Forget Frisco King, Michael Mann’s ‘Crime Story’ Beat Taylor Sheridan To It By 40 Years

As groundbreaking as Taylor Sheridan's first spinoff of the beloved gangster series Tulsa King, Samuel L. Jackson's Frisco King, may seem, Michael Mann's Crime Story beat it to the punch 40 years ago. Among the nine upcoming Taylor Sheridan shows on the horizon, Tulsa King and Frisco King are among the most exciting. Tulsa King season 4 looks primed to continue Dwight's excellent story so far, while Frisco King is poised to turn it into a franchise that could rival even Yellowstone.

While Frisco King season 1 has reportedly already finished filming, it doesn't have an official release date yet. Given how packed Sheridan's lineup of upcoming shows is, there's a chance Frisco King won't premiere on Paramount+ for another year. Luckily for fans eagerly awaiting the first Tulsa King spinoff series and Samuel L. Jackson's first standalone Taylor Sheridan show, there's another series that scratches almost the exact same itch, and it's been out for 40 years.

Michael Mann may be best known for his high-octane crime movies, like Collateral, Heat, and others, he also tried his hand at television years ago. Mann worked as an executive producer on 1986's Crime Story, a two-season show that followed Mike Torello, a Chicago police officer, and Ray Luca, a gangster who was sent to Las Vegas by the Chicago mob. Just off that description alone, it should be plain to see how Crime Story relates to Frisco King.

Michael Mann’s Crime Story Already Did What Taylor Sheridan Is Doing With Frisco King

The premise of Frisco King, of Samuel L. Jackson's character starting off as a hitman for the mob before striking out on his own in Frisco, Texas, is nearly identical to the story of Crime Story. In Crime Story, Luca starts out as a hitman for the mob before rising through the ranks and being sent to Las Vegas to run a bookmaking racket. All the while, Luca is being hunted by Torello and navigating the tense criminal underworld of the 1960s.

Frisco King does have a few key differences from Crime Story. The former takes place in the modern day, while the latter is set in the 1960s, for example, while Russell Lee Washington Jr. is out to start his own criminal enterprise while Ray Luca is rising through the ranks of an existing crime family. Still, both main characters start out as hitmen, go West to (relatively) untapped criminal markets, and potentially get hunted by figures from their past. It's not clear exactly how Frisco King's story will play out yet, but it's shaping up to be heavily inspired by Crime Story.

Crime Story also bears some resemblance to Tulsa King itself. Like the earlier show, Tulsa King had a mafioso sent to the West to manage criminal operations for an existing mob, but it's still more similar to Frisco King. The key is the role both Lee and Luca play as hitmen who try to make a name for themselves; Dwight was already a made man, whereas Crime Story and, presumably, Frisco King will focus on their protagonists going even deeper into the criminal underworld.

Crime Story Is A Forgotten Gangster TV Masterpiece

The similarities Crime Story has to Frisco King and Tulsa King also serve as the perfect excuse to rediscover this forgotten gangster masterpiece. The gangster genre, especially on television, has only really become dominant in the 21st century. From The Sopranos to Boardwalk Empire to Peaky Blinders, some of the best gangster shows ever have come from the last 20 years.

Crime Story was, in many ways, ahead of its time. It had everything you could want out of a gangster show: a complicated criminal underworld teeming with violence and intrigue, a serialized plot that plays out beautifully across two seasons, some fantastic characters with a great cat-and-mouse dynamic, and Michael Mann's irreplaceable style at the center of it all. If it had come out in 2006 instead of 1986, Crime Story could have been as big as The Sopranos.

Because it was so ahead of its time, Crime Story has also come to be more appreciated in the present. It's now considered one of the best shows in general of the 1980s, and it's still influencing shows like Tulsa King and Frisco King to this day. In short, if you need something to watch while waiting for Frisco King, or if you just like good gangster shows, Crime Story is a great pick.