DavidChase,TheSopranos , andTelevisionCreativity

David Lavery and Robert J . Thompson

Bonnie : L iv ia , ever hear the o ld I ta l ian say ing myaunts used: co l tempo la

fog l ia , d i ge lso d ivena seta .

Carmela : What does that mean, Bonnie?

Bonnie : T imeand pat ience change the mulberry leaf to s i lk .

F rom“46 Long” on The Sopranos , writ ten by Dav id Chase

David Chase ’s mulberry leaves were many, h is pat ience

extraord inary , h is c reat ive ach ievement decades in the

mak ing . A precoc ious ch i ld , a devotee of F reud in h igh school ,

where he authored a b lasphemous s tory in which “somebody

sp ies the Apost les sneak ing Jesus ’ body out o f the tomb, r ight

before they go ‘Oh, myGod, he ’s resurrected . ’” Chase longed

as a young manto be a f i lmmaker or perhaps a rock and ro l l

mus ic ian . An Eng l i sh major in co l lege ( f i r s t a t Wake Forest ,

la ter a t NewYork Un ivers i ty ) , l i ke contemporar ies and near‐

contemporar ies Franc is Ford Coppola , Mart in Scorsese , and

George Lucas , Chase then went on to at tend f i lm school—at

Stanford . The p i lot for The Sopranos , however , would not be wr i t ten unt i l he served

twenty seven re luctant years in te lev is ion , beg inn ing as a wr i ter in 1971.

Desp i te a d is taste for network te lev is ion he makes no ef fort to h ide (“ I loathe

and desp ise a lmost every secondof i t” ) , money had kept Chase in the industry ,

wr i t ing , and eventua l ly produc ing , for such sundry ser ies as The N ight S ta lker (1974‐

75) , The Rockford F i les (1976‐80) , I ’ l l F ly Away (1991‐1992, Northern Exposure (1993‐

95) , and d i rect ing an ep isode of Alf red H i tchcock Presents (1985‐86) , but he a lso

turned downmany other opportun i t ies as wel l . Though great ly admired by b igger

names l ike Rockford creator S tephen J . Cannel l and D ick Wol f , he remained large ly

anonymous in a s t i l l most ly author less medium. Off the Minnesota St r ip (1980) , a

made‐for ‐ te lev is ion movie he wrote , d id earn h iman Emmy, and he s t i l l remembers

proud ly the ambit ious Almost Grown (November 1988 to February 1989) , a short ‐

l ived ser ies about the s ix t ies and sevent ies mak ing use of a rock and ro l l soundtrack

and extens ive f lashbacks that gave h imh is f i r s t opportun i ty to create and produce

The Collected Works of David Lavery 2

his ownshow. But he cont inued to wr i te movie scr ipts that never got madeand to

dreamof leav ing te lev is ion for feature f i lmmaking .

Chase reca l l s howexc i t ing the ear ly 70s were to h imas an asp i r ing f i lmmaker ,

an era in which “movies were s tart ing to be ca l led ‘ f i lm’” and were beg inn ing to be

taken ser ious ly as ar t , and non‐Hol lywoodmodels f romEurope and Japan insp i red in

Chase and h is generat ion newconcept ions o f the medium. A screen ing of Fe l l in i ’ s 8½

at Wake Forest in the ‘60s le f t a las t ing impress ion . (Fe l l in i , Chase observes , insp i red

h imto incorporate I ta l ian themes into h is

s tor ies . ) The f i lms of Po lansk i and Buñuel

would not be forgotten . Chase began to

dreamabout mak ing “persona l” f i lms that

d id not seemto have been mass‐produced.

TV , on the other hand, “ ru ined the movies ,”

or so Chase be l ieved.

