Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, HBO’s landmark drama series The Sopranos remains the best and most influential crime drama in TV history. The series marked a monumental shift in the kinds of stories told on the small screen, including beloved protagonists doing unforgivable criminal acts while retaining their sympathetic humanity. However, if the stars didn’t align just right for series creator David Chase and HBO at the turn of the millennium, The Sopranos would look much different today.
For instance, The Sopranos was initially conceived as a feature film instead of a TV drama that lasted 7 seasons between 1999 and 2007. Stranger yet, the show was pitched to network television instead of a premium cable channel, which would have robbed the show of its iconic profane language and unforgettable violence had it been picked up. There’s also the crucial casting of Tony Soprano, which would look much different had the late great James Gandolfini not been cast as arguably TV’s greatest character.
The Sopranos Was Conceived as a Feature Film
The Sopranos is an organized crime drama created by David Chase, a veteran TV producer and writer behind such pop
ular shows as The Rockford Files, Northern Exposure, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and more. The story concerns the ultra-cool gangster Tony Soprano, a New Jersey mob boss and family man doing his best to balance his personal and professional lives.
By day, Tony fronts a construction and sanitation business. By night, Tony uses these illegal fronts to operate all sorts of criminal activity, including bookmaking, racketeering, stick-ups, drug dealing, and other sordid activity orchestrated from the backrooms of the Bada Bing strip club and Satriale’s Pork Store. To combat the escalating anxiety and existential unease of putting his family in danger, Tony undergoes therapy sessions with Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco).
