Talk:Tony Soprano/Archive 1

Tony's Mother
Why is there nothing in here about Tony's mother and how she tried to kill him? Lgreen 03:24, 12 May 2006 (UTC) Perhaps because you haven't written it yet!--Opark 77 09:35, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I thought someone would say that...but I don't really recall the details... hate to put something in there that I know is going to have to be corrected. SorryLgreen 04:16, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

it's pretty self-explanatory for anyone who watched Season 1. His mother was unhappy about being put in a "home" and it was also discovered that his mother is a borderline personality. It is also revealed at this time that Junior is not happy with Tony since discovering that Tony has been acting as boss behind Junior's back and secretly meeting with Junior's capos. There is no point in the actual series where Tony's mother says to Junior, "Let's kill Tony". She merely lets it be known to Junior that she wouldn't be all that upset if something were to happen to Tony.

Tony's Faith
It seems clear, and has been pointed out to me that Tony is a Tradition Catholic vs. being one of faith. That being said, I notice that whether he has doubts about his faith or not, he always wears what appears to be a religious medal. I have been trying to find out what that medal depicts (a saint? Mary?) as it may have some symbolic significance.

certainly tony is a traditional catholic however in one episode it is suggested that he might actually be an atheist [he's talking to his shrink and goes through the whole thing of who can there be a god with all the stuff happening in the world the convesation started out being about his son who had started reading neitzche] this is met out with his agravation towards anyone who shows strong relegious faith especially if its his sister and before you say it, he pours just as much scorn on her when she becomes a evangelical christian as when shes a hindu. Unregistered text offender 14:55, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Lets be serious here for a minute: a large portion of Italians may claim to be some sort of Catholic but quite a few of these do not practice the beliefs and sometimes even question their own faith. Not sure religion plays much of a part in the show either so not to sure how relevant the topic is...

Tony's rank
The intro states Tony is a Boss, which is a very, very high-ranking position. My understanding from people who watch (I admit I don't) is that he's not quote that high, more like a capo (a couple steps down, but still in control of some people). Also, the actual person he is supposedly based upon was a capo running North Jersey for a New York family. Any ideas? Truce m3 16:37, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

He was based on Vincent"Vinnie Ocean"Palermo from the DeCalvelcante Family in NJ that no longer exists. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.238.178.49 (talk) 05:26, 13 October 2007 (UTC)


 * In the pilot, Tony is unofficial acting boss of the family, although technically still a capo. By season two he comes to an arrangement with his Uncle Junior (who is under house arrest), which makes Tony official acting boss who runs the family's crime operations, with Uncle Junior as nominal head of the family. There is a scene with an organization chart that the FBI is using where they change Tony from "capo" to "street boss". Because of Uncle Junior's mental decline, Tony later becomes official boss of the DiMeo crime family, which is acknowledged by the Lupertazzi family of New York. During a dispute over an investment in the episode, "In Camelot", Phil Leotardo scoffs at the DiMeo family as being a "glorified crew", but he is still ordered by his boss, Johnny Sack, to make a proper payment to Tony. The infobox on the article's main page clarifies that Tony was a capo during the first season and boss (in various capacities) in the following seasons so that part of the intro seems fine to me. Pericles899 23:48, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Based on Real Life Person
Should there be (or not) some reference to the basis of this character in real life? There is consensus among experts that Tony's character is based on Michael Taccetta, a capo who ran the Lucchese family’s New Jersey faction until his incarceration in 1993. See the Crime Library's article. Any thoughts on adding a section? ChÿnaDragön 23:20, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Consensus and confirmation are two completely different things though. Tony is not based on any real life character, as specified by David Chase, but he is in fact based on all the high profile mobsters that Chase familiarized himself with. He is based on Vincent Palermo from the Decalcante family that used to operate in New Jersey but no longer exists thanks to the feds —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.238.178.49 (talk) 05:28, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Tony's Quirks
I've added a section relating to Tony's quirks. For years I've marvelled at how Tony eats, moving the food around incessently with close miking to make the sound seem louder; showing how he is not at rest mentally. Wonder about the other quirks, war movies, etc...Lgreen 05:06, 11 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Good job Lgreen, this is an interesting section. I notice an unregistered user has twice removed the section on Tony's sporting interest without offering a reason. Does anyone else have an opinion on this? If someone else feels it should stay in and it is removed again please could they revert it as I don't want to get into an edit war. If I am the only one interested then I'll let it go - but I don't recall writing it so someone else must have thought it important. --Opark 77 16:26, 24 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Tony Loves GM suvs? news to me. HE certainly drives them, but I can't think of anywhere in the series that he professes his love for them. I'm changing this. 172.159.106.117 (talk) 21:12, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Mock Excecution
There has been much discussion about Christophers mock excecution is episode 3 of season 1. Christopher is screaming about Tony and the drugs he gave to Meadow. However Tony knows nothing about the drugs until episode 5 of the same season. Ontop of that he had no idea where Christopher was, and was shocked at his neck. The hitmen were also muttering about Junior under their breath, leading to the only conclusion that it was uncle junior. —Preceding unsigned comment added by IMOcameron (talk • contribs) 06:49, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

