Oh Brother
Real brothers, Reel Talk: Dan & Mike Smith cover film, TV, & artist interviews 🍿📺🎤
My brother Mike and I launched the “Oh Brother” podcast in 2020. The show’s primary objective is to share our enthusiasm for film and cinema in an informative and entertaining way. We also enjoy interviewing artists with diverse backgrounds in film and television who work both in front of and behind the scenes.
We invite you to join us each week and follow the podcast so you never miss an episode. We’d love to hear from you, so email us or text us some fan mail to share your feedback on the show!
Oh Brother
Wise Guy: Unpacking David Chase's Legacy with The Sopranos
What if you could step into the mind of David Chase and uncover the origins of The Sopranos? Join us on the Oh Brother Podcast as we dissect the new documentary "Wise Guy: David Chase and the Sopranos," directed by Alex Gibney and now streaming on Max. We explore how this two-part series, originally envisioned as a feature film, captures Chase's journey and the show's creation. You'll discover how the documentary's unique set design mirrors Dr. Melfi's office and how "The Sopranos" found renewed life during the COVID-19 quarantine, largely thanks to the "Talking Sopranos" podcast by Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa.
We then shift gears to discuss James Gandolfini's legacy, particularly through the lens of the Coen Brothers' film "The Man Who Wasn't There." Mistakes and corrections aside, we dive into Gandolfini's illustrious career and the fascinating casting choices that could have altered "The Sopranos" as we know it. Hear about Steve Van Zandt's near-casting as Tony Soprano, Lorraine Bracco's pivotal decision to play Dr. Melfi, and the technological hurdles faced after Nancy Marchand's untimely passing. The discussion also highlights the immense pressure Chase faced to maintain the show's success, fostering a tight-knit, trusting environment with his creative team.
Finally, we delve into the complexity of Carmela Soprano and examine the tragic death of James Gandolfini. We reflect on the emotional weight of Gandolfini's role, his personal struggles, and the impact of his untimely passing on both the cast and the show. The documentary's innovative style is also a topic of interest, mirroring Tony Soprano's iconic drive while offering insights into David Chase's influences from classic filmmakers. We ponder the controversial ending of "The Sopranos" and speculate on what might have been if Gandolfini were still with us. Tune in for a richer, deeper appreciation of one of television's most groundbreaking series.
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Welcome to the O'Brother Podcast with hosts Dan and Mike Smith, brothers from the same mother with different opinions on movies, tv, video games and more plus celebrity interviews. Get ready, get set it's time for the O'Brother Podcast.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the O'Brother Podcast. I'm your host, dan Smith. Alongside me is always my brother from the same mother, mike Smith. How you doing tonight, dan? Why do you always say that it? Sounds so forced and fake how are you doing? Tonight. It's just it's. I'm like seriously, how's it going tonight? It just seems so, not you bada bing all over your nice ivy lake suit.
Speaker 2:That's the Godfather, not the Sopranos. All right, so we're talking about this documentary that just came out September 7th 2024, called Wise Guy, david Chase and the Sopranos. It's currently streaming on Max. It's a two-part documentary and each part is a little over. It's about an hour and 15 minutes, I'd say each part roughly. Yeah, it's an easy watch back to back. Yeah, it's directed by Alex Gibney. Like you said, it's broken up into two parts the first part pretty much.
Speaker 2:Just, really, you know a little bit of background on David Chase, yeah, and how you know how he came to write the pilot of the show, which was originally going to be a feature film, right? Um, and I wasn't sure, like you said in the very beginning, this kind of weird they were like cutting the interview in with all of these clips and sound bites from his past and gibney had him talking over himself, almost as if he knew I want to get through this quick, exactly, and about eight minutes in, chase just wants to get up and leave, right, he's like I hate doing this. This is awful. He has nothing good to say.
Speaker 1:Well, he didn't say it was awful.
Speaker 2:He just doesn't clearly want to sit there be talking about himself because the set is ironically very much the same set as lorraine brocco and you know tony soprano, right, dr melfi and dr melfi and tony, right.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, it's about eight minutes into the documentary part one, and chase wants to get up and leave because he's not real keen on talking about himself and he doesn't. What he says to the director is I didn't know it was going to be so much about me, right, and I think that's a weakness. I liked it, but I think there was too much. I didn't need to know that much about Chase. I loved learning all the other facets, but that's what it's about, right. So I think that's what you have to keep in mind. Look at the title. It's David Chase and the.
