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116-750: The Sopranos is an American crime drama television series created by David Chase . The series revolves around Tony Soprano ( James Gandolfini ), a New Jersey -based Italian-American mobster who struggles to balance his family life with his role as the leader of a criminal organization, which he reluctantly explores during therapy sessions with psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi ( Lorraine Bracco ). The series also features Tony's various family members, Mafia colleagues, and rivals in prominent roles —most notably his wife Carmela ( Edie Falco ) and his protégé and distant cousin Christopher Moltisanti ( Michael Imperioli ). Having been greenlit in 1997,

232-526: A con man . After Ryan's release from prison, the two men opened a detective agency in Los Angeles . Their speciality involves the use of confidence tricks to trap criminals into revealing evidence of their guilt. Assisting them is another reformed con man, restaurant owner Malcolm Argos ( Charlie Callas ), and Maggie Philbin ( Sharon Gless ), Mac and Pete's naive-but-competent receptionist and assistant. The series pilot for CBS aired on March 21, 1975, as

348-405: A 90-minute made-for-television movie . William Bryant joined the cast as Lt. Shilton in season two, and Mindi Miller and James Hong joined the cast in season three. In the third season, Pete moves into an apartment above Malcolm's bar. The modestly successful show was put on hiatus in early 1978, its time slot taken by The Incredible Hulk . The remaining 10 unaired episodes were broadcast

464-416: A Hollywood feature went from $ 20,000 in 1914 to $ 300,000 in 1924. Silver and Ursini stated that the earliest crime features were by Austrian émigré director Josef von Sternberg whose films like Underworld (1927) eliminated most of the causes for criminal behavior and focused on the criminal perpetrators themselves which would anticipate the popular gangster films of the 1930s. The groundwork for

580-478: A broader category called "film type", mystery and suspense as "macro-genres", and film noir as a "screenwriter's pathway" explaining that these categories are additive rather than exclusionary. Chinatown would be an example of a film that is a drama (film type) crime film (super-genre) that is also a noir (pathway) mystery (macro-genre). The definition of what constitutes a crime film is not straightforward. Criminologist Nicole Hahn Rafter in her book Shots in

696-416: 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

812-505: A change signaled by films like Chinatown (1974) and The Wild Bunch (1969) noting that older genres were being transformed through cultivation of nostalgia and a critique of the myths cultivated by their respective genres. Todd found that this found its way into crime films of the 1980s with films that could be labeled as post-modern , in which he felt that "genres blur, pastiche prevails, and once-fixed ideals, such as time and meaning, are subverted and destabilized". This would apply to

928-575: A conservative era. For crime films, this led to various reactions, including political films that critiqued official policies and citizen's political apathy. These included films like Missing (1982), Silkwood (1983), and No Way Out (1987). Prison films and courtroom dramas would also be politically charged with films like Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) and Cry Freedom (1987). While films about serial killers existed in earlier films such as M (1931) and Peeping Tom (1960),

1044-454: A crooked shell" and portrayed gangsters who showcased the "romantic mystique of the doomed criminal." The 1940s formed an ambivalence toward the criminal heroes. Leitch suggested that this shift was from the decline in high-profile organized crime, partly because of the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 and partly because of the well-publicized success of the FBI. Unlike the crime films of the 1930s,

1160-539: A different song plays over the closing credits of each episode. Many songs are repeated multiple times through an episode, such as " Living on a Thin Line " by The Kinks in the season three episode " University " and "Glad Tidings" by Van Morrison in the season five finale " All Due Respect ". Other songs are heard several times throughout the series. A notable example is " Con te partirò ", performed by Italian singer Andrea Bocelli , which plays several times in relation to

1276-566: A fainting spell (triggered by a panic attack ), Tony's physician refers him for treatment by psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi ( Lorraine Bracco ) in the show's first episode . She treats Tony to the best of her ability, even when he is triggered to violent, angry outbursts. Melfi is usually thoughtful, rational, and humane, which is a stark contrast to Tony's personality. Tony, a serial womanizer, occasionally divulges his sexual attraction to Dr. Melfi. Melfi harbors some degree of attraction to Tony too, but rarely admits it and never acts on it. Melfi

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1392-459: 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

1508-674: 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

1624-484: A film described as "crime/ action " or an "action/crime" or other hybrids was "only a semantic exercise" as both genres are important in the construction phase of the narrative. Mark Bould in A Companion to Film Noir stated that categorization of multiple generic genre labels was common in film reviews and rarely concerned with succinct descriptions that evoke elements of the film's form, content and make no claims beyond on how these elements combine. Leitch, stated that

