Ray Liotta to Produce American Mafia Docuseries ‘Five Families’ for the History Channel

Ray Liotta is teaming up with the History Channel to chronicle the rise and fall of the New York mafia’s most prominent families. On Wednesday, the network greenlit the documentary series, titled “Five Families.”

The eight-part docuseries, based on the book “Five Families: The Rise, Decline and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires” by Selwyn Raab, will dive into the lives of the Genovese, Gambino, Bonnano, Colombo and Lucchese families.

For decades these five families ruled New York and built the American Mafia into an underworld empire.

The series will follow the Mob from its explosive and violent growth in Prohibition, its golden age of domination in the 1970s and 1980s, up through its heated war with law enforcement — a feud they ultimately lost.

Liotta, who made a career of playing tough guys and mobsters in films like “Goodfellas,” will executive produce the series alongside Michael Stiller, Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens. “Five Families” is produced for the History Channel by Propagate.