When the (Many) Saints (of Newark) Go Marching In

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When the (Many) Saints (Of Newark) Go Marching In

What if I told you that there was a time when drama series were generally awful? Each episode there would be a new villain or problem, but do not worry, the problem or villain was always defeated by the end of the episode. Well, one day David Chase and Home Box Office (HBO) worked together and made something brilliant, something larger than the small screen. They made the first show to bring a slow paced, realistic television show that had great acting, intriguing stories, and no such thing as a one dimensional character. (A show that actually transcended regular television and was cinematic.) That show was called The Sopranos. The Sopranos focuses on a man named Anthony Soprano who suffers from panic disorder, depression, and a crazy mother. Throughout the series we are taken on a ride with Anthony as he has to deal with his work, personal, and very personal issues. Yes, Anthony Soprano is also the boss of the DiMeo crime family which is located in New Jersey. Yes, some of the characters in the show are Italian American members of the Italian mob. So, many Italian Americans took offense to the idea that someone would put this part of the world on a television screen and possibly reinforce the stereotype that Italian Americans are mobsters. The OSIA, Order Sons of Italy in America and the National Italian American Foundation “claim the critically acclaimed series about a dysfunctional Mafia family damages the image of Italian-Americans (Uliano[1]?).”

???????????It very well may be difficult to appreciate The Sopranos for what it is as opposed to what it seems like. To the unobservant eye it absolutely can appear to be a show about a mobster who hangs out with his mobster friends (who) do mobster things together before he goes home to his concerned wife. Similarly, it may be difficult for the makers of The Sopranos to understand why people might think that it reinforces a nasty, outdated stereotype. What can we conclude from the lack of understanding from both parties involved? Conflict! In the defense of all people involved in the making of The Sopranos, they would probably state that the show is so much more than Italian Americans involved in organized crime. They may argue that you could completely remove the mob from the show and make the protagonist a head coach in the NFL and the underlying premise of the show would still be about mental health and family. Offended Italian Americans, whether in formal or official groups or not, would likely state that regardless of the show's undertones, many people in this world simply cannot read in between the lines. Therefore, when they see something in a show, whether it has to do with Italian Americans or any subgroup or minority, they start making generalizations in their head. The fact that millions and millions of people would wait all week just to watch the show probably did not make the Italian American organizations feel any better on the matter.

???????????As opposed to just complaining, a few organizations recommended ways of minimizing or abolishing the harm the show may cause for Italian Americans as a whole. For example, the National Italian American Foundation asked “HBO to televise a disclaimer before or after each ‘Sopranos’ episode, stating that the series is ‘not representative of the 25 million Americans of Italian heritage’ (Uliano[2]?).” Members of the HBO team came out and spoke on the matter. One spokeswoman Michelle Boas states, “‘The Sopranos’ consists almost entirely of Italian-Americans"... they would not take part in a series ‘that disparages their heritage.’ (Uliano).” The point to recognize here is that people who are involved in the production of The Sopranos all feel similarly towards the damage that stereotyping can do to a group of people or demographic. For that reason, people should not be concerned about The Sopranos stereotyping Italian Americans. In other words, when the Italian American production crew, writers, or cast members become offended with any stereotyping towards Italian Americans, then we should be concerned.

