.gif)
Crime Story (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Crime Story is an NBC
TV drama created by Gustave Reininger
and Chuck Adamson
. The executive producer was Michael Mann
, who had left Miami Vice
to oversee Crime Story and direct the film Manhunter
. The show premiered with a two hour pilot — a movie which had been exhibited theatrically — and was watched by over 30 million viewers. It was then scheduled to follow Miami Vice on Friday nights, and continued to attract a record number of viewers. NBC then moved the show to Tuesdays at 10 pm opposite ABC's Moonlighting
, hurting its ratings to the point that NBC ordered its cancellation after only two seasons.
Set in the early, pre-Beatles
1960s, the series depicted two men — Lt. Mike Torello (Dennis Farina
) and mobster Ray Luca (Anthony Denison
) — with an obsessive drive to destroy each other. As Luca started with street crime in Chicago, was "made
" in the Chicago Outfit
and then sent to Las Vegas
to monitor their casinos, Torello pursued Luca as head of a special Organized Crime Strike Force. The show attracted both acclaim and controversy for its serialized format, in which a continuing storyline was told over an entire season, rather than being episodic, as was normal with shows at the time (including Miami Vice).
The first season ended with Ray Luca and Pauli Taglia on the lam, hiding from Torello in a Nevada
desert shack, which is located in an Atomic Bomb test area. An A-Bomb explodes, presumably obliterating Luca and Taglia, in one of the most memorable cliffhangers in television history, leaving viewers wondering whether they were dead or alive - just as the show's creators were wondering if the series itself was dead or alive with NBC.
Season One follows Chicago Police detective Lt. Mike Torello (Dennis Farina
) and his pursuit of organized crime from Chicago to Las Vegas, circa 1963-64. At the beginning of the series Torello is the head of the Major Crimes Unit (MCU), a squad of hard-boiled cops that includes Sgt. Danny Krychek (Bill Smitrovich
), Det. Walter Clemmons (Paul Butler
), Det. Nate Grossman (Steve Ryan
) and Det. Joey Indelli (Bill Campbell).
At the center of Torello's crosshairs is rising young mobster Ray Luca (Anthony Denison
). Initially Luca is an independent thief and killer whose crew, which includes Pauli Taglia (John Santucci) and Frank Holman (Ted Levine
), specializes in robberies, burglaries and home invasions. Through his connection to Chicago crime boss Phil Bartoli (Jon Polito
), Luca catches the attention of national crime figure Manny Weisbord (Joseph Wiseman
), a character inspired by the legendary gangster Meyer Lansky. Luca impresses Weisbord with his desire to leave the streets and move up in the management ranks of organized crime. He assigns one of his men, Max Goldman (Andrew Dice Clay
), to be a middleman between himself and Luca.
Luca tells Weisbord and Bartoli of his plan to take over the Las Vegas bookmaking operation of Noah Ganz (Raymond Serra
). He is told to negotiate a deal, but instead instigates the theft of Ganz's gambling book. However, this backfires when Torello gets wind of it and catches Frank Holman in the act, which results in the book falling into the hands of MCU. When a crime war threatens to break out with Ganz's organization, Weisbord and Bartoli order Luca to clean up his mess. In typical fashion Luca solves the problem by massacring Ganz and his thugs.
Torello finally manages to get a solid murder indictment against Luca. Meanwhile, Holman, who escaped custody only to be hunted down again, has made a deal with U.S. attorney Harry Breitel (Ray Sharkey
) to provide information about the mob in exchange for immunity. Among his lies is a made-up story that he paid off Chicago cop Mike Torello. The murders of Ted Kehoe, a childhood friend of Torello who has ties to the organization, and his associate Marilyn Stewart, convince Breitel to take Luca, Taglia and Bartoli to trial. Torello finds himself being investigated by Breitel and the feds for corruption, based primarily on the testimony of Holman.
At a bar Luca casually asks straight-laced public prosecutor David Abrams (Stephen Lang
), whose father once had mob connections, for advice. That advice leads Luca to subpoena Torello to testify for the defense at his trial. Abrams is furious when he discovers the result of his conversation with Luca, who has also tried to convince Abrams to work for him. When Luca learns that Abrams is applying for a job as a Justice Dept attorney, he worries that Abrams will now come after him. He orders Abrams killed -- but by mistake the car bomb intended for the lawyer kills Abrams's father instead.
Manny Weisbord, in the meantime, is planning to relocate the majority of his organization to Las Vegas, with interest in having a legitimate business that will provide future profits. To this end, he has called upon the services of casino board member Steve Kordo (Jay O. Sanders
), who is looking to sell his plans to the highest bidder. Phil Bartoli, along with some of the other Organization members, express disinterest, as they are more concerned with immediate profits than the future. Weisbord sends Ray Luca to Las Vegas with the assignment of taking over the casinos. Luca takes along his dim-witted but brutally violent sidekick Taglia to be his muscle. First, though, he murders Bartoli and all those opposed to the relocation.
With Abrams help, Torello's reputation is compared to Holman's, destroying any credibility he has as a witness. The corruption investigation against Torello is dropped and federal prosecutor Breitel is taken off of the case. Unfortunately, the case Torello has built against Luca has been destroyed by Breitel's interfrence. Justice Dept Assistant Attorney Gen Patrick Hallahan (Jann Wenner
) offers Torello the chance to head up a new federal Organized Crime Strike Force to root out mob activities in Las Vegas. To assist him on the legalities side he will be aided by Justice Dept attorney David Abrams.
In Vegas, Ray Luca sets about a takeover of the casinos in his usual violent, thuggish manner, which includes the murder of the resort-workers union leader and a federal agent planted by the Strike Force. When Frank Holman resurfaces, Luca makes him sorry for bringing him to trial, before hiring him on again as a casino manager. Luca soon becomes so drunk with his own sense of power and invincibility that he alienates those around him. Steve Kordo in particular is worried, as Luca's actions are veering away from the legitimate plans he had and strengthening the Strike Force's case.
Torello and Abrams finally get enough proof of skimmed profits and rigged games to rescind Luca's gaming license and bar him from entering any and all casinos. Infuriated, he impulsively goes after Goldman, whose wife he had been sleeping with (among other women); he sends Holman to try and kill Goldman with a car bomb, but Goldman survives. When Luca (still seething from being banned from his own casino) brutally rapes Pauli Taglia's girlfriend, a distraught Taglia turns against his boss and implicates Luca in the union leader's killing to Torello's Strike Force, just as Luca gets the ban on his license lifted. Luca goes on trial for multiple murders, but cleverly orchestrates a mistrial by having Holman tamper with the jury and making sure the judge learns of it. Luca is then released on bail pending a new trial. He apologizes to Pauli, who forgives him out of loyalty, though it is an agonizing decision since it means abandoning the one person who was genuinely decent towards him.
Luca tries to force casino owner Nat Martino to sell out his interest, but Martino's refusal threatens a mob war. Weisbord orders Luca to make peace, but instead the hot-headed Luca murders Martino. Torello and his men witness the killing, and a gunfight ensues. Luca is pursued through the streets of Vegas, he and Torello shooting each other several times, before being rescued by Pauli. The wounded Luca wakes up in an isolated desert shack thinking he is safe, only to discover that Taglia has brought them to a restricted government nuclear test area. The season ends with an A-bomb being exploded on site, presumably obliterating Luca and Taglia as they attempt to escape.