Though he admits to lov ing

te lev is ion as a k id ,” the a f fa i r d idn ’ t las t . “ I

fe l l out o f love with TV probab ly a f ter The

Fug i t ive went of f the a i r [1967] . And then when I had my f i r s t network meet ing , that

d idn ’ t he lp” . Chase v i r tua l ly ignored TV in the s ix t ies and sevent ies except for an

add ict ion he ca l l s “absurd” to Medica l Center (1969‐76) and an in fatuat ion with I Spy

(1965‐68) , a ser ies whose wr i t ing (espec ia l ly in i t s las t twoseasons) he great ly

admired . “ I hated everyth ing that corporate Amer ica had to o f fer ,” Chase te l l s A l len

Rucker . “ I cons idered network TV to be propaganda for the corporate s tate—the

programming not on ly the commerc ia ls . I ’m not a Marx is t and I never was very

rad ica l , but that ’s what I cons idered i t to be . To someextent , I s t i l l do . . . . ” Even a

qua l i ty ser ies l i ke Northern Exposure , a showhe wrote for in i t s f ina l twoseasons ,

was for Chase “propaganda for the corporate s tate . . . . i t was ramming homeevery

week the message that ‘ l i fe i s noth ing but great . ’ ‘Amer icans are great ’

and ‘heart fe l t emot ion and shar ing conquers everyth ing . ’” I t shou ld not

surpr ise us that Chase th inks o f h imse l f as “The f i r s t countercu l ture . . .

person in hour drama” . He has remained an in ‐house renegade.

“ I th ink i t i s a sad commentary on the last twodecades o f

te lev is ion ,” S tephen J . Cannel l wr i tes , “ that th is man, whowas wel l

knownto a l l the networks for a lmost twenty‐ f ive years , cou ld not get h is f resh ,

tota l ly un ique ideas past the guard ians o f our pub l ic a i rwaves ( read network

The Collected Works of David Lavery 3

execut ives here) . Instead of The Sopranos , wemore of ten got mind less c lones o f las t

year ’s semi‐h i ts , wh i le Dav id madeh is l i v ing runn ing other people ’s shows, unab le to

se l l h i s own.” Howhe d id f ina l ly manage to se l l h i s own i s a s tory o f ten to ld . Chase

has aga in and aga in ins i s ted that “ luck” was perhaps the major contr ibut ing factor ,

and a cursory cata logu ing of the extraord inary and d iverse components that

contr ibuted to the mak ing of The Sopranos would seemto conf i rmthe observat ion .

Each andevery one of the fo l lowing ingredients had to be addedto the mix in order

for The Sopranos‐as‐we‐know‐ i t to come into ex is tence .

The fa i th o f L loyd Braun of Br i l l s te in ‐Grey Product ions—thecompany that

had deve loped The Larry Sanders Show for HBO—that Chase “had a great

ser ies ins ide ,” which led Chase to beg in recons ider ing and reconf igur ing for

te lev is ion ideas that had long been on the back burner .

Chase ’s long‐t imeobsess ion with gangster f i lms . He was a great admirer o f

Wi l l iamWel lman’s Publ ic Enemy (1931) whenhe f i r s t saw i t , terr i f ied , a t the

age of e ight or n ine , and a fan of te lev is ion ’s The Untouchables (1959‐63) ,

which he watched with h is fa ther . At S tanford he even madea s tudent

gangster f i lm. The R ise and Fa l l o f Bug Manousos , Chase reca l l s , “was about

a l ienat ion . I t was about a guy dr iven crazy by the chees iness ,

sanct imoniousness , and fakery o f Amer ican soc iety . He was f rustrated—he

shotgunnedh is TV set . And what got to h imwere the commerc ia ls , the

astronauts , and the fact that white bread N ixon ians ru led Amer ica . . . . And

he dreamedof becoming a gangster , an o ld ‐ fash ioned gangster in a p in ‐

s t r iped su i t , and he got h is w ish . He got k i l led in the end, but the f i lm was

poor ly thought out .” The s tate o f the post ‐Godfather , post ‐GoodFe l las

gangster genre at the t imeof The Sopranos ’ germinat ion le f t Chase nowhere

to go except “ into the fami ly” , g roundwhich proved to be fert i le indeed.

