Sylvester Stallone has been in show business for several decades. His entertainment career started in the 1960s with very small roles — we’re talking uncredited extra work here. More parts followed over the years, and then finally, in 1976, came “Rocky.” The film, which Stallone both starred in and wrote, helped turn the actor into a mega-star. During the ’80s and ’90s, he was a blockbuster actor, appearing in big franchise films and growing his brand in the process. You’d think decades of work would’ve prepared Stallone for his first TV show, the Taylor Sheridan-created series “Tulsa King.”
In the series, Stallone plays Dwight “The General” Manfredi, a mobster who relocates from New York to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and begins to set up a new criminal empire. Here’s the official synopsis:
Tulsa King follows New York mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi, (Stallone) as he’s released from prison after 25 years and unceremoniously exiled by his boss to set up shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Realizing that his mob family may not have his best interests in mind, Dwight slowly builds a crew from a group of unlikely characters to help him establish a new criminal empire in a place that to him might as well be another planet.
Stallone has played mobsters before, but according to Stallone himself, TV is a much different beast than filmmaking. And the schedule behind making “Tulsa King” turned out to be challenging for the actor.
“I can’t believe some people have done this for four, five or six seasons. It’s brutal, compared to filmmaking. I’ll never say, ‘This is a hard shoot’ again on a feature. It’s a vacation compared to this! It really is.”