It's made perfectly clear in either the same episode Christopher was attacked in, or later on in Season 1....Junior tells Tony in the cafe that he had Christopher roughed up. Boucy772 (talk) 21:49, 3 October 2008 (UTC) Boucy772

Only character to appear in every episode?
According to the IMDb, Carmela has also appeared in every episode. link Any sources that confirm or deny claim? --Ted87 (talk) 01:31, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

Never mind. She was only in 85 episodes. --Ted87 (talk) 04:09, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

In which episode did Carmela not appear?Dkarp82 (talk) 23:48, 15 August 2009 (UTC)
 * "Where's Johnny?", episode 3 of Season 5. Geeky Randy (talk) 03:09, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

Opening section, 'final scene' interpretation
I removed this line from the opening section, which describes the infamous 'final scene'


 * As Tony sits in the restaurant, various other people in the restaurant are all characters from the past that have a specific grudge with Tony and his operations.

This 'everyone in the diner has a grudge with Tony' theory has been thoroughly debunked. The guy in the diner is NOT "Nikki Leotardo" as that hoax email going around says. The two african american men are NOT the two guys that try to kill Tony in season 1 (they were killed in that episode).

I believe that the one guy is not Nikki Leotardo. But with the two African-Americans that tried to kill Tony and Tony said it was a hijacker. I believe only one of them died. I haven't seen the episode in a while but I will go back and review but I am pretty sure that one died and one got away which also does disprove the e-mail that says that the 2 African-Americans were the attempted murders on Tony/hijackers. If I am wrong about only one dieing then I will come back here to clear it up.
 * Speculation is often WP:OR

However, what is described in http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/15/television.sopranos.reut/index.html is okay to include, as it is not OR and is significant. WhisperToMe 06:09, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

That's a dead link. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.105.150.105 (talk) 08:59, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Tony's IQ
Tony's IQ has never been revealed. He Told Johnny Sac that it was the same as Tony Blundetto's, to impress Johnny. It seems clear from his earlier conversation with Dr. Melfi about his cousin's IQ that Tony doesn't even understand the meaning of IQ scores, so, I deleted the reference to Tony S.' IQ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.43.234.32 (talk • contribs) In season 5 episode 13 he says his IQ is 136. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.3.82.200 (talk) 04:36, 2 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Feel free to remove it... but per WP:V we we really aren't supposed to draw conclusions from a primary source like a TV show, no matter how strongly we may believe it's the correct conclusion. We'd need a secondary source (say, a review of the episode) to fairly interpret why Tony said it. --W.marsh 14:19, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I disagree. He certainly understands the meaning of the IQ test, and he didn't tell Johnny that his IQ was the same as Tony B's.  Tony B's IQ was reputed to be much higher than the '136' Tony Soprano revealed to Johnny Sack.  Tony B's IQ was supposed to be in the 150's.-24.186.220.44 04:08, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Main Character Status
Appeared as a star in every episode of the show to date. Included in HBOs character list. Definite main character. -Opark77

I question if Tony is the only character to appear in every episode -- what about Carmela? In which episode did she not appear?

Tony is the boss from mid-way through the first season on--the other captains and he enter into an agreement where he will make policy and Junior will be a figurehead--shortly after Jackie Aprile, Sr. dies and so all these modifiers about Tony being 'Underboss' 'De Facto Boss' 'Acting Boss' and so on are unnecessary. DiMeo and Junior are non-entities and there is no reason that they diminish Tony's position as boss. Also Tony is a captain at the beginning of season one, not underboss. Joseph 'Beppy' Sasso is the underboss, officially.

