The Sopranos Retrospective Part I Continued: Season 1 The Pilot

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.

The Sopranos Retrospective Part I: An Introduction

I have never been a fan of television.  I cannot name one sitcom or drama show on regular networks that I have ever even considered mildly amusing.  For a long time when I was younger I considered TV to be a wasteland of bad people pleasing commercial crap.  The biggest problem with television (and this still exists to a large extent) is that I was never able to identify with anyone on TV because they were all caricatures.  There was no such thing as character development on TV for a very long time.  Most shows were either about one liners or plot procedural.  Even acclaimed dramas such as Law and Order never really explored the people trying to solve the case or the victims.  It was all just a bunch of situations with no real drama and you knew that everything would be solved by the end of the episode.  There were no carry over plots from previous episodes.  In short there was never much to care about on standard television.  Shows were made to be pleasing in short little segments that you would soon forget about by the following episode and be amused by the situations anew again.  This all still goes on, but to a lesser extant than in the past.  TV is still playing it safe, but there are some cable networks like FX, Showtime, and even TNT that are taking chances and refusing to play it safe.  But there is still one cable network that reigns above the rest and has been consistently taking chances since the moment it decided to produce original material for television - HBO.  HBO has had such huge hits such as Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, Deadwood, Big Love, and now True Blood.  Each of these shows has been daring in their own right and broken new ground for television.  But there is one show that broke all the rules and in my mind changed television forever - The Sopranos.

The Sopranos premiered in January of 1999.  I was 13 years old and going through the second half of eighth grade when the show came out.  I remember seeing the previews on HBO for The Sopranos and thinking to myself that I absolutely had to see this show the very first night.  I already had a thing for mob movies.  My dad had introduced me to The Godfather a few years earlier and I had stayed up late and watched Goodfellas by myself one night.  The Sopranos looked to be covering similar ground so of course I was interested.  I will never forget watching that first episode on January 10th 1999.  My parents were already in bed watching the news.  I was upstairs in my loft curled up in a blanket with the sound down low awaiting what I knew would be an interesting and fun night of television.  I wasn't prepared for just how good the show would be though.  I found myself laughing hysterically through the pilot, but at times being completely silent and astonished by what I was watching.  The productions values, the plot, the acting, the writing, and the direction were all Hollywood level.  I was floored.  I had never seen anything like this on TV.  And not only that but the amount of profanity and violence was definitely shocking.  But what kept me hooked from that first episode and on was the sense of character and family.  I could connect with these people.  I would watch Tony Soprano fight with his wife and joke with his kids and yell and get depressed.  And it was then that I realized that I wasn't just watching a mob show.  I was watching the life of a family and even for all their differences they were a lot like me.

My boyfriend recently bought me the complete series of The Sopranos on DVD as a graduation gift.  I've wanted to have the series for a while now, but could never manage to scrap together to cash to obtain it.  Now that I have it I can't stop watching again.  I'm like that thirteen year old boy sitting under a blanket upstairs in his loft sneaking episodes all over again.  And now that I am older I can appreciate what exactly the show accomplished even more than when I was that age.  I've always known how groundbreaking and important it was.  I watched from day one all the way up until the controversial series finale in the summer of 2007.  The Sopranos has been a big part of my life and now I am getting the opportunity to relive it all over again.  It's an exhilarating experience and because of this I have decided to put together a retrospective that will cover all of the seasons.  What you are reading is the first part of that retrospective.  And introduction if you will.  I plan on talking about the shape of the show, the different directions it took from season to season, not to mention specific episodes and characters.  It's going to be a rather large project, but I figure what better way to get this blog up and running again?  So sit back, read, and enjoy.  There will be much more to follow shortly.