1740-491: A locker of the Hollywood Athletic Club. The Asphalt Jungle (1950) consolidated a tendency to define criminal subculture as a mirror of American culture. The cycle of caper films were foreshadowed by films like The Killers (1946) and Criss Cross (1949) to later examples like The Killing (1956) and Odds Against Tomorrow (1959). Leitch wrote that these films used the planning and action of

1856-684: A mobster known as The Snapper Kid. Regeneration (1915) was an early feature-length film about a gangster who saved from a life of crime by a social worker. These two early films and films like Tod Browning 's Outside the Law (1920) that deal with the world of criminal activity were described by Silver and Ursini as being gangsters "constrained by a strong moral code". Stuart Kaminsky in American Film Genres (1974) stated that prior to Little Caesar (1931), gangster characters were in films were essentially romances . European films of

1972-441: A more generic view. In a 2010 issue of TV Guide , the show's opening title sequence ranked No. 10 on a list of TV's top 10 credits sequences, as selected by readers. A parody of the opening sequence was used in an episode of The Simpsons . In " Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge ", a variation on the sequence is used, with Fat Tony leaving a Springfield tunnel instead of Tony. Fat Tony then continues to drive through Springfield to

2088-470: 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

2204-535: A psychopathic personality." Drew Todd in Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society described the character as different than films featuring rebellious characters from the 1940s and 1950s, with a character whose anger is directed against the state, mixed with fantasies of vigilante justice. Films like Dirty Harry , The French Connection and Straw Dogs (1971) that presented a violent vigilante as

2320-470: A remake of The Defiant Ones (1958). The cycle generally slowed down by the mid 1970s. Prison films closely followed the formulas of films of the past while having an increased level of profanity, violence and sex. Cool Hand Luke (1967) inaugurated the revival and was followed into the 1970s with films like Papillon (1973), Midnight Express (1978) and Escape from Alcatraz (1979). When Ronald Reagan became president in 1980, he ushered in

2436-490: A result. Charmaine also had a brief sexual encounter with Tony (when he and Carmela had temporarily broken-up) when all four were teenagers. John "Johnny Sack" Sacramoni ( Vince Curatola ), Phil Leotardo ( Frank Vincent ) and "Little" Carmine Lupertazzi Jr. ( Ray Abruzzo ) are all significant characters from the New York City–based Lupertazzi crime family , which shares a good amount of its business with

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2552-413: A robbery todramatize the "irreducible unreasonableness of life." The themes of existential despair made the these film popular with European filmmakers, who would make their own heist films like Rififi (1955) and Il bidone (1955). Filmmakers of the coming French New Wave movement would expand on these crime films into complex mixtures of nostalgia and critique with later pictures like Elevator to

2668-420: A savior. By the mid-1970s, a traditional lead with good looks, brawn and bravery was replaced with characters who Todd described as a "pathological outcast, embittered and impulsively violent." Hollywood productions began courting films produced and marketed by white Americans for the purpose of trying to attract a new audience with blaxploitation film. These films were almost exclusively crime films following

2784-406: A single story credit, and eight others are credited with writing a sole episode. The most prolific writers of the series were Chase (30 credited episodes, including story credits), Winter (25 episodes), Green and Burgess (22 episodes), Weiner (12 episodes), and Renzulli (9 episodes). Many of the directors had previously worked on television series and independent films. The most frequent directors of

2900-535: A soft-spoken soldier with a head for figures, and Furio Giunta ( Federico Castelluccio ), an Italian national who joins the family later in the series, who serves as Tony's violent enforcer and bodyguard. Other significant characters in the DiMeo family include Bobby "Bacala" Baccalieri ( Steven R. Schirripa ); Richie Aprile ( David Proval ); Ralph Cifaretto ( Joe Pantoliano ); Eugene Pontecorvo ( Robert Funaro ); and Vito Spatafore ( Joseph R. Gannascoli ). Bobby

3016-407: 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

3132-638: 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 . Suffering from anxiety -induced panic attacks , he reluctantly engages in therapy sessions with psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi throughout the series. He puts his life at risk on multiple occasions and finds himself at odds with his uncle Junior , his wife Carmela , other Mafia members and non-Mafia criminals, and New York City 's Lupertazzi family . David Chase had worked as

3248-402: Is a style of crime film that originated from two cinematic precursors: the gangster film and the gentleman thief film. The essential element in these films is the plot concentration on the commission of a single crime of great monetary significance, at least on the surface level. The narratives in these films focus on the heist being wrapped up in the execution of the crime more or at as much as

3364-435: Is a subordinate of Uncle Junior's whom Tony initially bullies, but later accepts into his inner circle. Ralph is a clever, ambitious top-earner, but his arrogant, obnoxious, disrespectful, and unpredictably violent tendencies turn Tony resentful. Richie Aprile is released from prison in season 2 and quickly makes waves. Pontecorvo is a young soldier who becomes a "made" man alongside Christopher. Spatafore works his way up through

