Crime Story was an NBC TV drama created by Gustave Reininger and Chuck Adamson. It was executive produced by Michael Mann. The show premiered with a two hour pilot - a movie which had been exhibited theatrically - and was watched by over 30 million viewers. Crime Story then was scheduled to follow Miami Vice on Friday nights, and continued to attract a record number of viewers. NBC then moved the show to Tuesdays at 10 pm to counter program it opposite ABC's Moonlighting.
Set in the early - pre-Beatles -1960s, the series pitted two men against each other - Lt. Mike Torello (Dennis Farina) and mobster Ray Luca, (Anthony Denison) - in an obsessive drive to destroy each other. As Luca moved from street crime in Chicago, was "made" in the Chicago Outfit and was sent to Las Vegas to monitor their casinos, Det. Mike Torello followed Luca, as part of a special Organized Crime Task Force.
The first season ended with Ray Luca and Pauli Taglia on the lam, hiding from Det. Mike Torello, in a Nevada desert shack, which is located in an Atomic Bomb test area. An A-Bomb explodes, presumably obliteraing Luca and Taglia, in one of the most memorable cliffhangers in television history, leaving viewers wondering whether they were dead or alive, just as the show's creator were wondering if the series itself was dead or alive with NBC.
Chicago, 1963. As head of the police department's Major Crime Unit, Lieutenant Michael Torello must deal with the city's most dangerous criminals. And possibly the most dangerous of all is Ray Luca, a young ambitious street hood who's out to gain wealth and power by whatever means - including theft, threats, extortion and murder. As Luca begins his ruthless climb up the ladder of organized crime, leaving a growing number of victims in his wake, Torello becomes more and more determined to bring him down. Written by Eugene Kim