SEASON TWO
In Season Two, Torello and his cops are shocked when Ray Luca and Pauli Taglia reappear in Las Vegas alive and well... and even more shocked to learn that the U.S. government has made a secret deal with Luca and given him immunity in exchange for his cooperation. Assistant Attorney General Hallahan tells Torello that elements within the government have made a marriage of convenience for their own political agenda. If they continue their pursuit of Luca, they will be operating without official sanction and he warns them to be careful.
Despite Luca's outward appearance of propriety, Torello is convinced the gangster chieftain is anything but. When the Strike Force puts him under surveillance, Luca goes to court to get a restraining order. Attorney David Abrams argues that Luca's history of violence justifies the surveillance, but his personal vendetta against Luca for his father's death becomes obvious, and the judge grants the injunction.
Torello and his men aren't the only ones angered by Luca's return to Las Vegas. His abrupt reappearance doesn't sit well with Max Goldman and Steve Kordo, now casino managers. In Luca's absence they now run the mob's Vegas casino interests, and despite Luca's assurances that he has no intention of pushing them out, they feel threatened. Publicly they welcome him back with open smiles, but privately they begin to plot against him. Kordo tries to hire a hitman (William Hanhardt) to kill Luca, but is warned that the Outfit wants Luca alive because he is too valuable to its operations.
David Abrams is so embittered by the failure of the justice system he believes in that he resigns from the Justice Dept. Though he says he is leaving Las Vegas, Torello discovers he actually intends to kill Luca. Torello and Krychek rush to Luca's house just in time to prevent the killing. Luca thanks Torello, but the cop says he did it for Abrams.
Abrams descends into a haze of alcohol and drugs. Luca finds him high on peyote and tells him it was Chicago crime boss Phil Bartoli who ordered the hit on him that accidentally killed Abrams's father. He tells Abrams he was born to be part of the Outfit and offers him a job as his personal lawyer if he ever wants to clean himself up. Soon after, to the Strike Force's disbelief, Abrams shows up at Luca's door and takes the job.
When Manny Weisbord is stricken by a heart attack and lies near death, Luca flies an internationally known South African surgeon to Las Vegas to secretly perform the first heart transplant -- with a heart from a murder victim supplied by Pauli. With Weisbord lying near death, Goldman and Kordo meet to discuss their uncertain future. Concerned Luca will take them both out if the old man dies, Goldman argues for killing Luca preemptively and insists Kordo is the only one who can get close enough to do it.
What they don't know is that Torello's men have them wired and have overheard their plot. Torello tells Goldman that Weisbord is now expected to live, which means any hit on Luca is a bad idea. Goldman races to Luca's penthouse and throws Kordo out a window before he can shoot Luca. Afterward, Torello makes it clear that he now expects Goldman to be his snitch.
The murder of a reporter writing a story about Luca leads the Strike Force to discover the truth about Luca's secret activities. Luca has made a deal with the U.S. military to smuggle weapons out of the country to revolutionary causes the government secretly supports. In exchange, the military turns a blind eye to the fact that Luca is smuggling narcotics into the U.S. from Mexico and Asia.
With this evidence, Hallahan convinces Congress to convene hearings to investigate the unholy alliance between the U.S. government and organized crime. But just as Luca is testifying, the hearings are adjourned because of a national emergency: North Vietnam has attacked a U.S. warship in the Gulf of Tonkin. Hallahan gets a warrant for Luca's arrest anyway, but Luca flees the country with Pauli Taglia and Goldman before it can be served, headed for Latin America. Hallahan gives Torello's Strike Force his blessing to pursue Luca onto foreign soil, but warns that outside the U.S. their badges will mean nothing.
In a small banana republic, Luca sets up a new base of operations for his international criminal empire, buying off politicians, military and police with the mob's money. Unable to have Luca extradited, the Strike Force attacks Luca's drug lab in the jungle. Furious at Torello's interference once again, Luca orders the president to have him arrested. The president refuses -- and Luca promptly shoots him dead and installs a new president better to his liking.
In a confrontation between the Strike Force and the police, Krychek is captured and thrown into a hellhole of a prison. Torello and the others stage a rescue. Luca decides to rid himself of this thorn in his side once and for all, and orders Torello killed.
In the dead of night Torello meets with his secret source inside Luca's organization: it is David Abrams, whose sellout to Luca has all been an act. Abrams warns Torello about the planned hit and also reveals the location of a major drug shipment. When the Strike Force captures the narcotics, Luca concludes that Abrams is an informant. He offers to trade Abrams to Torello for the shipment. The trade is made -- but Torello's men have planted explosives on the drugs, and the shipment is blown up.
An assassin attempts to kill Torello, but Abrams is badly wounded instead. While Clemmons and Indelli race Abrams to a doctor, Torello and the others pursue Luca to an airfield, where he, Taglia and Goldman are about to leave the country. Torello, Krychek and Grossman manage to board the plane as it is taking off. In the ensuing airborne fight, Taglia shoots the pilot, causing the plane to plummet into the ocean below. The final shot is an explosion of waves caused by the plane's impact, with the fate of the cops and criminals unknown.
Unfortunately, the show was canceled after this season, ending on yet another cliffhanger.
to produce another show. Originally, Universal Pictures
was going to finance Crime Story but decided against it because of the projected costs (Miami Vice, a Universal show, was already being produced for higher than the average $1 million per episode rate). A small studio called New World Pictures Ltd. agreed to finance the show, with a chance to sell it overseas while Universal retained the domestic syndication rights.
According to Mann, the genesis of the project was to follow a group of police officers in a major crimes unit in 1963 and how they change over 20 hours of television, "in 1980, with very different occupations, in a different city and in a different time". He was influenced by the television series Police Story, and based Crime Story largely on the experiences of Chuck Adamson, a former Chicago police detective of 17 years. Mann asked Adamson and Gustave Reininger to write the series pilot and a show bible. Reininger was a former Wall Street
international investment banker who had come to Mann's attention based on a screenplay
he had written about arson
investigators, and a French film that he had written and produced. Reininger researched Crime Story by winning the confidence of Detective William Hanhardt, who put him in touch with undercover
officers in Chicago. They sent him on meetings with organized crime
figures. Reininger risked wearing a body microphone
and recorder. After visiting the crime scene of a gruesome gangland slaying of bookmaker Al Brown, Reininger backed off his Mob interviews. Adamson claimed that the stories depicted in the series were composites rather than actual events that happened, "but they'll be accurate".
In a June 1986 press conference, Mann said that the first season of the show would go from Chicago in 1963 to Las Vegas in 1980. He said, "It's a serial in the sense that we have continuing stories, and in that sense the show is one big novel". Mann and Reininger's inspiration for the 1963-1980 arc came from their mutual admiration of the epic 15+ hour film, Berlin Alexanderplatz
, by German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder
. Mann said, "The pace of our story is like the speed of light compared to that, but that's the idea — if you put it all together at the end you've got one hell of a 22-hour movie". Mann predicted a five-year network run for the show. However, due to budgetary constraints (the need for four sets of period cars proved to be too expensive). Tartikoff eventually allowed their series to move to Las Vegas for the last quarter of the 22 episodes.
NBC head Brandon Tartikoff
(who had started his career in Chicago) gave an order for a two-hour movie, which had a theatrical release in a handful of U.S. theaters to invited guests only. Tartikoff also ordered 22 episode
s which allowed Reininger and Adamson to tell a story with developing character arcs, and continuing stories (instead of episodic, self standing shows.). Two episodes were made every three weeks, with shooting taking up more than 12 hours in a day, seven days a week. By the second season, an average episode cost between $1.3 and 1.4 million (roughly the same as Miami Vice) because it was shot on location, set during the 1960s (requiring period-accurate props and costumes), and featured a large cast.