SEASON I: CAST OF MAJOR CHARACTERS

Tony Soprano - James Gandolfini 

Carmella Soprano - Edie Falco

Meadow Soprano - Jamie-Lynn Sigler

Anthony Soprano Jr. - Robert Iler

Corrado Junior Soprano - Dominic Chianese

Livia Soprano - Nancy Marchand

Dr. Jennifer Melfi - Lorraine Bracco 

Christopher Moltisanti - Michael Imperioli 

Paulie Walnuts Gualtieri - Tony Sirico

Steve Van Zandt - Silvio Dante

Big Pussy Bonpensiero - Vincent Pastore

Artie Bucco - John Ventimiglia

Adriana Le Cerva - Drea De Matteo

SEASON I: EPISODE GUIDE

(source: http://www.sopranosseason.com/sopranos_season_1_episode_guide.htm)

January 10, 1999: Sopranos: Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) sees a therapist (Lorraine Bracco) about panic attacks, and tries to move his mom (Nancy Marchand) to a retirement home; and Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese) plans to conduct business in a restaurant owned by Tony's friend. Meanwhile, Carmela (Edie Falco) and her daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) butt heads.

January 17, 1999: 46 Long: Christopher (Michael Imperioli) and Brendan hijack a truck owned by a company Uncle Junior is paid to protect; Livia nearly loses her home to fire, but still refuses to move into a retirement facility; Tony's pals search for a car once owned by Anthony Jr.'s (Robert Iler) teacher.

January 24, 1999: Denial, Anger, Acceptance: Hesh (Jerry Adler) helps Tony convince a Hasidic man to sign divorce papers; and Meadow and Hunter (Michele DeCesare) ask Christopher for drugs to help them study. Also: Arty (John Ventimiglia) has trouble getting insurance money for the fire; and Charmaine (Kathrine Narducci) has surprising news for Carmela.

January 31, 1999: Meadowlands: In an attempt to ease his fears about seeing a shrink Tony looks into Dr. Melfi's personal life. After some comments made at school Anthony Jr. discovers his father's other family. Also: Mob boss Jackie Aprile (Michael Rispoli) dies and Tony helps put Uncle Junior in charge.

Feb 7, 1999: College: When Tony and Meadow visit colleges in Maine, they discuss his business; and he runs into a former colleague. Also: Father Phil (Paul Schulze) keeps an ill Carmela company, and she confesses her guilt about Tony's line of work after learning his therapist is a woman.

February 14, 1999: Pax Soprana: Carmela's jealousy of Dr. Melfi continues — and with good reason — despite Tony's decreased libido; and Uncle Junior flexes his muscle and makes some changes, including taxing Hesh's business and disposing of one captain's biggest earners.

February 21, 1999: Down Neck: After Anthony Jr. misbehaves and is tested for attention deficit disorder, Tony recalls his own childhood — and wonders how much the boy is affected by his line of work. Also: Livia learns that Tony's in therapy.

February 28, 1999: The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti: The gang does some "spring cleaning" in preparation for indictments that are expected to fall on everyone; Christopher is haunted by one of his victims; Dr. Melfi's family worries about her association with a mobster.

March 7, 1999: Boca: Tony and other dads try to strong-arm a lame-duck soccer coach (Kevin O'Rourke) to stay, but plot to get rid of him after they learn he's been having an affair with a player. Also: news of Junior's sex life spreads after a trip with his lover (Robyn Peterson).

March 14, 1999: A Hit Is a Hit: A rapper (Bokeem Woodbine) whose aunt is owed music royalties by Hesh asks Christopher to arrange a sit-down, and he does — in exchange for a career opportunity for Adriana (Drea de Matteo). Also: Tony and Carmela hobnob with country-club types, who later grill Tony about mob life.

March 21, 1999: Nobody Knows Anything: Tony considers taking grave measures when Vin (John Heard) tells him Pussy (Vincent Pastore) is wearing a wire for the Feds; and Junior learns Tony's crew has meetings in Livia's retirement community. Also: personal problems take their toll on Vin; and Carmela confronts Livia.

March 28, 1999: Isabella: A deeply depressed Tony finds it hard to get out of bed, but when he does he's targeted by Junior's hired guns. Also: Tony fantasizes about his neighbor's exchange student (Maria Grazia Cucinotta); and Dr. Melfi increases his medication.

April 4, 1999: I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano: Dr. Melfi suggests Livia was involved in the hit on Tony, but he doesn't believe it until he hears the Feds' tapes of conversations between Livia and Junior. Meanwhile, Livia tells Artie about the restaurant fire; and Carmela learns she's not Father Phil's only close friend.