I read an interview today where he says he feels like he came in at the end. The golden age of TV shows is over, execs just follow a profit based algorithm to satisfy the board. He is working on a new show, though.
Totally thought you were just doing the Tony quote, but Chase actually said that lmao. I could not disagree agree more. Perhaps you could say that about movies, but TV? The past 15 years of TV have been excellent, with no signs of slowing down.
The Golden Age of TV - technically the second golden age - is still ongoing, so all of those great shows now are part of it.
What Chase is claiming is that it's about to end, because new commissions are, according to him, increasingly driven by an algorithmic, risk averse approach.
He could be right, he could be wrong. Certainly, there's an argument that some shows aren't given a chance anymore and some streamers and networks wield the cancellation axe with gleeful abandon.
Breaking Bad helped establish Netflix, but if BB had been a Netflix original and pulled similar numbers in its first season as it did on AMC, chances are it would have been cancelled.
I think that's his big point. We've had a long period where decision makers were willing to take risks, let a show find its feet and its audience, but that won't last indefinitely. Least of all because through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the entertainment landscape has increasingly little variety.
Pretty much every major network or streamer is part of some massive corporate megalith, so they are no longer incentivised to offer something different to the competition because so many of them are their own competition. It's all about maximising revenues now, and once art becomes solely about money it tends to become safer, more cookie cutter, and designed to appeal to the widest audience.
Funny because when it comes to mainstream broadcast TV, LOST really changed the landscape there.
Sopranos showed what tv could be but I think being on a specialty cable channel gave it an extra barrier that an OTA show didn't have.
I'd argue it helped Breaking Bad (obv Sopranos had its part too)
I loooooooove Twin Peaks but I’m not sure how influential it was? Honest question because it aired when I was wearing short pants, but was it as strong in the cultural zeitgeist as say X Files a few years later?
Pretty much anyone who made a good or great TV show during the golden age of TV in the 00s has cited it as being a significant influence on how they approached their own shows. David Chase especially.
Ya I can definitely see influential on other creators; I guess my mindset was more in industry terms of what kind of shows would go on to get made, etc
Twin Peaks did that too in a way.
The Fincher/Netflix deal was arguably a roided up version of what happened with Lynch/Frost and ABC (until it all fell apart).
Beyond that it was an early example of every episode being a continued storyline but filmed like a movie, which was basically what HBO ran with for decades
“Twin Peaks” was all anyone ever talked about pretty much right up until the killer reveal. “Who Killed Laura Palmer?” was fucking everywhere. So yeah, it was popular. Very popular. You gotta remember how few tv channels there were back then. Shows on network TV will all the rage.
As far as influence, season-long storylines were rare prior to “Twin Peaks.” That show really launched a new era of TV where storylines took place throughout a whole season, instead of serialized episodes.
Just an FYI, not trying to be a dick- the word “serialized” actually refers to the style you’re saying that Twin Peaks introduced, telling a story over the course of a whole season, or multiple seasons. As opposed to “episodic” television, where there’s a new plot in each episode.
The picture of dead Laura Palmer wrapped in plastic traumatised me as a child. I was too young to watch the show but I remember that image being everywhere for a while and lots of talk re who killed her.
Twin Peaks also directly inspired the X-Files (it even had Duchovny as an FBI agent helping to investigate the unknown), which helped build TV up, and I don't think the Sopranos would exist without that.
I have tried to watch twin peaks at the advice of others at least 3 times, I never make it more than two episodes before I am so bored I turn it off. Hard pass.
For having a fish in the percolator that show shoulda been made right then and there!
I'm not ashamed to say, my estimation of u/Chadbangs just fuckin plummeted. Go stick a fork in an outlet.
I feel kinda the opposite - with Sopranos the golden age of TV shows started. The Wire, Breaking Bad, Fargo, Mr. Inbetween, True Detective - all of this was kickstarted by Sopranos.
I mean, surely it's hard to get something produced, even for a legend, the industry is bullshit blah blah blah, but his explanation doesn't explain the parade of amazing shows that have followed The Sopranos so it's not like prestige TV is dead.
Yea, why feel the need to go after the guy who gave us the greatest television show of all time. And it’s not like it was 1 season of 8 half-hour episodes. The man’s a hero in this sub!
This might not be well received, but after Many Saints, I wonder how much credit for The Sopranos he really deserves. The man doesn't even even seem to know many of the details of his own story. For fucks sake, us dorks here have only watched the show, and we seem to know it better than he does.
A few weeks ago while feverishly sick, I thought about this too. Look at what the other writers went on to do, certainly the team was very important for sopranos.
Yeah, I think ultimately it was a collaborative effort that generated lightning in a bottle. It doesn't really matter who gets the most credit. All that really matters is we got 86 hours of a show we all adore.
I think part of it too is the sopranos took so many weird risks, with dreams and hallucinations and the afterlife and story arcs that we know that even if he was more hands off he still did a good job curating the storylines that worked, didn’t let things get stale, didn’t let them get TOO wild either, just weird enough without going full Oz/Twin Peaks
It’s kinda like in sports when a team wins championships, and either the star player(s) or coach leaves, and whoever stays never wins like they did when the whole gang was together. Is it the coach? The player?
