Sicilian Culture: The News & Views: Backlash Against Sopranos Intensifies

Sicilian Culture

The People, The History, The Culture

The News & Views
(February 25, 2001)
Newsday
www.bergen.com/news/soprano25200102254.htm
BACKLASH AGAINST SOPRANOS' INTENSIFIES
By Virginia Rohan, Staff Writer
Two years ago, Tony Soprano and the HBO show that bears his name seemingly could do no wrong. Money and power, praise and ratings -- the mobster and his series had it all, and flaunted it with impunity.
But it's a different story as the third season of "The Sopranos" dawns.
On screen, the FBI continues to close in -- next Sunday's season premiere concerns the FBI's attempts to bug Soprano's basement. Behind the scenes, "The Sopranos" is facing increasingly loud protests from Italian-American groups that say the Mafia series perpetuates negative and damaging cultural stereotypes.
These critics would not only like the show to include more positive Italian-American characters, but they hope their campaign will result in the development of programs that present Italian-Americans in a positive light and counterbalance the HBO series.
"It's not just 'The Sopranos.' That's just the tip of the iceberg," said Manny Alfano, a retired Bloomfield chiropractor and schoolteacher who is national chairman of the anti-bias committee of Unico National, an Italian-American service organization. " 'The Sopranos' is giving us the opportunity to address the big picture, which is that [on TV] we're buffoons, we're bigots, we're bums, and there's nothing positive."
William Denis Fugazy, chairman of the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO), believes that the show reinforces the stereotype of Italian equals mob. "I would never deny that the Italians are involved in the Mafia. I just say, that's only a small segment of the Italo-American community," he said. "There's no question that it's an entertaining show, but at least show a family life that isn't perverted or isn't dirty, sloppy, and where the language isn't rough."
This backlash began in the first season, but it has grown increasingly louder. Though it has not affected the show's content, the protests have begun to affect the production of the series, which films virtually all its exterior scenes in New Jersey -- a state that ties with two others for having the highest percentage of Italian-Americans.
The controversy also seems to be getting to the actors and "Sopranos" creator David Chase, who have long been media darlings.
The last seven months have been especially taxing. In July, Italian-American anti-defamation groups were incensed when HBO held an open casting call in Harrison for walk-on roles in the series. The event drew about 13,000 Soprano wannabes, many wearing movie-mobster zoot suits, some even sporting handcuffs.
"They said, 'We want Italian-looking,' so how do they come? As gangsters," said Alfano, who's also chairman of the One Voice Committee, a coalition of Italian-American organizations that speaks out on negative stereotyping issues. "They thought that's what they [HBO] wanted to see."
In November, the president of William Paterson University canceled a planned shoot in the campus library, ostensibly because of "scheduling conflicts." But the decision followed protests by several WPU staffers, including Susanna Tardi, an associate professor of sociology, who was about to deliver a campus-wide lecture titled "Desperately Seeking Real Italians: An Antidote to 'The Sopranos.' "
"When they [TV stations] interviewed our students, and asked, 'How do you feel about the president's decision,' they responded in Tony's voice: 'He ought to be whacked,' " Tardi recalled. "What bothers me is that I think [James] Gandolfini is becoming the role model for young Italian-Americans."
A month later, Essex County Executive James W. Treffinger and Sheriff Armando Fontoura rejected HBO's application for a permit to shoot three days and three nights of gunfight scenes in the county's South Mountain Reservation.
Fontoura said his chief concern about the filming, which would have involved the use of flares and simulated gunfire, was that it would lead to traffic problems, "inconvenience a lot of people," and "disturb the park's tranquillity."
But the sheriff, who is of Portuguese descent but grew up in an Italian neighborhood of Newark's Ironbound section, said he and Treffinger were also concerned about "the defamation of Italian-Americans as a group" -- and the image of Essex County.
"It makes our county look like we're the mob capital of the world. And people see that on a weekly basis," Fontoura said. "We've been trying to shed that image for a long time."
Chase, meanwhile, gets visibly angry when he is asked about what happened in Essex County. "Look, these guys are entitled to their position and maybe they're very deeply felt, but here's the problem for me," said Chase, an Italian-American whose family changed its surname decades ago. "I don't care if your parents are Italian, or they came from Ireland, from Spain, from Cuba. Besides the opportunity to provide for your family and make money, you come to America for freedom. You come to a place where the sheriff can't tell you what you can and can't say. That's what goes on in places you leave."
