Feech La Manna is just one of many fascinating characters in The Sopranos, but his complicated history with Tony made him an interesting antagonist.
Feech La Manna was just one of the plethora of fascinating characters in The Sopranos, but his complicated history with Tony Soprano made him a compelling minor antagonist in season 5. Debuting in 1999, The Sopranos follows high-level mobster Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) as he balances his deteriorating family life, his burgeoning anxiety, and the usual struggles of running a criminal enterprise. HBO took a big risk with the series, but it paid off in strides as The Sopranos helped to push TV further than it had ever been before. Each episode was like a movie, and every show that followed owed a major debt to creator David Chase’s vision.
Like most mob-related films and TV shows, The Sopranos was an ensemble affair with many minor characters coming and going from Tony’s life on an episode-to-episode basis. By season 5, the show had begun weaving a complicated tapestry that was elevated by the arrival of Feech La Manna (Robert Loggia) as a minor antagonist to compound things. Though The Sopranos ended after season 6, the show never stopped expanding upon the backstories of its main characters, and Feech La Manna was an important glimpse into the development of Tony from a street thug to a veritable crime boss.
Tony Set Feech La Manna Up Because He Was Worried Feech Would Betray Him
After spending two decades behind bars for racketeering charges that he caught in the 1980s, former mob captain Feech La Manna found himself back on the outside in an unfamiliar crime landscape. Feech quickly made himself a nuisance to Tony Soprano when he tried to muscle in on Paulie’s (Tony Sorico) turf, and he refused to make any compromises when Tony tried to help him out. The last straw came in season 5, episode 4, “All Happy Families…” when some of Feech’s men stole cars from Tony’s personal friend Dr. Ira Fried (Lewis J. Stadlen).
That robbery prompted Tony to recall a recent card game in which Feech cracked a joke that elicited a minor response from the lieutenants, but when Tony made a joke, the room erupted in nervous laughter. Tony suspected Feech was aiming to have him whacked, and decided to get him out of the picture. While most of Tony Soprano’s dangerous enemies would have simply been “eliminated”, Tony decided to treat the celebrated older mobster with respect by framing him for a robbery which landed him in prison for the rest of his foreseeable life.
Tony & Feech’s Rivalry Started At A Card Game
Animosity had been simmering between Tony and Feech since Tony was a youth when the aspiring mobster devised a plan to rob Feech’s weekly card game. Young Tony hoped that the daring robbery would increase his standing within the family, and though the plan went off without a hitch, it was anything but popular with Feech. However, Feech was ordered to back down by Tony’s influential father, and Tony was eventually made because of his daring actions. Though many fans were hoping to see the pivotal moment in the prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark, the key piece of backstory to The Sopranos has never actually been shown on screen.