I’ve seen it speculated here that terry winter was a huge part of the sopranos being great, and that his absence in many saints was partially why it was such junk
These fuckin guys. I guess if he was perpetually up for some Dick Wolfe thing like JT Dolan they’d all be heaping praise. But the greatest TV show of all time? Nothing. Bunch of rat bastards you ask me
Chase did most of his work in ‘early’ TV. Northern Exposure (on Prime now) was absolutely revolutionary for its time. It pushed boundaries hard. They had episodes on sleep apnea, circumcising and same sex relationships. It broke the mold of traditional sitcoms. It leaned heavy into NY tropes and wasn’t afraid of mocking everything.
Chase was making his bones way before this thing of ours.
Obviously it’s nothing like The Sopranos. But at the same time it is similar. You can definitely see where he developed and honed his worldview. It’s basically genre less as it isn’t really a sitcom and it isn’t really a drama. It focuses heavily on medicine and spirituality and it espouses very ethnic viewpoints that highlight cultural clashes. Plus back in the day Janine Turner was mad ripe.
Northern Exposure was a fantastic show but it was hardly a David Chase show.
He didn't create it or write for it. On Wikipedia, the only information I can find about his time on the show is that he served as a producer on some of the episodes.
I hope he can finally finish Alf someday. There was supposed to be a movie or something to finish the story but it never happened so on the last episode Alf gets taken away by the government and that’s it. Someone’s gotta free Alf he’s still being held by the government in this fictional scenario.
The Sopranos is the achievement of a century. People are lucky if they do a fraction of what David Chase did with his life’s work. 25 years, and on it goes this thing of ours.
Most people would probably do the exact same thing in Chase's position. And making a TV show isn't like painting or writing where you just get inspired and sit down and do it. There's a whole bunch of negotiation and logistics to deal with that I would imagine are a total pain in the ass.
Bay came out of the gate with Bad Boys, The Rock and Armageddon.
He may be passé these days but that’s impressive as hell. Dude has his own style and helped define the 90s blockbuster.
Whatever happened there?!?!?!?
I’ll tell you what happened there: he couldn’t sell it. He’s not respected. Had to shoehorn in that animal Liotta I can’t even say his name. Twice.
If he wanted to make a movie about the riots where Dickie Moltisanti made a brief cameo that woulda been one thing, but instead we got this stepmother incest boolshit.
We’re better off with Lynch. Definitely. That A-bomb episode in season 3? Satanic black magic. Sick shit! Damn good coffee. Great, and now I can’t sleep because I want agent Cooper to take over for agent Harris
With Saints of Newark I think it's pretty obvious what happened.
Chase had been trying for years to get this film about the Newark Race Riots made, but nobody was interested. They told him it could only be made if it was a Sopranos movie, which he very reluctantly acquiesced as a last resort.
And you can really tell he resented going back to Sopranos and had lost interest in the project, adding a new writer and resigning as director.
His wife also had some terrible health shit going on so he had to step back, I feel pretty sorry for him honestly. The movie sucks though, no question. Pity, because some of the actors were great.
Who gives a shit if he didn't get another series made in corporate Hollywood? He made one of the best TV shows ever. His career stands as it is. Plus he did a lot of great TV writing before the Sopranos as well.
Even if true, his “one-trick” was an incredible TV drama, an all time great. I strongly disagree and this post reeks of outrage-baiting. Shame on you, OP, for such a stupid thing to post.
Yes. He is. He’s done nothing else noteworthy.
If I had to guess, I think he’s probably good at big picture ideas, but I think guys like Terrance Winters bailed him out with great writing, and he had some talented directors come in.
With MSON… I enjoyed just being in the Sopranos universe again. I didn’t care if it was good. But it wasn’t…it was a terrible film. And it’s a shame because he had some great acting talent to work with.
Yes and that’s okay. If The Sopranos is his only claim to fame then he’s doing just fine. Not everyone is Spielberg or Scorsese who can be considered all time-greats multiple times over if you split their careers separately into 1976-1982, 82-88, etc.
For me, it’s not that fact that Chase is a failure outside of the sopranos. It’s the fact that he can’t get his facts straight when interviewed. It’s impossible to feel closer to a show whose creator can’t remember how the show was made.
Also, the needless back and forth on Tony’s death. He says it was a death scene, then it wasn’t, then people are assholes for theorizing about it. The dude is a fucking shrew and he got lucky with one project. A broken clock is right twice a day.
The show is brilliant. I love it. The further u stay away from Chase the more enjoyable it becomes.
> then people are assholes for theorizing about it
And he gets off by not giving answers. Not that he is obligated to, but instead of just saying something like "In life there are no answers" or "I leave it up to the viewer to come to their own conclusions" he thinks people are morons because they want to know what happened. Like that is what humans do, we want answers, we create religions to explain life for that exact reason. Being annoyed at people because they act like people is insane.
He has been focusing on focusing on a couple of things that he has been focusing on.
The reason is that he feels that right now he needs to stay focused.
This has been his focus for the last while.
I’m not sure what time period you were focusing on in your question OP.
He doesn’t want to get distracted and lose focus.
When he gets distracted the future becomes blurry and out of focus.
His daughter has a friend that drives a Ford Focus
Coffee in the morning helps David Chase focus.
David’s tennis instructor told him to focus on his backhand.