3480-891: Is chronically frustrated by having not been made boss of the DiMeo family, despite old-school mob traditions entitling him to the position by seniority. He feels his authority is perpetually undermined by Tony's greater influence in the organization and barely contains his seething jealousy at having to watch both his younger brother (Tony's father) and now Tony leapfrog him in the organization. As their professional tensions escalate, Uncle Junior employs increasingly desperate behind-the-scenes measures to solve his problems with Tony, who still idolizes his uncle, and wants to retain Junior's affection and approval. Uncle Junior and Christopher are fixtures in Tony's real family, as well as his crime family, so their actions in one realm often create further conflicts in

3596-423: Is different just as crime are different than horror, science fiction and period drama films. Rafter also suggested that Westerns could be considered crime films, but that this perception would only be "muddying conceptual waters." The history of the crime film before 1940 follows reflected the changing social attitudes toward crime and criminals. In the first twenty years of the 20th Century, American society

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3712-405: Is drawn to the challenge of helping such an unusual client and naively assumes that their doctor–patient relationship will not affect her personal life in any way. Adding to Tony's complicated life is his relationship with his wife Carmela ( Edie Falco ), which is strained by his constant infidelity and her struggle to reconcile the reality of Tony's business, of which she is often in denial, with

3828-504: Is nominal boss of the crime family following the death of then-acting boss Jackie Aprile Sr. ( Michael Rispoli ), Christopher Moltisanti ( Michael Imperioli ) his immature and hot-headed cousin and protégé and his maternal cousin Tony Blundetto ( Steve Buscemi ). Both Livia and Janice are scheming treacherous shrewd manipulators with major unaddressed psychological issues of their own. The single-mindedly ambitious Uncle Junior

3944-433: Is noted for being a very controlling, demanding, and specific producer. He wrote or co-wrote between two and seven episodes per season and would oversee all the editing, consult with episode directors, give actors character motivation, approve casting choices and set designs, and do extensive but uncredited rewrites of episodes written by others. Brad Grey served as executive producer alongside Chase but had no creative input on

4060-428: Is noted for its feature film quality. This look was achieved by Chase collaborating with Sakharov. "From the pilot, we would sit down with the whole script and break the scenes down into shots. That's what you do with feature films." The Sopranos is noted for its eclectic music selections and has received considerable critical attention for its effective use of previously recorded songs. Chase personally selected all of

4176-585: Is one of the capos of the New Jersey–based DiMeo crime family at the beginning of the series; he eventually becomes its undisputed boss. He is also the patriarch of the Soprano household. Throughout the series, Tony struggles to balance the conflicting requirements of his family with those of the Mafia family he controls. Because he is prone to bouts of clinical depression and reflex syncope , after

4292-540: The Hawaii Five-O detective series to Friday nights. Switch was inspired by the 1973 movie The Sting and was similar to The Rockford Files , which had debuted a year earlier. It was created by Glen A. Larson ; Donald P. Bellisario was also one of the writers. In his memoir, The Garner Files , Rockford Files star James Garner accuses Larson of essentially rewriting Rockford scripts without authorization for use on this show. After intervention by

4408-640: The British Board of Film Censors or conveyed mostly through narration. Box-office receipts began to grow stronger towards the late 1960s. Hollywood's demise of the Hays Code standards would allow for further violent, risqué and gory films. As college students at the University of Berkeley and University of Columbia demonstrated against racial injustice and the Vietnam, Hollywood generally ignored

4524-503: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1935), promoted bigger budgets and wider press for his organization and himself through a well-publicized crusade against such real world gangsters as Machine Gun Kelly , Pretty Boy Floyd and John Dillinger . Hoover's fictionalized exploits were glorified in future films such as G Men (1935). Through the 1930s, American films view of criminals were predominantly glamorized, but as

4640-553: The Lincoln Tunnel out of Manhattan and passing through the tollbooth for the New Jersey Turnpike . Numerous landmarks in and around Newark and Jersey City, New Jersey , are then shown passing by the camera as Tony drives down the highway. The sequence ends with Tony pulling into the driveway of his suburban home. Chase has said that the goal of the title sequence was to show that this particular mafia show

4756-532: 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

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4872-1045: The Western film as they lack both the instantly recognizable or the unique intent of other genres such as parody films. Leitch and Rafter both write that it would be impractical to call every film in which a crime produces the central dramatic situation a crime film. Leitch gave an example that most Westerns from The Great Train Robbery (1903) to Unforgiven (1992) often have narratives about crime and punishment, but are not generally described as crime films. Films with crime-and-punishment themes like Winchester 73 (1950) and Rancho Notorious (1952) are classified as Westerns rather than crime films because their setting takes precedence over their story. Alain Silver and James Ursini argued in A Companion to Crime Fiction (2020) that "unquestionably most Western films are crime films" but that that their overriding generic identification

