Production[edit]
Conception[edit]
Before creating The Sopranos, David Chase had worked as a television producer for more than 20 years.[16][17] He had been employed as a staff writer/producer for several television series (including Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Switch, The Rockford Files, I'll Fly Away, and Northern Exposure[18][19]) and had co-created one short-lived original series, Almost Grown, in 1988.[20][21] He made his television directorial debut in 1986 with the "Enough Rope for Two" episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presentsrevival. 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.[19] 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.[22][23] By 1996, he was a coveted showrunner.[24]
"I want to tell a story about this particular man. I want to tell the story about the reality of being a mobster—or what I perceive to be the reality of life in organized crime. They aren't shooting each other every day. They sit around eating baked ziti and betting and figuring out who owes who money. Occasionally, violence breaks out—more often than it does in the banking world, perhaps."
The story of The Sopranos was initially conceived as a feature film about "a mobster in therapy having problems with his mother."[20] After some input from his manager, Lloyd Braun, Chase decided to adapt it into a television series.[20] In 1995, Chase signed a development deal withproduction company Brillstein-Grey and wrote the original pilot script.[17][22][26]
Drawing heavily from his personal life and his experiences growing up in New Jersey, Chase has stated that he tried to "apply [his own] family dynamic to mobsters."[25] 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.[25] Chase was also in therapy at the time and modeled the character of Dr. Jennifer Melfi after his own psychiatrist.[27] Chase had been fascinated by organized crime and the Mafia from an early age, witnessing such people growing up, and having been raised on classic gangster films like The Public Enemy and the crime series The Untouchables. The series is partly inspired by the Boiardo family, a prominent New Jersey organized crime family when Chase was growing up, and partly on New Jersey's DeCavalcante family.[28] Chase has mentioned American playwrights Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams as influences on his and the show's writing and Italian director Federico Fellini as an important influence on the show's cinematic style.[24][29][30] The series was named after high school friends of his.[16][27] Like the majority of the characters on the show, Chase is Italian-American. His original family name is DeCesare.[31]
"I said to myself, this show is about a guy who's turning 40. He's inherited a business from his dad. He's trying to bring it into the modern age. He's got all the responsibilities that go along with that. He's got an overbearing mom that he's still trying to get out from under. Although he loves his wife, he's had an affair. He's got two teenage kids, and he's dealing with the realities of what that is. He's anxious; he's depressed; he starts to see a therapist because he's searching for the meaning of his own life. I thought: the only difference between him and everybody I know is he's the Don of New Jersey."
Chase and producer Brad Grey, then of Brillstein-Grey, pitched The Sopranos to several networks; Fox showed interest but passed on it after Chase presented them the pilot script.[26] Chase and Grey eventually pitched the show to Chris Albrecht, at the time president of HBO Original Programming, who decided to finance the shooting of a pilot episode.[17][22]
The pilot episode—originally referred to as "Pilot" but renamed to "The Sopranos" on the DVD release—was shot in 1997;[33] Chase directed it himself.[19] After the pilot was finished and shown to the HBO executives, the show was put on hold for several months. During this time, Chase 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.[17][22][34] The show premiered on HBO on January 10, 1999 with the pilot episode. The Sopranos was the second hour-long television drama series produced by HBO, the first being the prison drama Oz.
Baer v. Chase[edit]
Robert Baer (a former North Jersey prosecutor and municipal judge) lost a breach of contract lawsuit he filed against Chase in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, alleging he helped create the show, but Baer won a ruling that a jury should decide if and how much Baer should be paid for services as a location scout, researcher, andconsultant. The gist of Baer's argument: in addition to Chase's own sources and ideas, some characters, settings, and storylines portrayed in The Sopranos were allegedly inspired by tours and conversations the series creator had with Tony Spirito ("a restaurateur and admitted gambler who says he often did 'favors' such as chauffeuring for wiseguys he had known all his life. His old pals included reputed notorious figure John 'Uncle Johnny' Riggi and Louis 'Fat Lou' LaRasso, a late underboss of the DeCavalcante crime family"), Thomas Koczur (a homicide detective for the Elizabeth Police Department), and people Spirito and Koczur introduced Chase to, in addition to communications and input provided by Baer, who'd introduced Chase to Spirito and Koczur in the first place.[35][36][37]
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