The idea , encouraged by Rob in Green, a wr i ter on Almost Grown , and

others ( inc lud ing h is w i fe ) , o f te l l ing s tor ies about h is ownu l t ra ‐negat ive

mother .

Chase ’s own long‐runn ing therapy . Chase speaks revea l ing ly o f the great

in f luence A l ice Mi l ler ’ s br i l l iant but deep ly t roub l ing Dramaof the G i f ted

Ch i ld—a book that argues that many creat ive adu l ts were abused ch i ldren—

The Collected Works of David Lavery 4

hadon h is ownmindset . He jokes that w ith The Sopranos a l l the money he

has spent on therapy has f ina l ly begun to pay of f .

The conce i t o f a mobster see ing a psych iatr i s t , the ser ies ’ germina l idea ,

as Chase exp la ined to Peter Bogdanov ich :

The kerne l o f the joke , o f the essent ia l

joke , was that l i fe in Amer ica had gotten

so savage, se l f i sh—bas ica l ly se l f i sh , that

even a mobguy cou ldn ’t take i t any

more . That was the essent ia l joke , and

he ’s in therapy because what he sees

upsets h imso much, what he sees every

day . . . . he and h is guys were the ones

who invented se l f i shness—they invented

“me f i r s t” ; they invented “ i t ’ s a l l about

me”—andnowhe can ’ t take i t because the rest o f the country has

surpassed h im.

The commiss ion ing of the p i lot for Fox , which would , o f course , turn i t

down.

Chase ’s inc l inat ion never to purpose ly c reate comedy. Comedy just occurs ,

Chase be l ieves , natura l ly accru ing whena wr i ter i s fa i th fu l to th ings as they

are . ( I s i t too much to say that The Sopranos i s the funn iest shows ince

Se infe ld?)

The cast ing o f v i r tua l ly a l l the ro les , most ly w i th NewYork‐based actors ,

espec ia l ly James Gandol f in i as Tony—anepocha l dec is ion compared by some

to hav ing Mar lon Brandop lay S tan ley Kowalsk i in E l ia Kazan’s AStreetcar

NamedDes i re (1951) .

The ducks , whocometo ho ld such meaning for Tony f lown in f rom

Rockford F i les TV movie producer Juan i ta Bart let t ’ s ownswimming poo l .

The fami ly dynamics drawn f romChase ’s own fami ly—minus the curs ing .

The shopping‐aroundof the ser ies to a l l the networks and i t s complete

re ject ion .

The opportune success fu l p i tch to HBO, heav i ly committed at the t imeto

the deve lopment o f new, or ig ina l ser ies . Hav ing the ser ies on HBOpermit ted

The Collected Works of David Lavery 5

Chase to use nud i ty , v io lence , and profane language in ways that would have

been imposs ib le on network te lev is ion , great ly fac i l i ta t ing i t s ver i s imi l i tude,

but perhaps more important ly i t enab led the un interrupted‐by‐commerc ia l

construct ion of hour‐ long narrat ives .

HBO’s commitment to on‐ locat ion f i lm ing in NewJersey .

Luck was with Dav id Chase , as wel l , whenhe and h is product ion teamdec ided

against someother poss ib i l i t ies , a l l ser ious ly cons idered, and a l l o f which , in

retrospect , would have been grave , i f not fa ta l , m is takes .

Making the main character a te lev is ion producer w ith an uneasy

re lat ionsh ip w ith h is mother .

Having the whole ser ies be to ld by Tony in f lashbacks in Mel f i ’ s o f f i ce .

About ha l f o f the p i lot does make use of such a narrat ive techn ique, but the

idea d id not surv ive the p i lot .

