A show that slayed: ‘The Sopranos’ hits 20

By MARK KENNEDY

AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK

Back in 1997, then-up-and-coming actor Michael Imperioli was mulling two work offers: a cable TV show pilot and a small role in a Woody Allen film.

The script for the TV show didn’t initially seem so special to him. “I was not blown away by the pilot,” he admitted. On the other hand, he had long admired Allen and was being offered a spot in his movie “Celebrity.”

Imperioli couldn’t do both and was leaning toward doing the film. “That would have been the dumbest mistake of my life,” he says now with a laugh.

The reason was simple: The TV show was “The Sopranos,” which this year is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its premiere on HBO. The six-season show would win 21 Emmys and become the first cable series ever to win the Emmy for outstanding drama series. It also earned Imperioli an acting Emmy in 2004.

More than awards, the show about mid-level gangsters in New Jersey proved that audiences could handle morally complex anti-heroes, paving the way for shows such as “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men,” and marking the beginning of the time when TV started eating cinema’s lunch.

Creator, showrunner and head writer David Chase says all he wanted to do was create a show that he and his friends would like to watch. He had toiled in frustration within the strict confines of network TV for years, on such shows as “The Rockford Files” and “Northern Exposure.”

“I must admit that a lot of what I went into ‘The Sopranos’ with was anger. I was angry about all my years in network TV. And I’m one of the lucky ones. I worked for some really talented people and with some really talented people,” Chase says.

He recalled that a high-level executive at NBC had advocated for something called LOP, which stood for “least offensive programming.” Chase chafes at the notion: “It makes for a very bland mixture.”

“The Sopranos” was anything but bland. It followed the depressed mafia boss Tony Soprano balancing his ruthless illegal business with raising a family. There was brutal violence, infidelity, pasta and loyalty and dishonor. James Gandolfini played Tony with equal parts ferocity and tenderness.

“To interact with him was to make a deal with the devil. You would be ethically compromised. And I sort of wanted to show how easily that happens, what that really means. At the same time, I didn’t want to do a morality story,” Chase says.

“I guess the largest thing that I was trying to bring out was it’s a pretty cold universe. It’s a very cold universe. But we have this thing called love which we can use against that. That’s about the only weapon we have. That’s where I found myself thinking a lot.”