The creator, David Chase, has stated that the show is shot from Tony's point of view even. Thus he is definitely the main character. Also, he is the first character the audience sees in the pilot (even if you don't count the intro)jones (talk) 12:51, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

Nickname?
I heard in a radio interview recently with the actor who plays Tony Soprano, James Gandolfini, that he himself refers to the character as Tony "the power" Soprano when on the set. Did anyone else hear this interview or has a source on the set?

but the character Tony Soprano does not have any nicknames correct?

does anyone know anything about "leadbelly" being listed under Tony Soprano's aliases? when is it used? jones (talk) 12:55, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

Date of Birth?
There was an episode of the Sopranos (the one where Charles Dutton played a traffic cop) where Tony's NJ driver's license showed a date of birth of 1959. What's the source of the 1960 date in the article?
 * The fact that he celebrates his 47th birthday in 2007 (Soprano Home Movies). Can someone post a screencapture the driver's license clip?  There may have been a gaff in the writing of Home Movies.  Or possibly Sopranos Home Movies actually takes place in 2006?--MistaTee 16:40, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

Various sources indicate that Tony is undergoing a "mid-life crisis". James Gandolfini mentions (in The Sopranos: The Book by Brett Martin; page 60) that Tony is 40 at the beginning of the series (which is set in 1999). Ergo, Tony was born in 1959 and the 47th birthday party is probably set in 2006. After all, there was a big delay between the first and second part of the 6th season.


 * the episode where he gets pulled over is Another Toothpick, and his ID clearly shows his bday as Aug22. I just changed it.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.115.162.82 (talk) 19:01, 29 July 2008 (UTC)  It needs changing back to 22nd.
 * "47th birthday party is probably set in 2006" I do hate to be a nerd here, but 47th birthday party does take place in 2007 as evident in the newspaper in the opening episode referencing the 2007 financial crisis. Tony was born in 1960. The fact his first kill was in 1982 when he was 22 again backs this up. 92.7.86.186 (talk) 19:50, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Racist and homophobe
He is clearly both a racist and a homophobe, judging from his sucking off of both Meadow's boyfriend and Vito. --DrBat 19:07, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

The entire crime family are homophobes it really nothing to point out sucking off the beast and tony was the one who showed the most restraint. Phil killed Vito. MrM 09:29, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Racist and homophobe? I agree, however his treatment of Noah shows the general belief amongst poorly educated Americans, sorry for the stereotyping but it's true. He knows that it will create nothing but problems for his daughter, an inter- racial relationship can have bad repercussions. I've never been to New Jersey however I can guess that an Italian girl dating a mixed race wouldn't make life very easy for her. Besides he's evidently over- protective of Meadow and perhaps since Noah (if I remember the episodes with him in it well) is a well- mannered, hard- working boy he probably couldn't suck off to justify hindering the relationship besides the race of this mixed. He picked on Jackie Aprile jnr.'s growing ties to the Mafia and his dropping out of school as his poor points when he was involved with Meadow thus proving that, particularly in the case of her boyfriend, he just doesn't want her dating anyone. Rather like how Robert DeNiro in Meet the Parents cites Ben Stiller's character religion (Judaism) out of the blue, in a more subtle put down of him.

82.13.28.123 18:39, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Maybe a racist, subconsciously, but in Season 2, i believe either episode 3 or 4, Tony befriends an old black man and later his son after the old man passes away. So to say he is a racist is not entirely true. Now to say he would not want his daughter sucking off a man of another race, that may be true...

And as for the homophob thing, Tony doesn't hate Vito when he finds out he is gay, in fact it's actually the opposite as he tries to bring to light the fact that Vito was a good earner and a good friend. It is only to avoid sucking off Phil Leotardo when he actually gives the order to have Vito sucked off, not because the guy was a homosexual.

Tony's acceptance of homosexuals is further alluded to in the Season 6 episode "Remember When" in a deleted scene on the boat where Tony sucked off Paulie after deciding not to kill him. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.98.225.221 (talk) 09:32, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

What is going on here? Why is everybody using the phrase "sucking off" in place of actions which are clearly not fellatio? I am seriously not understanding what exactly is being discussed here.64.69.46.148 (talk) 13:04, 7 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Thank you, I too am terribly confused as to what people here are talking about. Sucking off?  Really?  Also, Tony making "friends" with a handful of black people during the show does not prove he isn't racist.  He is only friends with the black preacher as part of a HUD scam to make tons of money.  While he may have a sort of grudging respect, that does not in any way disprove his general, rampant racism. 221bbaker (talk) 23:53, 23 May 2013 (UTC)

Fictional Republican?
I've seen every episode of this show except the final 8. Unless Tony reveals his political affiliation in one of these episodes, I'm pretty sure he never mentions belonging to a party. I'm taking him off this list, for now. --Wgbc2032 01:23, 29 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Yeah. Where's the citation for this? Madhava 1947 (talk) 03:17, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
 * He never explicitly states a political affiliation, though often claims to support various stereotypical conservative beliefs. He also loves JFK, so is pretty much all over the radar.221bbaker (talk) 23:54, 23 May 2013 (UTC)

Distant relationship with two children?
The article says as of 01/01/06: "...a very distant relationship with his two children, Meadow and Anthony, Jr.". Am I the only one begging to differ on this? elpincha 17:10, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Yeah... that doesn't sound right. Would it be a "complicated" or "troubled" relationship?  Or is it even that atypical for your modern family? --W.marsh 18:03, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

i don't think we should classify the type of relationship Tony shares with his kids because it seems to vary every episode, which is quite typical of an everyday family.

