season 1 - Latest News & Reviews

SummaryHow does a deep-cover operative keep his sanity and morality intact when the criminal lifestyle he’s sworn to bring down from within is more compelling than his own? Federal Agent Vincent Terranova (Ken Wahl) is plagued by the question in this innovative take on 80’s cop dramas. Created by veteran hit producer Steven J Cannell, Wiseguy veers from... Read More

Created By:Stephen J. Cannell, Frank Lupo

❮ Wiseguy

Season 1

Season Premiere:

Sep 16, 1987

Metascore

Mixed or Average

Based on 7 Critic Reviews

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Available after 4 ratings

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Episode 1 • Sep 16, 1987 • 100 m

Pilot

FBI Agent Vinnie serves 18 months in prison to establish cover to infiltrate the Mob. He impresses the crime boss and earns himself a job, opening the door to access the mafia's highest echelons.

Episode 2 • Sep 24, 1987 • 46 m

New Blood

In an attempt to take over Sonny Steelgrave's business, mob head Paul Patrice frames Sonny for several murder attempts he makes on the life of the special prosecutor investigating Sonny.

Episode 3 • Oct 1, 1987 • 48 m

The Loose Cannon

Vinnie's girlfriend, a police widow, knows he is a cop; his biggest threat comes from Sonny's unbalanced nephew.

Episode 4 • Oct 8, 1987 • 48 m

The Birthday Surprise

When Vinnie's young cousin, a boxer, is found dead of an apparent drug overdose, Vinnie jeopardizes his cover by going to "legals" -- the coroner, the homicide cops -- to get them moving on what he knows was a murder.

Episode 5 • Oct 15, 1987 • 48 m

One on One

When the local cops put the heat on Sonny Steelgrave and bust up several of his secret deals, he smells a rat in the inner circle and Vinnie finds himself the number one suspect.

Episode 6 • Oct 22, 1987 • 48 m

The Prodigal Son

After his mother is mugged in Brooklyn, an enraged Vinnie sets out to find the punk who did it, but when he visits his mother in the hospital, it breaks his heart that she still won't forgive him for his life of "crime."

Episode 7 • Oct 29, 1987 • 49 m

A Deal's a Deal

Sonny's cruel punishment of a lounge singer who wants out of his contract triggers a cascade of events that leads to Vinnie's being photographed with McPike -- a photo that is to be delivered to Sonny.

Episode 8 • Nov 5, 1987 • 49 m

The Marriage of Heaven & Hell

Sonny's impending marriage to a syndicate boss' daughter begins a supposedly businesslike realignment of "families, " but Vinnie learns that the wedding is a pretext for a bloody gang war.

Episode 9 • Nov 12, 1987 • 48 m

No One Gets Out of Here Alive

An outraged Sonny Steelgrave accuses Vinnie of betraying him to his arch-rival, then realizes the devastating truth--that his paisan is an undercover federal agent.

Episode 10 • Nov 19, 1987 • 47 m

Last Rites for Lucci

In the aftermath of the Steelgrave case, Vinnie tries to vindicate himself of his lingering feelings of betrayal and disloyalty by risking his life to save an old friend from the Brooklyn neighborhood who has a contract out on him.

Episode 11 • Jan 4, 1988 • 49 m

Independent Operator

Vinnie's assignment to check out a contract killer leads him into a huge global contraband syndicate -- an operation that far exceeds the scope of the Steelgrave family -- overlorded by brother and sister Mel and Susan Profitt.

Episode 12 • Jan 11, 1988 • 49 m

Fascination for the Flame

Vinnie, now a bodyguard for the Profitts, gets his first trial by fire when Mel Profitt, the brilliant but paranoid overlord of an international crime empire, disrupts the wedding of an associate, who retaliates by kidnapping Susan.

Episode 13 • Jan 18, 1988 • 48 m

Smokey Mountain Requiem

Vinnie tells Mel Profitt he is leaving to go home to New Jersey, but Mel offers him the biggest cocaine distribution network in the country -- a plum that Vinnie feels is too juicy for any undercover cop to turn down.

Episode 14 • Jan 25, 1988 • 48 m

Player to Be Named Now

Mel Profitt uses a former girlfriend as a sexual pawn in a power game with a rival to gain ownership of a basketball team.

Episode 15 • Feb 1, 1988 • 49 m

The Merchant of Death

Vinnie retrieves secret records that enable Mel Profitt to blackmail a French official into buying munitions.

Episode 16 • Feb 8, 1988 • 48 m

Not for Nothing

Small-time hood Aldo Baglia notices a photo of Vinnie in a newspaper, and tracks him down and shoots him for revenge.

Episode 17 • Feb 15, 1988 • 49 m

Squeeze

When Mel Profitt's armaments deals go sour, he sends Vinnie back East to set up a narcotics import distribution deal with the mob.

Episode 18 • Feb 22, 1988 • 48 m

Blood Dance

After rejecting an offer to finance a coup d'etat in the Caribbean, Mel Profitt becomes obsessed with a supposed voodoo death curse, and Vinnie, horrified, can only watch as Mel's personality begins to disintegrate.

Episode 19 • Mar 14, 1988 • 48 m

Phantom Pain

After Susan is arrested for Mel's murder, Vinnie refuses McPike's order to pull out of the Profitt case, because Susan, who has seemingly lost her grip on reality, has told him she is pregnant with his child.

Episode 20 • Mar 21, 1988 • 49 m

Dirty Little Wars

With Mel and Susan Profitt undone, McPike begins dismantling their empire, but Vinnie demands to stay on the case to get to the bottom of Roger Lococco's ties to a rogue CIA operation to stage a Caribbean coup d'etat.

Episode 21 • Mar 28, 1988 • 48 m

Date with an Angel

Critic Reviews

View All

Metascore

Mixed or Average

Based on 7 Critic Reviews

43% Positive
3 Reviews

29% Mixed
2 Reviews

29% Negative
2 Reviews

Jul 12, 2013

Had something special about it from the start: the mood, the writing, the acting. All the great series establish a mis-en-scene, a special environment that you can cut with a knife. I felt I was in a different place watching "Wiseguy." [30 May 1988]

Feb 5, 2014

It's a simple idea with deceptively intriguing permutations. Plus, it's extremely well- made, to boot -- if, occasionally, inevitably, cliche-crazed. But hey -- it is TV. [16 Sept 1987, p.D1]

Feb 5, 2014

Coming from Cannell, Wiseguy is, of course, all sweat and swagger, bullets and babes, breeziness and bravado. Men's bowling teams are advised to schedule their nights around this one.[16 Sept 1987, p.7C]

Feb 5, 2014

Mr. Wahl has the kind of brooding good looks that could attract ratings - that is, if the public is ready for still another blood-and-guts romp on television.

Feb 5, 2014

The cliches just keep on coming, from crooked cops to a mobster's innocent daughter in law school (at UCLA, no less) to those great, great lines: "Come on, Sonny, let's go. [16 Sept 1987, p.F-9]

Feb 5, 2014

The notion that a two-bit pug with Geraldo Rivera's swagger could work his way into the highest echelons of organized crime is absurd, but consistent with the rest of the story. It's a tossup which has more holes, the plot or the bodies that pile up here in one of those all-purpose, everyone-gets-blown-away-who-deserves-to-get-blown-away endings...With any luck, this show is history.

Feb 5, 2014

Wiseguy deposits blank-faced lump Ken Wahl onto the screen for a preposterous and desultory crime saga about a sullen undercover cop who infiltrates the mob and will spend each episode almost getting found out, but miraculously squeaking through. [16 Sept 1987, p.D1]