The Gangster Chronicles is a 1981 American crime drama television miniseries starring Michael Nouri, Joe Penny, Jon Polito, Louis Giambalvo, Kathleen Lloyd, Madeleine Stowe, Chad Redding, Markie Post, Allan Arbus, James Andronica, Robert Davi, Joseph Mascolo,[1][2][3] and narrated by E.G. Marshall.[4][5][6][3]
| The Gangster Chronicles | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Written by | David Assael Art Eisenson Stephen McPherson Mark Rodgers |
| Directed by | Richard C. Sarafian |
| Starring | Michael Nouri Joe Penny Jon Polito Madeleine Stowe Markie Post Robert Davi Brian Benben Louis Giambalvo E.G. Marshall Karen Kondazian |
| Theme music composer | Billy Goldenberg |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Matthew Rapf |
| Production locations | Capitola, California Santa Cruz, California |
| Running time |
|
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | February 2 (1981-02-02) – May 8, 1981 (1981-05-08) |
A historically-based crime drama about the lives of gangsters Bugsy Siegel, Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky.
There were 13 60-minute episodes. The series was narrated by E. G. Marshall.
| Gangster Wars | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Richard C. Sarafian |
| Written by | Richard DeKoker |
| Produced by | Stuart Cohen |
| Starring | Michael Nouri |
| Music by | John Cacavas |
| Distributed by | CIC |
Release date |
|
Running time | 121 min. |
| Language | English |
Gangster Wars is a 1981 American crime film directed by Richard C. Sarafian and based on the original Gangster Chronicles telecast. The film tells the story of three teenagers, based on real life gangsters Charles "Lucky" Luciano (Michael Nouri), Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (Joe Penny) and Michael Lasker (Brian Benben) (a fictional character who was most likely modeled after Meyer Lansky), growing up in New York's ghettos during the early 1900s to their rise through organized crime.
This movie was a three-hour opener for the subsequent miniseries. In addition to the characters above Brian Benben's character is a fictional composite of several mobsters (here named "Michael Lasker"). While the miniseries covered seven decades, the opener takes us from 1907 to the Prohibition era of the 1920s. After its initial run, the entire Gangster Chronicles saga was boiled down to 121 minutes and released to videocassette as Gangster Wars.
{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