Hilda Stark worked as an art director on the pilot episode and was asked back by Mann after seven episodes to become the show's production designer. To achieve the period look of the show, she and her design team would go to second-hand and antique stores, run advertisements in newspapers seeking articles from the period, and sometimes build furniture if they could not find it. According to Stark, the overall design or look of the show featured "a lot of exaggerated lines. We go for high style — sleek lines... We go for the exaggerated shapes that recall the era". Stark and her team also came up with a color scheme for the show that featured "saturated color, and certain combinations — black, fuchsias — reminiscent of the '50s". She found inspiration from a library of old books and magazines, in particular Life
. For the vintage cars in the show, they bought or rented from private owners.
Two famous rock and roll musicians of the past contributed to Crime Story: Del Shannon
sang a revised version of his hit "Runaway
" as the theme song, and Todd Rundgren
started the musical direction of the series, with Al Kooper
taking over as the series musical director. While early episodes played music of the era or earlier, Kooper later allowed tunes from years after 1963 to appear on the soundtrack.
, Bill Smitrovich
, and John Santucci all appeared in multiple episodes of Miami Vice (though only Farina played a recurring character).
dipped when it was counter-programmed against ABC's Moonlighting. By October, the show dropped below a 22 Nielsen share, where a series is deemed a "failure". Despite low ratings, Crime Story was picked up by NBC to finish the
1986-87 season. This prompted the network
to move the show to Friday nights after Miami Vice on December 5, 1986 where its ratings improved but it still lost to Falcon Crest
. NBC
temporarily pulled Crime Story off the schedule on March 13, 1987. In order to get more people to watch, Farina
and other cast members promoted the show in five U.S. cities.
The New York Times
wrote, "With its first-rate cast, Crime Story might have had the offbeat, compelling authenticity of an Elmore Leonard
novel. But the show looks suspiciously as if it would be more than willing to settle for the mindless glitz of Miami Vice". In his review for the Washington Post, Tom Shales wrote, "When the smoke clears away, a viewer may feel impressed yet unmoved. But then, if all the smoke cleared away, there'd be no show". John Haslett Cuff, in his review for the Globe and Mail, wrote, "The characters and locales are as greasy as the rain-soaked streets, and in the show's best moments there is a dangerous glitter that happily transcends the cartoon violence of too much television". Time
magazine's Richard Zoglin praised the show for being "the most realistic TV cop show in years, yet the emotions reach almost baroque heights".
were the prototypes for today's arc-driven television series, such as 24
and The Sopranos
that have continuing story lines over multiple episodes.
In addition, Martin Scorsese
directed and produced his movie Casino
loosely basing it on elements of Crime Story, which was recognized at the "Casino" premiere as an inspiration. Joe Pesci
played the Spilotro character. With Spilotro dead, Casino writer Nick Pileggi was able tell much more of the details surrounding the Chicago "Outfit" and its Casino operations in Las Vegas.
After the first season, the show was nominated for three Emmys, all in technical categories.
On November 15, 2011, Image Entertainment
will release Crime Story- The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary Edition on DVD in Region 1. The 3-disc set will contain all 44 episodes of the series.
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
TV drama created by Gustave Reininger
Gustave Reininger
Gustave Reininger is the co-creator of the NBC TV drama, Crime Story. It was executive produced by Michael Mann. Crime Story was based on the Mafia in Chicago,"The Outfit," and how it got off the streets and into the boardrooms of Las Vegas casinos. The show premiered with a two hour pilot - movie,...
and Chuck Adamson
Chuck Adamson
Charles Fredrick "Chuck" Adamson was an American retired police officer who became a television producer and screen writer. He was best known for creating the television crime drama Crime Story, for which he won a People's Choice Award, and for writing episodes of Miami Vice...
. The executive producer was Michael Mann
Michael Mann (film director)
Michael Kenneth Mann is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. For his work, he has received nominations from international organizations and juries, including those at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Cannes and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
, who had left Miami Vice
Miami Vice
Miami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...
to oversee Crime Story and direct the film Manhunter
Manhunter
Manhunter may refer to:*Manhunter , a 1986 film based on the novel Red Dragon*Manhunter , the name of numerous superheroes and villains from DC Comics**Manhunter , one such character...
. The show premiered with a two hour pilot — a movie which had been exhibited theatrically — and was watched by over 30 million viewers. It was then scheduled to follow Miami Vice on Friday nights, and continued to attract a record number of viewers. NBC then moved the show to Tuesdays at 10 pm opposite ABC's Moonlighting
Moonlighting (TV series)
Moonlighting is an American television series that aired on ABC from March 3, 1985, to May 14, 1989. The network aired a total of 66 episodes...
, hurting its ratings to the point that NBC ordered its cancellation after only two seasons.
Set in the early, pre-Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
1960s, the series depicted two men — Lt. Mike Torello (Dennis Farina
Dennis Farina
Dennis Farina is an American actor of film and television and former Chicago police officer. He is a character actor, often typecast as a mobster or police officer. His most known film roles are those of mobster Jimmy Serrano in the comedy Midnight Run and Ray "Bones" Barboni in Get Shorty...
) and mobster Ray Luca (Anthony Denison
Anthony Denison
Anthony John Sarrero , also known by his stage name Anthony Denison, is an American actor. The eldest of three, he was born and raised in New York City's Harlem. Before acting he worked for John Hancock Insurance as a life insurance agent in Poughkeepsie, New York...
) — with an obsessive drive to destroy each other. As Luca started with street crime in Chicago, was "made
Made man
A made man, also known as a Mafioso , made guy, man of honor, or uomo d'onore , is someone who has been officially inducted into the Sicilian or American Mafia . They may also be referred to by some as a goodfella or wiseguy...
" in the Chicago Outfit
Chicago Outfit
The Chicago Outfit, also known as the Chicago Syndicate or Chicago Mob and sometimes shortened to simply the Outfit, is a crime syndicate based in Chicago, Illinois, USA...
and then sent to Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
to monitor their casinos, Torello pursued Luca as head of a special Organized Crime Strike Force. The show attracted both acclaim and controversy for its serialized format, in which a continuing storyline was told over an entire season, rather than being episodic, as was normal with shows at the time (including Miami Vice).
The first season ended with Ray Luca and Pauli Taglia on the lam, hiding from Torello in a Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
desert shack, which is located in an Atomic Bomb test area. An A-Bomb explodes, presumably obliterating Luca and Taglia, in one of the most memorable cliffhangers in television history, leaving viewers wondering whether they were dead or alive - just as the show's creators were wondering if the series itself was dead or alive with NBC.
Plot
SEASON ONESeason One follows Chicago Police detective Lt. Mike Torello (Dennis Farina
Dennis Farina
Dennis Farina is an American actor of film and television and former Chicago police officer. He is a character actor, often typecast as a mobster or police officer. His most known film roles are those of mobster Jimmy Serrano in the comedy Midnight Run and Ray "Bones" Barboni in Get Shorty...
) and his pursuit of organized crime from Chicago to Las Vegas, circa 1963-64. At the beginning of the series Torello is the head of the Major Crimes Unit (MCU), a squad of hard-boiled cops that includes Sgt. Danny Krychek (Bill Smitrovich
Bill Smitrovich
-Personal life:Bill Smitrovich was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Anna and Stanley William Zmitrowicz, a tool and die maker. Bill is a graduate of the University of Bridgeport and holds an MFA from Smith College . He is married to Shaw Purnell from Pittsburgh, PA...
), Det. Walter Clemmons (Paul Butler
Paul Butler
Paul Butler may refer to:* Paul Butler , actor in Crime Story * Paul Butler , Canadian artist* Paul Butler , British-born Canadian novelist...