Speaker 2:Sopranos. Do you think it would have been better if it was Wise Guys? Or Look at the Sopranos. No, no.
Speaker 1:With.
Speaker 2:David Chase? No, no, because I think it was about David Chase again, which is why it made him uncomfortable. Now it didn't stay on that as intensely as it is in the very beginning. I mean, once you're 15, 20 minutes in, he's basically talking about the Sopranos at that point. But we got to figure out how we get there through his background.
Speaker 2:As a writer, I gotta show this jesus. I mean every. No, this, this one episode. It's got to be a thing of physical media. Let me turn it over, folks. I'll be back in a minute. No, this is like 30 pounds. No, kidding, right, you open the bar, can you describe it for those listening? It's, it's, it's the soprano's original box set. When you open it, there's a book. We're not, you're not going to unbox this. No, I'm just showing you, just show it how big it is, how it's like 30 pounds, right, it's one of those things it's not easy to grab and and flip on. I tend to just go to HBO, like I said, but there's some commentaries that are not on HBO, that are here. Okay, so we're not talking about the documentary, so let's get back to talking about the documentary.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But would you recommend this for somebody who's never seen the Sopranos? Yes, yes, but I wouldn't recommend it for somebody like me who knows everything about the Sopranos and has watched the Sopranos a thousand times over Right, I think you know like I've watched. When they aired, I had all the physical discs. I've since rewatched them numerous times, a lot of that in covid, like so many people during the quarantine found the Sopranos for the first time, really, cause this went off the air in 2007. Yeah, I was going to say, yeah, long gone. And also, another thing related to the quarantine is Michael and Perioli and Steve Schereppa.
Speaker 2:They did a podcast called Talking Sopranos Right, which you can get. Yeah, it's out there and it's on Max actually now too, exactly the video version of it, and it's fantastic because they have on a lot of the cast from over the years. They go through every single episode. It's like 90 or 91 episodes, the podcast, and it's it's really really good. I would recommend it for somebody that isn't familiar with the Sopranos. Really, I, I, I mean the sense that, like I, I wouldn't want to give spoiler alert. I mean, you know, but not as, like hardcore fans. There's nothing to, in my opinion, to learn from this that you don't?
Speaker 2:I thought I learned a lot. Well, like what well, I didn't know how tough james gandolfini was to work with, and I think this is an unblinking. I don't think that's a fair statement well, they talk about, you know, setting up an intervention for him this is way they weren't really specific yeah, right, but this is way late this is like season six, right and it wasn't like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it wasn't like it was in season two, he's creating all this drama. I mean, I don't know specifically, obviously it wasn't there, but I think they don't cast this. You know, paint this picture that he was difficult to work with from the jump. I don't think that's fair. I didn't get that. Well, I mean, your buddy, little steven, says it was like he, he wanted to quit every day. That was like season two and three. Well, right, but that's just because of the pressure that he was feeling as someone carrying this series, because this thing was a hit from the get-go, right, although it took a while and this is something else I didn't remember it took eight months from pilot to show. I think it was 18 months, was it 18? So I think it was 18 months.
Speaker 1:That's a long time yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I didn't realize it aired January 99. It felt like earlier than that. Yeah, me too, but they were shooting, of course, before that. But yeah, I thought I was in law school when this aired and it was post-law school, so that was kind of the measuring stick for me. I was, uh, I was just obsessed with this when it was, when it was out, you know. I was from the from the get, go from the jump.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I and I and I've remained. It's, it's my favorite show of this genre of all time, easily, um, show of this genre of all time easily, um, but yeah, I mean what I? I mean talking about gandalfini, so so you bring that up.
Speaker 2:I mean I, I didn't really remember the degree to which he was struggling, you know uh, obviously you saw him putting on weight and you know some talk of some substance issues and so forth, but I didn't realize to the degree and, and you can see, if you go online on youtube you can see a lot of different video clips of him getting into it with different paparazzi and people like, just like tony soprano would. They showed a little. Yeah, and I think what's important to point out as they do in the documentary, he was not Tony Soprano, he was not like this at all. Now, he grew up around and knew people like this from growing up in New Jersey. But when you heard him speak in interviews which he didn't do, a lot of them, in fact good luck finding his full, one of his only full length interviews with 60 minutes. I couldn't even find it online and I scoured YouTube for it. But, um, he's very, um well-spoken and very kind of you know, uh how about the?
