Neal Justin: Sylvester Stallone tries to prove he's still Hollywood royalty with TV's 'Tulsa King'

As far back as he can remember, Sylvester Stallone always wanted to be a gangster.

"It's always been kind of a fantasy since I was rejected to be one of the 200 extras who basically stood behind a wedding cake in 'The Godfather,' " the actor told TV critics during a recent virtual news conference. "Since 1970, I've been trying to get in gangster films, and it just never happened. But good things come to those who wait."

That good thing is "Tulsa King."

The series, dropping Nov. 20 on Paramount Plus, features Stallone as mob captain Dwight Manfredi, who's released from prison after 25 years. Instead of being rewarded for refusing to rat out his New York bosses, he's banished to Oklahoma to start a one-man operation. He's ordered to send back $5,000 a week, but they would be just as happy if he got a job pumping gas and lost their phone numbers.

In many ways, it's a fish-out-of-water story. Manfredi has to adjust to Uber, legalized marijuana and $5 cups of coffee. But it's also a series about redemption, especially when he tries reconnecting with his estranged daughter.

"He's trying to be a better person, trying to put his life back together, and doing it in a way that I've never gotten a chance to explore before," said showrunner Terence Winter, who co-wrote several of the episodes with creator Taylor Sheridan. "And certainly there's no better person to do it with and embody that than Sly."

Stallone, 76, certainly picked the right people to lean on for his first scripted series. Winter and Allen Coulter, who directed the first two episodes, were vital members of the teams behind "The Sopranos" and "Boardwalk Empire." Sheridan created "Yellowstone," the quasi-western hit that starts Season 5 Sunday on Paramount Plus.

The "Rocky" star's entire career has been a series of knockouts and whiffs.

His numerous blockbusters make him the only actor ever to have a No. 1 box-office hit in six consecutive decades. There have been just as many clunkers. Thanks to bombs like "Judge Dredd" and "Rhinestone," he has been nominated 15 times for a Razzie Award, which "celebrates" underachievement. Occasionally, he's attached himself to high-quality projects, like "Cop Land" and "Creed."

File "Tulsa" under that last category.

There are plenty of familiar moments — Manfredi punches four people in the very first episode — but Stallone has to rely more on double takes and wit than he ever had to as John Rambo. In the second episode, the character accidentally gets stoned, triggering a scene that's funnier than anything in the notorious bomb "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot."

"I will say the thing that kind of surprised me was how much humor Sly brought to Dwight," said Andrea Savage, who plays an FBI agent and possible love interest. "I didn't kind of see that coming. "

"In earlier days, people would say, 'Oh, well, you're not going to make it in film. You're in TV.' That's gone," he said. "Now you have so many fine performers and actors and writers creating streaming shows that have such depth and give people a chance to branch out. I'm glad I finally got an opportunity to jump on this train."