The high-stakes, coke-fueled era of excess and indulgence that preceded the 1987 Wall Street crash — the worst in history — is the subject of the black comedy “Black Monday.”

Don Cheadle stars as Maurice “Mo” Monroe, who heads up a band of renegade brokers intent on upending the old boys’ stock exchange network through a series of nefarious maneuvers. Sunday’s premiere episode reveals the climax of the story when one of Mo’s staff jumps from a great height and smashes onto a parked red Lamborghini. The ensuing episodes flash back from that suicide.

“We’re looking back from today with a bit of a wink and getting to laud some of the fun about the ’80s. And say, ‘Look how far we haven’t come,’ ” says Jordan Cahan, who created the series with his writing partner David Caspe.

They freely admit they have no background in finance. “I don’t know that I own a share of stock,” Caspe says. “I’m sure I have a pension. I do not play the stock market.”

“We’re not economists.” Cahan says. “We read a lot of books. ‘Den of Thieves.’ ‘Barbarians at the Gate.’ ”

‘We wanted classic underdogs fighting against the establishment, like the Bad News Bears.’

Even better, Caspe’s father, a soybean trader out of Chicago, told them plenty of “crazy stories” from that time to place them in the Wall Street groove. “We kind of took it from there,” Caspe says. “We wanted classic underdogs fighting against the establishment, like the Bad News Bears.”

Cheadle’s character leads a motley crew that includes Blair (Andrew Rannells), a newbie getting a crash course in Wall Street ethics, Keith (Paul Sheer), a closeted family man, and Dawn (Regina Hall), the lone woman holding her own in the abrasively profane culture. While Mo shoots from the hip, making deals with shady customers, Dawn tries to keep her boss in check while pushing for a promotion.

“Dawn is the eyes into that world for that audience,” says Caspe. “We’re satirizing the bro culture and showing what it means for a woman to be in a male-dominated industry back then. And what she does to thrive and survive [there] echoes beyond that culture.”

As the 10-episode series unfolds, viewers will get clues as to the identity of the unfortunate soul who lands on the Lamborghini. “We never show the face” says Cahan. One clue is an emerald tie pin fastened to the dead person’s tie. In Episode 1, Blair wears the pin to a job interview, but he doesn’t have it for long. Another clue is the gold Rolex on the corpse’s arm. Mo wears that watch in the beginning of the show.

“These two objects keep floating around. Various people get the tie pin and the watch,” Cahan says. “Whoever is stuck with the tie pin and the watch in the end is the one who dies.”

“Black Monday” 10 p.m. Sunday on Showtime