HBO executives feared the show ‘would lose everything’ if they kept a violent scene within the series – but creator David Chase stood firm
TV bosses pleaded with The Sopranos creator David Chase to change a controversial scene early in the show’s run – but he refused despite the show “would lose everything”.
The American crime drama was first released in January 1999 and ran on HBO for 86 episodes until 2007. The Sopranos featured some brutal deaths – 88 deaths in fact – alongside many twists, turf wars and some great performances from its stellar cast.
New documentary Wise Guy David Chase and The Sopranos, created by acclaimed filmmaker Alex Gibney, delves deep into the psyche of The Sopranos creator, David Chase, with exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of The Sopranos.
The first episode of the two-part documentary highlights the first season of the mob drama and how Tony’s first murder sparked huge controversy and demands from HBO executives to rewrite the script.
In the episode College in the first season, Tony Soprano takes his daughter Meadow to visit three colleges in Maine. While on this trip, Tony thinks he spots Fabian “Febby” Petrulio, a former member of the DiMeo family who entered witness protection after sharing information about the mafia.
Tony asked Christopher Moltisanti to investigate his number plate and discovered his new alias “Fred Peters” and where he lived. Febby also senses he knows Tony is onto him and almost shoots him at the motel where Tony and Meadow are staying.
The following day, Tony ambushes Febby at his office and greets him with “Good morning rat” and garrottes him with a wire. Febby pleads with Tony to let him live and how he didn’t shoot Tony at the motel but Tony continues to violently kill him.
Recalling the initial meeting about the episode, David Chase said: “When they saw the fifth episode, HBO said you have created one of the most dynamic characters in television history and you’re going to blow it all.”
HBO’s Chris Albrecht: “I brought it up in the script and the answer (from David Chase) was ‘you’re going to feel differently when you see it’. And then when we saw it, it was even more troublesome than I thought in the script.”
Interjecting, David Chase said: “Chris says ‘I’m seeing it now and how gruesome it is and we’re going to lose everything. People are going to hate him’.”
Former HBO president Carolyn Strauss added: “Could you have a criminal, a killer, as your lead? Can you have an anti-hero in the lead and that was the big debate.”
HBO’s Chris Albrecht said: “My big objection was that the audience was really going to not like Tony and that we hadn’t earned that yet. I mean, this was just the fifth episode.”
David Chase explained the meaning of the scene and how critical it was for viewers to buy Tony Soprano as a mobster and what he represented. He commented: “I said ‘Chris – think about it. He’s up there in Maine and he sees this rat. He’s a captain in a mob group. If he doesn’t kill this guy, people will lose faith or interest in him completely.”
Chris believed in Chase’s reasoning about the murder of Febby, but asked him to include more aspects to make Febby a “more menacing figure” and necessary to be killed. David added the scene where Febby lined up his gun to shoot Tony as he helped a drunk Meadow back into their motel room.
The original scene was kept in the episode and College stands today as not only one of The Soprano’s greatest episodes, but also one of the best television episodes of all time.
James Manos Jr. and David Chase won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for their work on this episode while Carmela actress Edie Falco received her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination and win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
The episode boosted interest in the HBO series and helped pave the way for other anti-hero-led series including Breaking Bad, Dexter, Peaky Blinders and much more. The two-part documentary will air back-to-back from 10pm on Sky Documentaries on Sunday, September 8. The documentary will be available on catch-up as well.