Tony has a very distant relationship with each of his kids. This is reflected in every season. Tony idealizes his kids but never truly gets to know them, mixed with the fact that his true occupation is always the giant elephant in the room, his kids are always left conflicted about who their father really is. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.183.222.51 (talk) 15:50, 24 May 2013 (UTC)

Aliases
What is this bizarre list of aliases? An alias is a name that you use alternatively, not just a family nickname or whatever. Are any of these actual aliases? Mezigue (talk) 08:31, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Shame on everyone involved.
This article proves that these entries only exist to placate fans. This is an unsourced summary of what happened to the character through the TV show, too often without even citing specific episodes. Further, we should be using sources independent of the TV show and would probably cut down two-thirds of this fancruft. (I am not watching this page, so please ping me if you want my attention.) Chris Troutman  ( talk ) 00:26, 13 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Casting section added. Vaselineeeeeeee★★★ 04:19, 25 April 2020 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Npriv14.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 11:30, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Is His Grandfather, Corrado Sr., from Ariano or Avellino?
It's unclear whether Tony Soprano's grandfather hails from Ariano (also called Ariano Irpino in the show) or Avellino (which is both a province in Italy, and its capital city), and thus unclear where Tony is "from" in this sense.. The section "Fictional character biography" in this Wikipedia article (herein referred to as Our Article) reads: "'Tony's paternal grandfather, Corrado Soprano, was from Ariano (an Italian town), immigrating to the United States in 1911. He was a master stonemason who helped to build a church in Tony's old neighborhood.'[14]" And this created my confusion. I'll go over the evidence -weak, fair, and strong- I've found for both positions. The question is whether the claim that Tony's grandfather is from the city of Ariano can be:
 * proven (to have been stated without contradiction)
 * proven somewhat (to have been stated, but not without contradiction, such as in a case of a continuity error)
 * not proven
 * disproven

Evidence for Ariano
"'...in Newark, New Jersey, the second child and only son of DiMeo crime family capo Johnny Soprano and his wife Livia. His paternal family traced its ancestry back to the city of Ariano in the Province of Avellino, Naples, and Tony's grandfather Corrado Soprano, Sr. immigrated to the United States in 1911, using his stonemasonry skills to build a local church with the help of his brother and other Italian immigrants.[3][4]'" These two sources, however, could be for any of the number of claims made in that paragraph fragment. So, as pertains to the question at hand:
 * Citation [14] is an archive of the HBO website. It may be confusing at first cause this links to the biography for Corrado Jr., but within this bio, it states that he is the son of "Corrado and Mariangela D'Agostino Soprano, Italian immigrants who came over from the town of Ariano in 1911". This is the only evidence for the claim of Ariano in Our Article. As it is published by the company that broadcasted the show, but may not necessarily be by the production itself, I'm giving it Strength: Fair.
 * The Sopranos' Fandom.com page for Tony Soprano states:
 * Source [3] is the book The Sopranos: A Family History, by Allen Rucker. Your favourite ISBN database will verify the author. Some sources will also add "David Chase (Creator)" to the book data, as written on the cover, but never list him as author, so it's not clear if this implies his involvement in the book or if it's just giving him his credit prominently (for grace, legal reasons, or to purposely create this association for prestige). 'However it does concur with the HBO website. The book jacket claims the author met David Chase at Stanford as well, whatever that counts for. The sources for the claims in the book, however, are simply characters on the show, such as journalist Jeffrey Wernick (the guy who pisses off Christopher by calling Brendan Filone an "associate" on TV) on page 25. Or a 1921 postcard from "Corrado" to "Cara Mama" ("Dear Mama") in New Jersey addressed to "Sophia Sopra-" in "Ariano di" (both cut off) is seen on page 27, implying Corrado Sr.'s mother lived in Ariano in 1921. A family tree is hand-drawn "by AJ Soprano" on page 30 stating his grandfather was born in "Ariano Di Puglia", and so on. However, it is unclear why Rucker is an authority on in-universe canon and the strength of any of these rests on that authority. He's the same guy who wrote The Sopranos Family Cookbook "As Compiled by Artie Bucco" and Entertaining with the Sopranos "by Carmela Soprano", however again show creator David Chase is just cited as the "series creator" on these covers, not as an author - and my favourite ISBN database doesn't list him as author in either case. If this source didn't concur with the HBO site, I'd give it a Weak, but by a thin margin because it concurs with the HBO site, and because the source has written a fair amount in depth about the show, which counts for a bit, this gets Strength: Fair
 * Source [4] is The Sopranos (Pilot), i.e. the pilot episode of the show itself. That's all the source says. Reading the script for this episode, no mention is made of Ariano, or Ariano Irpino, or any variation thereof (cf. page 27 of this scanned copy of the script if you don't trust the digital version on its own). However, when Tony asks Dr. Melfi which part of The Boot she's from hon, she responds with: "My father's people were from Caserta." This, like Tony's response, "Avellino.", is another one of those place names in Italy that is both a province and a city. If it were only a city, we could infer that Tony responded with a city in kind, and this would be an instance proving he was from Avellino (I say instance because more than once does the show contradict its own canon across the seasons). As the only place name mentioned with reference to Tony is Avellino: Corrado Soprano Sr.'s page says Ariano as well, but doesn't even cite a source, so I can't say that strengthens anything here. Strength: Weak.