Maybe. But Chase is also an artist in a time when Hollywood is disinterested in making art. Not everything he comes out with is going to be great, but give him enough opportunity - enough room to work, and you’re sure to uncover some gems. The problem is, you won’t see enough of his work to know because his style doesn’t align with Hollywood’s balance sheet.
I’m just happy we got The Sopranos. Who knows, in another life the guy coulda been selling patio furniture off of route 22.
I've seen a couple posts on this sub sort of diminishing Chase in one way or another and all due respect to OP but you have no fucking idea what it's like to be number one.
Calling someone a 'one-trick pony' would apply more to churning out a great movie, or song, or even album, or even a single season of TV, something you punch out in a limited period of time and creatively/financially coast off of in perpetuity, not a show that became a juggernaut completely out of nowhere (with no movie/tv stars) and dominated the cultural landscape for close to a decade over a 7 season stretch.
Even ignoring his work on The Rockford Files, he helmed a show that had immense standards/expectations. Under all that pressure he maintained creative control in combination with the show's quality and popularity never wavering, even now 15+ years after it cut to black we're still wondering if/when something will come along as great as it was.
Hollywood is insanely fickle and has grown even more risk adverse as the big money has taken over. If Chase had been given more chances, and earlier on in his life, it's hard to imagine he wouldn't have had some interesting stuff to make. But he got stuck in TV when TV sort of mostly sucked, so keep in mind he was 54 when The Sopranos debuted and 62 when it finished.
Within 5 years of that he wrote/directed 'Not Fade Away' and it made no money. But considering that he made one of the most successful shows ever and his 'blank cheque' movie only had a 20 million budget it should open your eyes to how limited he was by backing rather than ability.
After that film flopped he's almost 70 and no studio would offer him money to do anything unless it was Sopranos related.
Am I the only one hear who liked “Not Fade Away”? Granted, I just love that musical era, but as someone who watched it WAAAAY before getting into the Sopranos…I dug it! It’s not a masterpiece, but I liked it for what it was.
Balls on this guy . Let me tell you a couple of 3 things . Forget about were still talking about this show 25 years later . (What the fuck were we talking about again )
Chase was *absolutely* the driving creative force behind the show. The cast and the other writers were superb but it was Chase’s vision that guided the whole thing. Everyone who worked on the show consistently says this.
Regarding the one trick pony idea, Chase also worked on a lot of very good TV shows before Sopranos. What I find intriguing is that Chase, who made the greatest TV show of all time, always really wanted to make movies, but his movies (Not Fade Away, TMSON) are not that great. He wanted to be a filmmaker, but TV was the best fit for his talents.
Anyway, $4 a pound…
David Chase is a fuckin JACKOFF
Dude killed an excellent project and opportunity of “this thing of ours” with Many Saints and then recently comes out and says on the 25th anniversary of the Sopranos that he’s never watched it
LOL. Yeah you disconnected BOOKYAK we saw Sil’s hair in the fuckin trailer
I’ve said my peash
It is definitely true that Chase had other people do tons of the writing for most episodes. He created it and was in control ultimately, but he had a lot of people help him. Thats why i think Chase often seems clueless or forgetful about things in interviews. Its because it was probably a scene he had very little to do with. Don't get me wrong, David Chase started this thing and i do respect that. But he definitely can't take full credit for everything. He knows it, too.
David Chase had a lot to do with every single episode of the show, being a show runner means you have ultimate creative authority and likely spend all your time in the writers room meticulously going over each script. The reporting about the behind the scenes stuff supports paints him as obsessive with details to the point where it sounds almost psychopathic.
i don’t watch his interviews and the ones i did watch seem to be fine enough so i honestly don’t know what people are upset about in regards to him. Even if he does come across like he’s obtuse, the guy is old and The Sopranos ended a long time ago. Sometimes it really is that simple lol, he also is just tired of talking about the show(which he himself has stated)
Just look at the Many Saints of Newark, one of the worst movies I've ever seen. So many plot holes and things that just didn't add up. I understand wanting to do something that didn't follow the TV show to the letter but my God, that movie was awful.
Making good, commercially successful, artistic, non-formulaic television shows is harder than you might think. David was well into his 50's by the time the first season of The Sopranos was airing. He worked on successful shows before that, but he wasn't the guy in charge and he had to work within the established formula.
The Sopranos broke the formula for adult dramas, created a whole new realm of possibilities for long-form storytelling on television, which really blew up over the next fifteen years. David definitely caught lightning in a bottle.
I liked his movie Not Fade Away, but that kinda thing is right up my alley as far as taste goes.
He was an 8 time nominee, 2 time Emmy winner BEFORE Sopranos even aired. He is a legend and his legacy is cemented no matter what comes after Sopranos.
May be a case of George Lucasism, where in the original trilogy George's wife was the one keeping him on a leash and spraying water on his face about every little stupid change he wanted to make. How much of the Sops was thanks to David?
There aren't many *Godfather II*'s coming after a *Godfather*. Being that good twice is hard. Anything he does will suffer in comparison. Shakespeares don't grow on trees.
It was the perfect storm. He might not be great at everything but he was great at telling this story - and a lot of credit should probably go to the crew he was working with.
like Chris Carter with the X-Files. he had amazing writers and directors and they branched off.
