Though “The Sopranos” cut to black nearly 20 years ago, the show has continued to live on (and on and on and on). It has reached new audiences — many Gen Z-ers binge-watched it during the pandemic — and it has inspired fan sites, books, podcasts and countless memes.
Add to that list an exhibition and screening series at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. “Stories and Set Designs for ‘The Sopranos,’” on view through May 31, traces how narratives and locations were developed for the show through scripts, research, concept drawings and more. The museum also recently hosted screenings of three episodes from the third season, featuring conversations with the creator, David Chase, and cast members including Edie Falco and Steven Van Zandt.
The idea for the exhibition came about while Michael Koresky, the museum’s senior curator of film, was planning “2001: The Year, Not the Movie,” a screening series celebrating notable movies that came out that year. Koresky, a devoted fan of the mob drama, felt the show needed to be included.
“‘The Sopranos’ is extraordinary in its own cinematic properties,” he said. The series debuted on HBO in 1999, but Season 3, which premiered in 2001, was when it reached “masterpiece territory,” Koresky said.
Barbara Miller, the museum’s deputy director for curatorial affairs, organized the exhibition to accompany the screenings. She selected items from its collection and Chase’s personal archives to detail how core elements evolved after HBO picked up the pilot. “It was really kind of interesting to see how they were established from the beginning,” Miller said.
Items on view include set design sketches for key locations including the strip club the Bada Bing, the psychiatrist Dr. Melfi’s office, Satriale’s Pork Store and the Soprano family’s New Jersey McMansion. In an interview, Chase noted the home needed to have a pool for the ducks story line.
A script for the pilot shows that the charismatic, murderous mafia boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) was originally going to be named Tommy. When the show’s legal team discovered a real-life Tommy Soprano, they advised Chase to change it. Elsewhere visitors learn that Tony initially was going to suffocate his manipulative mother, Livia (Nancy Marchand), to death in the Season 1 finale. But Marchand was ill at the time and asked Chase to keep her working, he said.
“It turned out actually good because there was that whole scene of her smirking under the oxygen mask,” he added.
The creator has long said Livia’s character was based on his mother. “My mother never wanted to kill me,” he said. “But in 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War, she said to me, ‘I’d rather see you dead than avoid the draft.’ And I never forgot that.”
Dominic Chianese, who played the wisecracking Uncle Junior, recalled shooting a scene for the pilot in which Junior essentially tells Livia that he may have to kill her son. “I thought it was a farce, because I didn’t even know what the story was about,” he said in an interview.
Chianese was among the cast members who spoke at the museum’s screenings, which featured pivotal Season 3 episodes chosen by Chase and Koresky.
“University” parallels the lives of Meadow Soprano (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) and her college roommate with that of a young Bada Bing dancer who is beaten to death, a scene Chase said drew complaints from feminists. “I thought, ‘Well, we’ve been killing men for three years now,’” he added. Koresky said that ramping up the violence was “pointed and necessary” in order to remind viewers that these often charming wiseguys were coldblooded murderers.
“A Second Opinion” follows Carmela (Falco) and Uncle Junior as they each hear from new doctors about their corresponding dilemmas. One scene in particular, in which Tony and his main enforcer, Furio Giunta (Federico Castelluccio), confront a doctor for not responding to Uncle Junior’s calls, stuck with Chase.
“I remember Furio saying to this doctor, ‘You got a bee on your hat,’ and he slapped the hat and it went in the pond,” he said with a chuckle. “That’s the reason I picked it.”
“Amour Fou” focuses on Tony’s tempestuous affair with Gloria Trillo (Annabella Sciorra) and his realization that she embodies his mother’s toxic traits. The episode earned Gandolfini an Emmy, and Sciorra’s haunting performance received a nomination.
Sabah Malik, 25, watched the show for the first time last fall. “I fell in love and was so obsessed with it,” she said. While visiting the exhibit on opening weekend, she was fascinated by the original documents and concept drawings. “It was really cool being able to compare it to what we saw onscreen,” she said.
Art Vizthum, 66, another fan at the museum, watched the original “Sopranos” run. Tony, despite his many faults, was Vizthum’s favorite character. “He was just so complicated,” he said.
While “The Sopranos” takes place in the world of organized crime, Miller, of the museum, said the show’s dissection of family dynamics and consumerism make it relatable. But it is “also so far from our own experience that it’s kind of thrilling,” she added.
And then there are the moral, spiritual and existential themes peppered throughout the 86 episodes. Chianese said the show’s suspenseful writing kept viewers tuning in, wondering whether the characters, most directly or indirectly complicit in the mob’s actions, would redeem themselves.
“Everybody has some darkness in them,” Chianese said. “How do we deal with it?”
More than 27 years after “The Sopranos” arrived on television, Chase cannot believe it still resonates and has such a lasting legacy. He said he had assumed the show’s references and technology would become dated.
“I’m glad I was wrong,” he said. “It was the best creative experience I ever had.”
Sara Aridi is a Times journalism education editor helping to explore partnerships with The School of The New York Times.
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