How ‘Tulsa King’ Captured the Grungy Side of Oklahoma With Squalid Strip Clubs, Dingy Dive Bars and Ratty Motels
Matthew Chernov Oklahoma is frequently depicted on screen as a peaceful place filled with scenic beauty, waving wheat fields and vast, bucolic plains. But the Paramount+ series “Tulsa King” captures a far grungier side of the Sooner State, and much of the credit for that goes to the show’s production designer, Todd Jeffery. Created by Taylor Sheridan, “Tulsa King” stars Sylvester Stallone as Dwight Manfredi, a Mafia capo who’s banished to Tulsa, Okla., by his New York underworld family after serving a 25-year prison sentence. A fish out of water, the Brooklyn-born gangster wastes no time in organizing a new criminal empire made up of colorful Oklahomans.