4988-543: The Writers Guild of America , the first season episode "Death by Resurrection" was deemed to have been a rewrite of the Rockford episode "This Case Is Closed", and was (as broadcast) credited solely to the writers of the original Rockford Files episode. The series focused on two main characters, Frank MacBride ( Eddie Albert ) and Pete Ryan ( Robert Wagner ). MacBride was a retired bunco cop who once arrested Ryan,

5104-495: The gangster film as both a genre on its own terms and a subgenre of the crime film. In these films, the gangster and their values have been imbedded through decades of reiteration and revision, generally with a masculine style where an elaboration on a codes of behavior by acts of decisive violence are central concerns. The archetypal gangster film was the Hollywood production Little Caesar (1931). A moral panic followed

5220-474: 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

5336-612: The 1940s films were based more on fictional tales with gangsters played by Paul Muni in Angel on My Shoulder (1946) and Cagney in White Heat (1949) were self-consciously anachronistic. Filmmakers from this period were fleeing Europe due to the rise of Nazism. These directors such as Fritz Lang , Robert Siodmak , and Billy Wilder would make crime films in the late 1930s and 1940s that were later described as film noir by French critics. Several films from 1944 like The Woman in

5452-520: The 1980 television film Off the Minnesota Strip . By 1996, he was a coveted showrunner. 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

5568-689: The 1980s had an emphasis on the serial nature of their crimes with a larger number of films focusing on the repetitive nature of some murders. While many of these films were teen-oriented pictures, they also included films like Dressed to Kill (1980) and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) and continued into the 2000s with films like Seven (1995), Kiss the Girls (1997), and American Psycho (2000). In an article by John G. Cawelti titled " Chinatown and Generic Transformations in Recent American Films" (1979), Cawleti noticed

5684-596: The 1990s with films like Wild at Heart (1990). Quentin Tarantino would continue this trend in the 1990s with films where violence and crime is treated lightly such as Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994) and Natural Born Killers (1994) while Lynch and the Coens would continue with Fargo (1996) and Lost Highway (1997). Other directors such as Martin Scorsese and Sidney Lumet would continue to more traditional crime films Goodfellas , Prince of

5800-498: The American crime film which began rejecting linear storytelling and distinctions between right and wrong with works from directors like Brian de Palma with Dressed to Kill and Scarface and works from The Coen Brothers and David Lynch whose had Todd described as having "stylized yet gritty and dryly humorous pictures evoking dream states" with films like Blood Simple (1984) and Blue Velvet (1986) and would continue into

5916-522: The City (1980), Q & A (1990), and Casino (1995). Other trends of the 1990s extended boundaries of crime films, ranging from main characters who were female or minorities with films like Thelma and Louise (1991), Swoon (1991), Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), Bound (1996) and Dolores Claiborne (1996). Every genre is a subgenre of a wider genre from whose contexts its own conventions take their meaning, it makes sense to think of

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6032-577: The DiMeo crime family include Silvio Dante ( Steven Van Zandt ), Tony's consigliere and best friend who runs the family's strip club headquarters and other businesses, Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri ( Tony Sirico ), a tough, short-tempered, aging soldier who is fiercely loyal to Tony, and Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero ( Vincent Pastore ), a veteran gangster who runs an automotive body shop . Paulie "Walnuts" and "Big Pussy" (often called just "Pussy") have worked with Tony and his father. Also in Tony's criminal organization are Patsy Parisi ( Dan Grimaldi ),

6148-794: The Gallows (1958), Breathless (1960) and Shoot the Piano Player (1960). Following the classical noir period of 1940 to 1958, a return to the violence of the two previous decades. By 1960, film was losing popularity to television as the mass form of media entertainment. Despite To The crime film countered this by providing material no acceptable for television, first with a higher level of onscreen violence. Films like Psycho (1960) and Black Sunday (1960) marked an increase in onscreen violence in film. Prior to these films, violence and gorier scenes were cut in Hammer film productions by

6264-660: The Mirror: Crime Films and Society (2006) found that film scholars had a traditional reluctance to examine the topic of crime films in their entirety due to complex nature of the topic. Carlos Clarens in his book Crime Movies (1980), described the crime film as a symbolic representation of criminals, law, and society. Clarens continued that they describe what is culturally and morally abnormal and differ from thriller films which he wrote as being more concerned with psychological and private situations. Thomas Schatz in Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking, and

