A journeyman television writer and director, David Chase finally grabbed hold of the brass ring when he created the highly-acclaimed HBO drama series "The Sopranos" (1998-2007), an unusually gritty soap opera that centered on a New Jersey mobster (James Gandolfini) and his two families the one at home and the one on the job. Well-written and perfectly acted by a cast that also included Michael Imperioli, Lorraine Bracco, Nancy Marchand and Edie Falco, "The Sopranos" became an immediate critical darling and audience favorite, sparking a resurgence in the mafia subgenre and making it suddenly hip to say fuggedaboutit!
Born on Aug. 22, 1945 in Mount Vernon, NY and raised as an only child in New Jersey, the Italian-American Chase (the family name was changed from DeCesare) developed a penchant for gangster films and storytelling at an early age. After taking classes at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Chase knew he wanted to be a filmmaker. He completed his masters in film at Stanford University, then opted to stay in California by settling in Los Angeles. Chase got his first break adapting his sci-fi/horror novel The Still Life as the all-but-forgotten "Grave of the Vampire" (1974). While he may have craved a big screen career, he went on achieve his biggest success in television.
Chase experienced a watershed year in 1974. He penned episodes of the above average "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" (ABC), then landed his first regular writing gig as a supervising producer on the classic detective show "The Rockford Files" (NBC, 1974-1980), as well as its subsequent sequel TV-movies. During his stint on Rockford, Chase shared the 1978 Outstanding Drama Series Emmy with fellow producers Stephen J Cannell, Meta Rosenberg and Chas Floyd Johnson. Before "Rockford" left the airwaves, Chase began branching out, penning the telefilm "Off the Minnesota Strip" (ABC, 1980), a harsh and gritty drama about a teen runaway who turns to prostitution on the streets before returning home to pick up the pieces of her life. Chase won an Emmy and a WGA Award for his teleplay, priming the young scribe for further success.
That success, however, suddenly seemed remote in the 1980s; a time when Chase struggled mightily to top himself. He scripted several unsuccessful pilots and even branched into directing with an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (NBC-USA, 1985-87). There were high hopes for "Almost Grown" (CBS, 1988-89), which he co-created, but only nine episodes aired before the network canceled it. Chase switched to NBC and worked alongside John Falsey and Joshua Brand on the critically lauded, but low rated civil rights-era drama, "I'll Fly Away" (1991-93), netting an Emmy nod for a 1992 episode. In 1993, he succeeded Brand and Falsey as the executive producer of the quirky CBS series "Northern Exposure" for its final two seasons. Although the show earned a 1994 Emmy nod for Outstanding Drama Series, Chase's tenure endured too many problems from the departure of star Rob Morrow, to the introduction of characters who failed to grab the audiences empathy, to misguided storylines. The ratings went into freefall until Northern Exposure was eventually cancellation in 1995.
Chase initially rebounded with a series of "Rockford" TV-movies. But all along, he was nurturing his dream project, a series about the trials and tribulations of a Mafia chieftain in contemporary society. Originating with the idea that he wanted to do a show based on my mother, who was a very negative person, Chase filtered 1940s gangster flicks through the contemporary influences of Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese and blended in typical family problems overbearing mothers, unhappy marriages, rebelling teenagers resulting in a series that was unlike anything on network television. In fact, the major networks all passed on "The Sopranos." The idea seemed destined to follow so many others into the realm of the forgotten until HBO swooped in to the rescue.
But even HBO never anticipated the initial reaction to this drama with a central character (Gandolfini's Tony Soprano) capable of carrying out a killing, but requiring the weekly services of a psychiatrist. After its initial airing, the cable network took the almost unheard of step of renewing the series for a second season. Later, HBO offered Chase $1.5 million to assure that the series would air for at least four seasons. Their gamble paid off The Sopranos became HBOs highest-ever rated original series and lasted a good seven seasons, earning untold numbers of awards and accolades, including a Golden Globe for Best Television Series Drama in 2000 and an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series in 2004.
When the The Sopranos entered into its seventh and last season, the biggest question was not if, but how Tony Soprano would get whacked. Answers were not forthcoming in the final episode, however perhaps one of the most talked-about season finales of all time. In the final scene, Tony eats onion rings with Carmela (Falco) and AJ (Robert Iler) at a diner while waiting on Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) to arrive. After a mysterious man in a Members Only jacket disappears into a bathroom and Meadow finally parks her car across the street, Tony suddenly looks up and the screen goes blank, leaving doubt as to whether or not he was indeed killed. While most viewers were confused by the sudden cut to black some even thinking their cable had gone out it later became clear to many after unyielding discussion on Internet message boards that Tony Soprano was dead.
Chase went into hiding immediately following the airing of the last episode; in part to take a long-needed vacation, but also to avoid what he knew would be a deluge of questions asking him exactly what happened to Tony. Meanwhile, commentators of all stripes from news anchors to newspaper columnists to Internet bloggers all weighed in on the final moments, with Chase receiving a fair share of criticism for his alleged cop out. Though on sabbatical in France, he did promise an interview to Alan Sepinwall of The Newark Star-Ledger, but remained frustratingly cryptic, stating that [w]e did what we thought we had to do. In the end, Chase emerged vindicated after winning an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for the series finale in 2007.
Copyright © Baseline 2009.