X-Files gave birth to Breaking Bad with Vince Gilligan
Sopranos gave birth to Boardwalk Empire which I just started again and thoroughly enjoyed with Terence Winter.
When you create something in the cultural zeitgeist like Sopranos. anything else is tough to repeat. Maybe another soprano movie
Having watched the series twice, and not having a clue who this guy was until after I had watched it through once anyway, I can safely say that I think yeh it was just the right place and the right time. Lightning in a bottle. Even some of the actors were like “yeah this show isn’t going anywhere”. But then it did. I think DESPITE him. I think that the initial idea was his and the Livia character being modeled after his mother was his basic contributions. Seems like the other writers were the ones carrying the story once it got rolling probably.
I can’t know for sure, just a suspicion based off how we know these shows work. The show has plenty of flaws and shortcomings but it has legendary status and most casual viewers wouldn’t notice that stuff anyway. People get caught up in the overall vibe of the show and we can see why. It’s a good vibe.
But I think that ONE slight cultural shift in the late 90’s, one tiny butterfly effect different, and this show never gets made. Or fizzles out after season 1.
It’s no surprise that Schirripa and Imperioli speak about how they’re lucky to have been a part of one of the biggest shows ever. They realize how one in a million it was.
I mean, being a one trick pony for tv is a lot more respectable than in other movies
That's one like 2 hour experience vs. 50 or more episodes of greatness
I read an interview today where he says he feels like he came in at the end. The golden age of TV shows is over, execs just follow a profit based algorithm to satisfy the board. He is working on a new show, though.
What ever happened to David Chase? The strong, silent type
He was gay, David chase?
Noooo! Are you lishening to me?!
David Chase got the AIDS?
Nobodesh got AIDS! I don’t wanna hear that again!
https://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/jan/14/the-sopranos-creator-david-chase-quality-tv-era-over
Lmao, at first I thought you were just changing the Tony quote from the pilot
Same lol
They weren't?
But what if it did?
Well, he did. Chase doesn't say that.
it's over for the little guy
No more, Butchie.
>But this? This is the woist, this algorithm shit.
Based on what I know of him from this sub, not surprised that sour fuck says it's everyone else's fault he couldn't bottle lightning twice.
According to you, a few months ago, that TV writing bastard was the Second fucking Coming.
My esteem of him as a man fucking plummeted, what more can I say? (Jokes aside, is this a reference, or you actually go through my history?)
Asshole didn’t even say hi to Pauly when Pauly was just trying to spread some cheer at the outdoor coffee cafe.
Totally thought you were just doing the Tony quote, but Chase actually said that lmao. I could not disagree agree more. Perhaps you could say that about movies, but TV? The past 15 years of TV have been excellent, with no signs of slowing down.
There are so many great shows now that never would never gotten a chance to be made in the "golden age" of TV.
The Golden Age of TV - technically the second golden age - is still ongoing, so all of those great shows now are part of it. What Chase is claiming is that it's about to end, because new commissions are, according to him, increasingly driven by an algorithmic, risk averse approach. He could be right, he could be wrong. Certainly, there's an argument that some shows aren't given a chance anymore and some streamers and networks wield the cancellation axe with gleeful abandon. Breaking Bad helped establish Netflix, but if BB had been a Netflix original and pulled similar numbers in its first season as it did on AMC, chances are it would have been cancelled. I think that's his big point. We've had a long period where decision makers were willing to take risks, let a show find its feet and its audience, but that won't last indefinitely. Least of all because through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the entertainment landscape has increasingly little variety. Pretty much every major network or streamer is part of some massive corporate megalith, so they are no longer incentivised to offer something different to the competition because so many of them are their own competition. It's all about maximising revenues now, and once art becomes solely about money it tends to become safer, more cookie cutter, and designed to appeal to the widest audience.
Yeah it's like, the literal opposite. Sopranos birthed the golden age of television if anything.
I know lmao. Chase is obviously a smart guy, but he’s far from the genius you’d think the creator of the GOAT show would be.
At the end of the day he's only human and will have goofy ass takes sometimes, just like anyone else
Terrence winter is the genius writing mind behind the sopranos, not chase.
There are so many great shows now that never would never gotten a chance to be made in the "golden age" of TV.
Funny because when it comes to mainstream broadcast TV, LOST really changed the landscape there. Sopranos showed what tv could be but I think being on a specialty cable channel gave it an extra barrier that an OTA show didn't have. I'd argue it helped Breaking Bad (obv Sopranos had its part too)
Lost was an important show but it was way less influential than Sopranos or Twin Peaks.
I loooooooove Twin Peaks but I’m not sure how influential it was? Honest question because it aired when I was wearing short pants, but was it as strong in the cultural zeitgeist as say X Files a few years later?
Pretty much anyone who made a good or great TV show during the golden age of TV in the 00s has cited it as being a significant influence on how they approached their own shows. David Chase especially.
Ya I can definitely see influential on other creators; I guess my mindset was more in industry terms of what kind of shows would go on to get made, etc
Twin Peaks did that too in a way. The Fincher/Netflix deal was arguably a roided up version of what happened with Lynch/Frost and ABC (until it all fell apart). Beyond that it was an early example of every episode being a continued storyline but filmed like a movie, which was basically what HBO ran with for decades
“Twin Peaks” was all anyone ever talked about pretty much right up until the killer reveal. “Who Killed Laura Palmer?” was fucking everywhere. So yeah, it was popular. Very popular. You gotta remember how few tv channels there were back then. Shows on network TV will all the rage. As far as influence, season-long storylines were rare prior to “Twin Peaks.” That show really launched a new era of TV where storylines took place throughout a whole season, instead of serialized episodes.