6380-930: The Soprano organization. Although the Lupertazzis' and DiMeos' interests are often at odds, Tony maintains a cordial, business-like relationship with "Johnny Sack", preferring to make mutually beneficial deals, not war. Johnny Sack's second-in-command and eventual successor, Phil Leotardo, is less friendly and harder for Tony to do business with. Little Carmine is the son of the family's first boss and vies for power with its other members. Crime film#Crime drama Screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams identified crime film as one of eleven super-genres in his Screenwriters Taxonomy , claiming that all feature-length narrative films can be classified by these super-genres.  The other ten super-genres are action, fantasy, horror, romance, science fiction, slice of life, sports, thriller, war and western. Williams identifies drama in

6496-542: The Sopranos, and owners of the popular restaurant Vesuvio. Charmaine wishes to have no association with Tony and his crew due to fears that Tony's criminal ways will ultimately ruin everything she and Artie have achieved. Artie, however—a law-abiding, hard-working man—is drawn to his childhood friend Tony's glamorous, seemingly carefree lifestyle. Charmaine bitterly resents Artie's chronic tendency to disregard her wishes while catering to Tony's; their marriage suffers greatly as

6612-516: The Studio System (1981) does not refer to the concept of crime film as a genre, and says that "such seemingly similar "urban crime" formulas" such as the gangster film and detective film were their own unique forms. Thomas Leitch, author of Crime Films (2004) stated that the crime film presents their defining subject as a crime culture that normalizes a place where crime is both shockingly disruptive and completely normal. Rafter suggested

6728-461: The Window , Laura , Murder, My Sweet and Double Indemnity ushered in this film cycle. These works continued into the mid-1950s. A reaction to film noir came with films with a more semi-documentary approach pioneered by the thriller The House on 92nd Street (1945). This led to crime films taking a more realistic approach like Kiss of Death (1947) and The Naked City (1948). By

6844-760: The affluent lifestyle and higher social status it brings her. Tony and Carmela default to anger, criticism and yelling in their parenting, and so have challenging relationships with their two children: the intelligent, but rebellious, Meadow ( Jamie-Lynn Sigler ) and underachiever Anthony Jr. ("A.J.") ( Robert Iler ), whose everyday teenage issues are further complicated by their eventual knowledge of their father's criminal activities and reputation. The starring cast includes members of Tony's extended family, including his narcissistic, disapproving, manipulative mother, Livia ( Nancy Marchand ), his aimless, histrionic older sister Janice ( Aida Turturro ), his crafty, paternal uncle Corrado "Junior" Soprano ( Dominic Chianese ) who

6960-553: The back room of the strip club Bada Bing! , and Dr. Melfi 's office. The pork store was called Centanni's Meat Market in the pilot episode, an actual butchery in Elizabeth, New Jersey . After the series was picked up by HBO, the producers leased a building with a storefront in Kearny, New Jersey which served as the shooting location for exterior and interior scenes for the remainder of production; renamed Satriale's Pork Store . After

7076-411: The banking world, perhaps. —David Chase, creator and showrunner of The Sopranos 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

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7192-626: The best television series of all time. In 2016 and 2022, the series came in first place on the Rolling Stone list of the 100 greatest TV shows of all time. 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

7308-486: The best way to skirt complexities of various films that may be defined as crime films as works that focus primarily on crime and its consequences, and that they should be viewed as a category that encompasses a number genres, ranging from caper films , detective films, gangster films, cop and prison films and courtroom dramas. She said that like drama and romance film, they are umbrella terms that cover several smaller more coherent groups. The criminal acts in every film in

7424-601: The box office. The success of the film and its sequel The Godfather Part II (1974) reinforced the stature of the gangster film genre, which continued into the 1990s with films Scarface (1983), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Untouchables (1987), Goodfellas (1990) and Donnie Brasco (1997). Dirty Harry (1971) create a new form of police film, where Clint Eastwood 's performance as Inspector Callahan which critic Pauline Kael described as an "emotionless hero, who lives and kills as affectlessly as

7540-484: The character of Carmela Soprano . While the show utilizes a wealth of previously recorded music, it is also notable for its lack of originally composed incidental music , compared with other television programs. Two soundtrack albums containing music from the series have been released. The first, titled The Sopranos: Music from the HBO Original Series , was released in 1999. It contains selections from

7656-431: The character of Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle who Leitch described as a "tireless, brutal, vicious and indifferent" in terms of constraints of the law and his commanding officers. The film won several Academy Awards and was successful in the box office. This was followed in critical and commercial success of The Godfather (1972) which also won a Best Picture Academy Award and performed even better than The French Connection in

7772-429: The continual breakdown and re-establishment of borders among criminals, crime solvers and victims, concluding that "this paradox is at the heart of all crime films." Rafter echoed these statements, saying crime films should be defined on the basis of their relationship with society. Leitch writes that crime films reinforce popular social beliefs of their audience, such as the road to hell is paved with good intentions ,