"Sopranos" cast members, many of whom are Italian-American, are frustrated. "They say we're glorifying the Mafia, but if you watch the show, they're all miserable," said James Gandolfini, the former Park Ridge resident who plays Tony Soprano. "I'm miserable, [the character] Christopher Moltisanti is doing drugs and is miserable. Every one of them is miserable and unhappy. Their wives aren't happy. Their children are having problems, and their lives aren't very good. What are we glorifying?"
Joe Pantoliano, the Hoboken native who joins the show this season as the new character Ralph Cifaretto, spares no words in blasting the show's critics. "These people want their 15 minutes of fame," said Pantoliano, who believes that the protesters are missing the central point of the series. "What David Chase is showing is the deconstruction of an American family, shown through organized crime."
Cast members were barred from appearing under "The Sopranos" logo in New York's Columbus Day Parade in October by the organizing committee. They were to be part of a float for a charity foundation that benefits children who are orphaned or infected with HIV. "For five years, I did the Columbus Day Parade, but this year, they didn't want anybody from 'The Sopranos.' Can you imagine that? I mean, I'm an actor," said Tony Sirico, who plays Paulie Walnuts.
Fugazy, who is on the parade's organizing committee, tells a story that seemingly indicates how that snub hurt the actors. In December, he was in Elaine's, the Manhattan eatery, and Gandolfini and some fellow cast members, seated at a nearby table, sent over a bottle of wine, with the message "We're trying to make peace." Shortly after, another bottle arrived at the table.
Gandolfini came over and asked Fugazy if he would let them back in the Columbus Day Parade next year. "I said, 'I'll be glad to look at it, if I saw a great improvement over the characterizations.' " This month, Chase appeared at the Museum of Modern Art to discuss his work. The audience included many detractors, who were not assuaged by the fact that "The Sopranos" includes two Italian-American, non-mob-connected professionals -- Dr. Melfi, Tony Soprano's psychiatrist, and Dr. Cusamano, his next-door neighbor.
One Jersey City teacher asked Chase if he was "working for the mob." The writer-producer, clearly offended, suggested that question represented the negative stereotyping he was being accused of. "They say that this show gives Italian-Americans a bad name," Chase said.
New Yorker media writer Ken Auletta, who was moderating the program, supported Chase.
"I think it's preposterous. I think this is a soap opera about family. They happen to be Italian-American, but it shows them in all their complexity," Auletta said.
What specifically is it about "The Sopranos" that inspires the wrath of these groups, who now view "The Godfather" as tame in comparison? "In 'The Godfather,' the image of the family was still solidarity and strength, not the mother trying to kill the son," Tardi, the WPU professor, said. "Plus, it was three movies. Period. This is a series. 'The Sopranos' shows every episode three times a week, so there's more reinforcement and brainwashing."
Some concede that one reason for the relentless pressure is that the success of "The Sopranos" allows them to make their point to a broader audience.
" 'The Sopranos' has given us the opportunity to talk about all the other things, because now people are listening," Alfano said. "We've never had our voice, like we've gotten our voice because of 'The Sopranos.' "
What, in the end, do "Sopranos" detractors hope to accomplish?
Tardi said she wrote to HBO chief Jeff Bewkes, proposing that they "have a conversation and I will tell you how you can alter your programming so you will not be insulting a group of people who have contributed significantly to our society."
She said she received a dismissive reply from a manager at HBO. The network held several meetings with Italian-American groups in 1999, but the network declined comment for this article.
Others, including Fugazy, would like to see an improvement in the entire TV landscape.
Alfano points, for example, to characters such as the dumb Joey Tribbiani on "Friends," and two professional but unflattering examples on "ER": the heartless Dr. Romano, and the coarse Dr. Malucci. "We're not looking to censor anyone or any group," Alfano said. "We're saying, 'Why don't you start treating us fairly? When you write a show or movie, substitute other ethnic groups in its place. If you wouldn't do it, don't do it to us.' "
Staff Writer Virginia Rohan's email address is rohan@northjersey.com
Copyright © 2001 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

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