We continue our look at some notable 1980s Christmas episodes by looking at Wiseguy’s only Christmas episode, an episode that highlighted the unusual nature of the show’s one-off episodes.
Wiseguy, of course, was a notable TV series for two things that were only tangentially related to the show itself. One of which is namely its “series of miniseries” format, where undercover agent Vinnie Terranova (Ken Wahl) would go undercover for a series of episodes, and those episodes would effectively be their own standalone miniseries. The other is that it was one of the first TV series to film in Vancouver.
As noted, Vinnie would be undercover for long stretches of time, and the shoe would follow the operation from the start to the finish. The criminals whose operations he was investigating would therefore become temporary cast members, and the series had great luck in casting early on.
There were two long arcs in Season 1. The first was a Mafia family, and its leader, Sonny Steelgrave (Ray Sharkey), who Vinnie became very close to while undercover. The FBI took the Steelgrave syndicate down.
Next was a sprawling storyline starring a young Kevin Spacey as Mel Profitt, a businessman with an incestuous connection to his sister, Susan (Joan Severance). At one point, Vinnie has to set up a deal with the Mafia, and he meets Don Aiuppo, a Mafia elder statesman who is on the way out, but who takes to Vinnie when dealing with him.
Between the big arcs, there would be these sort of “resting spot” episodes that were offbeat. In this one, Don Aiuppo reveals that he used to date Vinnie’s mom, and now he is trying to woo her again. This, of course, makes the FBI believe that Vinnie is too close to the situation.
In the end, Don Aiuppo and Vinnie’s mom get married, and Don Aiuppo becomes a major character in Season 3.
This was a nicely done episode, even though it makes the government agents who don’t realize that Don Aiuppo has traded places with his brother (who wanted to go back home) look REALLY dumb.