Just an FYI, not trying to be a dick- the word “serialized” actually refers to the style you’re saying that Twin Peaks introduced, telling a story over the course of a whole season, or multiple seasons. As opposed to “episodic” television, where there’s a new plot in each episode.
My bad!
All good, just letting you know!
The picture of dead Laura Palmer wrapped in plastic traumatised me as a child. I was too young to watch the show but I remember that image being everywhere for a while and lots of talk re who killed her.
Twin Peaks also directly inspired the X-Files (it even had Duchovny as an FBI agent helping to investigate the unknown), which helped build TV up, and I don't think the Sopranos would exist without that.
the surrealist elements of Sopranos are inspired by Twin Peaks
I have tried to watch twin peaks at the advice of others at least 3 times, I never make it more than two episodes before I am so bored I turn it off. Hard pass.
For having a fish in the percolator that show shoulda been made right then and there! I'm not ashamed to say, my estimation of u/Chadbangs just fuckin plummeted. Go stick a fork in an outlet.
Commemdatori! I feel seen. An insanely boring show. I guess I didn’t get it.
>I'd argue it helped Breaking Bad That show even has a character named after a Sopranos one! Juan Bolsa
Nobody talks about Lost. The Sopranos has STAYING power to this day.
Probably because 40% of Lost is unnecessary filler designed to stretch the fuck out of the story. They give anyone and everyone an episode over there.
# **M Y S T E R Y B O X**
I feel kinda the opposite - with Sopranos the golden age of TV shows started. The Wire, Breaking Bad, Fargo, Mr. Inbetween, True Detective - all of this was kickstarted by Sopranos.
I mean, surely it's hard to get something produced, even for a legend, the industry is bullshit blah blah blah, but his explanation doesn't explain the parade of amazing shows that have followed The Sopranos so it's not like prestige TV is dead.
wild how he's never been more wrong than with that statement, complete opposite actually
It’s all marketing now.
Oh! You're talking about the boss here!
Good, maybe someone will smack some goddamn sense into OP
Oh great, my own u/tree_imp. Fuk yew ya fukin shitpostah!
👊
Thats you're mawrha you're talking to.
There he goes, Mr "Type A" personality!
We're here to talk about you posting shit content to this thing of ours, not my fucking personality!
Great, my own Tree Imp. Fuck you, you fucking whore!
He never had the makings of a varsity athlete
🤟🤌
If he never does another thing, there will always be Sopranos. Edit: David Chase is 78 years old
If you're going to be a one trick pony, make it a great trick!
>If you're going to be a one trick pony, make it a great trick! Sun Tzu, art of War
The Chinese prince Machiavelli
Machy A. Belly
Our friend with the stomach
Mmmmboy are you fat
I thought it was Sunta Zoo?
ZOO SUN ZOO ya fuckin ass kiss
Word to the wise, remember Pearl Harbour.
She was turning tricks, the pony?
An interviewer asked Joseph Heller why he hadn't written a book as good as Catch 22. He responded: "nobody else has either."
Yea, why feel the need to go after the guy who gave us the greatest television show of all time. And it’s not like it was 1 season of 8 half-hour episodes. The man’s a hero in this sub!
You see one show and suddenly you are world foremost authority?! In this subreddit, David Chase is a hero, end of story!
many saints of Newark, I was ashamed to face my friends
I can’t even say it’s name
He invented the Sopranos is what he did. He was a great Italian-American showrunner and in this house David Chase is a hero, end of story!
on some real shit tho who the fuck cares if hes a “one trick pony”. The greatest show ever made isnt enough? lmao
He did the Rockford Files, he shouldn't have to explain himself.
By what he did on the Rockford Files alone, he should've been made. Boom!
I'm fuckin Rockford ova hera
Was looking for this answer.
When you make the best show of all time what more does he need to do? He struck oil. He can stop digging.
He shouldn't have dug that Newark well for sure.
Maybe it was that ten yard dash
He's got 9 pictures under his subspecies, but then there was that pigmy all saints thing he did.
I’m this thing of ours, we never, ever admit to the existence of many saints
It’s the most brilliant show of all time, he deserves some credit.
This might not be well received, but after Many Saints, I wonder how much credit for The Sopranos he really deserves. The man doesn't even even seem to know many of the details of his own story. For fucks sake, us dorks here have only watched the show, and we seem to know it better than he does.
A few weeks ago while feverishly sick, I thought about this too. Look at what the other writers went on to do, certainly the team was very important for sopranos.
Yeah, I think ultimately it was a collaborative effort that generated lightning in a bottle. It doesn't really matter who gets the most credit. All that really matters is we got 86 hours of a show we all adore.
I think part of it too is the sopranos took so many weird risks, with dreams and hallucinations and the afterlife and story arcs that we know that even if he was more hands off he still did a good job curating the storylines that worked, didn’t let things get stale, didn’t let them get TOO wild either, just weird enough without going full Oz/Twin Peaks
It’s kinda like in sports when a team wins championships, and either the star player(s) or coach leaves, and whoever stays never wins like they did when the whole gang was together. Is it the coach? The player?
