Wiseguy

Synopsis

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.

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". 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

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, the 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 takes his own life 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.

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.

Season 2

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.

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.

Season 3

Vinnie declares himself the temporary head of the local Mafia commission (to Frank McPike's delight) in order to find out who ordered the hit on Don Aiuppo at the end of season 2. The Mafia upheaval sparks off a rivalry between Albert Cericco (Robert Davi) and Joey Grosset (John Snyder), whose father-in-law was killed in another recent hit. Amber cannot handle the strain of Vinnie being in this prolonged danger, and breaks up with him.

Don Aiuppo bugs a payphone outside his hospital room, thinking that the various Mafiosi visiting him will be using it just after taking their leave; in this way he overhears Grosset mentioning he ordered the two hits, and Vinnie contacting Uncle Mike. He tells Cericco about Grosset's guilt; Cericco murders Grosset, and is arrested by OCB. From prison Cericco negotiates with Grosset's widow Gina (Anne De Salvo) and Vinnie for them to sell a large shipment of cocaine he smuggled to the Mafia commission. This allows Frank to arrest the entire commission. Vinnie belatedly deduces that Aiuppo manipulated him into bringing down the commission and orchestrated Cericco's murder of Grosset in order to exact revenge on both; he blames Cericco for the Mafia operation in which his son was inadvertently killed. An outraged Vinnie tells Aiuppo that he wants nothing more to do with him. Aiuppo is left heartbroken, having already been renounced by Vinnie's mother, who blames him for Vinnie becoming associated with the Mafia again.

Vinnie is summoned to the Justice Department and put in charge of an investigation of Japanese yen counterfeiting. He is aware that he is being set up by the unscrupulous General Leland Masters (Norman Lloyd), who seeks payback for the shutdown of the Il Pavao operation, but plays along in hopes of collecting evidence against Masters. Masters aims to undermine the Japanese economy by printing large amounts of counterfeit yen and smuggling them into Japan on cargo aircraft. The author of the theory behind the conspiracy, Dr. Andrew Valenti, is murdered in what is made to look like a convenience store robbery, but the conspirators' cover is blown due to the assassin having used bullets loaded with curare. Vinnie is covertly photographed questioning reclusive millionaire Prescott Wilson (Ford Rainey), under whose name the theory was contracted. Wilson denies any involvement. When the counterfeit yen is seized en route, Vinnie and Wilson become the focus of an investigation, with the photos as incriminating evidence. Wilson delivers a string of insults against Masters in front of the investigating committee, which prompts Major Vernon Biggs (Stan Shaw) to confess to orchestrating the murder of Valenti at the orders of Admiral Walter Strichen (Stephen Joyce). Strichen then also starts insulting Masters, who loses his temper and shoots Strichen. Masters is arrested for murdering Strichen.

Season 4

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 disbarred United States Attorney named Michael Santana. Jonathan Banks and Jim Byrnes returned in their regular roles, and new addition Cecil Hoffman rounded out the cast. Latin style percussion and piano were dubbed onto the main theme. The series also found a new timeslot, moving to Saturday nights at 10:00 pm Eastern.

The fourth season was done as part of a realignment of CBS' prime time programming lineup that saw switches of other programming, along with some cancellations.

As the season begins, a now-bearded McPike has healed from the wounds he sustained the previous year, but Director Beckstead is looking to have him assume desk duty, believing he has lost his emotional objectivity with regard to Vinnie. Meanwhile, Lifeguard informs McPike that he has not heard from Vinnie in quite some time, leading McPike to pay a visit to his apartment.

Once there, Frank finds a somewhat normal scene. The TV is on in the living room, pasta is cooking on the stove in the kitchen, and the shower is running in the bathroom. However, nobody appears to be home. Investigating further, Frank notices that there is a white handprint on the apartment door, and comes to the conclusion that there had to be foul play involved; when he speaks to Lifeguard again, they both agree that Vinnie was abducted from his home.

Against the wishes of Beckstead, McPike sets off to try and locate Vinnie. His first stop is Vinnie's mother’s house, where Carlotta and Don Aiuppo inform Frank that one of their neighbors, a Jesuit, was murdered by the death squad Mano Blanca in El Salvador. and Vinnie was assisting the family in finding answers. Just before he disappeared, Vinnie made contact with Michael Santana, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida who handled the case that established Vinnie's cover; Frank travels to Miami to try and make contact with Santana.