7888-412: The crime film was following changing attitudes towards the law and the social order that criminals metaphorically reflect while most film were also no more explicitly violent or explicitly sexual than those of 1934. White Heat (1949) inaugurated a cycle of crime films that would deal with the omnipresent danger of the nuclear bomb with its theme of when being threatened with technological nightmares,

8004-554: The criminal psychology and are characterized by and emphasis on the crime unfolding often though montage and extended sequences. The genre is sometimes used interchangeable with the term "caper". The term was used for the more dramatic films of the 1950s, while in the 1960s, it had stronger elements of romantic comedy with more playful elements as seen in films like The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and Topkapi (1964). Leitch described combining genres as problematic. Screenwriter and academic Jule Selbo expanded on this, describing

8120-680: The decade ended, the attitudes Hollywood productions had towards fictional criminals grew less straightforward and more conflicted. In 1935, Humphrey Bogart played Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest (1936), a role Leitch described as the "first of Hollywood's overtly metaphorical gangsters." Bogart would appear in films in the later thirties: Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and The Roaring Twenties (1939). Unlike actor James Cagney , whose appeal as described by Leitch "direct, physical, and extroverted", Bogart characters and acting suggested "depths of worldly disillusionment beneath

8236-536: The destruction of Vesuvio within the context of the series, Artie opened a new restaurant called Nuovo Vesuvio; exterior scenes set there were filmed at an Italian restaurant called Punta Dura located in Long Island City . All the exterior and some interior shots of the Soprano residence were filmed on location at a private residence in North Caldwell, New Jersey . Tony Soprano is seen emerging from

8352-401: The end of the decade, American critics such as Parker Tyler and Robert Warshow regarded Hollywood itself as a stage for repressed American cultural anxieties following World War II. This can be seen in films such as Brute Force , a prison film where the prison is an existential social metaphor for a what Leitch described as a "meaningless, tragically unjust round of activities." By 1950,

8468-537: The end of the series finale. While Journey granted the rights to use the song in the ending of the series, their one request was that the scene not contain any violence or deaths. The majority of the exterior scenes took place in New Jersey and were filmed on location, with the majority of the interior shots filmed at Silvercup Studios in New York City, including most indoor shots of the Soprano residence,

8584-472: The following summer before the series was cancelled in August due to low ratings. Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner are the only actors to appear in every episode. Sharon Gless appeared in all but three episodes, and Charlie Callas did not appear in four episodes during the run. In addition, Anne Archer recurred in the first season as Laurie, a grifter who helps Mac and Pete with their sting operations (clips of

8700-536: The gangster films of the early 1930s were influenced by the early 1920s when cheap wood-pulp paper stocks led to an explosion in mass-market publishing. Newspapers would make folk heroes of bootleggers like Al Capone , while pulp magazines like Black Mask (1920) helped support more highbrow magazines such as The Smart Set which published stories of hard-edged detetives like Carroll John Daly 's Race Williams. The early wave of gangster films borrowed liberally from stories for early Hollywood productions that defined

8816-562: The genre has been popular since the dawn of the sound era of film. Ursini and Silver said that unlike the Western, the horror film, or the war film, the popularity of crime cinema has never waned. Switch (American TV series) Switch is an American action-adventure detective series starring Robert Wagner and Eddie Albert . It was broadcast on the CBS network for three seasons between September 9, 1975, and August 27, 1978, bumping

8932-412: The genre represents a larger critique of either social or institutional order from the perspective of a character or from the film's narrative at large. The films also depend on the audience ambivalence towards crime. Master criminals are portrayed as immoral but glamourous while maverick police officers break the law to capture criminals. Leitch defined this as a critical to the film as the films are about

9048-566: The genre with films like Little Caesar (1931), The Public Enemy (1931), and Scarface (1932). In comparison to much earlier films of the silent era, Leitch described the 1930s cycle as turning "the bighearted crook silent films had considered ripe for redemption into a remorseless killer." Hollywood Studio heads were under such constant pressure from public-interest groups to tone down their portrayal of professional criminals that as early as 1931. Jack L. Warner announced that Warner Bros. would stop producing such films. Scarface itself

9164-526: The growing rage against the establishment spilled into portrayal police themselves with films like Bullitt (1968) about a police officer caught between mob killers and ruthless politicians while In the Heat of the Night (1967) which called for racial equality and became the first crime film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture . The French Connection (1971) dispensed Bullitt ' s noble hero for

