Over the course of its run, the cast of The Sopranos committed their fair share of murders, but one particular death is still infuriating fans, both old and new, to this day.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Daily Beast for their new podcast Talking Sopranos, Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa opened up about their time on the hit HBO series and revealed which murders absolutely incensed viewers. While discussing how execs at HBO initially balked when showrunner David Chase wanted Tony Soprano to pull off a hit early in the first season while taking his daughter on a college visit, Schirripa explained that viewers had no problem with any of the characters killing humans. They expected it. But when it comes to canines, forget about it.
Schirripa: HBO didn’t want him to kill the snitch when he took his daughter to college. And they said, there’s no way, a leading man never murdered someone before, we’ll lose the audience. And David Chase said, no, if he doesn’t kill the guy we’ll lose the audience because that’s what he does. And like Michael has said, he’s taken heat for sitting on the dog, killing the dog, but not for killing, how many people did Christopher kill, Michael?
Imperioli: Tons. A lot.
You got more shit for sitting on the dog than anything else?
Imperioli: I do, yeah. Fans take that very personal and get angry.
If you haven’t seen the show, or it’s been a while, during season four, Imperioli’s character Christopher Moltisanti gets high on heroin and unknowingly sits on his girlfriend Adriana’s dog and passes out, leaving the poor little pooch to suffocate. The incident is revealed in an intervention, which incenses Tony and the other members of the Sopranos crime family despite the fact they’re actual murderers. But as Imperioli and Schirripa note, the death of the dog was also a bridge too far for many viewers, and as a new generation has been discovering the show while trapped in quarantine, the line of angry animal lovers keeps chugging along.
