Wiseguy is an American crime drama television series created by Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo, that aired on CBS from September 16, 1987, to December 8, 1990, for a total of 75 episodes over four seasons. It centered on undercover agents of the Organized Crime Bureau (OCB), a fictional division of the FBI, as they infiltrated organized crime groups.

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

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

The series was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, one of the first American television series to embrace "Hollywood North's" lower production costs compared to the United States. Over its run, it was nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards (including for Outstanding Drama Series) and four Golden Globe Awards, with Wahl winning Best Actor – Television Series Drama in 1990.

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

Sonny Steelgrave storyline 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.

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

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

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

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

Season 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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