The BEST episodes of Wiseguy

#1 - Fruit of the Poisonous Tree (2)

Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/10/1990

#2 - Fruit of the Poisonous Tree (1)

Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/10/1990

While Frank is in Washington to talk to Paul about returning to work, Dan calls to say Vinnie missed his last check-in. Frank goes to Vinnie's house and finds evidence that he was kidnapped. Despite Paul's objections, Frank begins his own investigation, finding out from Carlotta that Vinnie was looking into the death of a priest in El Salvador. Frank follows the trail to Miami and Michael Santana, a disbarred Federal prosecutor, and the last person Vinnie contacted. Santana refuses to help Frank, saying he doesn't know anything about Vinnie's disappearance. Digging deeper, Frank stumbles upon a CIA investigation and is ordered to back off.

#3 - Aria for Don Aiuppo

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/7/1988

Vinnie is questioned about his connection to Don Aiuppo, thus learning his mother is dating the retired mobster. Checking into it, he finds Rudy and Carlotta were in love as teenagers, then is stunned when Rudy proposes and she accepts. Mark digs up information showing that Rudy is in the country illegally and sets him up to be deported, not knowing it means that Carlotta will leave, too. At the last minute, Rudy changes places with his brother, Tito, who wants to return to Italy.

#4 - The Loose Cannon

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/1/1987

While trying to regain control over the men running his ghetto drug operation, Sonny gets a call from Italy asking him to take in his nephew and teach him the business. After getting into a fight with Lorenzo, Vinnie has Frank do a check and it turns out the guy is really an insane mass murderer who killed the real Lorenzo before coming to the States. Frank and Pete both warn Vinnie to break off his budding romance with Gina, the widow of a crooked cop who killed himself. Vinnie and Lorenzo have a showdown after Lorenzo rapes Gina, ending with Vinnie killing him.

#5 - Pilot (2)

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/16/1987

Vinnie and Sonny's right hand man, Tony Grecco, have a run-in with the cops for which Vinnie is 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. The meeting goes down bad and ends with Dave Steelgrave's death. Vinnie gets rid of Tony by setting him up and having him arrested. To prove his loyalty, Vinnie shoots a federal agent for Sonny (but the agent was warned, wore a bullet proof vest, and was then moved out of state).

#6 - Dirty Little Wars

Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/14/1988

With Mel and Susan out of the picture, Frank considers the case closed. However, Vinnie wants to find out where Roger fits into it all and goes to Vancouver to find him, but instead, he witnesses Preet's murder and links it to Herb. Frank and Vinnie go to Stockton, where Roger is training mercenaries for the coup. Roger kidnaps Frank and tells Vinnie he'll be released after the operation, then Vinnie tells Roger that Herb is using him. Roger overhears Lelond assuring a major corporation that they can get all the cheap labor they need once he takes over Isle Pavot and realizes the coup is just an excuse for Herb to regain acceptance in Washington. Roger works with Frank and Vinnie to set up Herb and sabotage the coup.

#7 - 7th Avenue Freeze Out

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/14/1988

When garment manufacturer Eli Sternberg cannot get a loan to bail out his business, he turns to mobster Ricky Pinzolo for the money. David goes to the OCB for help when he finds out Eli is in debt to the mob. Vinnie meets with David, then reluctantly agrees to take the case, running into opposition from Eli, who doesn't want a hood working for him. Pinzolo demands that Vinnie keep him apprised of everything going on. Vinnie wins Eli's trust when he gets a delayed shipment released from customs.

#8 - Revenge of the Mud People

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/9/1988

Unbeknownst to Vinnie, his car was used in the robbery where an off-duty cop was killed, leading to his arrest and brutalization at the hands of the NYPD. Frank bails him out, then reluctantly lets Vinnie continue his pursuit of Knox Pooley. Vinnie tells Ritchie he's a cop and asks him to help him gather evidence against the Pilgrims. Vinnie goes to a Pilgrim rally and stumbles across the truck that was used to kill Pete, then agrees to a meet with Stan in the hopes of tying Pooley to it, leading to Stan and Ritchie's arrests.

#9 - New Blood

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/24/1987

After "making his bones," Vinnie moves up in the Steelgrave family when Sonny gives him Tony's old waterfront action. The pressure is on Sonny when "Pat the Cat" Patrice insists on installing accountant Sid Royce in the office to keep an eye on his interests, and to balance the power, Philly's "No Money" Mahoney insists Sonny find a place for his man, Harry "the Hunch." As if he doesn't have enough to worry about, there's a new district attorney who plans to make a name for himself by bringing Sonny down. Sonny and Vinnie are arrested for attempted murder when someone shoots at the DA and throws the gun to Sonny.

#10 - Player to Be Named Now

Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/8/1988

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. Vinnie is fighting his growing feelings for Susan while trying to discourage Jacqueline from getting involved again with all the debauchery on the Hotei.

#11 - A Deal's a Deal

Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/29/1987

When Sonny refuses to let Joey out of his contract, the singer goes to Mahoney to ask him to speak on his behalf. Mahoney tells Sonny he's losing his power, so Sonny has two crooked cops rough Joey up, unaware that one of them is a loose cannon who crushes the singer's voice box. After Frank interrogates them, the cops follow Frank and get pictures of him meeting with Vinnie, which they plan to sell to Sonny. Since Vinnie is now acting as Sonny's "right hand," Joey Bags insists that he be formally initiated into la famiglia. A confrontation between Joey, the cops and the mob bosses ends up with Joey and the cops dead, and Frank switching the photo of him and Vinnie with one showing him meeting with Patrice.