However, Santana has also found himself in trouble. He recently took down Cuban drug lord Jose Martinez-Gacha, but got the information he needed to arrest him through coercion. To further complicate matters, Santana also covered up his actions regarding the apprehending of the drug lord; when the cover up emerges, Santana is removed from his position and disbarred. After meeting with McPike, Santana initially denies knowing what Vinnie was up to.

Cancellation

The fourth season of Wiseguy debuted in November 1990 to significantly lower ratings than it had achieved in the three prior seasons; this was attributed to the move to Saturdays, which typically was not a very highly rated night of television at the time. CBS announced that production would be indefinitely suspended after eleven episodes for the season had been produced; the eighth of these eleven episodes aired on December 8, 1990. After a two week hiatus, CBS announced that it was cancelling Wiseguy and removing it from the schedule immediately. The remaining three episodes never aired.

The program was never the strongest ratings draw, despite the positive feedback from critics. Discussing Wiseguy in retrospect, critic Matt Zoller Seitz said that the dense, long-form narrative which drew critical praise also kept the show from drawing a large viewership. 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.

Non-arc episodes

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

While Vinnie is recovering from observing Sonny Steelgrave's suicide, he learns of a contract on the life of a childhood friend who works at Brooklyn Borough Hall. Unable to get his friends at OCB to intervene, he takes matters into his own hands to bring the assassin down including asking help from a new friend he makes in a support group for previously "damaged" agents.

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. When the OCB come to arrest him at his wedding for being in the country illegally, Aiuppo switches places with his recently reconciled (and dead-ringer) brother, who is deported to Italy, while Aiuppo and Carlotta goes on their honeymoon.

Frank's wife Jenny 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.

Vinnie has his broken leg from the beginning of the Garment Center storyline healed in a local hospital, where disgraced former OCB chief Daryl Elias (John M. Jackson) is in the mental ward. Elias edits Vinnie's status for being there into that of a violently unstable patient into hospital records. Vinnie is committed when he tries to check out after his physical exam. Through a series of hallucinations of Sonny Steelgrave, Vinnie resolves his guilt issues, retains his sanity and brings Elias and the hospital's mental ward staff down for committing him..

Vinnie, Frank, and Lifeguard go on a camping weekend, but Lifeguard has his daughter's marriage on his mind. This is not 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.

After the "Mafia Wars" arc, Vinnie tries to patch things up with Amber Twine. At the suggestion of a psychiatrist, they practice chastity while staying at Lifeguard's cabin. However, even in this context Amber cannot give up the music business, and Vinnie realizes that he in turn cannot give up being an undercover agent, so they amicably break up again. This sequence features a cameo by blues harp player Kim Wilson and his band, The Fabulous Thunderbirds.

Main characters

Vincent Terranova

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

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

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

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

Hillary Stein

Appearing only in season 4, Hillary Stein (Cecil Hoffman) is Santana's fellow U.S. Attorney and love interest.

Production

Conception and writing

The series was created by Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo, who had previously co-created The A-Team, Riptide, and Hunter. Though Joseph D. Pistone's book Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia is sometimes cited as an inspiration for the series, it was not published until 1988, when the series premiered in September 1987.

David J. Burke was the supervising producer and showrunner for the first three seasons. Peter Lance was the showrunner for the fourth season.

Filming locations

The first three seasons of Wiseguy were shot in and around Vancouver, British Columbia. It was one of the first American television shows (concurrent to 21 Jump Street, also produced by Stephen J. Cannell) that embraced filming in "Hollywood North" to exploit lower production costs. North Shore Studios in North Vancouver, originally constructed for the filming 21 Jump Street, was the home of the series for much of its run.

Following the fourth season retool, filming moved to Miami, Florida.

Episodes

1996 Follow Up TV film

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. 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

In May 2009, Mill Creek Entertainment announced that they had acquired the rights to release Wiseguy on DVD in Region 1. They subsequently released the complete first season on August 25, 2009. 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 (seven of 22 episodes) is not included.

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.

*Omits the seven-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 inclufing "Dead Dog Records" but not Season 4. 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

Critical response

Wiseguy has been cited alongside its contemporary Crime Story as breaking ground for the lengthy crime stories which thrived on television during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

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

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.