BY the time academics started to publish essays like "Stripper Iconography and Sex Worker Feminism on The Sopranos," it was apparent HBO's drama about an anxious, brutal, suburban mob boss might be more than just a TV show.
Since the show launched eight years ago, the cable network's upscale audience bought up "Sopranos" bowling shirts and cookbooks, joined in conspiracy-filled "Sopranos" Internet sites, took pole dancing lessons and started speaking in Sopranoisms ("whacked," "all due respect"). At its peak in 2004, "The Sopranos" had 14.4 million viewers per episode. And HBO sold the show in 2005 in a record syndication deal to A&E that earlier this year started introducing "The Sopranos" to millions of new viewers.
In their many anthologies, the academics tried to explain the phenomenon: "The Sopranos" represented shifts in masculine identity. It was about the American family in the 21st century, American consumption, class in America. It diminished Italian Americans, it honored Italian Americans. It overflowed with psychotherapeutic and philosophical insights.
The show, created by David Chase, in part to exorcise the formidable maternal presence in his own life, "had a seismic effect on the whole culture," said director Peter Bogdanovich, reflecting the tone of commentators who reached for superlatives to lavish on the series. On a smaller scale, Bogdanovich, who plays a therapist's therapist on the series, said the show renewed a professional identity for him as an actor.
Even producer and well-known industry cynic Gavin Polone admitted sheepishly that he had only praise for the show. "It's the only show on television that I've seen every episode," he said.
However, the more enduring legacy of "The Sopranos" is surely on TV itself. "It has been in many ways a creative game changer for television," said television historian and author Tim Brooks. "That had never happened before with a program seen by less than a third of the country." Though initially turned down by several broadcast networks, "The Sopranos" became "a shining example of how a show that has that kind of violence, sexuality and language wins Emmys and gets enormous acclaim can allow commercial broadcasters to go much further," he said. "The Sopranos" roughened the tonality of much of television. Advertisers remained leery, but extreme violence and more explicit sexuality became increasingly common in broadcast and basic cable "chalk line" shows -- crime procedurals such as the "CSI" franchise, "Criminal Minds" and "Without a Trace." For broadcasters, the appeal of "The Sopranos" was less about its viewership, though considerable, and more about "what you could get away with," Brooks said.
