The actor who famously played Christopher on The Sopranos, Michael Imperioli, wasn’t too thrilled with the HBO show’s pilot. Naturally, the first episode introduced viewers to James Gandolfini’s iconic Tony Soprano. Mobster Tony (Lorraine Bracco) gets a panic attack and is sent to the psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi, as written and directed by the series creator David Chase. Although Gandolfini’s character is first reluctant and bluffs throughout their session, he gradually opens up as Melfi clarifies the nuances of secrecy.
The Sopranos wasn’t universally expected to be a success, despite the fact that it served as a backdrop for a drama that radically changed television as a narrative medium. Imperioli frankly admits in a conversation with The A.V. Club that he wasn’t wowed by the pilot’s writing. The White Lotus season 2 actor said he wasn’t sure if the production was intended to be a satire or a comedy and that HBO at the time didn’t have the same aura of grandeur as it has now. However, he reveals in the passage below how his viewpoint evolved as additional scripts were received:
When I read the pilot, I wasn’t like ‘This is gonna change television.’ I mean, it was okay! I’m not being facetious, really. The idea of a series on HBO did not have any prestige to actors at all at that time—it actually was the opposite. Being on a series didn’t really interest me, because I had mostly done movies and plays. But I thought [Christopher Moltisanti] was kind of interesting in the pilot, he had some interesting things to do, and I really liked who they were casting, a lot of people who I had worked with before and who I knew.
Are people gonna wanna watch a show about mobsters? Are they gonna watch a TV show with sex, violence, and profanity? When we started doing the episode 2, episode 3, every script was better and more complex. Then we really started seeing ‘Whoa, this is really special.’
The Sopranos’ Run Showed Imperioli Was Mistaken
Imperioli acknowledged that he was swiftly disproven about The Sopranos. The first season won Outstanding Drama at the following Emmy Awards thanks to Edie Falco’s portrayal of Carmela, who received both a nomination and the award. Of course, by the time it was through, the mafia drama had become a regular on the awards circuit, and Imperioli had garnered an Emmy for his performance. The Sopranos has a much more enduring reputation for its role in challenging and altering what television was capable of than it does for its award-winning success.
Chase, his actors, and crew worked together to achieve this by emphasizing that television’s visual language was capable of being just as complex and engaging as anything on the big screen. The Walter Whites and Don Drapers whom each had a role in moving the medium ahead were introduced by The Sopranos, which also served to usher in the era of prestige anti-heroes. The Sopranos were not unique in these aspects; genre series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and younger-skewing shows like Freaks and Geeks also sought to reshape consumers’ expectations. But The Sopranos is usually regarded as the first and most significant in a sequence of shows that elevated television because of a number of variables, including timing and the ability of those involved.