Speaker 2:James Liptonpton interview. Did you see that? I didn't see it in full, but I think I'd seen it originally. Yeah, there's, there's more footage of that that you can find. Yeah, um, but you know he, he didn't want to do like the late night circuit, although he did appear like on saturday night live once or twice. He was in the at the news desk, I know. Now, do you remember him prior to the sopranos? I well, I don't know if I knew that. I knew him before, but did you know?
Speaker 2:Did you know that James Gandolfini lived across the street from one of our siblings? At one point I had no idea. Did you know that? Hey, he didn't. But this was kind of a wild nugget that I didn't know when I was kind of looking up some information on his life.
Speaker 2:He was good friends with John Travolta because their fathers were friends when they were younger and travolta and gandolfini did like five films together, including get shorty, and they also did a civil action that's right which was set in our hometown correct, and gandolfini's character is a character that lived across the street from the woman who was the main character, who was going after her attorney. Travolta was going after the city of wubern but because of the water and the chemicals that the right tanneries were dumping into the water there, which was giving people leukemia and and so I forgot that he was even in that film. But the true romance is probably the standout yeah Performance for me of his at but before the Sopranos I bring up the last castle with Robert Redford big role in that, and the other one is the Coen brothers movie. Do you know which Coen Brothers movie he was in? No, I'll give you a hint Double Indemnity.
Speaker 1:He wasn't in it, it's a film noir, classic film noir.
Speaker 2:Oh, the man who knew too much. Yes, really he was his wife was Frances McDormand Really, so he got into it. With what year would that have been I? I was prior to, I think it was, it was maybe after miller's crossing no, I remember that performance. He gets oh yeah no, I'm sorry, the man who wasn't there. I said the man who knew too much. Isn't that hitchcock? That's hitchcock. The man who wasn't there 2001 yeah, he played big dave brewster. Yeah, I don't. I haven't seen that film in years.
Speaker 2:So, oh, it's a great that was just before the last castle which so I I'm not sure, like you, if I knew him right at that time or if I saw those movies retroactively and then was like, oh yeah, james, I forgot he was in this. Yeah, so this is a circle back to the documentary, so I don't make it all about Gandolfini, but that first part is really all about the casting Again, how it went from an original idea for a feature film to a pilot of a series. Right, you know, that's a big part of that part one. And then the casting you talk about, like the seeing, the, the auditions, right, the. The biggest one was seeing steve van zandt as tony. Chase wanted him as tony, he did and and he was. It's hard to not see him as silvio now, but right, but I could see where it would have worked. He just he had that kind of charisma and everything. But HBO is like we're not going to roll the dice on a guy.
Speaker 1:that's never acted before.
Speaker 2:Never acted before. Are you out of your mind? He inducted the rascals into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and you could tell he had acting chops. He was putting on a performance when he inducted them. And he did the same for david chase. Well, he was a performer on stage as a rock musician, which that's entertainment. That's correct.
Speaker 2:You know, that's a different kind of but it's a lot different from playing a guitar and singing to acting right, but he was very much a ham and they're in videos. They're acting in videos in the 80s and things you know. So the other thing about the cast is this cast all knew each other. They were all you know in a lot of the same. If you remember the film trees lounge, steve buscemi, look at all the characters from that that are in the sopranos. But I found it fascinating the footage.
Speaker 2:The footage was there wasn't enough of that. I would have, I agree, more of that. And then you saw, you know, would be actors that were auditioning for a part that they didn't get, but then they ended up in it as something else, a smaller role, somewhere Like Drea de Mateo, I think. Right, wasn't she originally coming in for something else? Well, she originally was just going to be the cocktail waitress. Then it became Christopher's love interest, true, yeah, so she was there, but not as a permanent fixture. She was fantastic, yeah. So I think that kind of sums up the first part. You get some background on david chase, right, how we get into the, the business and all of that and how was the casting?
Speaker 2:and and how. It was just really all about his mother yeah his mother casts a huge shadow over the Sopranos. That I didn't really know. That, oh really. Yeah, I just heard that over the years I've known that, yeah, nancy Marchand is just was brilliant, then it is. Sadly only gave us about a year or so of a performance because she died. I was going to ask you. I know she died between seasons and there was unresolved issues with her character and they did probably the worst artificial intelligence of all time.
Speaker 1:The technology wasn't great.
Speaker 2:No, at the time, yeah, they tried to superimpose her face on another actress.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it wasn't great.
