8.0/10362 votes#1 - Wiseguy (1)
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/16/1987
Vinnie is released from prison where he has been for two years to establish his cover. He meets his boss, Frank McPike and gets to see his coach and mentor, Jerry Greco. Greco is killed and Vinnie demands to be put in to finish the investigation. He uses his ingenuity to get a foothold in the Steelgrave crime family, but it will take a while to finish this job.
Director: Rod Holcomb
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell, Frank Lupo
7.8/1090 votes#2 - Wiseguy (2)
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/16/1987
Vinnie and Sonny's right hand man, Tony Grecco, has a run-in with the cops causing Vinnie to be arrested. The Steelgraves find that guns are being exported illegally using their pier and decide to take possession of the guns and sell them back to the owner.
Director: Rod Holcomb
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell, Frank Lupo
7.5/1093 votes#3 - New Blood
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 9/24/1987
In an attempt to take over Sonny Steelgrave’s business, mob head Paul Patrice frames Sonny for several murder attempts he makes on the life of the special prosecutor investigating Sonny.
Director: N/A
Writer: David J. Burke
7.6/1075 votes#4 - The Loose Cannon
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/1/1987
A psychopathic murderer posing as Sonny's nephew double-crosses Sonny and holds Vinnie's girlfriend Gina hostage.
Director: Larry Shaw
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
7.9/1080 votes#5 - The Birthday Surprise
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/8/1987
Vinnie nearly blows his cover when he becomes obsessed with finding out who killed his cousin, causing Frank to threaten him with dismissal. Frank desperately wants Vinnie to concentrate on nailing the Zaratzos, who are trying to arrange a drug smuggling deal with Sonny, because they killed one of Frank's agents.
Director: Robert Iscove
Writer: N/A
7.8/1076 votes#6 - One on One
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 10/15/1987
After several deals go sour, Sonny starts suspecting Vinnie may be a plant. Frank orders Vinnie to drop the case when he finds out the local police have an informer in Sonny's operations. Sid has Frank picked up and tortured, but Vinnie and undercover cop Karen Malloy rescue him. Karen's disappearance points the finger at Sid as the leak.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.9/1076 votes#7 - Prodigal Son
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 10/22/1987
After his mother is mugged in Brooklyn, an enraged Vinnie sets out to find the punk who did it, but when he visits his mother in the hospital, it breaks his heart that she still won't forgive him for his life of “crime.”
Director: Charles Correll
Writer: Carol Mendelsohn
8.4/1085 votes#8 - A Deal's a Deal
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 10/29/1987
Sonny’s cruel punishment of a lounge singer who wants out of his contract triggers a cascade of events that leads to Vinnie’s being photographed with McPike — a photo that is to be delivered to Sonny.
Director: Charles Correll
Writer: David J. Burke
8.6/10118 votes#9 - The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/5/1987
Sonny’s impending marriage to a syndicate boss’ daughter begins a supposedly businesslike realignment of “families,” but Vinnie learns that the wedding is a pretext for a bloody gang war.
Director: Zale Dalen
Writer: N/A
7.5/1063 votes#10 - No One Gets Out of Here Alive
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 11/12/1987
An outraged Sonny Steelgrave accuses Vinnie of betraying him to his arch-rival, then realizes the devastating truth — that his paisan is an undercover Federal agent.
Director: Robert Iscove
Writer: David J. Burke
8.1/1084 votes#11 - Last Rites for Lucci
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 11/19/1987
In the aftermath of the Steelgrave case, Vinnie tries to vindicate himself of his lingering feelings of betrayal and disloyalty by risking his life to save an old friend from the Brooklyn neighborhood who has a contract out on him.
Director: Bill Corcoran
Writer: N/A
8.0/1080 votes#12 - Independent Operator
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 1/4/1988
Vinnie’s assignment to check out a contract killer leads him into a huge global contraband syndicate — an operation that far exceeds the scope of the Steelgrave family — overlorded by brother and sister Mel and Susan Profitt.
