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Crime Story
Crime Story was a period drama that ran on NBC from 1986 to 1989. It was produced by Miami Vice creator Michael Mann. The series was different from most cop shows in that it showed the lives of both the police and the wise guys they were trying to bring down. The series centered around Lt. Mike Torello, played by Dennis Farina, who was best known for playing gangsters and who had been a cop in real life in Chicago, and up-and-coming mobster Ray Luca, played by Anthony Denison. Torello was in charge of the Major Crimes Unit (which he had worked in in real life) and was obsessed with stopping Ray Luca at all costs. Ray was similarly obsessed with expanding his growing mob empire. Ray had a sidekick, Pauli Taglia, played by John Santucci, who had been a notorious jewel thief in his past (a bank heist in the pilot episode was based on a real safecracking job he had taken part in).
The show was set in the early 1960's and the producers paid a great deal of attention to period detail. Al Kooper was the show's musical director, and Del Shannon provided a rewritten version of his 1961 hit Runaway for the theme song. For the first couple of seasons the show was filmed on location in Chicago, and then moved to Las Vegas. Among those who appeared in Crime Story were a young Julia Roberts as a teenage rape victim and Kevin Spacey as a crusading Senator. The plots were sometimes over the top-in one episode Ray and Pauli got caught in an atomic explosion in the Nevada desert!-but the show dealt as much with the characters' personal lives as it did with the battles between Torello and Luca, such as the strain that Torello's obsession with Luca placed on his marriage. The series ended with a cliffhanger in which a plane carrying Ray, and Torello, who had chased him on board, crashing into the sea. Farina is currently starring on Law And Order as the well-dressed Det. Joe Fontana, whose character was coincidentally transferred from Chicago.