BBC article here.
Twenty-five years ago this week, the groundbreaking crime drama premiered on HBO in the US. In a 2006 interview, its creator David Chase told the BBC about its very unlikely genesis.
"You need to write about your mother. Your mother is money in the bank."
So The Sopranos writer and producer David Chase told the BBC's Mark Lawson about the unlikely inspiration behind his groundbreaking crime drama in an extended 2006 interview...
..."I thought, 'why would anybody want to see that? A TV producer with a sort of crazy overbearing mother?'...
..."I thought it could be interesting if the guy was a mobster, who puts his mother in a nursing home and she wants to have him killed for that. And, through therapy, he realises that his real enemy in the mob, not only in his life, but in his internal dynamic, is his mother. That would be a good comedy."
And so began the genesis of one of the most acclaimed TV dramas of all time....
...Although his mother, unlike Tony's mum Livia, never went as far as to take out a contract on him, she was prone to violent mood swings throughout his childhood and he often felt scared. He remembered once being held back from school due to snow and annoying his mother by complaining about not having an electric organ to play with.
"Finally, she came out of the kitchen with a knife and said, 'I'd like to stab your eye out!' And she kind of meant it. So, I was like, 'Whoa! Ok!' Not that she ever would have done it."
Twenty-five years ago this week, the groundbreaking crime drama premiered on HBO in the US. In a 2006 interview, its creator David Chase told the BBC about its very unlikely genesis.
"You need to write about your mother. Your mother is money in the bank."
So The Sopranos writer and producer David Chase told the BBC's Mark Lawson about the unlikely inspiration behind his groundbreaking crime drama in an extended 2006 interview...
..."I thought, 'why would anybody want to see that? A TV producer with a sort of crazy overbearing mother?'...
..."I thought it could be interesting if the guy was a mobster, who puts his mother in a nursing home and she wants to have him killed for that. And, through therapy, he realises that his real enemy in the mob, not only in his life, but in his internal dynamic, is his mother. That would be a good comedy."
And so began the genesis of one of the most acclaimed TV dramas of all time....
...Although his mother, unlike Tony's mum Livia, never went as far as to take out a contract on him, she was prone to violent mood swings throughout his childhood and he often felt scared. He remembered once being held back from school due to snow and annoying his mother by complaining about not having an electric organ to play with.
"Finally, she came out of the kitchen with a knife and said, 'I'd like to stab your eye out!' And she kind of meant it. So, I was like, 'Whoa! Ok!' Not that she ever would have done it."
