Cruise’s acting career began in 1981 with a small role in the rom-com Endless Love, but his big break arrived two years later when he starred as Joel Goodsen in the teen comedy Risky Business.

Cruise established himself as a movie star and a high-grossing actor when he starred in Tony Scott’s Top Gun, which he followed with starring roles in The Color of Money, Rain Man, Days of Thunder, and Interview with the Vampire. Cruise’s status as an action star began with the first Mission: Impossible movie in 1996, and he has been unstoppable ever since. Although Cruise is known for his work in film, he paid a visit to the world of TV in the early 1990s, and it was his directorial debut.

Tom Cruise Directed One Episode Of Fallen Angels

Fallen Angels Ran For Two Seasons

Tom Cruise’s directorial debut was with one episode of the neo-noir anthology TV series Fallen Angels. Developed by Steve Golin, each episode of Fallen Angels was based on a story by a crime writer, including Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy, and Walter Mosley, among many others. Fallen Angels premiered on Showtime in 1993 and ran for two seasons, with a total of 15 episodes. Season 1’s fourth episode, “The Frightening Frammis”, was directed by Tom Cruise.

In Europe, the show was titled Perfect Crimes.

“The Frightening Frammis” was based on Jim Thompson’s novelette of the same name, published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine in 1957. The episode tells the story of Mitch Allison (Peter Gallagher), who stole $25,000 from his wife, Bette (Nancy Travis), a con artist. Wanting more, Mitch gets on a train with the plan of doubling the money in a gambling scam. “The Frightening Frammis” aired in 1993, but despite the show’s potential and its talented cast and team of directors (more on that in a bit), Fallen Angels wasn’t well received by critics, and it ended in 1995.

Fallen Angels Had Many Well-Known Directors

Fallen Angels Had A Strong Team Of Directors

More often than not, having a brilliant cast and crew isn’t enough to save a TV show if the writing and overall concept are all over the place, and that was the case for Fallen Angels. The show was called “uneven”, “film-school level”, and obsessed with style (but not succeeding at it, either), which is why it’s not hard to see why it became a forgettable project, even though it had a list of well-known directors and actors-as-directors accompanying Tom Cruise.

Fallen Angels started with an episode directed by Phil Joanou (best known for his work in music videos, mostly for the Irish band U2), followed by an episode directed by Tom Hanks, who had directed an episode of Tales from the Crypt the year before. Accompanying Cruise on the list of directors of the first season of Fallen Angels are Steven Soderbergh, Alfonso Cuarón, and Jonathan Kaplan.

Season 2 kicked off with an episode directed by Kiefer Sutherland (who had previously directed the TV movie Last Light), followed by Soderbergh’s return, Peter Bogdanovich (Paper Moon), Michael Lehmann (Heathers), John Dahl, Keith Gordon, Tim Hunter, Agnieszka Holland (The Secret Garden), and Jim McBride.

Why Tom Cruise Hasn’t Returned To TV

Tom Cruise Has Focused On His Film Career

Fallen Angels was Tom Cruise’s directorial debut and first time doing TV, and so far, it has been the only time. In 2009, he was the narrator of the documentary TV movie Together: The Hendrick Motorsports Story, and appeared as himself at the Paris 2024 Olympics closing ceremony, but that’s as far as he has gone on TV. While Cruise hasn’t shared a reason for staying away from TV, his rise in popularity might have had something to do with it.

Tom Cruise has focused on his film career with great success.

The year after his Fallen Angels episode aired, Cruise starred as Lestat in Interview with the Vampire, and two years later, he starred in Mission: Impossible and Jerry Maguire, the two movies that further boosted his career and popularity. Since then, Tom Cruise has focused on his film career with great success, so when taking all this into , it makes sense that he hasn’t been drawn to TV projects again.