???????????Both sides fail to see the issue from the perspective of their counterparts. This leads to a rather psychodynamic perspective theory towards the conflict. In regards to said theory, issues arise because, “‘Introjection’ or the unconscious assimilation into themselves of venerated qualities of their leader, with whom members also identified.” Similarly, Ferenczi ([24] ) argued that “inasmuch as individuals unconsciously take characteristics, attitudes, or emotions of others into their own psyche through introjection, so too in their daily lives do they unconsciously displace or transfer their own uncomfortable characteristics or feelings onto others through a process called projection (Simola, Pg. 169).” The conflict on the Italian American organizations’ side can be directly explained by this description of the theory. The organizations that are worried about the image of Italian Americans see or hear about a massively popular show that is about an Italian American mob boss, and that is already enough to raise their level of concerns. They may feel as if they have a duty to protect those with less of a voice from the evil, typical Hollywood executives who have slandered groups before. There may certainly be a fundamental lack of understanding and certainly a lack of faith in those who they may be protecting. Regardless of their endgame, proud people or just people in general hold onto what is theirs dearly, and they can be very protective. If a group of people all have a sense of insecurity about where they lie in society or how society will treat them, it is no surprise that they will project their insecurity to something that they can see or hear. It is human nature to blame something that is out of one’s control. So, here lie the Italian Americans who are upset with The Sopranos. Maybe these angry Italian Americans stereotype due to things that they see in movies or television as well. That would definitely concern them when they see people with similar last names being portrayed as people who steal, kill, and extort for a living (on a fictional television show). Chairman of the National Italian-American Foundation Frank Guarini stated back in 1999 that the organizations “‘goal is to get `The Sopranos' off the air,’” due to the fact that “‘the show is a terrible stereotyping and unfair portrayal of Italian-American families.’ [3]?(Petrozello).” Here we can see plain and clear that several assumptions are being made, assumptions that speak on behalf of other people and have much less to do with the show than one might realize. For starters, the word ‘unfair’ is used when describing the role that innocent Italian-Americans have in the matter. The word unfair does not fit in this scenario for several reasons. First of which is that the creator of the show was Italian American. David Chase, the creator, was always fascinated by his culture and the other Italian-Americans that he grew up near in Mount Vernon, New York. Much like a lot of people, David Chase was interested in his culture’s past, and whether we like it or not organized crime certainly existed in Italian families, as it did with Jews, Irish, and literally all other sub-American groups. So, if the word “fair” were to be used in this case it would only fit if Guarini had said “it is unfair that a brilliant man created a show which is a character study about an Italian-American man, who is involved in an Italian-American crime family.” That sentence makes it much harder to empathize with.

???????????All in all, nobody wanted to damage Italian-Americans and in reality, if people are that impressionable to where they see a few fictional Italian-Americans and start making generalizations about the lot of them, then not exposing people to art is not the solution. The solution is providing an education. An example of this predicament and hypothetical solution (not airing The Sopranos) can be found in South Park when Eric Cartman needs a scooter because of how much weight he has gained. Later, people start tipping over his scooter while he is sitting in it, and the solution to the scooter tipping problem was to add a kickstand that would push the scooter back into an upright position. Yes, as opposed to educating the children that are tipping over the scooter, or even helping Eric get into a place where he does not need the scooter, they just solve the byproduct that does not need to exist in the first place. Now it is important to keep in mind what is happening on the second street leading to this conflict.

???????????David Chase created The Sopranos with the idea that each of the main characters had a little bit of himself in them. The plot however, was created based off of his life. Not the mob aspect, that comes into play later on. The true main original plot of the show was Tony Soprano and his relationship with his toxic, sarcastic, miserable toxic mother. That was directly reflective of Chase’s mother. In an interview, “[Chase] says he was just thrashing out his own issues with his domineering, suffocating mother (Brockes).”[4]? In reality, this means that the show was literally created to portray Chase’s own relationship with his mother. The implications that are formed from this mean that the whole mob idea was interchangeable, the main character who had troubles with his mother could have been a plumber and it still would have been a man who is depressed because of his miserable mother. In regards to his mother, when talking about Chase’s foundational thoughts for the plotline, it is said that “Most of Chase’s work is character driven, and his first idea for The Sopranos came from the central dynamic between Tony and “the mother who was problematic and sent to a nursing home; she was his real enemy (Bockes).”

