'The Sopranos' Oral History, Part IV: When you spend six seasons making a show about an organized crime family that rings true, you’ll inevitably bump up against that criminal element, even if you are tapping history to create fictional storylines. If the mob feels you are celebrating their lawlessness, that is bad…

‘The Sopranos’ Oral History, Part III: While the show followed David Chase’s scripts to the letter, with no room for improvisation, the inherent subject matter of lawless men engaging in random explosive violence made for some hair-raising moments during the filming of the show. Read ‘The Sopranos’ Oral History, Part I…

Despite David Chase’s feeling that The Sopranos would be one and done, the only direction the show was going was upward. It was a bona fide sensation, winning four of the 16 Emmy nominations it received in 1999, including one for Best Writing and the first of three Emmys Edie Falco would win for a show that would go…

EXCLUSIVE: It was 20 years ago today that hour-long television was forever changed, starting with the visage of a cigar-smoking Tony Soprano commuting from New York to New Jersey to the pulsing beat of the theme song, “Woke Up This Morning.” David Chase’s The Sopranos became an instant critical sensation that…