), Det. Nate Grossman (Steve Ryan
Steve Ryan
Steve Ryan was an American actor.He was best known for his recurring role on the Fox sitcom, Arrested Development, as J. Walter Weatherman. Some of his other roles included "Detective Nate Grossman" on the NBC Police series Crime Story and his role as "Bobick" on Daddio.Notable recurring roles...
) and Det. Joey Indelli (Bill Campbell).
At the center of Torello's crosshairs is rising young mobster Ray Luca (Anthony Denison
Anthony Denison
Anthony John Sarrero , also known by his stage name Anthony Denison, is an American actor. The eldest of three, he was born and raised in New York City's Harlem. Before acting he worked for John Hancock Insurance as a life insurance agent in Poughkeepsie, New York...
). Initially Luca is an independent thief and killer whose crew, which includes Pauli Taglia (John Santucci) and Frank Holman (Ted Levine
Ted Levine
Frank Theodore "Ted" Levine is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs and Captain Leland Stottlemeyer in the television series Monk.-Early life and career:...
), specializes in robberies, burglaries and home invasions. Through his connection to Chicago crime boss Phil Bartoli (Jon Polito
Jon Polito
Jon Polito is an American actor and voice artist, who is known for working with the Coen Brothers, most notably in the major supporting role of Italian gangster Johnny Caspar in Miller's Crossing. He also appeared in the first two seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street and on the first season of...
), Luca catches the attention of national crime figure Manny Weisbord (Joseph Wiseman
Joseph Wiseman
Joseph Wiseman was a Canadian theater and film actor, best known for starring as the titular antagonist of the first James Bond film, Dr. No, his role as Manny Weisbord on Crime Story, and his career on Broadway...
), a character inspired by the legendary gangster Meyer Lansky. Luca impresses Weisbord with his desire to leave the streets and move up in the management ranks of organized crime. He assigns one of his men, Max Goldman (Andrew Dice Clay
Andrew Dice Clay
Andrew Dice Clay is an American comedian and actor who played the lead role in the film The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.Clay has been in several movies and has released a number of stand-up albums...
), to be a middleman between himself and Luca.
Luca tells Weisbord and Bartoli of his plan to take over the Las Vegas bookmaking operation of Noah Ganz (Raymond Serra
Raymond Serra
Raymond Serra was a character actor known for his many supporting roles in film and television over a 30 year career.-Films:* Gotti...
). He is told to negotiate a deal, but instead instigates the theft of Ganz's gambling book. However, this backfires when Torello gets wind of it and catches Frank Holman in the act, which results in the book falling into the hands of MCU. When a crime war threatens to break out with Ganz's organization, Weisbord and Bartoli order Luca to clean up his mess. In typical fashion Luca solves the problem by massacring Ganz and his thugs.
Torello finally manages to get a solid murder indictment against Luca. Meanwhile, Holman, who escaped custody only to be hunted down again, has made a deal with U.S. attorney Harry Breitel (Ray Sharkey
Ray Sharkey
Raymond "Ray" Sharkey, Jr. was an American actor best known for his role as Sonny Steelgrave in the television series Wiseguy.-Early life and career:...
) to provide information about the mob in exchange for immunity. Among his lies is a made-up story that he paid off Chicago cop Mike Torello. The murders of Ted Kehoe, a childhood friend of Torello who has ties to the organization, and his associate Marilyn Stewart, convince Breitel to take Luca, Taglia and Bartoli to trial. Torello finds himself being investigated by Breitel and the feds for corruption, based primarily on the testimony of Holman.
At a bar Luca casually asks straight-laced public prosecutor David Abrams (Stephen Lang
Stephen Lang
Stephen Lang may refer to:* Stephen Lang * Stephen Lang , a fictional character in Marvel Comics* Steven Lang...
), whose father once had mob connections, for advice. That advice leads Luca to subpoena Torello to testify for the defense at his trial. Abrams is furious when he discovers the result of his conversation with Luca, who has also tried to convince Abrams to work for him. When Luca learns that Abrams is applying for a job as a Justice Dept attorney, he worries that Abrams will now come after him. He orders Abrams killed -- but by mistake the car bomb intended for the lawyer kills Abrams's father instead.
Manny Weisbord, in the meantime, is planning to relocate the majority of his organization to Las Vegas, with interest in having a legitimate business that will provide future profits. To this end, he has called upon the services of casino board member Steve Kordo (Jay O. Sanders
Jay O. Sanders
Jay Olcutt Sanders is an American character actor.Sanders was born in Austin, Texas, to Phyllis Rae and James Olcutt Sanders. He is noted for playing Mob lawyer character Steven Kordo in the 1986–88 NBC detective series Crime Story...
), who is looking to sell his plans to the highest bidder. Phil Bartoli, along with some of the other Organization members, express disinterest, as they are more concerned with immediate profits than the future. Weisbord sends Ray Luca to Las Vegas with the assignment of taking over the casinos. Luca takes along his dim-witted but brutally violent sidekick Taglia to be his muscle. First, though, he murders Bartoli and all those opposed to the relocation.
With Abrams help, Torello's reputation is compared to Holman's, destroying any credibility he has as a witness. The corruption investigation against Torello is dropped and federal prosecutor Breitel is taken off of the case. Unfortunately, the case Torello has built against Luca has been destroyed by Breitel's interfrence. Justice Dept Assistant Attorney Gen Patrick Hallahan (Jann Wenner
Jann Wenner
Jann Simon Wenner is the co-founder and publisher of the music and politics biweekly Rolling Stone, as well as the owner of Men's Journal and Us Weekly magazines.-Childhood:...
) offers Torello the chance to head up a new federal Organized Crime Strike Force to root out mob activities in Las Vegas. To assist him on the legalities side he will be aided by Justice Dept attorney David Abrams.
In Vegas, Ray Luca sets about a takeover of the casinos in his usual violent, thuggish manner, which includes the murder of the resort-workers union leader and a federal agent planted by the Strike Force. When Frank Holman resurfaces, Luca makes him sorry for bringing him to trial, before hiring him on again as a casino manager. Luca soon becomes so drunk with his own sense of power and invincibility that he alienates those around him. Steve Kordo in particular is worried, as Luca's actions are veering away from the legitimate plans he had and strengthening the Strike Force's case.
Torello and Abrams finally get enough proof of skimmed profits and rigged games to rescind Luca's gaming license and bar him from entering any and all casinos. Infuriated, he impulsively goes after Goldman, whose wife he had been sleeping with (among other women); he sends Holman to try and kill Goldman with a car bomb, but Goldman survives. When Luca (still seething from being banned from his own casino) brutally rapes Pauli Taglia's girlfriend, a distraught Taglia turns against his boss and implicates Luca in the union leader's killing to Torello's Strike Force, just as Luca gets the ban on his license lifted. Luca goes on trial for multiple murders, but cleverly orchestrates a mistrial by having Holman tamper with the jury and making sure the judge learns of it. Luca is then released on bail pending a new trial. He apologizes to Pauli, who forgives him out of loyalty, though it is an agonizing decision since it means abandoning the one person who was genuinely decent towards him.
Luca tries to force casino owner Nat Martino to sell out his interest, but Martino's refusal threatens a mob war. Weisbord orders Luca to make peace, but instead the hot-headed Luca murders Martino. Torello and his men witness the killing, and a gunfight ensues. Luca is pursued through the streets of Vegas, he and Torello shooting each other several times, before being rescued by Pauli. The wounded Luca wakes up in an isolated desert shack thinking he is safe, only to discover that Taglia has brought them to a restricted government nuclear test area. The season ends with an A-bomb being exploded on site, presumably obliterating Luca and Taglia as they attempt to escape.