9280-445: The law is above individuals, and that crime does not pay. The genre also generally has endings that confirm the moral absolutes that an innocent victim, a menacing criminal, and detective and their own morals that inspire them by questioning their heroic or pathetic status, their moral authority of the justice system, or by presenting innocent characters who seem guilty and vice-versa. Crime films includes all films that focus on any of

9396-498: The main gangster Jody Jarrett fights fire with fire. These themes extended into two other major crime films by bring the issues down from global to the subcultural level: The Big Heat (1953) and Kiss Me Deadly (1955) which use apocalyptical imagery to indicate danger with the first film which the film persistently links to images of catastrophically uncontrolled power and the "traumatic consequences" of nuclear holocaust and Kiss Me Deadly literally features an atom bomb waiting in

9512-524: 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. — Chris Albrecht , president of HBO Original Programming, 1995–2002. 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

9628-405: The only or first gangster film following the fall of the production code, The Godfather (1972) was the most popular and launched a major revival of the style. The film followed the themes of the genres past while adding new emphasis on the intricate world of the mafia and its scale and seriousness that established new parameters for the genre. The heist film, also known as the "big caper" film

9744-479: 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

9860-416: The other. Christopher, an entitled, insecure DiMeo associate who is as ambitious as he is insubordinate and incompetent, is also a chronic substance abuser. Tony Blundetto is a well-respected DiMeo family soldier who returns after completing a lengthy prison sentence; he leaves prison committed to "going straight" (to Tony's dismay), but also has an intense violent streak. Those in Tony's closest circle within

9976-459: 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

10092-455: The ranks to become top earner of the Aprile crew but is secretly gay. Friends of the Soprano family include Herman "Hesh" Rabkin ( Jerry Adler ); Adriana La Cerva ( Drea de Matteo ); Rosalie Aprile ( Sharon Angela ); Angie Bonpensiero ( Toni Kalem ), along with Artie ( John Ventimiglia ) and Charmaine Bucco ( Kathrine Narducci ). Hesh is an invaluable adviser and friend to Tony, as he

10208-434: The release of the early gangster films following Little Caesar , which led to the 1935 Production Code Administration in 1935 ending its first major cycle. As early as 1939, the traditional gangster was already a nostalgic figure as seen in films like The Roaring Twenties (1939). American productions about career criminals became possible through the relaxation of the code in the 1950s and its abolition in 1966. While not

10324-411: The same soundtrack as the original. The Sopranos features a large cast of characters, many of whom get significant amounts of character development. Some only appear in certain seasons, while others appear (sporadically or constantly) throughout the entire series. All characters were created by David Chase unless otherwise noted. Tony Soprano ( James Gandolfini ) is the series' protagonist . Tony

10440-493: The series as writers and producers from the first to the fifth season; they had previously worked with Chase on Northern Exposure . Terence Winter joined the writing staff during the production of the second season and served as executive producer from season five onwards. He practiced law for two years before deciding to pursue a career as a screenwriter, and he caught the attention of Chase through writer Frank Renzulli . Matthew Weiner served as staff writer and producer for

10556-508: The series ended, the building was demolished. The strip club Bada Bing! was owned and operated by Silvio Dante on the show, and is an actual strip club on Route 17 in Lodi, New Jersey . Exteriors and interiors were shot on location except for the back room. The club is called Satin Dolls and was an existing business before the show started. The club continued to operate during the eight years that

10672-534: 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

10788-547: The series were Tim Van Patten (20 episodes), John Patterson (13 episodes), Allen Coulter (12 episodes), and Alan Taylor (9 episodes), all of whom have a background in television. Recurring cast members Steve Buscemi and Peter Bogdanovich also directed episodes of the series intermittently. Chase directed the pilot episode and the series finale . Both episodes were photographed by the show's original director of photography Alik Sakharov , who later alternated episodes with Phil Abraham . The show's photography and directing

10904-476: The show was filmed there, and a business arrangement was worked out with the owner. Locations manager Mark Kamine recalls that the owner was "very gracious" as long as the shooting did not "conflict with his business time". Scenes set at the restaurant Vesuvio, owned and operated in the series by character Artie Bucco , were filmed at a restaurant called Manolo's located in Elizabeth for the first episode. After

11020-884: The show's fifth and sixth seasons. He wrote a script for the series Mad Men in 2000 which was passed on to Chase, who was so impressed that he immediately offered Weiner a job as a writer for The Sopranos . Cast members Michael Imperioli and Toni Kalem portray Christopher Moltisanti and Angie Bonpensiero respectively, and they also wrote episodes for the show. Imperioli wrote five episodes of seasons two through five, and Kalem wrote one episode of season five. Other writers included Frank Renzulli, Todd A. Kessler (co-creator of Damages ), writing team Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider who worked with Chase on Northern Exposure , and Lawrence Konner , who co-created Almost Grown with Chase in 1988. In total, 20 writers or writing teams are credited with writing episodes of The Sopranos . Of these, Tim Van Patten and Maria Laurino receive

