# “Without Tony Soprano, we would’ve never had Don Draper or Walter White.”

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-tony-soprano-we-would-ve-never-had-don-draper-or-walter-white/661486>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 20, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-tony-soprano-we-would-ve-never-had-don-draper-or-walter-white/661486 "2013-06-20T17:26:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-tony-soprano-we-would-ve-never-had-don-draper-or-walter-white/661486/41 "2013-07-26T20:10:15Z")

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> [@Hampshire](#):
>
> What about all the mob movies that came before the Sapranos. Weren’t the leads in all of them bad guys? Godfather, Goodfellas, Scarface, etc.

Yes. The statement refers to TV. Nobody’s claiming The Sopranos invented antiheroes.

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**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-tony-soprano-we-would-ve-never-had-don-draper-or-walter-white/661486/42 "2013-07-26T20:27:35Z")

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FWIW, the basic idea of _The Sopranos_ (mob boss sees a therapist) can be traced back to an episode of _The Rockford Files_ that David Chase wrote. Hunting the episode title now.

> [@woodstockbirdybird](#):
>
> I loved Silvio’s line: “Fuckin’ disgusting!” Although I think the funniest line of the series came from that kid in season 3(?): “Fuck you, Santa!”

The funniest line in _The Sopranos_ is the one where Tony (!) dismisses Italians (!!!) as “Jews wit’ better food.”

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**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-tony-soprano-we-would-ve-never-had-don-draper-or-walter-white/661486/43 "2013-07-27T22:56:00Z")

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> [@woodstockbirdybird](#):
>
> I loved Silvio’s line: “Fuckin’ disgusting!” Although I think the funniest line of the series came from that kid in season 3(?): “Fuck you, Santa!”

The whole scene was hilarious.

Leader (pleading): we’re not here to be judgmental.  
Tony finds out that Chris killed Adriana’s dog and becomes enraged.  
Mom: something about what a failure Chris has been  
Chris: Fuck you, you fucking whore!  
Everybody: (New Jersey): OOOOHHHHH!!  
Tony punches Chris and everybody proceeds to kick the shit out of him while he’s down.  
Chris ends up in the hospital.

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