Evidence For Avellino (the city)

 * Wikipedia itself says so in the article for Avellino, namely: in the seventh Season 5 episode, "In Camelot", Corrado's son Junior Soprano claims "The whole village of Avellino settled in this area" (referring to New Jersey). As Junior himself lives in "this area", this would necessarily include him and his brother, Tony's father, and thus Tony. Thus in the source material, it is directly stated that the municipality that Tony's grandfather hails from, not merely the province or region, is Avellino. Unfortunately no such scanned script for this episode can be found as for the pilot, but the episode can be viewed to verify this quote. Both because it's in the source directly and plainly, and because Wikipedia is always right (kidding): Strength: Strong
 * By a similar token, Wikipedia makes no mention of The Sopranos in connection with Ariano Irpino. As this is simply a failure to find evidence for the Ariano claim in a place where it would be expected to be found were the claim true, this gets Strength: Weak
 * The only mentions in the TV show that I could find of the name Ariano were in:
 * A single instance in season 2, episode 4: Commendatori. Paulie is in bed with a prostitute in Italy, and after stating "I'm Neapolitan. Me and Tony both.", he inquires of her: "So, what part of Naples you from?". She replies "Ariano lrpino.", to which Paulie states: "You're shitting me! That's where my grandfather's from.". No mention is made of Tony's grandfather.
 * Another single mention is made in season 6, episode 9, The Ride. While discussing the Feast of St. Elzear with the fill-in priest, after the name of the saint is mention, Patsy Parisi interjects: "He's the patron saint from my grandparent's town... Ariano di Puglia.", which is a traditional name for the Ariano Irpino, also simply called Ariano. No mention of Tony's grandfather.
 * Given that Ariano is the only municipality in the province of Avellino that competes in size with the city of Avellino, mentions of Ariano would be expected to come up in these social circles, as the two are roughly 50km away from one another, and thus cannot be taken to imply that Tony's grandfather was from Ariano merely by virtue of a couple mentions in the TV show bearing his name and featuring his progeny. :But "control+Fing" my way through all the Sopranos scripts on subslikescript.com finds no other mention of Ariano of any kind in the show. And for good measure, ChatGPT agrees with me. Scripts could be missing, I could have made a manual mistake or lapsed in attention (though I don't think I did either), and ChatGPT ain't shit, but without proof of any other mentions of Ariano, the only in-show mentions do nothing to help the Ariano cause or hurt the Avellino cause, so: Strength: Fair.

My Conclusion
At this point, it looks to me that the claim that like Tony and the clan Soprano hail from Ariano from his grandfather is disproven, or at least not proven having not been stated in the show, and countered by statements that were made in the show. I would go so far as to say that it was proven that they're from the municipality of Avellino, on Tony's side. Lets not get started on Carmella's family in the north. Even a-today they put up they nose at us like we peasants. Spit I hate the north. (S4 E3 "Christopher").

Open to your thoughts.

Personofcanada (talk) 15:25, 28 June 2023 (UTC)


 * I don't think anyone in the show actually knows where they are from in the home country, they are all pretty dumb. Quasimodo predicted this. LegalSmeagolian (talk) 20:25, 2 April 2024 (UTC)