#12 - The Merchant of Death

Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/25/1988

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. After setting Vinnie up to be arrested for espionage, Susan makes it up to him by letting him go to bed with her. When Vinnie mysteriously comes up with the documents Mel needs, he arouses Roger's suspicions.

#13 - Date with an Angel

Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/21/1988

Vinnie and Roger are subpoenaed to testify at a Senate hearing concerning Ketcher and the failed overthrow of Isle Pavot, but Vinnie balks at McPike's orders that he testify as a hood and not as an OCB agent. Roger testifies, then demands to be released from protective custody after an attempt on his life. When Roger is killed in a mysterious boat explosion, Vinnie testifies anonymously and substantiates Roger's testimony that Herb was responsible for everything. Abandoned by everyone in Washington, Herb is approached by the Soviet Union to defect, but he kills himself instead. Tired of all the lies, Vinnie resigns from the OCB. Roger "reappears" to let Vinnie know he faked his own death to escape the CIA.

#14 - No One Gets Out of Here Alive

Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/5/1987

While Vinnie tries to reassure Sonny of his loyalty, Aldo calls to warn Sonny the cops are on the way, causing Sonny to flee, with Vinnie right behind him. They end up locked in a closed theater where they fight, drink and try to justify their lives. Meanwhile, Frank is distraught over Vinnie's disappearance as he tries to get information from the other mob bosses. After he finds out Vinnie's location, he arranges a rescue, which culminates in Sonny committing suicide and Vinnie being arrested to protect his cover.

#15 - Blood Dance

Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/15/1988

With Herb becoming more insistent about their agenda, Roger schemes to get Mel to fund the military coup of Isle Pavot. Unfortunately, Mel is convinced that Cabra, the man Herb wants to put into power, has put a voodoo curse on him and orders Vinnie to find a woman who can remove the curse. Realizing that Mel is a major stumbling block to the mission, Roger sends him over the edge by smashing the crystal that contains Mel's soul. Despondent, Mel asks Susan to kill him, and she does.

#16 - A Rightful Place

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/1989

While keeping vigil over Rudy, Vinnie learns that Grosset's father-in-law was also hit, setting up a power struggle within the mob. Albert courts Vinnie's alliance by letting him in on his plan to smuggle millions of dollars worth of heroin into the country. Vinnie goes to the Commission and demands Rudy's seat at the table.

#17 - Independent Operator

Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/9/1987

Frank wants to get Vinnie back on the job, so he assigns him to a routine case investigating hit man Roger Lococco, unknowingly dropping Vinnie into the middle of a case that has international repercussions. After winning Roger's confidence, Vinnie is asked to work for Mel and Susan Profitt, a brother and sister team who run a worldwide drugs and munitions organization.

#18 - Not for Nothing

Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/1/1988

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, but Aldo accidentally falls off the roof of a building before he can answer any questions. Upset about Vinnie being shot and his wife leaving him, Frank falls into the arms of a pretty CIA agent.

#19 - Witness Protection for the Archangel Lucifer

Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/8/1990

Arnado Guzman, hiding out in El Salvador, contacts his trusted "son," Michael Santana, to bring him funds, and Santana concocts a plan to bring him back to justice.

#20 - The Marriage of Heaven & Hell

Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 10/29/1987

A staged argument between Sonny and Vinnie prompts Patrice to propose that Vinnie leave Sonny and come to work for him. Sonny is busy planning his wedding to Theresa while keeping an eye on the growing power struggle between him and Patrice. After Patrice tells Vinnie he's going to hit Sonny in the morning, Vinnie arranges for Frank to arrive before the scheduled time to make the arrests. Sonny kills Patrice at his bachelor party, then demands to know why Vinnie didn't tell him about the hit.

#21 - Pilot (1)

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/16/1987

Vinnie (Ken Wahl) is released from prison where he has been for two years to establish his cover. He meets his boss, Frank McPike (Jonathan Banks) and gets to see his coach and mentor, Jerry Greco (Robert Miranda). 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.

#22 - Smokey Mountain Requiem

Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/11/1988

Vinnie has second thoughts about the case and tells Frank he wants out. When he goes to Mel to resign, Mel offers him a chance to take over his worldwide drug operation. The catch: Vinnie must go to Tennessee and take it back from the middle men who have seized control.

#23 - School of Hard Knox

Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/2/1988

Vinnie hesitantly goes back to work for the OCB under the promise they will help find Pete's killer, but Daryl is more interested in getting his star agent to work on a "real" assignment. Ritchie digs himself in deeper with the Pilgrims of Promise when he uses Vinnie's car to help rob an armored car. Depressed over Pete's death, Vinnie turns to Angie for consolation, but they both agree they don't want to risk their special friendship by becoming lovers. Vinnie talks Daryl into giving him weapons to sell to the Pilgrims, then he throws the bust when he sees they have Ritchie with them.

#24 - Last of the True Believers

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/16/1988

Knox Pooley realizes Calvin is insane and kicks him out, causing Calvin to go off the deep end and take a famous black leader hostage. Richie becomes disenchanted when he realizes Pooley was only in it for the money. Paul Beckstead takes over as director of OCB when Daryl cracks under the pressure and is dismissed for making obscene phone calls.

#25 - Next of Kin

Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/21/1988

Eli impatiently awaits news from Sri Lanka, where a terrorist's bomb exploded at David's hotel. Vinnie is hit by a taxi, and Frank talks John Henry Raglin into taking over the case when he learns that Vinnie can't return to work for awhile. Eli speaks out against Pinzolo at a fund raising dinner. Pinzolo visits Vinnie in the hospital and Vinnie suggests his partner can take over for him, opening the door for Raglin.