Thanks. 2 different people figured this out for me. It's nice to know that, for once, I actually DO have EVERY SINGLE EPISODE. I've put in much more time and effort on some shows and still come up short, due to erratic scheduling (is it any wonder I'm convinced many TV execs are hardcore drug addicts?).
One thing I remember comparing back when was how each version of "the Al Capone story" had a DIFFERENT explanation for how the Feds were able to put him away for Income Tax evasion.
In the Robert Stack version (the 2-hour
DESILU PLAYHOUSE story, before
THE UNTOUCHABLES ever became a weekly series), all of Ness' efforts came to nothing. Someone ELSE in the Treasury Department, some anonymous accountant, dug up the info, and brought up the case. Ness didn't care, as long as Capone was put away. At the end, the narrator made a point of saying that except for when they crossed paths at the courthouse, the day Capone was being hauled away to jail, the two of them had NEVER MET.
I forget what they did in the Rod Steiger
AL CAPONE movie. I need to see that again, and get myself a copy of it. However, in the early-70's film
CAPONE, with Ben Gazarra, his right-hand man, Frank Nitti, turned over the tax records, saying, "Capone was an animal. He was always shooting at someone across the street. What he never realized was, the guy he had to worry about was the one on the SAME side of the street as he was-- and one rung DOWN the ladder." Nitti was played by Sylvester Stallone!
In 1981's
THE GANGSTER CHRONICLES, Ness and his suad are never even mentioned. it's like, in that univere, they don't even exist. In TGC version, Lucky Luciano (Michael Nouri) was the one who somehow got the tax records to the Feds, to not only get rid of his rival (Louis Giambalvo, my vote for the BEST Capone on screen, ever), but also for revenge for Capone beating the crap out of Charlie's ex-girlfriend, Chris Brennen (Markie Post!).
The 90's UNTOUCHABLES made a huge freaking EPIC out of it. not only did they drag out the Capone story for 42 episodes, the tax case finale took 2 entire episodes. In this one, Fed Paul Robbins has the idea, but Elliot keeps dismissing it... until one of the witnesses they hauled in commits suicide while in custodey, and he's put ON SUSPENSION. Then, after a rival Capo tries to kill Capone (while Capone was showing interest in running for Governor), Elliot contacts Nitti with a deal-- the tax records, for Capone's safety.
Then, after ALL the Capos conspire together to betray Capone (each supplying records books to a pile of them-- except the one guy who refused, who the SHOT dead), the guy they ignored, Frankie Rio (Al's other right-hand), started his own little war to take back what the rest tried to grab. Next thing, Nitti regrets betraying his best friend, goes to see Al, begos forgiveness, and almost commits suicide in front of him! But instead, Al takes him back, and sends him out to murder the ONE loud-mouthed little rat of a Capo who wanted Capone dead in the first place.
Nitti had been baby-sitting the book-keeper for Elliot-- until he had his chage of heart. But when he plans to take the guy out and kill him, Nitti's GIRLFRIEND, who kept pushing HIM to be "the king of Chicago", calls ness herself, and his qaud rescues the accountant, and get him to the courthouse JUST as the judge was about to dismiss the entire case. Talk about building up a mountan of suspense!!!
After that, I realized this morning WHY the ending bothered me so much. there was NO epilogue, other than when Ness & Capone exchanged words, and then Ness & the boys going out for dinner. It felt very much like they fully intended to do at least a few more episodes. Especially when they had Nitti and his entire crew walk by Ness just before the end. They threw everything into that episode, the downfall of Capone, I feel, was MORE satisfying than the end of the Dominion War in
DEEP SPACE NINE-- but-- no epilogue!
There was a real-life happy ending. Tom Amandes, who played Ness, and Nancy Everheard, who played his wife, were married in real life, and are STILL together! I like that...
Funny thing-- Paul Regina, who played Nitti for 42 episodes, 12 years earlier, had played the TEENAGED Charlie Luciano in the 1st episode of
THE GANGSTER CHRONICES! I haven't watched this show in over 25 years (not since before I ever watched my first
NIGHT COURT episode with Markie Post). That 1st hour is like a dark, perverse version of the 1978
SUPERMAN movie, as Luciano (and his friends) are all played by 2 or 3 different actors from childhood to teen years to adults.
At the rate I'm going, in a couple days I'll be starting in on the Robert Stack series. I put in an immense amount of work to get the 75 episodes I have... it's a shame that, due to erratic reruns in the 80's or 90's, I was never able to get all the ones I'm still missing. (It got SO aggravating, when I managed to make it to 75, I threw my hands up and said, "
ENOUGH! To HELL with this.")
