The first episode of The Sopranos, known simply as The Pilot, aired on Sunday January 10th, 1999. No one knew it at the time, but this mafia show would soon become one of the most critically lauded and beloved TV shows of all time. The Sopranos single handily caused HBO's subscriptions to sky rocket and their ratings to follow right along. Few knew it at the time, but The Sopranos was almost the show that wasn't. It had been shopped around to various networks including the likes of Fox and ABC. Nobody had any faith in what creator David Chase was trying to pull off. But one cable network was interested - HBO. HBO had recently gotten into heavy drama with their prison series OZ and were also profiting nicely off of their groundbreaking sitcom - Sex and the City. They commissioned a Pilot to be made for The Sopranos and then they would decide if they wanted to give the show a full season. The Pilot episode sat on the shelf for nearly two years before HBO decided that they wanted to put their dollars into David Chase's risky proposition. As a result of this The Pilot of the Sopranos is interesting in that it's format is much different from episodes later in the series and that many characters are obviously younger than they are a full episode later, this is especially evident in Tony Soprano's children AJ and Meadow. Many locations changed as well before they got around to filming the rest of the season. But regardless of all of this The Pilot episode of The Sopranos is considered to be one of the best because up until that time no one had seen anything like it on television. It was a show that was destined to break all the rules.
From the very opening titles sequence of The Pilot viewers knew they were in for something a little different. From The Pilot on each episode would open with the now infamous song by Alabama 3 titled "Woke Up This Morning". The camera's first person view from inside Tony Sopranos car documented his trip from New York, into New Jersey all the way into his home. It was a way of inviting the viewer in and letting them know that this would not be a New York mob story and that we would get to see much more than just the inner workings of the mob, but also maybe even a hint of family life. As the show progressed viewers began to realize that they were seeing a lot of the family life and that in a way The Sopranos is much more of a "family" saga with mafia overtones than it is a gangster story. In that respect it shares much in common with The Godfather.
The Pilot's structure is different than that of following episodes. It opens with Tony Soprano in the waiting room of a psychiatrists office staring at a naked statue. He is there because he has been passing out from anxiety attacks and his doctor believes that a shrink could help him with his problems. Suddenly the door opens and the viewer is introduced to Dr. Jennifer Melfi who will eventually become one of the most complex characters in The Sopranos. Tony sits on the chair and the audience is given plot and character development through flashbacks based on what Tony is describing to his shrink. In later episodes the show ditches the flashback formula and has a much more in the now hands on approach, but viewers will still become very familiar with that psychiatrists office and the multiple breakdowns Tony will have there. The first twenty minutes of The Pilot is ingeniously structured and it introduces us to almost every single important character that the viewer will be focusing on throughout the length of the first season and beyond. And while the first episode shows us the inner workings of Tony's mob life and his personal family home, it also introduces us to the main antagonist of the first season - Tony's own mother Livia Soprano. Their dynamic is what makes much of the show so fascinating and it serves as the jumping point for most if not all of Tony's problems. Throughout the season Tony will have to deal with his mother refusing to enter a nursing home, blaming him for her problems, potentially faking Alzheimer's and a stroke, and the most horrible offense - collaborating with her brother in law to have her own son whacked. Livia is brilliantly portrayed by Nancy Marchand.
What makes the dynamic between Tony and Livia so interesting is that Livia is noticeably opposite from the stereotype of most Italian mothers. She isn't the loving mother who wants nothing more than to see her son married and make him eat. On the contrary she gets her kicks from torturing him with her own misery. She is a woman incapable of feeling joy (according to Dr. Melfi) and as a result she is willing to go to great lengths to make others suffer. But the thing that makes her more than just a one dimensional villain is that underneath it all she really does believe that she loves her family. Livia is a complicated person and as the season progresses the viewer begins to realize that Livia may not be aware of exactly what she is capable of.
But Tony has his plenty of problems within his own house as well. His wife Carmella is a loyal wife, but is also incredibly jealous of the Russian mistress that Tony keeps on the side. Tony's daughter Meadow is busy working trying to get into the best college possible, while his son AJ is experiencing the beginning of adolescence and all that goes with it. There is plenty of love in that house, but there are also a lot of secrets and family dysfunction.
The Sopranos makes a point of focusing a great deal of its time and attention to psychiatry and the inner workings of the mind. Tony's anxiety attacks begin when a group of mallards that have been living in his pool for several months raising their babies suddenly fly away. A great deal of his time in the chair is spent talking about these ducks and what exactly they mean to him and how they relate to his work and family problems. The idea of a psychiatrist treating a mobster is an intriguing one and The Sopranos doesn't just use the idea as a gimmick, but rather as a full fledged and essential part of almost every single episode. The Pilot ends with a shot of the swimming pool that the mallards abandoned as a family BBQ is taking place. It's a poetic ending to a great beginning and foreshadows both the comedy and the tragedy that is sure to come.
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