Speaker 2:And it just didn't look right. But what was interesting and you, you, you hear it in the documentary is that you know she was dying and she basically told david chase keep me working.
Speaker 2:I don't correct I don't want to just lay around on a hospital bed and die, you know and I think she was just going to be have a short part and be done, but then, like you said, at her request and he says, I'm not going to say no to her yeah, so you could see. You know that she was ailing, she lost a lot of weight and but she was still delivering fantastic performances in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Then part two. How would you describe part two of the documentary?
Speaker 2:I thought part two a lot covered a lot of james gandolfini yeah it also focused a lot on lorraine bracco and her character and how you know they. She was going to be carmella, tony's wife, but she wanted to be dr melfi. As soon as she read the script she's like this is what I want. And it focused on certain episodes. It was a lot more episode coverage in part two. I thought, yeah, I wrote down what I thought was interesting is, you know, the the.
Speaker 2:The series is a hit out of the gate and so now it's all about david. Chase has to continue to deliver. He doesn't expect this thing to to blow up like it does. So now what is this show going to become? And he's, you know, he's basically locking himself away with this small group of writers. They had this very it was interesting this very trusting relationship, to the point where at one point in the documentary, chase says we were going to bring an assistant into the room with us, but we we realized we couldn't do that because they were talking about some very right feeling things of their own taboo things.
Speaker 2:Yes, right, terence winter, one of those writers who, if you know, boardwalk empire, that's him and he he's like he's doing something that you're watching right now phenomenal writer yeah, he's a phenomenal.
Speaker 2:Right, when you see his name on the writing list you know you're going to get a good. But this cast, dan, is like fantastic, oh, it's great, and you can't again. You can't go back and picture anybody else in those roles. But what was interesting about it was, you know, the show became this balance of what Chase talks about as, or somebody's quoted in it as saying this you know, people that were tuning in for a serial drama versus people that were tuning in for the kind of mob mafia side of it. Right, less yakking, more whacking.
Speaker 2:They called it right and um and like terrence winter says we and I think it's true there might have been a few spots where they went a little extreme, but I don't. I would say it's fair that the violence wasn't gratuitous. There was a reason for it and, as they point out, here's a series that was revolutionary at the time, especially for HBO.
Speaker 1:The networks all passed, correct Everybody passed on it.
Speaker 2:He brought it to every network that is being led by an antihero, and so, as I think Terrence winter points out at one at one, you know, segment um they. Every now and then they would have to just surprise and shock the hell out of you, to reel you back into to, to, to get you to realize okay, these are the, these are the characters that you're rooting for.
Speaker 2:Yes, but they right. Yes, but they right, but these are stone cold murderers, right? You know, it's all fun and games until you owe them money or something right and all bets are off, so it's like watching the godfather or goodfellas, for some reason, yeah I'm gonna make an offer again we're rooting for the bad guys.
Speaker 2:I want michael to become don. I want michael to. But one of the fascinating things is and steve shrippa says this on the podcast at one point, one of the episodes is one of the most fascinating characters is carmella she has. She is so complicit in this life. As long as she gets, she gets her piece, that's it. And you know we see early on, I think, in the pilot episode, her going to the priest and she's trying to kind of deal with this guilt that she's feeling. But in the end she sticks it out and she stays.
Speaker 1:She knows what's going on.
Speaker 2:Right, but she wants the house, she wants the money, she wants all the jewelry Right, she wants the first, she wants the cars. And there's a really I don't know that off the top of my head, the actor that plays the older psychiatrist that she goes to at one point oh, it's Peter Bogdanovich. No, no, no, that's dr mel, that's melphy's doctor right right this guy's in one episode, one scene with oh, I know who you're talking about I don't know him either, no, and.
Speaker 2:But he's the only one in the entire series that ever says to her you, you got to get out of this. Yeah, you're never going to be able to live with yourself. What you're doing is wrong. You know it's wrong? Yep, and what he says very strikingly. One of the last things he says is at least you can't say you weren't told, that's right, I mean it's great that's a great sequence, one I forgot, to be honest with you.
Speaker 2:So seeing, you know, seeing these sequences, because I haven't watched this in a while I'm talking pre-pandemic, so for me, anytime I saw something from the show, I lit up, I was like all in and you know what I like, that they did, that the director gibney did was.
