Chase - The Sopranos

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First eBook Edition: June 2009 ISBN: 978-0-446-55905-8 Contents

David Chase In 1996, Lloyd Braun, then an executive at Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, asked me about doing a TV version of The Godfather. I wasnt interested, but Lloyds suggestion reminded me of a movie idea Id had years earlieras luck would have it, during one of my own psychotherapy sessionsabout a depressed mobster in therapy. That idea eventually became the first season of The Sopranos. The Mob has been a lifelong interest of mineI grew up an Italian-American kid, first in Mount Vernon, New York, and later in North Caldwell, New Jersey (the same town where Tony Soprano lives). Over the years, Ive picked up details about wiseguyshow they live and talk, what they valuefrom secondary sources. A fair portion of my education came from movies and books but especially from the local newspapers. In high school, I knew the sons of some wiseguys, and an older cousin of mine married into it. We writers on the show have also gotten insights from a contact (in a DAs office) who prosecuted mobsters.

Frank Renzulli, one of our writer/producers for the first season and a half, is another great source of wiseguy information. He grew up in East Boston. When it came time for casting, I knew that we needed actors with New York-New Jersey roots and, whenever possible, theater experience. James Gandolfini, Michael Imperioli, Nancy Marchand and Edie Falco all have extensive stage credits. (Being Italian also helped. But Nancy Marchand, Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Robert Her have done okay despite their tragic handicap.) On the other hand, I felt that Stevie Van Zandt, who had never acted before, was a natural.

The audition process also provided inspiration for new characters. Tony Sirico, who read for the roles of Big Pussy and Uncle Junior, inspired me to create the character of Paulie Walnuts Gualtieri. I had a fairly good sense of who Tony was from the beginning, perhaps because I personally relate to his anger and anxiety. Other things in our lives are similar as wellwe both have smart wives, difficult mothers, love history and old gangster films, have nightmares, and often feel like outsiders. Originally, Tony was to be named Tommy Sopranoan homage to the character of Tom Powers (played by James Cagney) in one of my favorite films, The Public Enemy. (Oddly, also one of Tonys favorite films!) However, we couldnt get clearance on the name Tommy Soprano and so, with disappointment, I agreed to Tony. Now, of course, I cant imagine Tonys character with any other name.

Tommy seems ridiculous. Livia was modeled somewhat on my own motheran acerbic and fearful woman. Though Livia is the name of Tiberiuss scheming mother in I, Claudius, it was also the name of one of my maternal aunts. One of my therapists, attempting to explain the reason for my mothers unrelenting pessimism and critical nature, described her as having a borderline personality. Whatever the diagnosis, my mom was a character. Many of Livias gestures, facial expressions and dialogue are exactly as I remember my mother talking and behaving.

Im not sure it was ever my mothers intentionand I certainly didnt see this at the timebut she was, in retrospect, a very funny woman. Names of other characters were also chosen based on personal connections. A cousin of mine was married to a woman named Carmela, and I always thought it was a pretty name. Dr. Melfi, who is patterned on a therapist Ive known, was named for someone very dear to me, Teresa Melfi, my paternal grandmother. One day, years before I began work on the series, my wife, Denise, and I were having lunch in the Rita Flora coffee shop in Los Angeles and a young waitress was wearing a tag with the name Meadow on it.

I remarked to Denise about how unusual the name was and mentally filed it away. The five scripts Ive selected for this book were chosen because they each reveal different aspects of the show. College comes closest to achieving my personal goal of making episodes that could be stand-alone feature films. It is self-contained. The pilot is included because it not only introduces the characters, but also establishes the tone, style and soul of the series, as well as lays the groundwork for future shows. Its the only episode that used voice-over.

When scenes are moved in film editing, thats an intuitive, subjective decision, based on what a director believes makes the story more coherent and/or well-paced. In the pilot, some excisions, both of scenes and dialogue that are in the script, were made during picture editing due to time constraints (it could only be 60 minutes long); while others, such as Meadows teenage-martyr fantasybeing burned at the stakejust didnt work. It also became clear that the scene of Tony kissing Dr. Melfi wasnt appropriate at that point in their lives. However, a similar scene was developed in a later episode, Pax Soprana. Observant fans may have noticed some differences in the Sopranos kitchen from the one in the pilot.

Thats because the pilot was shot on location, while in later episodes, all interior house scenes (as well as the office in the Bada Bing strip club and Dr. Melfis office) were shot on our set at New Yorks Silvercup Studios. After the series was bought, we could afford to build sets. All exteriors are shot in New JerseyLodi, North Caldwell, Verona, Newark and other towns. In Commendatori (the episode where Tony and the crew go to Italy), exterior scenes were shot on location around Naples. So, how to describe the actual Sopranos writing process? It essentially works like this: Before meeting with the writers, I outline story arcs or touchstones for the season; but were not bound by them.

Getting a final script is a fluid process, and script changes are made right up until the day before productionsometimes even during shooting. Before starting a season, I dont really consciously think, for example: Oh, this season is going to be about Tony and his dysfunctional relationship with his mother. However, after the first season was finished, that was the theme that had seemed to organically emerge. I believe the main theme of Season 2 essentially is plateau therapyit deals with what Tony discovered and acknowledged in therapy during Season 1 and the feelings these insights evokedthough as a child he was shaped by forces over which he had no control (his parents), hes now an adult and must struggle to take responsibility for who he is. He has to stop blaming his mother and own up to his actions. (It is a very compressed version of what actually would happen in years of therapy.) Focusing more on Tony and Carmela and their role as parents, as weve done in Season 3, is a theme that just seemed to assert itself.

For any given season of thirteen shows, once the broad outline has been established, we begin to fill in thirteen stories. Each episode usually has three strandswhat we call an A, B and C, or even D, storyline. (College is an exception with only two.) The A and B stories basically are of equal importance, while the C story is less important, and D is usually a comic runner. For example, in The Happy Wanderer, the A strand of the story is the spider-fly relationship between Tony and David Scatino and how they both behave according to their true natures: David is a compulsive gambler and Tony, ever the spider, cant resist taking his money, though it spells his friends doom. The B story is the relationship between Meadow and Eric Scatinotheir performance at Talent Night and their concerns about getting into college. The C strand is Tony finding out he has a retarded uncle, and the D story is the funeral for the father of Tonys brother-in-law.

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