THE SOPRANOS
TRIVIA: James Gandolfini said
that he was often contacted by real-life 'wise guys' complimenting him on the
authenticity of the series as well as giving him advice.
After the pilot aired, a real-life
"wise guy" told James
Gandolfini never to wear shorts again. The encounter seems to
have been incorporated into the first episode of season four ("For All
Debts Public and Private") when New York mob boss Carmine tells Tony that
he'd heard about his recent backyard party, and that "a don doesn't wear
shorts".
Four members of northern New
Jersey's only real-life mob family, the DeCavalcantes, were secretly taped in
1999 by federal investigators talking about their similarity to the fictional
DiMeo/Soprano crime family. On the tape, one NJ mobster asks another, 'Is this
supposed to be us?" And his capo buddy replies, "You are in there.
They mentioned your name in there'.
Tony Sirico only
agreed to sign on for the show if it was guaranteed that his character Paulie
'Walnuts' Gualtieri would not be a "rat", an informant. As Sirico
explained in James Toback's
documentary The Big Bang (1989),
he had served time in prison for robbery. Altogether, Sirico's rap sheet
included at least 28 arrests. Reportedly, Sirico also appeared briefly in an
uncredited role in The
Godfather: Part II (1974).
David Chase had
planned a major story line for the third season concerning Tony's efforts to
prevent Livia from testifying against him in court. But Nancy Marchand's death
caused Chase to revise a large portion of the season.
Before David Chase chose
"Woke Up This Morning" by UK band Alabama 3 (from their 1997 debut
album "Exile on Coldharbour Lane"), he wanted to open every episode
with a different song. HBO executives convinced him that viewers needed to be
able to identify the show with a theme song. However, every "Sopranos"
episode ends with a different song.
The character 'A.J. Soprano' was
ranked #10 in TV Guide's list of "TV's 10 Biggest Brats" (27 March
2005 issue).
Drea de Matteo had to
spend four hours in hair and makeup before shooting each episode in order to
achieve her "mob girl" look. It took two hours to prepare her hair,
and in the instances in which her arms, legs, and/or torso were uncovered, an
hour and a half to apply makeup to cover her tattoos.
Many local New Jersey businesses
are used as locations in the series. In the opening credits, we see a shot of a
pizza shack known as Pizza Land. They get calls for pizza orders from all over
the country as a result. In one episode, an actual sporting goods store,
Ramesey Outdoor in Paramus, was portrayed as going out of business. So many
people thought the real store was closing, the store owners had to place ads to
explain they were still open.
Corrado Soprano's nickname, Junior,
was taken from the actual nickname used by Tony Sirico when he
was a mobster as a young man, before he became an actor.
David Chase was a
longtime fan of Steven Van
Zandt's music and had always wanted to write a role for him. When
Chase saw Van Zandt induct 'The Young Rascals' into The Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame, he invited Van Zandt to audition for Tony Soprano even though he had
never acted before. Van Zandt did not want to take a role away from a real
actor, so Chase wrote the role of Silvio Dante for him. And The Rascals performance
footage ended up being featured in 1999's seventh episode, "Down
Neck" .
During Seasons 2 and 3, Steve Schirripa had
to wear a fat suit in order to play Bobby Bacala.
The large mugshot on the wall of
the Bada Bing's office is of 23-year-old Frank Sinatra. In 1938,
Sinatra was arrested and charged with 'seduction of a married woman'.
Voted #5 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest
TV Shows of All Time.
Dr. Melfi was named after David Chase's grandmother,
Teresa Melfi.
Whenever an actor would go to David Chase to
complain about his/her character, arguing the character would never do this or
that thing, it has been reported multiple times that Chase would respond: 'Who
told you it is your character?'
The writers of The Sopranos
carefully researched the ways in which mobsters controlled and laundered their
money in order to make Tony Soprano as realistic as possible, and they employed
New York assistant district attorney Dan Castleman to advise on this issue.
When Castleman was asked how much they had decided Tony would realistically be
worth, he stated that it was roughly 5 or 6 million dollars - an amount that
fluctuated, of course, because of Tony's substantial gambling problem.