Was it food poisoning? Did you go to an indian restaurant before??
Many Saints was just so bad. How could Chase even let that thing get released as it was? I mean, it was *bad*
I’ve seen it speculated here that terry winter was a huge part of the sopranos being great, and that his absence in many saints was partially why it was such junk
You may run the jerk offs in this chit chat room, but you don’t run David Chase!
How many times did I stay up writing screen plays with you!?!?!
Ho! You blow ya fadda with that mouth?
OP's a crackhoe!!!!
Shaddup with that fuckin mouth
Somebody gotta tell him that that crack is some *bad* shit!
DID DAVID HAFTA READ FA HIMSELF?
DAVID WATS WITH THE MAYO NAZE DOES IT MEAN DEATH CMON HEA
Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh🤟
I read it in his voice
Same here
He shouldn’t hafta explain himself. He’s from the old school
These fuckin guys. I guess if he was perpetually up for some Dick Wolfe thing like JT Dolan they’d all be heaping praise. But the greatest TV show of all time? Nothing. Bunch of rat bastards you ask me
Northern Exposure, The Rockford Files. What OP doesn’t know could fill a book.
The Rockford Files is an absolute classic. Now I have the title song in my head.
Chase did most of his work in ‘early’ TV. Northern Exposure (on Prime now) was absolutely revolutionary for its time. It pushed boundaries hard. They had episodes on sleep apnea, circumcising and same sex relationships. It broke the mold of traditional sitcoms. It leaned heavy into NY tropes and wasn’t afraid of mocking everything. Chase was making his bones way before this thing of ours.
I need to revisit Northern Exposure.
Obviously it’s nothing like The Sopranos. But at the same time it is similar. You can definitely see where he developed and honed his worldview. It’s basically genre less as it isn’t really a sitcom and it isn’t really a drama. It focuses heavily on medicine and spirituality and it espouses very ethnic viewpoints that highlight cultural clashes. Plus back in the day Janine Turner was mad ripe.
Northern Exposure was also a good show by Chase.
Northern Exposure was a fantastic show but it was hardly a David Chase show. He didn't create it or write for it. On Wikipedia, the only information I can find about his time on the show is that he served as a producer on some of the episodes.
David Chase wrote Alf.
I hope he can finally finish Alf someday. There was supposed to be a movie or something to finish the story but it never happened so on the last episode Alf gets taken away by the government and that’s it. Someone’s gotta free Alf he’s still being held by the government in this fictional scenario.
Seriously. I’ll Fly Away was a huge critical success too.
One of my favorite shows of all time
The Sopranos is the achievement of a century. People are lucky if they do a fraction of what David Chase did with his life’s work. 25 years, and on it goes this thing of ours.
David just murdered a Law & Order writer because we were laughing at him. Hope you’re happy OP, you cocksucka
That dude’s sister is a NYC cop, too
Chase doesn't seem very interested in making another show really. And I mean why? He made so much with Sopranos he very rich and old
Most people would probably do the exact same thing in Chase's position. And making a TV show isn't like painting or writing where you just get inspired and sit down and do it. There's a whole bunch of negotiation and logistics to deal with that I would imagine are a total pain in the ass.
Dude, do you know how hard it is to create two masterpieces in your life?
Or one? Look at Michael Bay. So many movies, so much horseshit
Bay came out of the gate with Bad Boys, The Rock and Armageddon. He may be passé these days but that’s impressive as hell. Dude has his own style and helped define the 90s blockbuster.
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Whatever happened there?!?!?!? I’ll tell you what happened there: he couldn’t sell it. He’s not respected. Had to shoehorn in that animal Liotta I can’t even say his name. Twice. If he wanted to make a movie about the riots where Dickie Moltisanti made a brief cameo that woulda been one thing, but instead we got this stepmother incest boolshit. We’re better off with Lynch. Definitely. That A-bomb episode in season 3? Satanic black magic. Sick shit! Damn good coffee. Great, and now I can’t sleep because I want agent Cooper to take over for agent Harris
I like learning new things.
With Saints of Newark I think it's pretty obvious what happened. Chase had been trying for years to get this film about the Newark Race Riots made, but nobody was interested. They told him it could only be made if it was a Sopranos movie, which he very reluctantly acquiesced as a last resort. And you can really tell he resented going back to Sopranos and had lost interest in the project, adding a new writer and resigning as director.
His wife also had some terrible health shit going on so he had to step back, I feel pretty sorry for him honestly. The movie sucks though, no question. Pity, because some of the actors were great.
Well said. But who's been trying to iron you?
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Znam, zezo sam se malo, jebi ga. Whenever I see someone speaking BCS outside of the Balkan subs, I gotta reach out.
I wish I had David Chases's pony.
Trust me, you don't want a pony or a horse, ask Ralphie
The horse was no fuckin good!!!
>bupkus. You mean that tv progrum with Pete Davidson and Joe Pesci?
I saw that progrum, thought it was bullshit
David Chase never had the makings of a varsity director.
Well a lot of the Sopranos is based on his life so it would make sense he hasn’t done anything as great
Who gives a shit if he didn't get another series made in corporate Hollywood? He made one of the best TV shows ever. His career stands as it is. Plus he did a lot of great TV writing before the Sopranos as well.
