“Everybody made a deal with the Devil. Tony is really the Devil’s representative.” —David Chase.

If, like me, you’re a die-hard fan of the HBO series, The Sopranos, be sure not to miss Oscar®-winning director Alex Gibney’s latest film project, Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos. The fascinating, two-part documentary series debuts on HBO tonight, Saturday, September  7, 2024, 8:00 p.m. ET/PT (see below for details).

“I knew it was gonna be about money and death,” said Sopranos’ creator, writer, director David Chase about his galvanizing HBO series that sits atop many 10 Best Lists and serves as the centerpiece of Wise Guy. 

Don’t come to Alex Gibney’s new documentary expecting a juicy, revelatory bio of a man who has managed to keep his private life off the grid for the past quarter century.  Although Gibney has a proven track record covering twisty, incendiary subject matter (Scientology, pedophile priests, big pharma, Enron, etc.), he had his work cut out for him with intensely private, dour David Chase, who admitted to being uncomfortable talking about himself on camera.  In the end, Wise Guy shines a light on Chase’s roots only as they manifested in the writing, directing and casting of The Sopranos.  It works, and you won’t be disappointed.  

WISE GUY director Alex Gibney (left) grilled SOPRANOS creator David Chase (right) on a set replicating the Dr. Melfi-Tony Soprano therapeutic experience. Photo courtesy HBO.

Gibney cleverly opens the show pitching hardball questions, seated face-to-face with David Chase in a replica of Dr. Melfi’s office.  Much of Chase’s early bio flies by in this mock Melfi/Tony Soprano therapy session, but two things move the needle…the ties that bind David Chase to New Jersey and to his mother.  

“My mother was just nuts,” confessed Chase, as he reveals how her borderline personality disorder drove the creation of The Sopranos from its earliest conception… and never let it go.  Chase, a film school educated writer/director with a list of quality TV writing credits under his belt, yearned to direct feature films, especially one about a Jersey mob boss with a crazy mother who wanted to kill her son.  What a concept!  Even when this dream project morphed into a TV pilot, “Nobody wanted it,” recalled Chase.

Still finding its footing as a purveyor of off-brand entertainment, HBO finally greenlit the pilot; and, after an agonizing delay, the series as well.  “My life was saved,” said Chase, who was ready to ditch TV altogether and write feature films on spec if the pilot dead ended.  The Sopranos is currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of its series debut on HBO in January 1999.  It ran for seven seasons (the final two seasons were listed as 6A and 6B). 

David Chase’s affinity for New Jersey, his primary home state, played a major role in his vision for the series. “There was always a mob presence in New Jersey,” said Chase, fingering an incident in Jersey when “a guy got blown up in his car in his garage.”

Chase balked at demands to film in L.A. on faux Jersey sets.  Exteriors would be filmed instead on-location in northern New Jersey and the Jersey shore, which significantly boosted the series’ appeal.  As a northern New Jersey native and lifelong resident, it was clear to me from the outset that filming in New Jersey was an asset. The Jersey sites, like the Soprano home, Artie Bucco’s eateries, the Bada Bing strip club, the Pork Store and Holsten’s, became major characters in their own right, and were as important to the series’ popularity as Tony, Carmela, Dr. Melfi and Uncle Junior.

David Chase originally envisioned actress Lorraine Bracco as Carmela Soprano, but Bracco had other plans. “I wanted Dr. Melfi. She intrigued me”… but “I had to bury Lorraine to let Melfi come out.”

One of the most provocative sequences in Wise Guy focuses on Chase’s meticulous process of casting the Sopranos’ pilot.  Auditions for primary characters are illuminated by Chase’s no nonsense voice over narration and colorful recollections by those who eventually won the coveted roles.

Appearing in Wise Guy are Lorraine Bracco (Dr. Melfi), Edie Falco (Carmela), Drea de Matteo (Adriana), Michael Imperioli (Christopher) and, the most unlikely cast member of all, Steven Van Zandt (Silvio), a musician whose early potential as Tony intrigued Chase… until HBO nixed nonactor Van Zandt in the lead role and James Gandolfini showed up.  Despite flubbing his first audition, he came back the next day and nailed it.  “It was pretty obvious that he was Tony,” remembered Chase.

Archival interviews with James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano), Nancy Marchand (Livia) and Tony Sirico (Paulie) are also threaded throughout Wise Guy, as are anecdotes about their offbeat casting (Marchand), comical quirks (Sirico) and personal demons (Gandolfini).

David Chase cast noted stage and TV actress Nancy Marchand against type as Tony’s treacherous mom, Livia Soprano: “She opened her mouth and that was it. She had it.”

“The show was always shocking somebody about something,” recalled Edie Falco. And keeping it that way was a 24-hour-a-day challenge for the writers, directors, HBO execs, actors and, most especially, for David Chase, who “was never satisfied.”

Pivotal episodes, from pilot to finale, are revisited in Wise Guy, especially those that piggyback riveting, relatable Soprano family dramas or Melfi/Tony therapy sessions with scenes of gruesome beatings and murders…garroting the snitch hiding out in college town, USA; whacking Big Pussy on a boat and Adriana in the woods; beating a stripper to death in a parking lot; and Tony’s “mercy” killing of cousin Tony B, caught by surprise with his arms full of groceries.  If those sequences aren’t enough to keep kids out of the room while you’re watching Wise Guy, then the extended clip of Dr. Melfi’s rape in a parking garage is.  These series of clips make Wise Guy unsuitable viewing for young children.

The end was near, or was it? Holsten’s, Bloomfield, NJ, circa 2007.  Pass the onion rings, and Don’t Stop Believin’…

David Chase hints that The Sopranos’ controversial final episode, “Made in America,” filmed at Holsten’s in Bloomfield, NJ, may have been inspired by a scene in “2001: A Space Odyssey” and foreshadowed in an earlier Sopranos’ episode featuring Soprano siblings Meadow and AJ haggling over interpretations of a Robert Frost poem. Maybe…but maybe not.

Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos, debuts on HBO tonight, Saturday, September 7, 2024.  Part 1:  8:00 – 9:15 p.m. ET/PT. Part 2: 9:20 – 10:45 p.m. ET/PT. (Check listings for repeat screenings on HBO in the days and weeks ahead, and Max for streaming.)  If you loved The Sopranos, don’t miss it!! –Judith Trojan