Using a newsong for each ep isode’s c red i t sequence. In a d iscuss ion of

the open ing cred i t sequence with Bogdanov ich , Chase reca l l s that i t had

been h is w ish to use a d i f ferent song every week and had protested

unsuccess fu l ly HBO’s ins i s tence that Tony ’s dr ive f romNewYork to New

Jersey a lways be choreographedto A5’s “WokeUpTh is Morn ing .” He admits

that he or ig ina l ly cons idered a s ing le themesong—astap le o f te lev is ion

programfor decades—“bourgeo is .”

Ki l l ing o f f Tony ’s mother , L iv ia , a t the end of the f i r s t season. Nancy

Marchand’s superb performance conv inced Chase and h is co l laborators to

keep the character a l ive .

Cast ing Steven Van Zandt , Bruce Spr ingsteen’s gu i tar i s t , whohad never

acted before , as Tony. “At the t ime,” Chase reca l l s , “ I was see ing [The

Sopranos ] more l ike a l i ve‐act ion S impsons . I t would have been a gangster

show, but someof the more tortured aspects o f Tony would probab ly have

gone away. With Steven, i t would have been a l i t t le broad. Wewould have

p layed i t more for laughs .”

Not hav ing Tony k i l l anyone on screen (as he does , for the f i r s t t ime, in

“Co l lege ,” garrot ing a mobt ra i tor ) , fear ing—as HBO i tse l f very s t rong ly

d id—that the aud ience might lose a l l sympathy for i t s main character .

The Collected Works of David Lavery 6

Though Chase i s knownas the “master cy l inder” by the cast and crewof The

Sopranos , i t i s important to remember that , l i ke a l l f i lm ic and te lev isua l enterpr ises ,

the ser ies i s a co l laborat ive e f fort . Chase has wr i t ten or co‐wr i t ten on ly e ight o f the

th i r ty n ine ep isodes so far produced, and he has d i rected on ly twoep isodes . As

Chase i s the f i r s t to acknowledge, The Sopranos has brought together a regu lar team

of ta lented wr i ters and d i rectors , w i th occas iona l guest d i rectors at t racted by the

show’s prest ige . But , l i ke many te lev is ion producer/creators , Chase gets to do f ina l

rev is ions (uncred i ted) on a lmost a l l sc r ipts and has part ic ipated in the ed i t ing o f

each and every ep isode.

Ke l ley | Sork in | Fontana

Recent ly i t has becomefash ionab le for the creators o f more ambit ious TV

ser ies to take persona l contro l over the i r shows’ authorsh ip . Dav id E . Ke l ley (The

Pract ice , Al ly McBeal ) , Aaron Sork in (The West Wing ) , and TomFontana (Oz ) , for

example , are somet imes g iven screenwr i t ing cred i t for near ly every ep isode of the

programs they produce. A l though th is assures a greater degree of aesthet ic

cont inu i ty and a l lows a te lev is ion ser ies to exh ib i t the samek ind of s ing le v i s ion that

weassoc iate w ith more t rad i t iona l ar t forms, th is methoda lso inv i tes the burnout o f

the auteur and the exhaust ion of the narrat ive premise .

Dav id Chase , on the other hand, has returned to a more o ld fash ioned way of

de legat ing author ia l duty , but w ith on ly th i r teen ep isodes per year to make, he i s

ab le to do i t much more ef f i c ient ly . By reta in ing h is ro le as the f ina l rewr i ter o f

every Sopranos sc r ipt , but farming out most o f h is ep isodes to other wr i ters , Chase

has chosen a dramaturg ica l model that may be the most e f fect ive one for te l l ing

ar t i s t ica l ly mature s tor ies in a cont inu ing ser ies . The Sopranos i s enr iched by the

subt ly d i f ferent vo ices that var ious wr i ters br ing to the ser ies . Chase ’s re fusa l to hog

a l l o f the scr ipts for h imse l f prov ides a degree of mult iva lent complex i ty to the

The Collected Works of David Lavery 7

universe he has created. At the samet ime, Chase ’s s tewardsh ip assures that the

showtakes advantage of the un ique ab i l i ty o f a te lev is ion ser ies to te l l s tor ies that

deve lop character and accrete deta i l over long per iods o f rea l and narrat ive t ime.

