music contained in the show, the "Dead Dog Records" arc from Season 2 (eight of 22 episodes) is not included.^[77]

Beyond Home Entertainment has released all four seasons on DVD in Region 4, again without the "Dead Dog Records" arc episodes.

On August 12, 2022, Visual Entertainment released Wiseguy - The Complete Collection, a 14-disc set that features, for the first time on DVD, all 75 episodes of the series.^[78]

*omits the eight-episode "Dead Dog Records" arc

The first season became available on iTunes on April 28, 2008.

As of 2022, the series, except the "Dead Dog Records" arc, is available on Peacock and Tubi. Other streaming options include: Roku, Pluto, FILMRISE, freevee, and Amazon Prime.

As of 2022, the series is being rebroadcast on Circle and Ace TV. Circle is showing all 75 episodes, including the episodes in the "Dead Dog Records" arc. As of 2023, the series is being rebroadcast on Retro TV, also including the episodes in the "Dead Dog Records" arc.

Reception[edit]

In 1997 TV Guide ranked the episode "Blood Dance" number 14 on its "100 Greatest Episodes of All Time" list.^[79]

A 2008 Entertainment Weekly retrospective on "The 50 Biggest Emmy Snubs" (TV shows and performances regarded by the publication as deserving Emmy Awards which did not receive them) ranked Ray Sharkey in the role of Sonny Steelgrave as #26 and Kevin Spacey in the role of Mel Profitt as #44.^[80]

Awards[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Wiseguy at IMDb
• Wiseguy (1996 TV movie) at IMDb
• Wiseguy at epguides.com