Tony Soprano:Â Pain and truth? Come on, I'm a fat fucking crook from New Jersey.
The Sopranos is a deconstructive Criminal Procedural series created by David Chase aired as Sunday Evening Drama Series. Its Pilot Episode was shot in 1997, and the show premiered on HBO in the United States on January 10, 1999, concluding its original run of six seasons and 86 episodes on June 10, 2007 with one of the most infamous endings in American television history.
The series is centered around North Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), who secretly begins seeing a therapist after a panic attack. Hilarity and Reality Ensues as his therapy coincides with him sending his troublesome, sociopathic mother Livia into a nursing home when it becomes apparent that she's no longer able to take care of herself.
From there, the series focuses on Tony's problematic dual families: his biological family — long-suffering wife Carmela, straight-A student daughter Meadow, underachiever son A.J., and equally morally bankrupt sister Janice — and the organized crime family he is involved in, who include his bitter uncle Junior, his 'nephew' (actually his wife's cousin) Christopher, and more.
The Sopranos was a major ratings success throughout its run, despite being aired on premium cable network HBO, which at the time of the show's premiere had been available in significantly fewer American homes than regular networks. The show frequently attracted equal or larger audiences than most popular network shows of the time.
The show had a significant impact on the American television industry. It is commonly credited with ushering in the (current) Golden Age of Television
, is considered one of the most influential artistic works of the 2000s, and served as a turning point for the legitimization of serial television as an art form on the same level as feature films, literature, and theater. In the show's wake, TV entered an age of complex, no-handholding storytelling centered around morally dark protagonists; examples include Breaking Bad, Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire, all of which were directly inspired by The Sopranos, with the latter two programs having showrunners that also worked on The Sopranos. The series helped establish HBO as producers of critically acclaimed and commercially successful original television series, and became the first cable program to be both nominated for and win an Emmy Award.
A Licensed Game called The Sopranos: Road to Respect, set between seasons five and six, was released in 2006.
A prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark written by David Chase, was released in 2021. Taking place during the Newark riots in the 1960s, the film stars Jon Bernthal as Tony's father Johnny Boy Soprano, Vera Farmiga as his mother Livia Soprano, Alessandro Nivola as Christopher's father Dickie Moltisanti, and Gandolfini's son Michael as a young Tony. Chase and series writer Terence Winter have discussed the possibilty of additional prequels to the show, contingent upon the success of Many Saints.
The film-within-the-show Cleaver has its own work page.