?Does that mean that it cannot be seen as damaging towards the Italian-American community? No, of course it still can. However, anyone who watches the show with any sort of intelligence will have an easy time telling you about the countless hours we see when Tony is sitting across from his psychologist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi, in her office. Tony would sit there and complain and get defensive and lose his mind. Yet, when he complained about work (mob stuff) it would be about his relationship with some of his crew members. Why does this matter when it comes to the conflict? Well, it matters because it shows that the story is essentially a character study about a man named Tony Soprano who is just having a really hard time. Why do they have to be Italian-American characters? Easy, because David Chase is Italian-American and the show is subliminally about him. The fact that Tony Soprano is a mob boss stems from Chase’s love for films that deal with the mafia. It is said that “[Chase] was asked if he’d be interested in doing a TV version of The Godfather. Chase refused – ‘because it had been done’ – but it revived his interest in his own mob idea. “I was thinking, not The Godfather, but I have that thing about the guy going to therapy. Maybe I’ll try that.” Evidently, Chase had already put a lot of thought into doing a movie or TV show about the mob. Why? Because that is where writers can draw out some of the best philosophical concepts and moral crossroads onto the screen. There is a way to sum all of this up in one simple word; projection. David Chase simply projected his insecurities and hardships onto a piece of paper. So, in its simplest form, Chase’s projection offended people. As a reporter asked Jordan Peterson, a former professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, “Why should your right to freedom of speech trump a trans person’s right not to be offended? (Ernst).”[5]? Peterson replies by saying, “Because in order to be able to think, you have to risk being offensive. I mean, look at the conversation we’re having right now… You’re certainly willing to risk offending me in the pursuit of truth. Why should you have the right to do that? It’s been rather uncomfortable. You’re doing what you should do, which is digging a bit to see what the hell is going on (Ernst).” Spot on Mr. Peterson. In our case, Chase has exercised his freedom of speech in order to find his own truth. The truth of his life, and how his awful mother affected him, and the effects that therapy had on him. People becoming offended by his search for truth is more or less a byproduct of Chase’s productive art. Similarly, Chase has been quoted saying, “‘I have bigger gods to serve as an artist than someone's narrow concerns about how the portrayal of them affects their self-esteem,’ (Campbell)."[6]?

Within the Italian-American organizations we can see a form of reward power. Reward power is when one or more people are given some kind of positive endgame if they accomplish a united goal. In this case, if Italian-Americans are feeling insecure about themselves and maybe where they stand in society and The Sopranos are making it worse. All it takes is a good public speaker to convince people in times of desperation. So, what probably happened is leaders in several Italian-American organizations made the proposition that if they work together, they can take down The Sopranos and have the rest of their lives to be rid of any shame, self-loath or anything, letting people forget that they are a subgroup. While the conflict as a whole was not quite as dire as it may have just sounded, it truly is that simple. If history has taught us anything, it is that the best speaker is not always morally sound. Reward power is directly connected to the emergence of the conflict.

Interestingly enough, if we take it to the anecdotal level, we can find that shows and movies with Italian-American culture can be beneficial for Italian-Americans themselves. Devin Faraci grew up in New York with an Irish mother and an Italian father. Faraci did not like the Italian culture and even went as far to say, “ I’d sit around my grandparents’ dinner table with their endless guests - there were guests every night in that house, a procession of aunts and uncles who had no actual blood relation - and listen to these people shout and bellow and say the stupidest things, hands flying everywhere like birds barely bound to their bodies (Faraci).” Faraci went on to say that he avoided mob movies because of his resentment for his Italian heritage. When 1990 came around, Martin Scorcesse dropped a badass movie called “Goodfellas”, a mob cult classic, so naturally Faraci did not want to see it. However, because of the movie's massive popularity, Faraci decided to go with some friends. His reaction to the film was unforeseen to say the least. He starts by saying, “it was so Italian. But more than that, it was my Italian. Henry Hill, like me, was half-Irish, half-Italian. He was from East New York, the neighborhood where my grandparents had lived. And the people in the movie - the side characters, the weirdos and the hangers on and the background players - they were my fam[7]?ily (Faraci).” This led Faraci to appreciate the Italian culture that he had so long despised. Point being, mob movies or shows are primarily about the characters and their Italian lifestyle, the mob aspect just leads to great stories, dilemmas, and character progression.

