Trivia

Vinnie Terranova's (Ken Wahl's) Agent number 4587 was chosen because the show began filming on April 5, 1987.

Kevin Spacey (Mel Profitt) was cast three days before filming his first scene.

Gary Cole was originally cast as Mel Profitt.

This show is responsible for introducing the season long "story arc" to television. It was for precisely that reason that every network turned this show down multiple times. Network executives did not believe that audiences would invest in a single story being drawn out over seven or eight weeks. Then Creator Stephen J. Cannell sat down with new CBS President Kim LeMasters. LeMasters declared the story arc concept, "the coolest idea I ever heard." It has since become a staple of television drama.

Ken Wahl's character of Vincent "Vinnie" Terranova was based on real-life former undercover FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone, whose memoir of his undercover role of Donnie Brasco was also published in the following year after the show's premiere, 1988.