The Sopranos Spinoff That Never Happened
The Sopranos ended 16 years ago, and it left an emptiness in the hearts of all the viewers. For many people, the Sopranos was the greatest television show of all time. With the series over, what could possibly fill the gap?
We eventually got a prequel to The Sopranos in the Many Saints of Newark. Though it was exciting to finally get a new piece of Sopranos media, the film was ultimately disappointing for most of the community, and it just left us longing for a new series set in the Sopranos universe.
There was some talk about a potential miniseries of The Many Saints, but it seems like that has died on the vine, given the reaction to the movie. But what many fans might not know is that at one point David Chase was considering making a spinoff of the Sopranos called the Bacalas.
The series would have followed the Bacalieri family: Bobby, Janice, and their children. The series would have been a 30 min sitcom, focusing more on humor than the dark and tragic storytelling of the Sopranos.
This was brought up in an episode of Talking Sopranos a few years ago. This was also confirmed by Robert Iler on the Eye of the Duck podcast.
We don’t know many details about what the show would have been about, as I don’t think it ever went beyond a simple idea that David Chase had. It must have been sometime before the 6th season, as Bobby dies in the penultimate episode, leaving no room for a continuation of his character. But given what we know about Bobby and Janice, it’s fun to imagine the possibilities of what they could have gotten up to in their own show.
Before we get into the spinoff though, let's recap Bobby and Janice's relationship and see where we are starting off.
Introduced in the second season, Robert Bacalieri the 2nd is the right hand man of Junior Soprano. His nickname Bobby Bacala is a play on his name and reference to the food dish of the same name.
Unusual for many of the mobsters in his profession, Bobby is actually a very nice person. He is mild mannered and kind, unlike the toxic people around him. This is even more strange given his father, Robert the first, was a brutal hitman for the mafia.
Unlike his father, Bobby actually never killed anyone, despite the fact that he was a made guy. This could be seen as a screenwriting error, as typically being made requires having proven yourself by committing a murder. Though it could also go along with a recurring theme that the New Jersey mob doesn’t respect the traditional rules of the mafia.
In contrast to the other mobs guys, Bobby actually deeply loved his wife Karen and didn’t have a goomar. This was ridiculed by the other mobster, who viewed him as weak because of it.
When Karen suddenly dies in a car crash, Bobby is beyond devastated. This utter devotion to his wife, along with the fact that he’s a made guy, makes him an attractive prospect to many women including widows like Jojo Palmice.
This is where Janice Soprano comes into his life. Janice is the elder sister of Tony, and an extremely toxic person like the rest of their family. She goes through a series of bad relationships in the show. She first dates Richie Aprile, which ends with her killing him after he hit her during an argument. She later seduces Ralphie Cifaretto, engaging in degenerate sex with him. However his crude nature begins to turn her off to him.
Being neighbors with Bobby, she participates with the other wifes in bringing him food after Karen dies. Moved by Bobby’s pureness and deciding that she wants Bobby’s love and kindness in her life, she sets out to make him hers. At first she tries to make herself helpful, taking care of his family and being supportive of his pain.
However when Bobby continues to mourn his dead wife, Janice manipulates him into believing that his grief is preventing his children from moving on. This convinces Bobby to finally let Karen go. He and Janice get together shortly after this, and they are soon married.
Despite the manipulative way Janice hooked Bobby, she did try to have a relationship with his children. She could be quite mean to Bobby’s son Robert the 3rd, but honestly not much more than we saw other moms like Livia be to her children. And she was quite protective of Bobby’s daughter Sophia, even getting into a fight with another parent over it.
Eventually Bobby and Janice have a baby of their own, a daughter named Domenica. Janice dotes on her baby, spoiling her and dressing her like herself. But she could also be very harsh with her when she talked back or showed her individuality, something that she notes Livia did as well.
Though Janice can be trouble, marrying the boss’s sister has several benefits. Tony ends up getting them Johnny Sack’s mansion after he is arrested. Janice also pushes Tony to give him more responsibilities in the mob. In the end, this relationship is what gets Bobby the position of underboss of the family.
And from what we can see, they also seem to genuinely like each other. Though they have their ups and down, Bobby is supportive of his wife. He pushes her into anger management to deal with her Soprano temper, and is even willing to fight Tony when he insults her over a game of Monopoly.
Of course Bobby would later die in the penultimate episode of the series "The Blue Comet". While he is out buying a model train, which is a personal hobby of his, he is hit by members of the Lupertazzi family, the first victim in the war between their families.
However, let's imagine a world in which Bobby didn't die. If the show ended after Season 5, which David Chase originally wanted to do, then Bobby and Janice would still be married. Of course Domenic wouldn't have been born yet, but they could easily introduce her in the series as the annoying baby character added in for cuteness.
Presumably, the show would have dealt with various family related conflicts in the Baccalieri house. We saw that there was fighting, particularly as Janice's toxic upbringing wormed its way into all of their lives.
I'm imagining something along the lines of Married with Children. A more pessimistic look at the family dynamic, similar to what we saw in The Sopranos. I can imagine all kinds of scenarios with Janice complaining to Bobby to stop playing with his toy trains and go out and be a mobster, similar to what she did in Season 4.
Who knows, if we really wanted to lean into the whole sitcom shtick, the show could have even had some classic Sopranos characters come in for guest appearances. I mean couldn't you imagine Paulie bursting into the Bacala house like Kramer on Seinfeld?
I'm joking with most of this. Like I said before I doubt the idea was even fleshed out by David Chase, and if he did end up doing the show it would have probably been subversive to the genre like the Sopranos was. But I hope this video has given you some idea of what the show could have been about. Though I’m very happy with how the Sopranos ended, it is a little sad that we’ll probably never get any new Sopranos content.
Though David Chase is working on a new show. I have no idea the status of the series given the ongoing Writer’s Guild strike as of recording this video. But who knows? If the series does eventually get made, it might be just the return to form the Sopranos community needed. That, or it’ll be a trainwreck of epic proportions. Either way though, you guys can expect updates about that as they come out, as well as expect more Sopranos videos, coming soon.