Speaker 2:You know, once the uh intro, the, the intro, the, the title sequence for the documentary kicks in, it's the. You hear alabama three woke up this morning theme song and you're watching what you think is the opening of the sopranos, right, but he kind of cuts it with shots of david chase almost mimicking that drive that tony takes across the bridge back to new jersey from new york. And what I loved is at one point you see chase in the passenger seat of this car driving along and he looks out at like satriales and there's, like you know, the, the big pussy there, and and you know, silvio and the character, the character.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I was gonna say the same thing.
Speaker 2:He made it seem like they were in the car together Right.
Speaker 1:Having this conversation.
Speaker 2:That was pretty well done. It was also striking to me when he talked about getting the call that James Gandolfini had died and his response was I wasn't surprised at all, no, he didn't even hesitate to say no. But I think again, you see the condition that he was in now, ironically, he dies in italy, which I thought that was kind of ironic.
Speaker 2:Um, and he was only 51, 51 years old now I don't know if you saw his last two movies no, the drop with tom hardy, right, and enough said with julia louis-dreyfus, both good performances, yeah, yeah, and not great movies, but good performances, no, you know you know, not, I wouldn't, you know, reject the movies, but it was interesting because a year before he died he died in june of 2013. I think it was a year before. This is another thing I found interesting was david chase would have his first feature directorial debut with not fade away with gandolfini, that's right so it was nice that they got a chance yeah, I got made.
Speaker 2:Yeah see, I don't. I've never seen that yeah, I wasn't sure, when I saw starring James Gandolfini I didn't know if that had made it to you know production.
Speaker 2:Now, it's interesting because he would be. It's funny as, of this recording, we're coming up on the um, what would have been his 63rd birthday, which is, uh, pretty amazing. But it was a lot about gandalfini in the part two and it was a lot about the demons that he was dealing, right, not only it's again with the substance abuse and you talked about the failed intervention that they tried to set up, um but also the again, the, the, the pressure, yeah, that was on his shoulders to carry this series. And what was interesting? They point out at one point that they go into season six which, as you know, most people know it was 6A and 6B, as you learn in the documentary. Sniff them, because if they had called it season seven, seven, they would have had to give the cast a raise, right, because of that fact, gandolfini, from his own pocket, gave every cast member thirty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1:Well, apparently not carmella.
Speaker 2:Yeah, eating falco did she? She's like he did what he gave me. I didn't get thirty thousand. She's quick to say that sounds like him. Yeah, but I'm sure it was like the cast that were not like prominent players, you know what I mean. No, they loved him. But, it's an unblinking eye. They don't put rose-colored glasses on when they describe him. Even Chase, who did his eulogy he starts the eulogy and this is not normal by saying no-transcript.
Speaker 1:No, I didn't say that but I don't think that's exactly what you said.
Speaker 2:Eulogy no, I don't think you wanted to do that. Nobody wants to know that. It was very emotional. He breaks down, I agree, I agree, but again, even in that he doesn't paint him like a saint no, because he wasn't right, and nor are any of us right, right. So I mean, but that was kind of refreshing to get the truth, yeah, but I I just don't want to leave.
Speaker 2:Our assessment of this documentary is like james ganolfini was some sort of animal or monster or something no he was in many respects a a very gentle guy, but yeah, he had his demons, like everybody else absolutely and the way he prepared to play tony. That was the steering wheel till I didn't knuckles bled. Yeah, I didn't quite know he went to those lengths, right, some of that stuff, but um, what I didn't the thing I had the most issue with. Okay, now we we're not going to get into a whole conversation about the ending of the series itself, which was very controversial still is, to this day, a lot of people still pissed off about the ending, but right, it's a much more satisfying description of it in this documentary from Chase than you might have ever heard before.
Speaker 2:But I didn't like how his longtime collaborator, the DP Alex I can't think of his last name, but they worked together from the very beginning yeah, I know who you're talking about and it was a huge help to chase, because chase didn't really know what the hell he was doing as a director of the pilot episode.
Speaker 2:Right, he had never really, but his. The dp talks about this open ending, this open end, and it's, it's a resolution of irresolution or something he was trying to, I felt like, overly justify the fact that it just abruptly ended and right it cut to black and nobody really liked it right, but the truth is, like a lot of films or tv shows, you have to decide.
