The Sopranos

The Sopranos is an American crime drama television series created by David Chase. The series follows Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey Mafia boss who suffers from panic attacks. He reluctantly begins seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), who encourages him to open up about his difficulties balancing his family life with his criminal life. Other important characters include Tony's family, Mafia colleagues, and rivals, most notably his wife Carmela (Edie Falco) and his protégé and distant cousin Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli).

Having been greenlit in 1997, the series was broadcast on HBO from January 10, 1999, to June 10, 2007, spanning six seasons and 86 episodes. Broadcast syndication followed in the United States and internationally. The Sopranos was produced by HBO, Chase Films, and Brad Grey Television. It was primarily filmed at Silvercup Studios in New York City, with some on-location filming in New Jersey. The executive producers throughout the show's run were Chase, Brad Grey, Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess, Ilene S. Landress, Terence Winter, and Matthew Weiner.

Widely regarded as the greatest and most influential television series of all time,The Sopranos has been credited with kickstarting the Second Golden Age of Television. The series won multiple awards, including Peabody Awards for its first two seasons, 21 Primetime Emmy Awards, and five Golden Globe Awards. It has been the subject of critical analysis, controversy, and parody; it has also spawned books, a video game, soundtrack albums, podcasts, and merchandise. Several members of the show's cast and crew were largely unknown to the public when it began, but have since had successful careers.

In March 2018, New Line Cinema announced that they had purchased a film detailing the show's background story, set in the 1960s and 1970s during and after the Newark riots. The film, The Many Saints of Newark (2021), was written by Chase and Lawrence Konner and directed by Alan Taylor. It starred Gandolfini's son Michael Gandolfini as a young Tony Soprano.

The series follows Tony Soprano, a North Jersey-based Italian-American mobster, who tries to balance his family life with his role as the boss of the Soprano family. Tony's career causes him frequent rage and anxiety, and after suffering from a particularly bad panic attack, he reluctantly begins therapy sessions with psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi. In Dr. Melfi's office, Tony slowly begins to open up about his emotional problems, even as his career continually leads him into dangerous and even life-threatening scenarios. He finds himself at odds with his uncle Junior, his wife Carmela, and other ambitious members of the Soprano family, as well as the Lupertazzi family of New York.

David Chase had worked as a television writer and producer for more than 20 years before creating The Sopranos. He had been employed as a staff writer or producer for several television series, including Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Switch, The Rockford Files, I'll Fly Away, and Northern Exposure. He had also co-created the series Almost Grown in 1988. He made his television directorial debut in 1986 with the "Enough Rope for Two" episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He also directed episodes of Almost Grown and I'll Fly Away in 1988 and 1992, respectively. In 1996, he wrote and directed the television film The Rockford Files: Punishment and Crime. He served as showrunner for I'll Fly Away and Northern Exposure in the 1990s. Chase won his first Emmy Award in 1978 for his work on The Rockford Files (shared with fellow producers) and his second for writing the 1980 television film Off the Minnesota Strip. By 1996, he was a coveted showrunner.

The story of The Sopranos was initially conceived as a feature film about "a mobster in therapy having problems with his mother". Chase got some input from his manager Lloyd Braun and decided to adapt it into a television series. He signed a development deal in 1995 with production company Brillstein-Grey and wrote the original pilot script. He drew heavily from his personal life and his experiences growing up in an Italian-American family in New Jersey, and has stated that he tried to apply his own "family dynamic to mobsters". For instance, the tumultuous relationship between series protagonist Tony Soprano and his mother Livia is partially based on Chase's relationship with his own mother. He was also in psychotherapy at the time and modeled the character of Jennifer Melfi after his own psychiatrist.

Chase had been fascinated by organized crime and the mafia from an early age, witnessing such people growing up. He also was raised on classic gangster films such as The Public Enemy and the crime series The Untouchables. The series is partly inspired by the Richard Boiardo family, a prominent New Jersey organized crime family when Chase was growing up, and partly on New Jersey's DeCavalcante family. He has mentioned American playwrights Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams as influences on the show's writing, and Italian director Federico Fellini as an important influence on the show's cinematic style. The series was named after high school friends of his.