SEASON TWO
In Season Two, Torello and his cops are shocked when Ray Luca and Pauli Taglia reappear in Las Vegas alive and well... and even more shocked to learn that the U.S. government has made a secret deal with Luca and given him immunity in exchange for his cooperation. Assistant Attorney General Hallahan tells Torello that elements within the government have made a marriage of convenience for their own political agenda. If they continue their pursuit of Luca, they will be operating without official sanction and he warns them to be careful.
Despite Luca's outward appearance of propriety, Torello is convinced the gangster chieftain is anything but. When the Strike Force puts him under surveillance, Luca goes to court to get a restraining order. Attorney David Abrams argues that Luca's history of violence justifies the surveillance, but his personal vendetta against Luca for his father's death becomes obvious, and the judge grants the injunction.
Torello and his men aren't the only ones angered by Luca's return to Las Vegas. His abrupt reappearance doesn't sit well with Max Goldman and Steve Kordo, now casino managers. In Luca's absence they now run the mob's Vegas casino interests, and despite Luca's assurances that he has no intention of pushing them out, they feel threatened. Publicly they welcome him back with open smiles, but privately they begin to plot against him. Kordo tries to hire a hitman (William Hanhardt) to kill Luca, but is warned that the Outfit wants Luca alive because he is too valuable to its operations.
David Abrams is so embittered by the failure of the justice system he believes in that he resigns from the Justice Dept. Though he says he is leaving Las Vegas, Torello discovers he actually intends to kill Luca. Torello and Krychek rush to Luca's house just in time to prevent the killing. Luca thanks Torello, but the cop says he did it for Abrams.
Abrams descends into a haze of alcohol and drugs. Luca finds him high on peyote and tells him it was Chicago crime boss Phil Bartoli who ordered the hit on him that accidentally killed Abrams's father. He tells Abrams he was born to be part of the Outfit and offers him a job as his personal lawyer if he ever wants to clean himself up. Soon after, to the Strike Force's disbelief, Abrams shows up at Luca's door and takes the job.
When Manny Weisbord is stricken by a heart attack and lies near death, Luca flies an internationally known South African surgeon to Las Vegas to secretly perform the first heart transplant -- with a heart from a murder victim supplied by Pauli. With Weisbord lying near death, Goldman and Kordo meet to discuss their uncertain future. Concerned Luca will take them both out if the old man dies, Goldman argues for killing Luca preemptively and insists Kordo is the only one who can get close enough to do it.
What they don't know is that Torello's men have them wired and have overheard their plot. Torello tells Goldman that Weisbord is now expected to live, which means any hit on Luca is a bad idea. Goldman races to Luca's penthouse and throws Kordo out a window before he can shoot Luca. Afterward, Torello makes it clear that he now expects Goldman to be his snitch.
The murder of a reporter writing a story about Luca leads the Strike Force to discover the truth about Luca's secret activities. Luca has made a deal with the U.S. military to smuggle weapons out of the country to revolutionary causes the government secretly supports. In exchange, the military turns a blind eye to the fact that Luca is smuggling narcotics into the U.S. from Mexico and Asia.
With this evidence, Hallahan convinces Congress to convene hearings to investigate the unholy alliance between the U.S. government and organized crime. But just as Luca is testifying, the hearings are adjourned because of a national emergency: North Vietnam has attacked a U.S. warship in the Gulf of Tonkin. Hallahan gets a warrant for Luca's arrest anyway, but Luca flees the country with Pauli Taglia and Goldman before it can be served, headed for Latin America. Hallahan gives Torello's Strike Force his blessing to pursue Luca onto foreign soil, but warns that outside the U.S. their badges will mean nothing.
In a small banana republic, Luca sets up a new base of operations for his international criminal empire, buying off politicians, military and police with the mob's money. Unable to have Luca extradited, the Strike Force attacks Luca's drug lab in the jungle. Furious at Torello's interference once again, Luca orders the president to have him arrested. The president refuses -- and Luca promptly shoots him dead and installs a new president better to his liking.
In a confrontation between the Strike Force and the police, Krychek is captured and thrown into a hellhole of a prison. Torello and the others stage a rescue. Luca decides to rid himself of this thorn in his side once and for all, and orders Torello killed.
In the dead of night Torello meets with his secret source inside Luca's organization: it is David Abrams, whose sellout to Luca has all been an act. Abrams warns Torello about the planned hit and also reveals the location of a major drug shipment. When the Strike Force captures the narcotics, Luca concludes that Abrams is an informant. He offers to trade Abrams to Torello for the shipment. The trade is made -- but Torello's men have planted explosives on the drugs, and the shipment is blown up.
An assassin attempts to kill Torello, but Abrams is badly wounded instead. While Clemmons and Indelli race Abrams to a doctor, Torello and the others pursue Luca to an airfield, where he, Taglia and Goldman are about to leave the country. Torello, Krychek and Grossman manage to board the plane as it is taking off. In the ensuing airborne fight, Taglia shoots the pilot, causing the plane to plummet into the ocean below. The final shot is an explosion of waves caused by the plane's impact, with the fate of the cops and criminals unknown.
Unfortunately, the show was canceled after this season, ending on yet another cliffhanger.
Production
After the success of the first season of Miami Vice, television producer Michael Mann had complete freedom from NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
to produce another show. Originally, Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
was going to finance Crime Story but decided against it because of the projected costs (Miami Vice, a Universal show, was already being produced for higher than the average $1 million per episode rate). A small studio called New World Pictures Ltd. agreed to finance the show, with a chance to sell it overseas while Universal retained the domestic syndication rights.
According to Mann, the genesis of the project was to follow a group of police officers in a major crimes unit in 1963 and how they change over 20 hours of television, "in 1980, with very different occupations, in a different city and in a different time". He was influenced by the television series Police Story, and based Crime Story largely on the experiences of Chuck Adamson, a former Chicago police detective of 17 years. Mann asked Adamson and Gustave Reininger to write the series pilot and a show bible. Reininger was a former Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
international investment banker who had come to Mann's attention based on a screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
he had written about arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
investigators, and a French film that he had written and produced. Reininger researched Crime Story by winning the confidence of Detective William Hanhardt, who put him in touch with undercover
Undercover
Being undercover is disguising one's own identity or using an assumed identity for the purposes of gaining the trust of an individual or organization to learn secret information or to gain the trust of targeted individuals in order to gain information or evidence...
officers in Chicago. They sent him on meetings with organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
figures. Reininger risked wearing a body microphone
Microphone
A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
and recorder. After visiting the crime scene of a gruesome gangland slaying of bookmaker Al Brown, Reininger backed off his Mob interviews. Adamson claimed that the stories depicted in the series were composites rather than actual events that happened, "but they'll be accurate".
In a June 1986 press conference, Mann said that the first season of the show would go from Chicago in 1963 to Las Vegas in 1980. He said, "It's a serial in the sense that we have continuing stories, and in that sense the show is one big novel". Mann and Reininger's inspiration for the 1963-1980 arc came from their mutual admiration of the epic 15+ hour film, Berlin Alexanderplatz
Berlin Alexanderplatz (television)
Berlin Alexanderplatz, originally broadcast in 1980, is a 14-part television film adapted and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder from the Alfred Döblin novel of the same name, and stars Günter Lamprecht, Hanna Schygulla, Barbara Sukowa, Elisabeth Trissenaar and Gottfried John...
, by German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Maria Fassbinder was a German movie director, screenwriter and actor. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema.He maintained a frenetic pace in film-making...
