The Sopranos is unlike anything you’ve seen before, except it’s a little like something you’ve seen before: The Godfather trilogy. The HBO show premiered on January 10, 1999, and it didn’t take long for it to revolutionize television. Viewers were used to seeing heroes, then here comes a family guy who gleefully garrotes an old foe while helping his daughter look for a college. And a mob boss who went to therapy and wore shorts? That was also new.
The Cosa Nostra drama not only seemed different from any other show on TV but also different from other mob productions that came before it. However, upon closer inspection, one easily notices numerous references and Easter eggs to Francis Ford Coppola’s famous trilogy. The Sopranos might not have characters walking around in fedoras and long coats, but its fictional world isn’t too different from that of Michael and Vito Corleone. David Chase clearly adores The Godfather, and that’s a good thing. Here are a few notable references.
The Mortician
Tony doesn’t shed a tear when his mother Livia dies, given how annoying she was, but he tunes his emotions enough to make it look like he is grieving. In Season 3’s “Proshai, Livushka,” he heads to the funeral home where the mortician, Mr. Cozzerelli, promises him that he’ll use all his power and all his skills to prepare the body and make it look decent. In The Godfather’s heartbreaking “Look how they massacred my boy” scene, Vito Corleone orders the mortician to “use all his power, all of your skills” to make Sonny’s bullet-riddled body look better.
Tony Gets Attacked After Buying Orange Juice
Tony’s war with his uncle, Junior, was pointless, but it happened anyway, and almost resulted in the lead character’s death. In Season 1’s ‘Isabella,” Tony gets attacked by two hired hitmen after buying orange juice. Tony survives the whacking attempt, a clear homage to The Godfather where Vito gets shot while buying oranges.
Silvio Talks About “Our True Enemy”
DiMeo crime family consigliere Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt) enjoys doing impressions of the older Michael Corleone from The Godfather III. In Season 2’s “Funhouse,” we see a more clever reference. As Tony is having another fever dream that suggests Big Pussy might be an FBI informant, Silvio appears and says, “Our true enemy has yet to reveal himself.” The same line is said by Michael Corleone, and Silvio just happens to be wearing Al Pacino’s brick red cardigan.
The Gun in the Toilet
In Season 5’s “The Test Dream,” Tony walks into a restaurant’s bathroom together with Detective Vin and reaches out for a gun behind the toilet, but, to his surprise, it isn’t there. The scene is similar to what Michael Corleone does before killing Captain McClusky and Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo (two of the Corleone crime family’s biggest enemies) in The Godfather. The two agree to a meeting with Michael at a restaurant, unaware that the youngest Corleone crime family member has hidden a gun behind a toilet, which he is about to use to kill them.
The “Moe Greene Special”
When Christopher and Brendan botch a heist, the hierarchy reacts. The former is subjected to a mock execution as a way to warn him, while the latter is shot right through the eyes while he is in the bathtub, since he is less important to the family. Brendan’s killing points to two Godfather scenes. In The Godfather: Part II, the traitor Frank Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo) slits his wrists in the bathtub. Later on, Moe Greene is shot through the eyes for trying to challenge Michael’s authority in Las Vegas.
The Son Plots Revenge
AJ and Tony don’t exactly like each other, but when Tony gets accidentally shot by Junior, AJ’s love-for-papa surges. He foolishly decides he’ll walk into Junior’s nursing home and shoot the man. When Bobby and Christopher try to dissuade him, he argues that it’ll be “difficult but not impossible.” Rocco says such words in The Godfather: Part II when he and Michael are planning how to whack Hyman Roth.
Abandoned House
Season 5 of The Sopranos and The Godfather: Part III each open with the views of abandoned homes of their central characters. Michael Corleone’s famous Lake Tahoe home is empty and Tony’s New Jersey mansion has no one inside.
Stage Performance
Meadow is the eager beaver of the Soprano family, and in Season 1’s “Denial, Anger, Acceptance,” we watch her perform the traditional Christmas carol “All Through the Night,” during her final high school choir concert. Tony watches her proudly, the same way Michael Corleone watches his son in The Godfather: Part III.
AJ’s Friends
AJ’s friends make Godfather references twice. In one scene, he brags to his friends by telling them how his dad is a Don, and as they pass through Satriale’s Pork Store, Patrick (played by a young Paul Dano) compares it to Genco Olive Oil (Don Vito Corleone’s front in The Godfather). And in another scene where AJ vows to never go to the army, one of his friends jokes that his father will put a horse’s head in some senator’s head, referring to how Vito arm-twisted a Hollywood producer.
Wedding Requests
Johnny Sack’s daughter gets married in Season 6’s “Mr. & Mrs. John Sacrimoni Request…” During the wedding, Christopher suggests that Tony shouldn’t refuse any request from Johnny on his daughter’s big day, as shown in the opening scenes of The Godfather. Tony corrects him, stating Johnny is the one who shouldn’t be refusing any request.