The Sopranos i s not so much a te lev is ion nove l wr i t ten by a s ing le author , as i t i s a

co l lect ion of short s tor ies wr i t ten by a company of authors and un i f ied by character ,

theme, and the carefu l contro l o f a s ing le ed i tor . Chase ’s model max imizes the

potent ia l o f the ser ia l formwhi le protect ing h is showf rombecoming a t rad i t iona l

te lev is ion ser ia l .

WhenHi l l S t reet B lues debuted in 1981, i t cata lyzed a w idespread upgrade of the

dramat ic te lev is ion ser ies . The creat ive and commerc ia l success o f the show insp i red

twodecades o f programming that was more soph is t icated , more complex—indeed

better than what had gone before . But Hi l l S t reet B lues d idn ’ t have much of an act to

fo l low. I t was introduced dur ing one of the most ar id per iods in the h is tory o f the

dramat ic ser ies , a formthat had never rea l ly matured.

L ike Hi l l S t reet B lues , The Sopranos i s another monumenta l work in the

deve lopment o f TV drama. Whi le Hi l l S t reet B lues was responding to a te lev is ion

t rad i t ion that inc luded such gener ic contemporar ies as CHiPS and T. J . Hooker ,

however , The Sopranos a t t racted cr i t i ca l acc la imamidst a schedule r ich w ith

“qua l i ty” ser ies l i ke Law&Order , NYPDB lue , and The Pract ice .

Judg ing by the number o f magaz ine covers they insp i red , twote lev is ion shows

seemedto dominate the Amer ican imag inat ion , or a t least the imag inat ions o f

enterta inment wr i ters , a t the turn of the

century : The Sopranos and Surv ivor . Both shows

may have succeeded for someof the same

reasons . Af ter ha l f a century o f s i tcoms, and

cop, lawyer , doctor and detect ive dramas ,

v iewers may have been ready for someth ing

complete ly d i f ferent . “Rea l i ty TV” and The

Sopranos both prov ided th is , though in very

d i f ferent ways . Surv ivor and the other shows in

i t s genre of fered “rea l i ty” through the use of

non‐actors and the introduct ion of improv ised and serend ip i tous dramat ic act ion;

The Sopranos o f fered rea l i ty through i t s extens ion of the pa let te o f language and i t s

The Collected Works of David Lavery 8

break with someof the t rad i t ions o f TV dramathat tone downand c lean up any

sub ject matter .

Perhaps i t wasn ’ t just the ways in which The Sopranos was d i f ferent f rom

other TV that made i t work , however . Dav id Chase madetwocruc ia l dec is ions ear ly

in the deve lopment o f the show. The dec is ion to p lace Tony Soprano into therapy

a l lowedthe v iewer access to the inter ior psych ic work ings o f the show’s lead

character , thereby co‐opt ing the too ls o f wr i t ten l i terature without resort ing to the

contr ivances o f narrators or so l i loqu ies . More important ly , however , was Chase ’s

dec is ion to merge the ep ic o f the urban f ront ier that had been exp lored in The

Godfather and GoodFe l las w i th the non‐ep ic o f the suburban fami ly that has been

one of the bas ic un i ts o f enterta inment TV f romthe very s tart . What may have

seemeda lud icrous gener ic oxymoron nowseemsto have been inev i tab le .