Another form of power that can be detected in this conflict is referent power. Referent power is when one has power due to respect or any other form of admiration. See, television before The Sopranos was not very cinematic. It was more or less a bunch of cliches - a ‘new villain per episode’ type series. So, once The Sopranos came out and offered a show with the pacing of a movie and offered more complex and extended story lines, it exploded. “By the start of its third season in March 2001, The Sopranos had attracted 11.3 million viewers[8]? (Edgerton, Pg. 12).” This played a massive role in the conflict for it gave HBO and The Sopranos developers so much power through popularity and admiration for the show that it was nearly untouchable. Who in the world could have competed with a show that got 11.3 million viewers on a paid service? Italian-American organizations likely had such a difficult time catching the public’s eye because the public was too busy being amazed by the content and popularity of The Sopranos. It is said that, “The popularity of The Sopranos stimulated a 50 percent increase in subscriptions to 28.2 million television-viewing households by the first quarter of 2006.” (Umstead) ”HBO’s subscribers were also more than just viewers; they were paying customers who shelled out, on average, $15 a month to obtain this service. No longer were they settling for the least objectionable programming they could find, as audiences had done in the Network Era (Edgerton, Pg. 14.)” All in all, with that much, respect, popularity, fandom, and admiration, comes a whole lot of power that can make one nearly untouchable.

In the end, when it comes to the not so pressing conflict that occurred between The Sopranos and some angry Italian-Americans, it is important to remember that art is meant to be seen. In this case, The Sopranos is a form of art that gets people to come face to face with moral dilemmas, empathizing with people, and learning about others and themselves. So, regardless of the idea that some people might see the show and make generalizations about millions of people, more good comes than bad. As Socrates said “nothing can be done to harm a good man.” It was good men that made the show, it is likely good men that challenged the show. However, each side of good men (and women) had different perspectives on the matter. One perspective being determination to make art that will reach all ends of the world, the other being concerns that will keep people from experiencing something that revolutionized the world, pop-culture, and allowed television to become something more than bad cliches and a thirty minute broadcast that always had a corny one-liner right before going into commercial. Roger Ebert once said, “Movies are the most powerful empathy machine in all the arts. When I go to a great movie I can live somebody else’s life for a while. I can walk in somebody else’s shoes. I can see what it feels like to be a member of a different gender, a different race, a different economic class, to live in a different time, to have a different belief.”

Works Cited:

Brockes, Emma. “David Chase on Why He Wrote the Sopranos: 'I Needed Help. I Needed Therapy'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 16 Sept. 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/sep/16/david-chase-the-sopranos-best-tv-21st-century.

Campbell, Duncan. “Italian-Americans Object to Sopranos.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 21 May 2001, https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/may/21/broadcasting.internationalnews.

Edgerton, Gary R. The Sopranos. Wayne State University Press, 2013.

Ernst, Douglas. “Jordan B. Peterson Leaves Reporter Speechless after Her 'Right Not to Be Offended' Remark: 'Gotcha'.” The Washington Times, The Washington Times, 17 Jan. 2018, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jan/17/jordan-b-peterson-leaves-reporter-speechless-after/.

Faraci, Devin. “How Goodfellas Made Me Italian.” Birth.Movies.Death., 12 Mar. 6408, https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2014/02/14/how-goodfellas-made-me-italian.

Petrozzello, Donna, and New York Daily News. “`Sopranos' Hits Wrong Note with Italian-Americans.” Chicago Tribune, 10 Aug. 2021, https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1999-09-08-9909080134-story.html.

Simola, Sheldene. Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 148, no. 1, Mar. 2018, pp. 169–182.

Uliano, Dick. “Italian-American Groups Protest 'Sopranos'.” CNN, Cable News Network, https://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/13/sopranos.protest/.

https://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/13/sopranos.protest/

https://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/13/sopranos.protest/

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1999-09-08-9909080134-story.html

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/sep/16/david-chase-the-sopranos-best-tv-21st-century

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jan/17/jordan-b-peterson-leaves-reporter-speechless-after/

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/may/21/broadcasting.internationalnews

https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2014/02/14/how-goodfellas-made-me-italian

MLA 9th Edition (Modern Language Assoc.)

Edgerton, Gary R. The Sopranos. Wayne State University Press, 2013.

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APA 7th Edition (American Psychological Assoc.)

Edgerton, G. R. (2013). The Sopranos. Wayne State University Press.