Speaker 2:It's up to you to decide what happens next. I was just in your hands. Yeah, I was just as pissed as everybody else, though I wanted something other than that, but I can appreciate that. I can, and it was funny to hear them say they were calling like did did my tv go out to mike? Because, I felt the same way when I watched it originally, and it just goes to black. I'm like, oh, man what? A time to lose hbo right. The cast was equally. A lot of them were like what, the what?
Speaker 2:is right, you know, and it was funny it's been, it's been spoofed everywhere, like there's a lot of uh, good family guy references where you know stewie's in the middle of talking to brian and then it just cuts to black, like when they're talking about the, the series. But yeah, that's very controversial. But I felt a little bit more satisfied from chase's discussion of it than I did from what his dp was talking about, as if you know, oh, it's just, oh, it's an open end and I think, it's more like what you're saying.
Speaker 2:You fill in the blanks, but something about the way he was describing it just bothered me. Now we know they made a movie, the. What was it? The new saints? Of many saints of newark, which we did an episode on. But but chase is quick to point out that really isn't a soprano's no even though it was the candelfini's son playing him as a younger version.
Speaker 2:Right, but david chase didn't even know they were going to put that a soprano story tagline in the title. So let me ask you this if he hadn't died, would we have seen a soprano's movie that he originally wanted to make? I think we might have um, and I feel like steve sharippa talks about this on the podcast. At one point he played paulie walnuts.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, he played bobby bacala, oh okay yeah, he was heavy and he lost a lot of weight throughout the series yeah, he did.
Speaker 2:No, tony's uh, cerrico played yeah, tony, cerrico. Paulie walnuts yeah, who else could have played that role? Yeah, the pine barons probably the best episode of all of them. I don't know if you can say that, but it's one of the greatest. It's one of the most remembered episodes as well, but you know I don't think they talked about. You know, chase said how they wanted to shoot New Jersey and it was unlike anything else with the trees. Hello, miller's Crossing Right, I felt like they didn't give a shout out to Miller's Crossing. That was due because I felt like this I felt like this.
Speaker 2:This series felt a lot like Miller's Crossing. You could plug in characters Obviously Buscemi's already in there, Set in a totally different time. Yeah, but it's. I don't see any comparison there whatsoever.
Speaker 1:Well, they're wise guys, Right? That's all.
Speaker 2:But you have to. I don't see the same. You don't have a mob boss that's struggling with depression because of the relationship with his mother, right, I'm just talking about the look. Think about the look, like you know how they showed the sky and through the trees, and then it would come down to the leaves. Miller's Crossing did that. You know, I know, but Chase's influences are taken from uh filmmakers way before the coen brothers. He talks about uh godard and uh felini, right, and uh, uh, obviously kubrick with 2000, coppola, yeah, polanski with chinatown. That was interesting to hear. Kubrick stuff was very interesting. It was interesting very. It's just wholerick stuff was very interesting. It was interesting Very. You know, that's one of the things I would say is is is worth watching. There's this whole thing about this, this um, they compare it to this sequence in an episode that Tony's going through where he's he's like in a dream state as another guy, right, and they did that more than once he they did that more than once in the series where Tony would be watching himself.
Speaker 2:It's almost like an out of body experience, yeah, where they walk into their own POV Exactly, and it really experience. Yeah, where they walk into their own pov exactly, and it really. I would have never picked up on that, having watched the series as many times as I have that, that technique that they were using. But, as you said, he was connecting it back to the influence from 2001, which was fascinating it was. And then you know to see a juxtaposition, you know juxtaposition between the two yeah, that was, that was really.
Speaker 2:But he also talked about Coppola and Scorsese and how they were influenced as well. Absolutely, but I this, just like the ending of the series itself. This just wasn't satisfying enough. I it same thing. It left me wanting more.
Speaker 1:Well, I felt it was too short.
Speaker 2:I watched it back and I could have watched another two hours easily. Yeah, me too. But we're like hyper fans. You know we're big fans of this series. If, if you're not a fan of the sopranos, I would not recommend this. No, I, I, I guess, and, like I said, I mean if you're a casual fan, I would would, but if you've never seen the Sopranos, yeah, that wouldn't make any sense, right. Plus, it's going to spoil all kinds of stuff for you.
Speaker 1:Exactly yeah.
Speaker 2:I agree with that. But you know what's interesting too, Through the casting process, some of these people that they found. One that stood out to me was the woman who played Ginny Sack, Ginny Sacramone, who had never acted before.