After publ ic ly threatening to endthe ser ies a f ter on ly four seasons , Chase agreed in

the summer of 2001 to a f i f th , but he has warned f romthe beg inn ing that i t shou ld

have a very l im ited run , and for good reasons :

The fact i s , I don’t knowhow long th is th ing wi l l

cont inue to at t ract v iewers . There are so many

p i t fa l l s in ser ies te lev is ion . There are so many

th ings about the s t ructure i t se l f that can lead you

to creat ing sh i t . The need to repeat yourse l f

beyondthe po int o f exhaust ion , the fact that there

are cont inu ing characters and noth ing rea l ly can

happento them. You’re boxed in so many ways . I

don’t want to see the showbecomethe walk ing

dead, a zombie of i t se l f . I was the one whoasked

for the four‐year cap . (Peyser )

"The model for . . . gangster p ic tures . . . ” Chase i s we l l aware , “has a lways been The

R ise and Fa l l o f . . . . Our showdoesn ' t have a r i se and fa l l—it ' s l i ke The Go ing A long

of Tony Soprano . But wedo knowthat he 's invo lved in a l i festy le that ' s dangerous ,

i l lega l and dehumaniz ing . How long can that go on—rea l i s t ica l ly?" (quoted by Curt i s ) .

“Somet imes I ca l l the showthe Mir space s tat ion ,” Chase to ld Newsweek . “ I t wasn ’ t

des igned to be up there for f ive years .” That he has nowagreed to a longer run

would seemto suggest , however , that he has env is ioned newmeans to mainta in the

The Collected Works of David Lavery 9

proper a l t i tude, to prevent degradat ion of The Sopranos ’ orb i t and inc inerat ion in

the atmosphere .

In h is cyn ica l and br i l l iant Bonf i re of the Humanit ies :

Te lev is ion , Sub l i teracy , and Long‐TermMemory Loss , David

Marc , one of the medium’s acutest scho lars , observes :

The TV industry may in fact be fu l l o f wonderfu l ly c reat ive fo lks

possess ing the remarkab le ta lents necessary to br ing laughter ,

tears , and in format ion to the great mult i tudes o f the i r fe l low

c i t i zens . But so far I haven’t bumped into any of that c rowd,

only dangerous gangsters whoyou wouldn’t want to meet in a

dark corr idor o f power . (myemphas is )

Marc ’s dark v iewof the industry to which he has devoted h is l i fe ’s work i s certa in ly

one with which Dav id Chase , another l i fer who, in h is est imat ion , had for three

decades pr ior to The Sopranos not even r i sen to the rank of “s t reet boss” in the

bus iness , would concur . But Chase , one of those “wonderfu l ly c reat ive fo lks” Marc

ev ident ly never met , w i l l , shou ld the i r post ‐Sopranos paths nowcross , have a th ing

or twoto te l l h imabout the nature of the gangster . Not a l l o f themwork to mainta in

te lev is ion ’s s tatus quo. In the r ight hands , gangsters may even prove usefu l in

subvert ing “everyth ing that corporate Amer ica [has] to o f fer .”

“Genius ,” underground f i lmmaker James Broughton once sa id , “ i s not hav ing

enough ta lent to do i t the way i t has been done before .” Boredom, too , i s a factor :

“You get bored,” Chase has admitted , “and I don’t know i f you can te l l i t f rom

look ing at The Sopranos , but I had just had i t up to here with a l l the n icet ies o f

network te lev is ion . I cou ldn ’ t take i t anymore. And I don’t mean language and I don’t

meanv io lence . I just means toryte l l ing , invent iveness , someth ing that rea l ly cou ld

enterta in and surpr ise people . I just cou ldn ’t take i t anymore.”

Nowthat he has had h is way , nowthat that “great te lev is ion ser ies” L loyd

Braun presc ient ly sensed he had bur ied with in has comeout , what i s to becomeof

Dav id Chase? Twomore years o f The Sopranos remain . Wi l l he leverage h is Sopranos

fame in order to rea l i ze h is long‐he ld dreamof leav ing TV for the movies? Chase , i t

shou ld be noted, no longer th inks so h igh ly o f f i lm as he once d id . Or w i l l he s tay in

The Collected Works of David Lavery 10

te lev is ion , desp i te h is f requent ins i s tence that he cou ld never return to network TV ,

w i l l ing nowto work in a mediumtransformedby h is loath ing of i t?