Chase and producer Brad Grey pitched The Sopranos to several networks; Fox showed interest but passed on it after Chase presented them the pilot script. They eventually pitched the show to Chris Albrecht, president of HBO Original Programming, who decided to finance a pilot episode which was shot in 1997. Chase directed it himself. They finished the pilot and showed it to HBO executives, but the show was put on hold for several months.

During this time, Chase, who had experienced frustration for a long period with being unable to break out of the TV genre and into film, considered asking HBO for additional funding to shoot 45 more minutes of footage and release The Sopranos as a feature film. In December 1997, HBO decided to produce the series and ordered 12 more episodes for a 13-episode season. The show premiered on HBO on January 10, 1999, with the pilot, "The Sopranos".

North Jersey prosecutor and municipal judge Robert Baer filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Chase in Trenton, New Jersey, federal court, alleging that he helped to create the show. Baer lost the suit, but he won a ruling that a jury should decide how much he should be paid for services as a location scout, researcher, and story consultant. Baer argued that he had introduced Chase to Tony Spirito, a restaurateur and gambler with alleged mob ties, and Thomas Koczur, a homicide detective for the Elizabeth, New Jersey police department. Chase had conducted interviews and tours with both, which strongly inspired some characters, settings, and storylines portrayed in The Sopranos. On December 19, 2007, a federal jury found against Baer, dismissing all of his claims.

Many of the actors on The Sopranos are Italian American from the New York metropolitan area, like the characters they portray, and many appeared together in films and television series before joining the cast of The Sopranos. The series has 27 actors in common with the 1990 Martin Scorsese gangster film Goodfellas, including main cast members Lorraine Bracco, Michael Imperioli, and Tony Sirico.

The casting directors were Georgianne Walken and Sheila Jaffe. The main cast was put together through a process of auditions and readings. Actors often did not know whether Chase liked their performances or not. Michael Imperioli beat out several actors for the part of Christopher Moltisanti; he said that Chase had "a poker face, so I thought he wasn't into me, and he kept giving me notes and having me try it again, which often is a sign that you're not doing it right." Chase said that he wanted Imperioli because of his performance in Goodfellas.

James Gandolfini was invited to audition for the part of Tony Soprano after casting director Susan Fitzgerald saw a short clip of his performance in the 1993 film True Romance. Lorraine Bracco played the role of mob wife Karen Hill in Goodfellas, and she was originally asked to play the role of Carmela Soprano. She took the role of Dr. Jennifer Melfi instead because she wanted to try something different and felt that the part of the highly educated Dr. Melfi would be more of a challenge for her. Tony Sirico had a criminal history, and he signed on to play Paulie Walnuts so long as his character was not to be a "rat". Sirico had originally auditioned for the role of Uncle Junior with Frank Vincent, but Dominic Chianese landed the role.

Chase was impressed with Steven Van Zandt's humorous appearance and presence after seeing him induct The Rascals into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, and invited him to audition. Van Zandt, a guitarist in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, had never acted before. He auditioned for the role of Tony Soprano, but HBO felt that the role should go to an experienced actor, so Chase wrote a new part for him. Van Zandt eventually agreed to star on the show as consigliere Silvio Dante, and his real-life spouse Maureen was cast as his on-screen wife Gabriella.

The cast of the debut season of the series consisted of largely unknown actors, with the exception of Bracco, Chianese, and Nancy Marchand, but many cast members were noted for their acting ability and received mainstream attention for their performances. Subsequent seasons saw established actors Joe Pantoliano, Robert Loggia, Steve Buscemi, and Frank Vincent join the starring cast, along with well-known actors in recurring roles such as Peter Bogdanovich, John Heard, Robert Patrick, Peter Riegert, Annabella Sciorra, and David Strathairn.

Numerous well-known actors appeared in one or two episodes, such as Lauren Bacall, Daniel Baldwin, Annette Bening, Polly Bergen, Sandra Bernhard, Paul Dano, Charles S. Dutton, Jon Favreau, Janeane Garofalo, Hal Holbrook, Tim Kang, Elias Koteas, Ben Kingsley, Linda Lavin, Ken Leung, Julianna Margulies, Sydney Pollack, Wilmer Valderrama, Alicia Witt, and Burt Young. Ray Liotta, who was eventually cast as two of the Moltisanti brothers in The Many Saints of Newark film prequel, was approached by Chase at one point to appear in the third or fourth seasons of the show, but the plan did not work out.