Speaker 2:She just dropped her headshot in a box and they called her and boom, and she was fantastic and so natural on camera. Right, this cast, from top to the smallest role to the biggest. You can't give me one that isn't fantastic. Every single actor in the series is phenomenal. Totally agree with that. Yeah, yeah, so I don't know. I mean, like you said, maybe there's a disclaimer there to if you're a sopranos fan, it's kind of a no-brainer. Although I don't think you're going to walk away learning too much more although you did, I did you know, because I haven't watched it in a while yeah, I took away a few.
Speaker 2:A few things too, and the stuff about Gandolfini. There's a heavy emphasis on that in part two and it is fascinating. It's a bit sad at the same time. That he was going through the struggles that he was, and that we lost him at such a young age is just man he had a lot more work in him.
Speaker 2:He did, he did. But at least you know he leaves behind not just a legacy on screen with this, but you know again how revolutionary this was and just how much he owned the character. He was Tony Soprano and it was interesting because the way chase approached it was season to season. He would come into the writer's room with an arc yeah tony episode 1, tony episode 13. And it was up to the writers to figure out how to go from there to there. Right, and that was pretty fascinating yeah, there's a little.
Speaker 1:He was like well it's gonna end.
Speaker 2:When hbo tells me it's gonna end, yeah well, you get canceled and that's the end of it right, which I'm glad that is expecting it to keep going. I wish we had more I I could have kept I could have watched another hour easy, yeah, for sure, but uh, so I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't know, uh, what you take away from this conversation about it, if that's gonna convince you to watch it, or, but if you have seen it, if you have watched it, drop some comments on the on the video here and let us know what you think of it. And would you recommend it to somebody who hasn't seen the sopranos? I tend to agree with you.
Speaker 2:I think there's just too many spoilers in it yeah so I think, for that reason alone, dip, dip your toe into the Sopranos pool first, then watch Exactly. If you haven't seen the Sopranos man, there's a treat. And if you like, at all mob movies, absolutely Like Goodfellas Godfather, you want to watch this show, and then you can take in the Talking Sopranos podcast as a companion piece, which I still haven't done. That, yeah, I'll continue. I continue to watch the Sopranos. I'm constantly. If I'm looking, if I'm struggling to find something to settle on, that's going to fulfill that. You know, scratch that itch, I go right to the Sopranos. It would be it me right now, because I haven't seen it now, seeing the documentary, knowing some of the things I didn't know well, this will give you an idea of my love of the show. The documentary came out yesterday and I watched the entire first season of sopranos yesterday before yeah, before the documentary even aired, yeah, wow so.
Speaker 1:So it was like really fresh.
Speaker 2:It's just easy to binge and you just now is the pilot on hbo still, oh yeah yeah okay, and the pilot is like again, right from the beginning, you're just, you're on board with this thing and they had no idea they had. You know, michael imperioli says this is lightning in a bottle and they no one really knew it until it happened, right, right, and it was a bizarre kind of story that you know why would anybody watch this.
Speaker 2:This is something that had to be on HBO. They couldn't have shot this on a network. Well, this, but but see I? This made hbo what it is. Hbo as, as michael imperioli also points out, it was kind of bargain basement to be doing right at the time, although they had the huge hit with larry sanders, which I found interesting, they referenced it right they did kind of opened a door to this sort of uh, filmmaking on television. Yeah, that's a good point?
Speaker 1:I think so, and there's another great series right quality show, that yeah could be on network.
Speaker 2:Hey now, hey now. Well, there you go, folks. I don't know, watch it, don't watch it. If you watch it, let us know what you think. But anything, sopranos, I'm down, although the many states of newark.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't recommend that film. Yeah, you watch it. Let us know what you think. But anything Sopranos I'm down, Although the Many Saints of Newark. I wouldn't recommend that film. Yeah, me either. I don't own it. Shockingly, and it's about Dickie Moltisanti, so it isn't even Right. Played by another actor who died young. He was in Goodfellas Goodfellas oh my God Ray. He was in goodfellas goodfellas, oh my god ray.
Speaker 1:No, no ray leota, ray leota he didn't play that character.
Speaker 2:He was in the film. He was, yes. Well, there you go. There's our commentary on the wise guy david chase and the sopranos documentary. It's currently streaming on max. If you check it out, like I said, come back to the video and drop some comments and let us know what you think it's going to do it for another episode of the Yo Brother podcast. I'm your host, dan Smith. Alongside me is always my paisan, mike Smith, and we'll see you next time. Bye, everyone.
