Crime Story (NBC 1986-1988, Tony Denison, Dennis Farina)

Period crime drama series. Lt Mike Torello working for the Major Crime Unit in 1960’s Chicago tries to bring mob leader Ray Luca to book. Torello drove a 1963 Bonneville.

Created by Gustave Reininger and Chuck Adamson 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 and mobster Ray Luca — 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. Torello, his friend Ted Kehoe, and Luca had grown up in Chicago’s “The Patch” neighborhood, also called “Little Sicily” or “Little Italy” and the haunt of the Forty-Two Gang.

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.

production details
cast
Tony Denison as Ray Luca
Dennis Farina as Lt. Mike Torello
Jay O. Sanders as Steve Kordo
Johann Carlo as Cori Luca
Andrew Dice Clay as Max Goldman
Steve Ryan as Det. Nate Grossman
Stephen Lang as Atty. David Abrams
Bill Smitrovich as Sgt. Danny Krychek
Billy Campbell as Det. Joey Indelli
Paul Butler as Det. Walter Clemmons
Joseph Wiseman as Manny Weisbord
John Santucci as Pauli Taglia
Jon Polito as Phil Bartoli
Ted Levine as Frank Holman
Ron Dean as Chief Kramer
Patricia Charbonneau as Inger Thorson
Jack Angel as Narrator

crew
Creators: Chuck Adamson, Gustave Reininger
Theme Music: Runaway by Del Shannon
Executive Producer: Michael Mann

USA / NBC – New World TV / 48×60 minute episodes / 19 September 1986 – 10 May 1988