The HISTORY Channel is set to premiere a new nonfiction documentary series, “American Godfathers: The Five Families,” across three consecutive nights, beginning Sunday, August 11, at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Executive produced and narrated by Emmy Award-winning actor Michael Imperioli, the six-hour docuseries explores the rise and fall of New York City’s five Mafia families and their extensive involvement in organized crime over a period of more than fifty years.
Based on Selwyn Raab’s New York Times best-seller, “Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires,” the series traces the history of the Mafia back to its early ties with Sicily. It focuses on the five New York families appointed by Charles “Lucky” Luciano, who created The Commission, the governing body for the American Mafia, in 1931. These families lived by a strict honor code, with omertá, or “silence,” being the key to their success and protection from law enforcement.
The series looks at how the Mafia seamlessly moved from one racket to another, profiting through wartime, depression, and legislative changes. However, the uniquely American values of greed and celebrity, along with relentless federal law enforcement efforts, eventually took their toll.
From the heyday of Lucky Luciano to the media storm surrounding Joseph “Big Joey” Massino’s decision to turn on his family in 2005, the breakdown of the code, and the violent power struggles within the families, the series offers a vivid chronicle of the Mafia’s history.
Through investigative archival materials, recreations, audio recordings, and new on-camera interviews with authors, historians, experts, law enforcement, and former mafia affiliates, we will gain an inside look at the most powerful criminal organization of the twentieth century.
Produced by Propagate and the Barnicle Brothers, each episode of “American Godfathers: The Five Families” will be available to stream the day after its premiere on the HISTORY Channel app, history.com, and major TV providers’ VOD platforms.
