You've Probably Never Seen The One Thing Tom Cruise Really Did

The early days of premium cable channels such as HBO and Showtime were a Wild West for cutting-edge TV shows. All of a sudden, you could do a series about sex and violence and show all the sex and violence. For example, "Dream On" was in many ways a typical sitcom about a single dad trying to find love in the big city, except it was on HBO, so his sex life wasn't involved, it contained real nudity. < /p>

Before cable channels churned out expensive, long-running shows like “The Sopranos” and “Dexter,” one of the most popular genres was the old-school anthology series. Every week there would be a new story, a new director, and a new cast. High visibility, time-limited engagement, and relative creative freedom have allowed networks like HBO and Showtime to attract high-profile celebrities for bizarre programs like the ultra-violent "Tales from the Crypt." , or even Shelley Duvall's "Faerie Tale". Theatre."

Into this strange world of turn-of-the-century high-end cable anthologies came "Fallen Angels," a Showtime series where every episode was a noir short story. Although largely forgotten today, the show was produced by Oscar-winning actor Sydney Pollack — who directed Tom Cruise in 'The Firm,' which came out the same summer that 'Fallen Angels' debuted — and has enlisted a cavalcade of talent in front and behind the camera, including actors like Brendan Fraser, Laura Dern, Gary Oldman, Danny Glover, Alan Rickman and Tom Hanks, as well as directors like Alfonso Cuaron, Steven Soderbergh, Peter Bogdanovich, Agnieska Holland , and... well, Tom Hanks .

Oh yeah, and Tom Cruise also directed an episode.