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Sopranos Goes Out with a "Fitting" Bang at Emmys
David Chase with the cast and crew of 'The Sopranos' by John Shearer/WireImage.com
Heroes as best drama series? Fuhgettaboutit said Emmy voters, who on Sunday bestowed HBO's defunct The Sopranos with the high honor. Speaking to the press, series creator David Chase said he still doesn't have an answer as to why the mob show resonated with viewers and critics alike. "I have to assume it's because people deeply identify with the characters," he said. While Chase calls the big win "really, really fantastic," the highlight of the night "was the huge standing ovation our cast got" after the Jersey Boys-led tribute. "It was really fitting."
Did The Sopranos leave its mark on the medium? Chase begs to differ. "I don’t really believe it's influenced television that much. I don’t see it," he says. "People say it's a seminal show, it's this and it's that.... I don’t see it." Similarly, Fox didn't see the series' potential when it passed on the pilot many years ago. "In that pilot I wrote for Fox nobody got killed," Chase remembers. "Afterward, everybody said, 'That was a silly thing to do.'"
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Sep 17, 2007 12:44 AM
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It's funny...I interviewed Norman Lear last week, and he said the same sort of thing that David Chase said about The Sopranos. He said he didn't think All In The Family had an impact on television. I reacted incredulously towards that, and I think The Sopranos backs me up on that assertion. It's not too much of a stretch to see a link between AITF and The Sopranos! Brave television. Acknowledge it!!!
Lear added in our conversation that THIS is the best period in history for television drama. Maybe I am too much of a Lear-o-phile (and I would never apologize for that) but I truly believe the quality TV we see today owes a great deal to what Norman Lear and Grant Tinker and Larry Gelbart gave us in the 70s and 80s!
Again, The Sopranos and 30 Rock. There have been a lot of slams on The Emmys this year, but I have to say virtually none of the winners tonight were undeserving. Yes, many shows were under-represented, but the ones that won, deserved it.
Incidentally, I'm just dubbing my edited Emmy highlights to a new disc, and isn't it funny...there's no Seacrest in sight! 
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Sep 17, 2007 1:29 AM
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There have been a lot of slams on The Emmys this year, but I have to say virtually none of the winners tonight were undeserving. Yes, many shows were under-represented, but the ones that won, deserved it. - TV Gord
I agree with you, Gord. And that makes the nomination slights a little more bearable.
I truly believe the quality TV we see today owes a great deal to what Norman Lear and Grant Tinker and Larry Gelbart gave us in the 70s and 80s! - TV Gord
Again, you are 1000% right.
...isn't it funny...there's no Seacrest in sight! - TV Gord
Now, he didn't do such a bad job! And, overall, I thought the show was pretty entertaining and well-paced.
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Sep 17, 2007 3:08 AM
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Oh, wonderful. Let's give the Emmy to a show that has done little more than make heroes out of a family of murderers. Yeah, that's my kind of TV.
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Sep 17, 2007 10:01 AM
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You mean to tell me that, with that logic, The Godfather and Godfather II are undeserving of their Oscars, too?
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Sep 17, 2007 10:31 AM
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Maybe. There's something messed up about our society when we root for the bad guys on a TV series.
Perhaps we can have a series about a couple of serial killers and root for them also.
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Sep 17, 2007 11:43 AM
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It was pretty much a given that "The Sopranos" was going to win the Emmy for best Drama, whether it deserved it or not. I look at it as a sentimental send off award.
It was not best drama last season, and it hasn't been in the last 2-3 seasons. You could make the argument that it was the best show on TV in seasons 1-4. I just think that the writing went downhill.
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Sep 17, 2007 12:35 PM
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GarryB, did you ever watch the Sopranos?
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Sep 17, 2007 12:35 PM
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Considering both parts halves of the final season were subpar, by Soprano's standards, I was shocked it won. There's no way it would have won if it wasn't for the final season thanks for the memories votes it must have gotten.
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Sep 17, 2007 12:41 PM
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I would have liked to have seen Battlestar Galactica win the writing or directing awards, for sure
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Sep 17, 2007 12:45 PM
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Im glad it won whether it did deserved it or not. Im still shocked James Spadar won over James G.
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Sep 17, 2007 2:22 PM
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David Chase is a great writer, but he should learn how to speak in public. His speech was awful.
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Sep 18, 2007 12:15 AM
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