. Mann said, "The pace of our story is like the speed of light compared to that, but that's the idea — if you put it all together at the end you've got one hell of a 22-hour movie". Mann predicted a five-year network run for the show. However, due to budgetary constraints (the need for four sets of period cars proved to be too expensive). Tartikoff eventually allowed their series to move to Las Vegas for the last quarter of the 22 episodes.
NBC head Brandon Tartikoff
Brandon Tartikoff
Brandon Tartikoff was a television executive who was credited with turning around NBC's low prime time reputation with such hit series as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, ALF, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Cheers, Seinfeld, Miami Vice, The Golden Girls, Knight Rider, The A-Team, St...
(who had started his career in Chicago) gave an order for a two-hour movie, which had a theatrical release in a handful of U.S. theaters to invited guests only. Tartikoff also ordered 22 episode
Episode
An episode is a part of a dramatic work such as a serial television or radio program. An episode is a part of a sequence of a body of work, akin to a chapter of a book. The term sometimes applies to works based on other forms of mass media as well, as in Star Wars...
s which allowed Reininger and Adamson to tell a story with developing character arcs, and continuing stories (instead of episodic, self standing shows.). Two episodes were made every three weeks, with shooting taking up more than 12 hours in a day, seven days a week. By the second season, an average episode cost between $1.3 and 1.4 million (roughly the same as Miami Vice) because it was shot on location, set during the 1960s (requiring period-accurate props and costumes), and featured a large cast.
Hilda Stark worked as an art director on the pilot episode and was asked back by Mann after seven episodes to become the show's production designer. To achieve the period look of the show, she and her design team would go to second-hand and antique stores, run advertisements in newspapers seeking articles from the period, and sometimes build furniture if they could not find it. According to Stark, the overall design or look of the show featured "a lot of exaggerated lines. We go for high style — sleek lines... We go for the exaggerated shapes that recall the era". Stark and her team also came up with a color scheme for the show that featured "saturated color, and certain combinations — black, fuchsias — reminiscent of the '50s". She found inspiration from a library of old books and magazines, in particular Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
. For the vintage cars in the show, they bought or rented from private owners.
Two famous rock and roll musicians of the past contributed to Crime Story: Del Shannon
Del Shannon
Del Shannon was an American rock and roll singer-songwriter who had a No. 1 hit, "Runaway", in 1961.- Biography :...
sang a revised version of his hit "Runaway
Runaway (Del Shannon song)
"Runaway" was a number-one Billboard Hot 100 song made famous by Del Shannon in 1961. It was written by Shannon and keyboardist Max Crook, and became a major international hit...
" as the theme song, and Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
started the musical direction of the series, with Al Kooper
Al Kooper
Al Kooper is an American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears , providing studio support for Bob Dylan when he went electric in 1965, and also bringing together guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills to...
taking over as the series musical director. While early episodes played music of the era or earlier, Kooper later allowed tunes from years after 1963 to appear on the soundtrack.
Cast
- Dennis FarinaDennis FarinaDennis Farina is an American actor of film and television and former Chicago police officer. He is a character actor, often typecast as a mobster or police officer. His most known film roles are those of mobster Jimmy Serrano in the comedy Midnight Run and Ray "Bones" Barboni in Get Shorty...
as Lt. Mike Torello - Anthony DenisonAnthony DenisonAnthony John Sarrero , also known by his stage name Anthony Denison, is an American actor. The eldest of three, he was born and raised in New York City's Harlem. Before acting he worked for John Hancock Insurance as a life insurance agent in Poughkeepsie, New York...
as Ray Luca - John Santucci as Pauli Taglia
- Stephen LangStephen Lang (actor)Stephen Lang is an American actor and playwright. He started in theatre on Broadway but is well known for his film portrayals of Stonewall Jackson in Gods and Generals and George Pickett in Gettysburg , as well as for his 2009 roles as Colonel Miles Quaritch in Avatar and as Texan lawman Charles...
as David Abrams - Bill SmitrovichBill Smitrovich-Personal life:Bill Smitrovich was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Anna and Stanley William Zmitrowicz, a tool and die maker. Bill is a graduate of the University of Bridgeport and holds an MFA from Smith College . He is married to Shaw Purnell from Pittsburgh, PA...
as Sgt. Danny Krychek, Torello's second-in command - Bill CampbellBilly CampbellWilliam Oliver "Billy" Campbell is an American film and television actor. In television, he is best known for his roles as Rick Sammler on Once and Again, as Det. Joey Indelli on Crime Story, as Jordan Collier on The 4400, and as Dr. Jon Fielding on the Tales of the City Miniseries...
as Det. Joey Indelli - Paul Butler as Det. Walter Clemmons
- Steve Ryan as Det. Nate Grossman
- Ted LevineTed LevineFrank Theodore "Ted" Levine is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs and Captain Leland Stottlemeyer in the television series Monk.-Early life and career:...
as Frank Holman - Andrew Dice ClayAndrew Dice ClayAndrew Dice Clay is an American comedian and actor who played the lead role in the film The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.Clay has been in several movies and has released a number of stand-up albums...
as Max Goldman - Jon PolitoJon PolitoJon Polito is an American actor and voice artist, who is known for working with the Coen Brothers, most notably in the major supporting role of Italian gangster Johnny Caspar in Miller's Crossing. He also appeared in the first two seasons of Homicide: Life on the Street and on the first season of...
as Phil Bartoli - Joseph WisemanJoseph WisemanJoseph Wiseman was a Canadian theater and film actor, best known for starring as the titular antagonist of the first James Bond film, Dr. No, his role as Manny Weisbord on Crime Story, and his career on Broadway...
as Manny Weisbord - Darlanne FluegelDarlanne FluegelDarlanne Fluegel born is an American actress.Fluegel appeared in the TV series Crime Story and the final season of Hunter. She was featured in Sergio Leone's 1984 film Once Upon a Time in America as Robert De Niro's girlfriend Eve , and in 1986's Tough Guys as Kirk Douglas' girlfriend...
as Julie Torello (1986-87) - Jay O. SandersJay O. SandersJay Olcutt Sanders is an American character actor.Sanders was born in Austin, Texas, to Phyllis Rae and James Olcutt Sanders. He is noted for playing Mob lawyer character Steven Kordo in the 1986–88 NBC detective series Crime Story...
as Steven Kordo
Trivia
- Before becoming an actor, Dennis FarinaDennis FarinaDennis Farina is an American actor of film and television and former Chicago police officer. He is a character actor, often typecast as a mobster or police officer. His most known film roles are those of mobster Jimmy Serrano in the comedy Midnight Run and Ray "Bones" Barboni in Get Shorty...
was a member of the Major Crimes Unit (MCU) of the Chicago Police Department, as was series co-creator Chuck AdamsonChuck AdamsonCharles Fredrick "Chuck" Adamson was an American retired police officer who became a television producer and screen writer. He was best known for creating the television crime drama Crime Story, for which he won a People's Choice Award, and for writing episodes of Miami Vice...
. - John Santucci, who played mobster and safecracker Pauli Taglia, was, in his past, a notorious jewel thief. The Chicago Field Museum score depicted in the pilot episode was based on the real heist of the Field Museum in which Santucci participated. He replicated the actual theft, right down to the use of the underwater burning bar - the scene was also done in Thief, a film on which Santucci served as technical advisor - and the emptying of the vault. In real life, Santucci was facing a 40 year sentence, but was freed on technicalities without ever rolling over on his partners. The loot was never recovered and the museum is understandably close-mouthed about the event. Ironically, Santucci had been arrested by both Adamson and Farina.