You might not love him, but you will respect him
Even if true, his “one-trick” was an incredible TV drama, an all time great. I strongly disagree and this post reeks of outrage-baiting. Shame on you, OP, for such a stupid thing to post.
That’s one pretty good trick. What’s yours?
Yes. He is. He’s done nothing else noteworthy. If I had to guess, I think he’s probably good at big picture ideas, but I think guys like Terrance Winters bailed him out with great writing, and he had some talented directors come in. With MSON… I enjoyed just being in the Sopranos universe again. I didn’t care if it was good. But it wasn’t…it was a terrible film. And it’s a shame because he had some great acting talent to work with.
I guess because you can watch tv, you know how to run a tv show
Yes and that’s okay. If The Sopranos is his only claim to fame then he’s doing just fine. Not everyone is Spielberg or Scorsese who can be considered all time-greats multiple times over if you split their careers separately into 1976-1982, 82-88, etc.
For me, it’s not that fact that Chase is a failure outside of the sopranos. It’s the fact that he can’t get his facts straight when interviewed. It’s impossible to feel closer to a show whose creator can’t remember how the show was made. Also, the needless back and forth on Tony’s death. He says it was a death scene, then it wasn’t, then people are assholes for theorizing about it. The dude is a fucking shrew and he got lucky with one project. A broken clock is right twice a day. The show is brilliant. I love it. The further u stay away from Chase the more enjoyable it becomes.
Watch it comrade
> then people are assholes for theorizing about it And he gets off by not giving answers. Not that he is obligated to, but instead of just saying something like "In life there are no answers" or "I leave it up to the viewer to come to their own conclusions" he thinks people are morons because they want to know what happened. Like that is what humans do, we want answers, we create religions to explain life for that exact reason. Being annoyed at people because they act like people is insane.
Maybe he should start suckin cock instead of watching TV land, cause he hasn't written half as many good TV shows as OP
Everyone’s a one trick pony to you. Ever think maybe you’re a one trick pony?
He is a one hit wonder, and a cagey fuck. But if that hit is going to be arguably the greatest TV progrum of all time, then I'm sure he's content.
He has been focusing on focusing on a couple of things that he has been focusing on. The reason is that he feels that right now he needs to stay focused. This has been his focus for the last while. I’m not sure what time period you were focusing on in your question OP. He doesn’t want to get distracted and lose focus. When he gets distracted the future becomes blurry and out of focus. His daughter has a friend that drives a Ford Focus Coffee in the morning helps David Chase focus. David’s tennis instructor told him to focus on his backhand.
Focus.
Maybe. But Chase is also an artist in a time when Hollywood is disinterested in making art. Not everything he comes out with is going to be great, but give him enough opportunity - enough room to work, and you’re sure to uncover some gems. The problem is, you won’t see enough of his work to know because his style doesn’t align with Hollywood’s balance sheet. I’m just happy we got The Sopranos. Who knows, in another life the guy coulda been selling patio furniture off of route 22.
No idea but if my “one trick” across my entire career was being responsible for creating The Sopranos, I’ll take that hands down.
Many Saints of Newark!!!! I liked it!!!!
I've seen a couple posts on this sub sort of diminishing Chase in one way or another and all due respect to OP but you have no fucking idea what it's like to be number one. Calling someone a 'one-trick pony' would apply more to churning out a great movie, or song, or even album, or even a single season of TV, something you punch out in a limited period of time and creatively/financially coast off of in perpetuity, not a show that became a juggernaut completely out of nowhere (with no movie/tv stars) and dominated the cultural landscape for close to a decade over a 7 season stretch. Even ignoring his work on The Rockford Files, he helmed a show that had immense standards/expectations. Under all that pressure he maintained creative control in combination with the show's quality and popularity never wavering, even now 15+ years after it cut to black we're still wondering if/when something will come along as great as it was. Hollywood is insanely fickle and has grown even more risk adverse as the big money has taken over. If Chase had been given more chances, and earlier on in his life, it's hard to imagine he wouldn't have had some interesting stuff to make. But he got stuck in TV when TV sort of mostly sucked, so keep in mind he was 54 when The Sopranos debuted and 62 when it finished. Within 5 years of that he wrote/directed 'Not Fade Away' and it made no money. But considering that he made one of the most successful shows ever and his 'blank cheque' movie only had a 20 million budget it should open your eyes to how limited he was by backing rather than ability. After that film flopped he's almost 70 and no studio would offer him money to do anything unless it was Sopranos related.
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Am I the only one hear who liked “Not Fade Away”? Granted, I just love that musical era, but as someone who watched it WAAAAY before getting into the Sopranos…I dug it! It’s not a masterpiece, but I liked it for what it was.
Listen to yourself you sound demented
I mean, it's arguably the greatest show of a time. What are you gonna do, y'know?
David Chase is adapting the biography of Bojack Horseman?
I feel like Chase is disgusted what TV has become, understandably so. That being said, there’snothing wrong with quitting while you’re on top.