11136-534: The show's first two seasons and reached No. 54 on the U.S. Billboard 200 . A second soundtrack compilation titled The Sopranos – Peppers & Eggs: Music from the HBO Series , was released in 2001. This double-disc album contains songs and selected dialogue from the show's first three seasons. It reached No. 38 on the U.S. Billboard 200. The ending to the show has drawn attention and sparked controversy. The song " Don't Stop Believin' " by Journey plays at

11252-507: The show's music with producer Martin Bruestle and music editor Kathryn Dayak, sometimes also consulting Steven Van Zandt . The music was usually selected once the production and editing of an episode was completed, but on occasion sequences were filmed to match preselected pieces of music. The show's opening theme is " Woke Up This Morning " (Chosen One Mix), written by, remixed and performed by British band Alabama 3 . With few exceptions,

11368-597: The show's run were Chase, Brad Grey , Robin Green , Mitchell Burgess , Ilene S. Landress , Terence Winter , and Matthew Weiner . Widely regarded as one of 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

11484-400: The show. Many members of the creative team behind The Sopranos were handpicked by Chase, some being old friends and colleagues of his; others were selected after interviews conducted by producers of the show. Many of the show's writers had worked in television before joining the writing staff of The Sopranos . The writing team and married couple Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess worked on

11600-536: The silent era differed radically from the Hollywood productions, reflecting the post-World War I continental culture. Drew Todd wrote that with this, Europeans tended to create darker stories and the audiences of these films were readier to accept these narratives. Several European silent films go much further in exploring the mystique of the criminal figures. These followed the success in France of Louis Feuillade 's film serial Fantômas (1913). The average budget for

11716-616: 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

11832-410: 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 2013, the Writers Guild of America named The Sopranos the best-written TV series of all time, while TV Guide ranked it

11948-410: The success of Shaft (1971) which led to studios rushing to follow it's popularity with films like Super Fly (1972), Black Caesar (1973), Coffy (1973) and The Black Godfather (1974) The films were often derivations of earlier films such as Cool Breeze (1972), a remake of The Asphalt Jungle , Hit Man (1972) a remake of Get Carter (1971), and Black Mama, White Mama (1973)

12064-578: 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,

12180-407: The three parties to a crime: criminal, victims, and avengers and explores what one party's relation to the other two. This allows the crime film to encompass films as wide as Wall Street (1987); caper films like The Asphalt Jungle (1950); and prison films ranging from Brute Force (1947) to The Shawshank Redemption (1994). Crime films are not definable by their mise-en-scene such as

12296-500: 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

12412-450: The war in narratives, with exceptions of film like The Green Berets (1968). The crime film Bonnie and Clyde (1967) revived the gangster film genre and captured the antiestablishment tone and set new standards for onscreen violence in film with its themes of demonizing American institution to attack the moral injustice of draft. This increase of violence was reflected in other crime films such as Point Blank (1967). Leitch found

12528-526: Was about New Jersey , as opposed to New York, where most similar dramas have been set. In the first three seasons, between Tony leaving the tunnel and passing through the toll plaza, the title sequence included a shot of the World Trade Center towers in the right side-view mirror. After the September 11 attacks , beginning with the show's fourth season, this shot was removed and replaced with

12644-420: 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

12760-532: Was delayed for over a year as its director Howard Hughes talked with the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America 's Production Code Office over the films violence and overtones of incest. A new wave of crime films that began in 1934 were made that had law enforcers as glamourous and as charismatic as the criminals. J. Edgar Hoover , director the Bureau of Investigation (renamed

12876-557: 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 didn't work out. Series creator and executive producer David Chase served as showrunner and head writer for the production of all six seasons of the show. He was deeply involved with the general production of every episode and

12992-411: 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. I said to myself, this show is about a guy who's turning 40. He's inherited

13108-473: 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

13224-499: 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

13340-400: Was under intense social reform with cities rapidly expanding and leading to social unrest and street crime rising and some people forming criminal gangs. In this early silent film period, criminals were more prominent on film screens than enforcers of the law. Among these early films from the period is D.W. Griffith 's The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) involving a young woman hounded by

13456-496: Was when Tony's father ran things. Adriana is Christopher's loyal and long-suffering girlfriend; the two have a volatile relationship but appear destined to stay together. Christopher often ignores Adriana's advice and winds up regretting it. Rosalie is the widow of previous DiMeo boss Jackie Aprile Sr. and a very close friend of Carmela. Angie is Salvatore Bonpensiero's wife. She later goes into "business" for herself, and quite successfully. Artie and Charmaine are childhood friends of

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