- Jann WennerJann WennerJann Simon Wenner is the co-founder and publisher of the music and politics biweekly Rolling Stone, as well as the owner of Men's Journal and Us Weekly magazines.-Childhood:...
, who played Asst Attorney General Hallahan, is the co-founder and publisher of Rolling StoneRolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine.
Notable Guest Appearances
Like Miami Vice, Crime Story featured heavy use of up-and-coming actors; a number of them made appearances in both shows. Lead actors Dennis FarinaDennis Farina
Dennis Farina is an American actor of film and television and former Chicago police officer. He is a character actor, often typecast as a mobster or police officer. His most known film roles are those of mobster Jimmy Serrano in the comedy Midnight Run and Ray "Bones" Barboni in Get Shorty...
, Bill Smitrovich
Bill Smitrovich
-Personal life:Bill Smitrovich was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Anna and Stanley William Zmitrowicz, a tool and die maker. Bill is a graduate of the University of Bridgeport and holds an MFA from Smith College . He is married to Shaw Purnell from Pittsburgh, PA...
, and John Santucci all appeared in multiple episodes of Miami Vice (though only Farina played a recurring character).
- David CarusoDavid CarusoDavid Stephen Caruso is an American film and television actor and producer, best known for his role of Lieutenant Horatio Caine on the TV series CSI: Miami. The role that gained him initial significant recognition was the role of Det...
appeared as Johnny O'Donnel, a friend of Ray Luca, in the pilot (episodes 1 and 2). He appeared in flashback scenes in episode 12, and in episode 19 of the second season. - Julia RobertsJulia RobertsJulia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman , which grossed $464 million worldwide...
appeared as a juvenile rape victim in the Season 1 episode "The Survivor". It was her first TV appearance. - Kevin SpaceyKevin SpaceyKevin Spacey, CBE is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television...
appeared in second season premiere as a crusading, KennedyJohn F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
-esque Senator. This was his first major television appearance. - Deborah HarryDebbie HarryDeborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers...
appeared in the penultimate episode of season 1, "Top Of The World", as one of the girlfriends of Ray Luca. She did not sing. - Gary SiniseGary SiniseGary Alan Sinise is an American actor, film director and musician. During his career, Sinise has won various awards including an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1992, Sinise directed, and played the role of George Milton in the successful film adaptation of...
appeared in the season 1 episode "For Love Or Money" as Howie Dressler, a husband forced to steal to pay for his wife's iron lungIron lungA negative pressure ventilator is a form of medical ventilator that enables a person to breathe when normal muscle control has been lost or the work of breathing exceeds the person's ability....
. He also directed two episodes, credited as "Gary A. Sinise." - Ving RhamesVing RhamesIrving Rameses "Ving" Rhames is an American actor best known for his work in Bringing Out the Dead, Pulp Fiction, Baby Boy, Don King: Only in America, and the Mission: Impossible film series.-Early life and education:...
appeared in the season 1 episode "Abrams For The Defense" as Hector Lincoln, a husband and father accused of assaultAssaultIn law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
ing his landlordLandlordA landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant . When a juristic person is in this position, the term landlord is used. Other terms include lessor and owner...
. This was Rhames's second television appearance. - William RussWilliam RussWilliam Russ is an American actor, best known for his role as Alan Matthews on Boy Meets World.-Early life:Russ was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, and is the son of a naval officer...
was occasionally featured during the opening credits of Season 1's first half, even though his character (an MCU detective) was murdered in the pilot. - Christian SlaterChristian SlaterChristian Michael Leonard Slater is an American actor. He made his film debut with a small role in The Postman Always Rings Twice before playing a leading role in the 1985 film The Legend of Billie Jean...
played a teenager who discovered a body in the episode "Old Friends, Dead Ends". - Paul GuilfoylePaul GuilfoylePaul Guilfoyle is an American television and film actor. He is currently a regular cast member of the forensic television drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation where he plays Captain Jim Brass.-Early life:...
appeared in "Hide and Go Thief" as a crazed robber who gets into a hostage standoff with MCU. His hostage was played by Lorraine BraccoLorraine BraccoLorraine Bracco is an American actress. She is best known for her TV roles as Dr. Jennifer Melfi on HBO series, The Sopranos, and Angela Rizzoli on the TNT series, Rizzoli & Isles...
(who had no lines). Bracco's sister ElizabethElizabeth BraccoElizabeth Bracco is an American actress who is best known for her role as Marie Spatafore, wife of Vito Spatafore, on the HBO TV series, The Sopranos....
played a hostage in the pilot. - Michael RookerMichael RookerMichael Rooker is an American actor.-Early life:Rooker, who has eight brothers and sisters, was born in Jasper, Alabama and studied at the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago, where he moved with his mother and siblings at the age of thirteen, after his parents divorced.-Movie career:He made his...
briefly appeared as a uniformed police officer in the pilot. - Lili TaylorLili TaylorLili Anne Taylor is an American actress notable for her appearances in such award-winning indie films as Mystic Pizza, Say Anything..., Short Cuts and I Shot Andy Warhol, and the acclaimed TV show Six Feet Under....
played a waitress in Frank Holman's Diner in the episode "Hide and Go Thief". - Pam GrierPam GrierPamela Suzette "Pam" Grier is an American actress. She became famous in the early 1970s, after starring in a string of moderately successful women in prison and blaxploitation films such as 1974's Foxy Brown. Her career was revitalized in 1997 after her appearance in Quentin Tarantino's film...
played Suzanne Terry, an investigative journalist and girlfriend of federal attorneyLawyerA lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
David Abrams, in five episodes spread out over both seasons. - Jazz musician Miles DavisMiles DavisMiles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
made a cameo in the first season episode "The War," playing jazz with Stephen LangStephen Lang (actor)Stephen Lang is an American actor and playwright. He started in theatre on Broadway but is well known for his film portrayals of Stonewall Jackson in Gods and Generals and George Pickett in Gettysburg , as well as for his 2009 roles as Colonel Miles Quaritch in Avatar and as Texan lawman Charles...
. - Jazz musician Dexter GordonDexter GordonDexter Gordon was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor . He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone...
appeared in the second season episode "Moulin Rouge." - Stanley TucciStanley TucciStanley Tucci is an American actor, writer, film producer and film director. He has been nominated for several notable film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in The Lovely Bones...
played bomber Zack Lowman in "The Battle of Las Vegas". - Lee VingLee VingLee Ving Lee Ving Lee Ving (born Lee James Capellaro; April 10, 1946 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is an American musician, most famous for his role as lead singer and rhythm guitarist for Los Angeles-based punk rock band Fear, and actor. In the late 1960s Ving joined Sweet Stavin Chain Blues Band...
and Anthony HealdAnthony HealdPhilip Anthony Mair Heald, known professionally as Anthony Heald , is an American actor known for portraying Hannibal Lecter's jail nemesis, Dr. Frederick Chilton in The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon, and for playing assistant principal Scott Guber in David E. Kelley's Boston Public...
appeared as opposing candidates for leader of a Las Vegas labor union on strike in "The Battle of Las Vegas". - David Hyde PierceDavid Hyde PierceDavid Hyde Pierce is an American actor and comedian best known for playing psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier, for which he received many accolades including four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.-Early life:Pierce, the youngest of four siblings,...
appears in the second season episode "Mig 21," as NSANational Security AgencyThe National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...
Agent Carruthers (billed as David Pierce). That episode also featured George DzundzaGeorge DzundzaGeorge Dzundza is an American television and film actor.-Personal life:Dzundza was born in Rosenheim, Germany, to a Ukrainian father and Polish mother who were forced into factory labour by the Nazis. He spent the first few years of his life in displaced persons camps with his parents and one...