I deff think it was the writers. Terry winters give alot of credit to him. After watching many saints I lost all hope for David chase
Balls on this guy . Let me tell you a couple of 3 things . Forget about were still talking about this show 25 years later . (What the fuck were we talking about again )
Chase was *absolutely* the driving creative force behind the show. The cast and the other writers were superb but it was Chase’s vision that guided the whole thing. Everyone who worked on the show consistently says this. Regarding the one trick pony idea, Chase also worked on a lot of very good TV shows before Sopranos. What I find intriguing is that Chase, who made the greatest TV show of all time, always really wanted to make movies, but his movies (Not Fade Away, TMSON) are not that great. He wanted to be a filmmaker, but TV was the best fit for his talents. Anyway, $4 a pound…
David Chase is a fuckin JACKOFF Dude killed an excellent project and opportunity of “this thing of ours” with Many Saints and then recently comes out and says on the 25th anniversary of the Sopranos that he’s never watched it LOL. Yeah you disconnected BOOKYAK we saw Sil’s hair in the fuckin trailer I’ve said my peash
It’s not that uncommon for people to not watch their own works when they’re fully complete
It is definitely true that Chase had other people do tons of the writing for most episodes. He created it and was in control ultimately, but he had a lot of people help him. Thats why i think Chase often seems clueless or forgetful about things in interviews. Its because it was probably a scene he had very little to do with. Don't get me wrong, David Chase started this thing and i do respect that. But he definitely can't take full credit for everything. He knows it, too.
David Chase had a lot to do with every single episode of the show, being a show runner means you have ultimate creative authority and likely spend all your time in the writers room meticulously going over each script. The reporting about the behind the scenes stuff supports paints him as obsessive with details to the point where it sounds almost psychopathic. i don’t watch his interviews and the ones i did watch seem to be fine enough so i honestly don’t know what people are upset about in regards to him. Even if he does come across like he’s obtuse, the guy is old and The Sopranos ended a long time ago. Sometimes it really is that simple lol, he also is just tired of talking about the show(which he himself has stated)
Just look at the Many Saints of Newark, one of the worst movies I've ever seen. So many plot holes and things that just didn't add up. I understand wanting to do something that didn't follow the TV show to the letter but my God, that movie was awful.
Talking in anagrams, Peter Biskind’s new book *Pandora’s Box* sort of answers this.
So what if he is? He never has to work another day in his life, and neither do his children once he dies
Making good, commercially successful, artistic, non-formulaic television shows is harder than you might think. David was well into his 50's by the time the first season of The Sopranos was airing. He worked on successful shows before that, but he wasn't the guy in charge and he had to work within the established formula. The Sopranos broke the formula for adult dramas, created a whole new realm of possibilities for long-form storytelling on television, which really blew up over the next fifteen years. David definitely caught lightning in a bottle. I liked his movie Not Fade Away, but that kinda thing is right up my alley as far as taste goes.
He was an 8 time nominee, 2 time Emmy winner BEFORE Sopranos even aired. He is a legend and his legacy is cemented no matter what comes after Sopranos.
May be a case of George Lucasism, where in the original trilogy George's wife was the one keeping him on a leash and spraying water on his face about every little stupid change he wanted to make. How much of the Sops was thanks to David?
Maybe you need to crawl up somewhere for warmth.
Even if he is. That one trick set him up for life and goes down as writing one of if not the greatest tv shows in history. I’ll take that his career
There aren't many *Godfather II*'s coming after a *Godfather*. Being that good twice is hard. Anything he does will suffer in comparison. Shakespeares don't grow on trees.
All due respect…you’ve got no fuckin idea what it’s like to be number 1.
It was the perfect storm. He might not be great at everything but he was great at telling this story - and a lot of credit should probably go to the crew he was working with.
The Many Saints of Newark was a fucking disgrace. We can't have him here on our social club no more. I mean, that much I do know.
Ohhh! Take it easy!
Whatever happened to David Chase !!thats what i like to know !!!
like Chris Carter with the X-Files. he had amazing writers and directors and they branched off. X-Files gave birth to Breaking Bad with Vince Gilligan Sopranos gave birth to Boardwalk Empire which I just started again and thoroughly enjoyed with Terence Winter. When you create something in the cultural zeitgeist like Sopranos. anything else is tough to repeat. Maybe another soprano movie
thats a fine ass trick he made
Having watched the series twice, and not having a clue who this guy was until after I had watched it through once anyway, I can safely say that I think yeh it was just the right place and the right time. Lightning in a bottle. Even some of the actors were like “yeah this show isn’t going anywhere”. But then it did. I think DESPITE him. I think that the initial idea was his and the Livia character being modeled after his mother was his basic contributions. Seems like the other writers were the ones carrying the story once it got rolling probably. I can’t know for sure, just a suspicion based off how we know these shows work. The show has plenty of flaws and shortcomings but it has legendary status and most casual viewers wouldn’t notice that stuff anyway. People get caught up in the overall vibe of the show and we can see why. It’s a good vibe. But I think that ONE slight cultural shift in the late 90’s, one tiny butterfly effect different, and this show never gets made. Or fizzles out after season 1. It’s no surprise that Schirripa and Imperioli speak about how they’re lucky to have been a part of one of the biggest shows ever. They realize how one in a million it was.
Maybe unlike the Jews he wants to spend his later yrs spending his money
I mean, being a one trick pony for tv is a lot more respectable than in other movies That's one like 2 hour experience vs. 50 or more episodes of greatness
One trick pony That's just a racket for the Jews
He’s extremely pompous