Analyzing The Sopranos Scripts
What is up Sopranos fans, Kino here. A few years back, someone on the Sopranos subreddit posted a bunch of scripts from the series that he had bought off of Ebay and digitally scanned. Thanks to his awesome work, we can now easily read the scripts for these 11 episodes.
I’ll link to the post in the description of this video, but I figured I’d also go through and highlight any interesting differences I found in the scripts. After all, this is not only cool for seeing the differences between what's on the page and what ended up in the final episodes, but it’s also an interesting way to look into the mindset of the writers at the time they wrote these.
Now with any kind of production like this, a lot of things are going to end up different from the script. Dialogue will be changed slightly, scenes will be shot differently, and the directors of each episode will have their own unique vision that they will bring while filming. I’m not going to document every single word that ended up different from the scripts, but instead focus on the more interesting details and changes.
Starting off in the episode 46 Long, the tv interview with the mobster at the beginning of the episode was originally supposed to be with Larry King. The Sopranos often liked to use real world celebrities and references instead of just making people up. However I imagine that they probably couldn’t get Larry for the show, as no one knew how good the show was until the first season actually came out.
Also Barbara was originally named Anette. Now interestingly, the name Anette is of French and Hebrew origins and means Favored by God. Well the name Janice is actually the same, being of Hebrew origin and meaning Gift of God. So I can kind of see the naming scheme going on here for the Soprano girls.
Also Jackie Aprile was originally Pat. I’m glad they changed this, as Jackie just fits the character so much better. Plus then Jackie Junior would have been named Pat Junior, which just doesn’t have the same ring. They would of course re-use the name for Uncle Pat Blundetto.
Finally, during the scene with the suits, Paulie mentions someone named Ginger. Now we’ve never heard that name before, but based on the fact that Paulie is talking about her confirmation, I wonder if it might be his niece. Remember Paulie has two siblings, a brother who is a doctor and a sister named Rose.
When Tony convinces Paulie to take over the Aprile crew in the final episode, he mentions that Paulie has a niece with MS. Presumably this niece is one of his siblings' children, and might be the Ginger mentioned here.
Next we move on to the episode University. Now I mentioned this in my Ralph video, but we get some more backstory on Ralph from Tony, who says that he caused a girl’s death in high school. Not only does that tell us that Ralph has been messed up from a very young age, it also explains why Tony seemed to dislike Ralph from the very moment he moved back to New Jersey.
Also, I didn’t notice this until I read the script, but we get a mention of a Lidnsey Blundetto.
Now of course as I explained in my family tree video, the Blundetto family are relatives of the Sopranos. However I have no idea who this Lindsey is, or why Carmela is telling AJ to call her. It might just be some random cousin or something, or might be the name of Louise before they renamed her. Either way it’s a weird call out to the Blundetto family, which wasn’t really shown until Season 5.
Next we move onto For All Debts Public and Private, and we have two small differences. One was that we get more of a backstory for Christopher’s father Dickie. I went over this all the way back in my first Sopranos video about Dickie, but according to this script Dickie was never a made guy. I speculated on how this backstory might inform the story for The Many Saints of Newark, but it seems like either this was cut for a reason, or the backstory is no longer canon.
Lastly in the scene with Tony at the diner, it was originally supposed to be Paulie instead of Bobby. Actor Tony Sirico apparently hurt his back before Season 4 started filming, and they had to write him out of the first few episodes. This is why Paulie is in prison at the start of the season.
Now our next example actually comes from Twitter. The Sopranos Guy posted this excerpt from the script for the episode Pie-O-My. Apparently Georgie was supposed to have left the bing and started working at the stable owned by Hesh.
Now Georgie eventually does leave the bing in the season 5 episode “Cold Cuts” after Tony hits him for the millionth time. But this script indicates that they were originally going to have Georgie quit much earlier. Given that this takes place in season 4, I imagine the reason he quit is because Ralph hit him with the chain back in “University”.
Next we move on to the episode Where's Johnny, and we have a lot of changes here. The post on Reddit actually says that this is an Early Draft.
Starting off the Lorraine scene is very different from what ended up in the episode. For starters she’s referred to as Linda for some reason, even though her name is still Lorraine. Also she’s portrayed as a lot more pathetic than in the episode itself, and it feels a little gratuitous. I’m glad they changed it.
When Junior sees himself on the TV, the script calls the program “The Larry David Show”. Now I’ve never heard Curb Your Enthusiasm called that, so either this is just how some people refer to the show, or the writer didn’t know the name of the series off the top of his head and just wrote that as a placeholder at the time.
There’s also a deleted scene of Bobby and Janice fighting. It doesn’t really add anything, it just covers information that we learn in other scenes, so I can understand why they cut it.
Finally, when Junior is wandering around confused, there was supposed to be a POV shot on him seeing the neighborhood like it used to be in the 60’s. Again I can see why they cut this, as it doesn’t really fit the cinematic style of The Sopranos.
In the episode Unidentified Black Males, there are two details I wanted to highlight. One is the mention of someone named Connie. Again no real details, but based on the context it seems like it might be a cousin or something of theirs, since they were attending their confirmation.
Also it was supposed to be Petey who messed up Joey Peeps gravestone, not Jason.
The final script we have is for the episode Long Term Parking. There are three details I want to highlight here. One is that Johnny Sack used to be Carmine’s driver. This is completely believable to me, as we’ve seen characters like Christopher who also drove Tony be groomed for leadership positions. It also explains why Johnny was so devastated when Joey Peeps died, as he might have been grooming him as well to be a leader in the Lupertazzi family.
Next we have a cut scene where Christopher tells Tony about Adriana being an informant. I’ve talked about this before, but they did actually film this scene, but cut it from the episode and later added it into the episode The Ride in Season 6. I’m really glad they did this, because it makes the scene where Tony calls Adriana all the more intense, as you don’t know whether he is telling her the truth or not.
Finally, the script confirms that when Adriana is being held by the FBI while waiting for a lawyer, they intentionally break the law and don’t call a lawyer for her. Instead they let her stew there for hours, hoping to break her and force her to wear a wire.
Now I made a video about the FBI in the Sopranos and their very unethical behavior, and I got some flack for that video. But this is the stuff I was talking about. It’s fine for them to go after these criminals, but they use some borderline illegal tactics to go after them, and it really blurs the line between who the good guys and the bad guys really are.
But that’s it for this video. I know it’s a more niche topic, but I still found it interesting to learn more about the Sopranos scripts, and the changes the show went through during the writing. I hope you guys enjoyed the video, and stay tuned for more Sopranos content, coming soon!
