# Wiseguy (1987)

> Vinnie Terranova goes to prison and then into the mob as an undercover federal agent, torn between his task force handlers and his Italian neighborhood family.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/6114

## Facts

- Seasons: 4
- Episodes: 75
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama, action
- Created by: Frank Lupo, Stephen J. Cannell
- Network: CBS
- Cast: Ken Wahl, Steven Bauer, Jonathan Banks, Jim Byrnes, Cecil Hoffman, Maximilian Schell, Marshall Bell, Ric Reid
- TMDB rating: 7.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092484/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: gritty, tense, paranoid, action-driven, melancholic

## Synopsis

Wiseguy (1987-1990) is a US crime drama series created by Frank Lupo and Stephen J. Cannell for CBS. Ken Wahl plays Vincent Terranova, an undercover agent who serves time in a New Jersey penitentiary to earn the trust of a crime syndicate, then works as a syndicate enforcer while reporting to his handlers in the federal Organized Crime Bureau. Jonathan Banks plays his steady handler Frank McPike, and Jim Byrnes plays Lifeguard Burroughs, a figure in Vinnie's orbit whose loyalty is never simple. The engine of the show is the squeeze between two worlds: every assignment pulls Vinnie deeper into criminal life while his conservative mother and relatives in a traditional Italian city neighborhood keep demanding he come home. The series runs four seasons and 75 hour-long episodes, mostly built around a single case with serialized threads that carry across the run. Its tone is gritty and tense, with action set pieces, street-level menace, and an emotional undertow of divided loyalty and personal cost. Fans of The Shield, The Sopranos and Donnie Brasco will find resonance in its undercover paranoia and blood-versus-duty drama, set in the 1980s United States.

## Shows like Wiseguy

- [Gangland Undercover (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/55339)
- [New York Undercover (1994)](https://ember.film/tv/3841)
- [Hill Street Blues (1981)](https://ember.film/tv/3642)
- [Coyote (2021)](https://ember.film/tv/76868)
- [Hotel Cocaine (2024)](https://ember.film/tv/132601)
- [The Beast (2009)](https://ember.film/tv/15231)
- [Fastlane (2002)](https://ember.film/tv/2031)
- [Crime Story (1986)](https://ember.film/tv/2820)
- [Miami Vice (1984)](https://ember.film/tv/1800)
- [Inside the American Mob (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/50908)

---

Site overview: https://ember.film/llms.txt