Director: Aaron Lipstadt
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
7.5/1071 votes#13 - Fascination for the Flame
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 1/11/1988
Vinnie, now a bodyguard for the Profitts, gets his first trial by fire when Mel Profitt, the brilliant but paranoid overlord of an international crime empire, disrupts the wedding of an associate, who retaliates by kidnapping Susan.
Director: William A. Fraker
Writer: Stephen J. Cannell
7.7/1070 votes#14 - Smokey Mountain Requiem
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 1/18/1988
Vinnie tells Mel Profitt he is leaving to go home to New Jersey, but Mel offers him the biggest cocaine distribution network in the country — a plum that Vinnie feels is too juicy for any undercover cop to turn down.
Director: Neill Fearnley
Writer: David J. Burke, Hans Tobeason
7.6/1073 votes#15 - Player to be Named Now
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 1/25/1988
Mel’s desire to buy a baseball franchise is two-fold: he wants to play on it, and he wants to take it away from an old business associate who cheated him in a Mexican drug deal. When Mel’s former girlfriend shows up, begging for readmission to the Inner circle, he humiliates her, using her as a sexual pawn in a power game with a rival, but for Vinnie, forced to watch it happen, the worst is yet to come.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.7/1066 votes#16 - The Merchant of Death
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 2/1/1988
When some of his munitions contacts begin drying up, Mel decides to blackmail a French Deputy Minister of Defense into supplying him with the weapons he needs.
Director: N/A
Writer: Carol Mendelsohn
8.0/1064 votes#17 - Not For Nothing
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 2/8/1988
Hiding out in Vancouver after the fall of the Steelgrave empire, Aldo Baglia sees a photo of Vinnie in the paper and decides to even the score, sending Vinnie into a coma from two serious gunshot wounds. Roger, using his CIA contact, tracks down Aldo.
Director: Bill Corcoran
Writer: David J. Burke
8.0/1076 votes#18 - Squeeze
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 2/15/1988
After his munitions operation starts falling apart, Mel orders Vinnie to set up a meet with the mob to use his immense cocaine trade to regain financial power.
Director: Bill Corcoran
Writer: N/A
8.1/1060 votes#19 - Blood Drive
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 2/22/1988
After rejecting an offer to finance a coup d'etat in the Caribbean, Mel Profitt becomes obsessed with a supposed voodoo death curse, and Vinnie, horrified, can only watch as Mel’s personality begins to disintegrate.
Director: Kim Manners
Writer: N/A
8.2/1053 votes#20 - Phantom Pain
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 3/14/1988
After Susan is arrested for Mel’s murder, Vinnie refuses McPike’s order to pull out of the Profitt case, because Susan, who has seemingly lost her grip on reality, has told him she is pregnant with his child.
Director: Dennis Dugan
Writer: N/A
7.8/1061 votes#21 - Dirty Little Wars
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 3/21/1988
With Mel and Susan Profitt undone, McPike begins dismantling their empire, but Vinnie demands to stay on the case to get to the bottom of Roger Lococco’s ties to a rogue CIA operation to stage a Caribbean coup d’etat.
Director: Robert Iscove
Writer: David J. Burke
NaN/100 votes#22 - Date With an Angel
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 3/28/1988
Roger Lococco in effect signs his own death warrant by testifying to a Senate committee about a cabal within the U.S. intelligence community, but to back him up he needs Vinnie to testify as an O.C.B. operative — testimony that would end Vinnie’s career as an undercover agent.
Director: Les Sheldon
Writer: David J. Burke
The Best Episodes of Wiseguy Season 1
Every episode of Wiseguy Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Wiseguy Season 1!
Vinnie Terranova does time in a New Jersey penitentiary to set up his undercover role as an agent for the OCB (Organized Crime Bureau) of...
Genres:CrimeDramaAction & Adventure
Network:CBS
Season 1 Ratings Summary
"Wiseguy (1)" is the best rated episode of "Wiseguy" season 1. It scored 8/10 based on 362 votes. Directed by Rod Holcomb and written by Stephen J. Cannell, Frank Lupo, it aired on 9/16/1987. This episode is rated 0.2 points higher than the second-best, "Wiseguy (2)".