Wiseguy originally starred Ken Wahl as Vinnie Terranova, a Brooklyn native and Fordham University graduate who was a deep cover operative for the FBI under the supervision of senior agent Frank McPike, played by Jonathan Banks.
The primary cast was rounded out by Jim Byrnes, who played an information operative known as Lifeguard (real name Daniel Burroughs) who assisted Vinnie in the field.
[citation needed] Some cycles were short while others were extended, but each new story had a specific set of central characters exclusive to it who would appear over the course of multiple episodes.
Vinnie's contacts Frank McPike and Lifeguard learn of this breach in protocol through surveillance but conceal it from their superiors using an edited audio recording.
The story arc ends with it in doubt whether Vinnie will be able to overcome the guilt he feels over his betrayal of Sonny and continue to work as an undercover agent.
However, Vinnie soon discovers a much bigger target: Roger's boss, the manic depressive billionaire arms dealer Mel Profitt (Kevin Spacey) and his sister Susan (Joan Severance), with whom he has an incestuous relationship.
Susan goes insane (with help from Lococco, who gaslights her in order to obtain signed withdrawal slips for Mel's accounts) and is committed to a mental facility.
With info given him by Vinnie, Lococco learns his training officer and immediate superior Herb Ketcher is running the operation as a front for an American corporation.
Writer/artist John Byrne has acknowledged that his characters Desmond and Phoebe Marrs, main cast members of the 1990s comic book series Namor the Sub-Mariner, were heavily inspired by Mel and Susan Profitt.
[2] At the beginning of the second season, Vinnie is living at home with his mother and brother, Father Pete (Gerald Anthony) and working for a friend at a gas station as everyone in his neighborhood still believes he is in the Mafia.
A patron of his turns him on to the teachings of Dr. Knox Pooley (Fred Dalton Thompson), who leads a nativist group with white supremacist leanings called the "Pilgrims of Promise".
After agreeing to return to work, but only on his terms, Vinnie arranges a gun sale to Calvin, against the advice of Beckstead, who believes the Pilgrims of Promise are harmless kooks not worth pursuing.
Vinnie finds Pete's personal effects in the grill of a car parked at a Pilgrims of Promise rally, but refrains from exacting vengeance, instead setting up his brother's killer for arrest at an arms deal.
David Sternberg (Ron Silver) and his father Eli (Jerry Lewis) run a clothing business, and are being squeezed by garment district kingpin Rick Pinzolo (Stanley Tucci).
A shipment of dresses modified by Pinzolo to lack sufficient flame retardant brings on a wave of class action lawsuits, toppling the Sternberg company.
Hoping to raise Dead Dog's profile so he can connect with people selling cleans, Vinnie signs fallen idol Diana Price (Debbie Harry) and funds a recording of her song "Brite Side" under brilliant but violent tempered producer Johnny Medley (Paul McCrane).
Vinnie tries to tempt away Newquay's hottest act, singer Eddie Tempest (Billy Wirth), with the opportunity to work with Medley and hit songwriter Monroe Blue (Ron Taylor).
Driven by jealousy, Vinnie runs a background check on Roger and deduces that he is negotiating for Shakala to be sold to a crooked real estate developer.
Wanting to ensure their matrimonial bliss is not disturbed, Don Aiuppo introduces Vinnie to the local Mafia commission and warns them against bothering his family.
The Mafia upheaval sparks off a rivalry between Albert Cericco (Robert Davi) and Joey Grosset (John Snyder), whose father-in-law was killed in another recent hit.
Don Aiuppo bugs a payphone outside his hospital room, thinking that the various Mafiosi visiting him will be using it just after taking their leave; in this way he overhears Grosset mentioning he ordered the two hits, and Vinnie contacting Uncle Mike.
From prison Cericco negotiates with Grosset's widow Gina (Anne De Salvo) and Vinnie for them to sell a large shipment of cocaine he smuggled to the Mafia commission.
The author of the theory behind the conspiracy, Dr. Andrew Valenti, is murdered in what is made to look like a convenience store robbery, but the conspirators' cover is blown due to the assassin having used bullets loaded with curare.
Wilson delivers a string of insults against Masters in front of the investigating committee, which prompts Major Vernon Biggs (Stan Shaw) to confess to orchestrating the murder of Valenti at the orders of Admiral Walter Strichen (Stephen Joyce).
Vinnie goes to Seattle, rents a room in a transient hotel, and takes a job with Health Elimination Services, which specializes in dumping medical waste.
Meanwhile, back in Washington, a now-bearded McPike has fully healed from the gunshot wounds he sustained at the end of the previous year and Director Beckstead is looking to have him assume desk duty.
With the help of U.S. Attorney Hillary Stein (Hoffmann), who had been working the original case as Santana's AUSA before his removal and disbarment and was his love interest, they take Guzman's operation down.
Appears in season 4 only as the focal character in Terranova's absence, Santana (Steven Bauer) is a recently disbarred United States Attorney who becomes allies with McPike and the OCB.
Following his desertion after witnessing Stem's suicide during the Volchek case in Washington state, as well as his problems with his stepfather, the FBI pulled Vinnie out of OCB and reassigned him to a wiretapping detail where he was still working at the time the film began.
[citation needed] In addition, Wahl suffered a broken neck in 1992 in a fall that left him temporarily quadriplegic and by the time the Wiseguy reunion was commissioned, he had been in near constant pain after he regained the use of his arms and legs and would likely not have been physically capable to take on the demands of the role.