Co-Creators
Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo created or co-created several dozen successful TV series from the 1970s to the 1990s. In addition to Wiseguy, their creations include The Rockford Files,
The A-Team, Renegade, Riptide, The Greatest American Hero, 21 Jump Street, Hunter and The Commish.
Listen to the theme:
Theme Composer
Mike Post has written theme music for numerous TV shows, including Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, The A-Team,
NYPD Blue, The Rockford Files, L.A. Law, Quantum Leap, Magnum, P.I. and Hill Street Blues.
Post won Grammys for Best Instrumental Composition for the themes of the television shows Hill Street Blues in 1981 and L.A. Law in 1988, as well as in 1981 for Best Instrumental Performance for the Hill Street Blues theme, which also reached number ten in the U.S. record charts. He also created the “dun, dun” sound effect for the Law and Order franchise.
Main Cast
Terranova
Ken Wahl first gained recognition in 1979 when he was cast in the leading role of director Philip Kaufman’s film The Wanderers (1979). He was subsequently cast opposite Paul Newman in Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981), and went on to play the lead in movies including Race for the Yankee Zephyr (1981), The Soldier (1982), Jinxed! (1982), and Purple Hearts (1984).
In 1984, he suffered a motorcycle crash while on his way to meet with Diane Keaton about the role that eventually went to Mel Gibson in the film Mrs. Soffel. Having not worn a helmet, Wahl required 89 stitches in his scalp.
With little more offered him on the big screen, Wahl was cast in Wiseguy in 1987. The show brought him a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nomination. During the second season, he was injured again, run over by a camera and left in such pain that producer Cannell replaced him for three episodes.
After he completed a Wiseguy reunion TV movie in 1996, another severe injury ended his acting career.
as Frank McPike,
Vinnie's handler
Jonathan Banks is well known for his role as former police officer turned private investigator, fixer, and hitman Mike Ehrmantraut in Breaking Bad — for which he won an Emmy Award in 2016 as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series — and as the same character in Better Call Saul (2015-present). He started his career on the TV show Barnaby Jones in 1976, later appearing in the film Coming Home (1978). He also had roles in movies Airplane! (1980), 48 Hrs. (1982), and Beverly Hills Cop (1984), as well as in the TV show Community (2009-2015).
Banks received an Emmy nomination for his role playing Vinnie Terranova’s handler in Wiseguy (1987–1990), .
Lifeguard, Vinnie ’s
tech backstop
Canadian Ken Byrnes began his career as a musician, and has won numerous awards — the Juno Award for Blues Album of the Year three times, for That River in 1996 and House of Refuge on Black Hen Music in 2007, and for Everywhere West in 2011. Byrnes was also honored at the 2006 Maple Blues Awards, as Male Vocalist of the Year. The Canadian Folk Music Awards recognized him as the Contemporary Singer of the Year in 2006 and 2009.
Fifteen years to the day after a motorcycle accident cost him his legs, Byrnes was cast in Wiseguy as Dan Burroughs, better known as “Lifeguard.” It was his first major role, lasting until the series ended in 1990. Later, he had roles in the highly-rated fantasy television series Highlander: The Series (1992-97) as Joe Dawson, a member of a secret society known as The Watchers. He reprised that role in later installments of the Highlander film series, Highlander: Endgame (2000) and Highlander: The Source (2007)
Further TV appearances have included the Sci-Fi Channel mini-seriesTaken (2017) and Sanctuary (2008-2011) with Amanda Tapping.
Hoffman as Michael
Santana and Hillary Stein
Cuban-born Steven Bauer is perhaps most famous for his role as the Cuban drug lord Manny Ribera in the 1983 crime drama Scarface, in which he starred alongside Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. He also played the drug cartel leader Eladio Vuente in Breaking Bad and in Better Call Saul. As attorney Michael Santana, Bauer replaced a badly-injured Ken Wahl in the final season of Wiseguy
Cecil Hoffman, as US Attorney Hillary Stein, is best known for her portrayal of district attorney Zoey Clemmons in three seasons of L.A. Law. On the big screen, she appeared in such films as Stargate and the Wyatt Earp biopic Tombstone.
(Numbers indicate seasons of appearance.)
|
Vinnie Terranova (1–3): Ken Wahl |
Michael Santana (4): Stephen Bauer |
Family and Friends
(Numbers after names indicate seasons of appearance.)
|
Carlotta Terranova (1–4): Elsa Raven |
Lauren Burroughs (2–3): Lisa Waltz |
The OCB
(Numbers after names indicate seasons of appearance.)
|
Daryl Elias (1–2): John Jackson |
Mark Cermak (2–3): Dwight Koss |