, who would have later success on Law & Order. - Season Two episode "Protected Witness" featured both Laura San GiacomoLaura San GiacomoLaura San Giacomo is an American actress known for playing the role of Maya Gallo on the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me! and Kit De Luca in the film Pretty Woman, and Cynthia in sex, lies, and videotape as well as other work on television and in films...
as Theresa Farantino, and Billy ZaneBilly ZaneWilliam George "Billy" Zane, Jr. is an American actor, producer and director. He is probably best known for his roles as Caledon Hockley in Titanic, The Phantom from The Phantom, John Wheeler in Twin Peaks and Mr...
as Frankie 'The Duke' Farantino. - Michael J. PollardMichael J. Pollard- Early life :Born Michael John Pollack, Jr. in Passaic, New Jersey, he is the son of Sonia and Michael John Pollack. He attended the Montclair Academy and the Actors Studio.- Career :...
played pimpPimpA pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...
Leon Barski, and William HickeyWilliam Hickey (actor)William Edward Hickey was an American actor. He was best known for his Oscar-nominated role as Don Corrado Prizzi in the John Huston 1985 film Prizzi's Honor, as well as the voice of Dr...
played JudgeJudgeA judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
Neville Harmon in "The BrothelBrothelBrothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
Wars." - Dennis HaysbertDennis HaysbertDennis Dexter Haysbert is an American film and television actor. He is known for portraying baseball player Pedro Cerrano in the Major League film trilogy, President David Palmer on the American television series 24, and Sergeant Major Jonas Blane on the drama series The Unit, as well as his work...
appeared in "Moulin Rogue" and "Seize the Time" as the bookkeeper of a jazz club. - Among others, Eric BogosianEric BogosianEric Bogosian is an American actor, playwright, monologist, and novelist of Armenian descent.-Personal life:Bogosian, an Armenian-American, was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, the son of Edwina, a hairdresser and instructor, and Henry Bogosian, an accountant. After graduating from Oberlin College,...
played the Outfit's attorney Dee Morton, Michael MadsenMichael MadsenMichael Søren Madsen is an American actor, poet, and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, most of them small independent films, though he has starred in central roles in such films as Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, and Kill Bill, in addition to a supporting role in Sin...
played Outfit associate Johnny Fossi, and Vincent GalloVincent GalloVincent Gallo is an Italian-American film director and actor. Though he has had minor roles in mainstream films such as Goodfellas, he is most associated with independent movies, including Buffalo '66, which he wrote, directed, did the music for and starred in; The Brown Bunny, which he also...
, Armin ShimermanArmin ShimermanArmin Shimerman is an American actor. Shimerman is best known for playing the Ferengi bartender Quark in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Principal Snyder in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kramer's caddy Stan on Seinfeld, voicing Dr. Nefarious in the Ratchet & Clank series, and Andrew...
, and Jim True-FrostJim True-FrostJim True-Frost, born Jim True, is an American stage, television and screen actor. He is most known for his portrayal of Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski on all five seasons of the HBO program The Wire.-Biography:...
were Outfit figures. - David SoulDavid SoulDavid Soul is an American-British actor and singer, best known for his role as Detective Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson in the television programme Starsky and Hutch . He gained British citizenship in 2004.-Early life:...
played a doctor who married Mike Torello's ex wife Julie in the second season episode "Blast from the Past." He also directed two second season episodes, "Moulin Rouge" and "Love Hurts."
Reaction
When the show debuted on September 18, 1986, following Miami Vice, the two-hour pilot had a 20.1 national Nielsen rating and a 32 percent audience share. The ratingsNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
dipped when it was counter-programmed against ABC's Moonlighting. By October, the show dropped below a 22 Nielsen share, where a series is deemed a "failure". Despite low ratings, Crime Story was picked up by NBC to finish the
1986-87 season. This prompted the network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
to move the show to Friday nights after Miami Vice on December 5, 1986 where its ratings improved but it still lost to Falcon Crest
Falcon Crest
Falcon Crest is an American primetime television soap opera which aired on the CBS network for nine seasons, from December 4, 1981 to May 17, 1990. A total of 227 episodes were produced....
. NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
temporarily pulled Crime Story off the schedule on March 13, 1987. In order to get more people to watch, Farina
Dennis Farina
Dennis Farina is an American actor of film and television and former Chicago police officer. He is a character actor, often typecast as a mobster or police officer. His most known film roles are those of mobster Jimmy Serrano in the comedy Midnight Run and Ray "Bones" Barboni in Get Shorty...
and other cast members promoted the show in five U.S. cities.
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote, "With its first-rate cast, Crime Story might have had the offbeat, compelling authenticity of an Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard
Elmore John Leonard Jr. , better known as Elmore Leonard, is an American novelist and screenwriter. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.Among his...
novel. But the show looks suspiciously as if it would be more than willing to settle for the mindless glitz of Miami Vice". In his review for the Washington Post, Tom Shales wrote, "When the smoke clears away, a viewer may feel impressed yet unmoved. But then, if all the smoke cleared away, there'd be no show". John Haslett Cuff, in his review for the Globe and Mail, wrote, "The characters and locales are as greasy as the rain-soaked streets, and in the show's best moments there is a dangerous glitter that happily transcends the cartoon violence of too much television". Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine's Richard Zoglin praised the show for being "the most realistic TV cop show in years, yet the emotions reach almost baroque heights".
Legacy
Time ranked Crime Story as one of the best television programs of 1986 and of the 1980s.Influence
Crime Story and its imitator WiseguyWiseguy
Wiseguy is an American crime drama series that aired on CBS from September 16, 1987 to December 8, 1990 for a total of four seasons. Starring Ken Wahl, the series was produced by Stephen J...
were the prototypes for today's arc-driven television series, such as 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
and The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
that have continuing story lines over multiple episodes.
In addition, Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
directed and produced his movie Casino
Casino (film)
Casino is a 1995 crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Nicholas Pileggi, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Scorsese...
loosely basing it on elements of Crime Story, which was recognized at the "Casino" premiere as an inspiration. Joe Pesci
Joe Pesci
Joseph Frank "Joe" Pesci is an American actor, comedian, and musician.He is known for playing a variety of different roles, from violent mobsters to comedic leads to quirky sidekicks...
played the Spilotro character. With Spilotro dead, Casino writer Nick Pileggi was able tell much more of the details surrounding the Chicago "Outfit" and its Casino operations in Las Vegas.
After the first season, the show was nominated for three Emmys, all in technical categories.
DVD releases
Anchor Bay Entertainment released the entire series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time between 2003-2005. As of 2010, these releases have been discontinued and are out of print.On November 15, 2011, Image Entertainment
Image Entertainment
Image Entertainment, Inc. is an independent licensee, producer and distributor of home entertainment programming and film & television productions in North America, with approximately 3,000 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 250 exclusive CD titles in domestic release, and approximately 450...
will release Crime Story- The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary Edition on DVD in Region 1. The 3-disc set will contain all 44 episodes of the series.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| Season One | 22 | November 4, 2003 |
| Season Two | 22 | September 20, 2005 |
| The Complete Series | 44 | November 15, 2011 |
Trivia
- One of the alien characters in the science fiction miniseries Something Is Out ThereSomething is Out ThereSomething Is Out There is the title of a 1988 American science fiction television miniseries that aired on NBC, and a short-lived weekly series that followed in the fall of 1988....
watched Crime Story.
External links
- Episode guide
- "An American epic in 42 episodes" - Daily Telegraph retrospective article
- Fan tribute page