Long before the so-called “golden age of TV” arrived, “The Sopranos” seemed to hint at what was in store for the small screen. The groundbreaking show suggested what today seems axiomatic: that TV could be just as compelling, contain just as much tight storytelling, and feel just as premium as any movie. As far as television dramas go, “The Sopranos” set a standard that few series, even today, manage to meet.
Still, not everything the writers did was met with unanimous praise. The legacy of “The Sopranos” wasn’t exactly sullied by what is surely one of the most divisive endings in TV history, but that infamous fade-to-black left some fans feeling let down by a series that never shied away from depicting the brutality of mob life. Put simply, you never really knew who was going to be offed from episode to episode, and while killing off characters on “The Sopranos” wasn’t easy behind the scenes, it sure felt like the writers and creator David Chase delighted in writing beloved characters out of the show with alacrity.
Across its six-season, 86-episode run, “The Sopranos” saw almost 100 people murdered by Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and his crew — and it wasn’t just side characters. From Tony Blundetto to Ralph Cifaretto, and perhaps the most upsetting death of them all — Tony’s own nephew Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) — the Soprano family boss and his cohorts were nothing if not prolific when it came to killing. At times, this ongoing blood bath led to the cast and crew begging the writers not to kill off certain characters, as was the case with a significant season 2 death that actually established the show’s reputation for offing characters with ease.
The Sopranos kill that proved no one was safe
In a retrospective on “The Sopranos” in the latest issue of Empire magazine, David Chase and several other members of the cast and crew discussed how easily characters were killed off, with Chase even admitting that this was far from the most realistic aspect of the show. As he pointed out:
“Here’s the thing about all the killings on the show. If you look at the real Mob, I think there were a grand total of nine Mob homicides from ’99 to 2007 in the New York metropolitan area. We were doing nine a season. [Laughs] So yes, not everyone made it out alive…”
But there was one character who the cast was desperate to save from Chase’s merciless pen. Lorraine Bracco, who played psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi on the show, highlighted cat-burglar-turned-Soprano-soldier and Tony’s close friend Salvatore Bonpensiero (Vincent Pastore), aka “Big Pussy,” as a character the cast “begged” Chase not to kill off. In response, he noted:
“The compromise was, we killed him but promised to bring him back for a few episodes (in flashbacks and dream sequences). That death had a big imprint on the show. It said to the audience: no-one’s safe.”
Ultimately, Big Pussy had to go after he became an FBI informant in season 2 and was summarily killed by Tony, Silvio, and Paulie in what was the first truly shocking death of the series. Still, the character would indeed return, and not just in flashbacks but in the “Sopranos” prequel film “The Many Saints of Newark,” where he was portrayed by Samson Moeakiola.
