title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: Throughout her adult years, Taylor's personal life, especially her eight marriages (two to the same man), drew a large amount of media attention and public disapproval. According to biographer Alexander Walker, "Whether she liked it or not ... marriage is the matrix of the myth that began surrounding Elizabeth Taylor from [when she was sixteen]." MGM arranged for her to date football champion Glenn Davis in 1948, and the following year, she was briefly engaged to William Pawley Jr., son of US ambassador William D. Pawley. Film tycoon Howard Hughes also wanted to marry her, and offered to pay her parents a six-figure sum of money if she were to become his wife. Taylor declined the offer, but was otherwise eager to marry young, as her "rather puritanical upbringing and beliefs" made her believe that "love was synonymous with marriage." Taylor later described herself as being "emotionally immature" during this time due to her sheltered childhood, and believed that she could gain independence from her parents and MGM through marriage.


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: Taylor was 18 years old when she married Conrad Hilton Jr., heir to the Hilton Hotels chain, at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills on May 6, 1950. MGM organized the large and expensive wedding, which became a major media event. In the weeks after their wedding, Taylor realized that she had made a mistake; not only did she and Hilton have few interests in common, but he was also abusive and a heavy drinker. Hilton caused Taylor to have a miscarriage after one of his violent outbursts. She was granted a divorce on the grounds of mental cruelty on January 29, 1951, eight months after their wedding.


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: Taylor married her second husband, British actor Michael Wilding – a man 20 years her senior – in a low-key ceremony at Caxton Hall in London on February 21, 1952. She had first met him in 1948 while filming "The Conspirator" in England, and their relationship began when she returned to film "Ivanhoe" in 1951. Taylor found their age gap appealing, as she wanted "the calm and quiet and security of friendship" from their relationship; he hoped that the marriage would aid his career in Hollywood. They had two sons: Michael Howard (b. January 6, 1953) and Christopher Edward (b. February 27, 1955). As Taylor grew older and more confident in herself, she began to drift apart from Wilding, whose failing career was also a source of marital strife. When she was away filming "Giant" in 1955, gossip magazine "Confidential" caused a scandal by claiming that he had entertained strippers at their home. Taylor and Wilding announced their separation on July 18, 1956, and were divorced in January 1957.


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: Taylor married her third husband, theater and film producer Mike Todd, in Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico, on February 2, 1957. They had one daughter, Elizabeth "Liza" Frances (b. August 6, 1957). Todd, known for publicity stunts, encouraged the media attention to their marriage; for example, in June 1957, he threw a birthday party at Madison Square Garden, which was attended by 18,000 guests and broadcast on CBS. His death in a plane crash on March 22, 1958, left Taylor devastated. She was comforted by Todd's and her friend, singer Eddie Fisher, with whom she soon began an affair. As Fisher was still married to actress Debbie Reynolds, the affair resulted in a public scandal, with Taylor being branded a "homewrecker." Taylor and Fisher were married at the Temple Beth Sholom in Las Vegas on May 12, 1959; she later stated that she married him only due to her grief.


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: While filming "Cleopatra" in Italy in 1962, Taylor began an affair with her co-star, Welsh actor Richard Burton, although Burton was also married. Rumors about the affair began to circulate in the press, and were confirmed by a paparazzi shot of them on a yacht in Ischia. According to sociologist Ellis Cashmore, the publication of the photograph was a "turning point", beginning a new era in which it became difficult for celebrities to keep their personal lives separate from their public images. The scandal caused Taylor and Burton to be condemned for "erotic vagrancy" by the Vatican, with calls also in the US Congress to bar them from re-entering the country. Taylor was granted a divorce from Fisher on March 5, 1964, in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, and married Burton 10 days later in a private ceremony at the Ritz-Carlton Montreal. Burton subsequently adopted Liza Todd and Maria Burton (b. August 1, 1961), a German orphan whose adoption process Taylor had begun while married to Fisher.


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: Dubbed "Liz and Dick" by the media, Taylor and Burton starred together in 11 films, and led a jet-set lifestyle, spending millions on "furs, diamonds, paintings, designer clothes, travel, food, liquor, a yacht, and a jet." Sociologist Karen Sternheimer states that they "became a cottage industry of speculation about their alleged life of excess. From reports of massive spending [...] affairs, and even an open marriage, the couple came to represent a new era of 'gotcha' celebrity coverage, where the more personal the story, the better." They divorced for the first time in June 1974, but reconciled, and remarried in Kasane, Botswana, on October 10, 1975. The second marriage lasted less than a year, ending in divorce in July 1976. Taylor and Burton's relationship was often referred to as the "marriage of the century" by the media, and she later stated, "After Richard, the men in my life were just there to hold the coat, to open the door. All the men after Richard were really just company." Soon after her final divorce from Burton, Taylor met her sixth husband, John Warner, a Republican politician from Virginia. They were married on December 4, 1976, after which Taylor concentrated on working for his electoral campaign. Once Warner had been elected to the Senate, she started to find her life as a politician's wife in Washington, D.C., boring and lonely, becoming depressed, overweight, and increasingly addicted to prescription drugs and alcohol. Taylor and Warner separated in December 1981, and divorced a year later in November 1982.


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: After the divorce from Warner, Taylor dated actor Anthony Geary, and was engaged to Mexican lawyer Victor Luna in 1983–1984, and New York businessman Dennis Stein in 1985. She met her seventh – and last – husband, construction worker Larry Fortensky, at the Betty Ford Center in 1988. They were married at the Neverland Ranch of her close friend Michael Jackson on October 6, 1991. The wedding was again subject to intense media attention, with one photographer parachuting to the ranch and Taylor selling the wedding pictures to "People" for $1 million, which she used to start her AIDS foundation. Taylor and Fortensky divorced in October 1996, but remained in contact for life. She attributed the split to her painful hip operations and his obsessive-compulsive disorder. In the winter of 1999, Fortensky underwent brain surgery after falling off a balcony and was comatose for six weeks; Taylor immediately notified the hospital she would personally guarantee his medical expenses. At the end of 2010, she wrote him a letter that read: "Larry darling, you will always be a big part of my heart! I'll love you for ever." Taylor's last phone call with Fortensky was on February 7, 2011, one day before she checked into the hospital for what turned out to be her final stay. He told her she would outlive him. Although they had been divorced for almost 15 years, Taylor left Fortensky $825,000 in her will.


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: Taylor was raised as a Christian Scientist, and converted to Judaism in 1959. Although two of her husbands – Mike Todd and Eddie Fisher – were Jewish, Taylor stated that she did not convert because of them, and had wanted to do so "for a long time", and that there was "comfort and dignity and hope for me in this ancient religion that [has] survived for four thousand years... I feel as if I have been a Jew all my life." Walker believed that Taylor was influenced in her decision by her godfather, Victor Cazalet, and her mother, who were active supporters of Zionism during her childhood.


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: Following her conversion, Taylor became an active supporter of Jewish and Zionist causes. In 1959, she purchased $100,000 worth of Israeli bonds, which led to her films being banned by Muslim countries throughout the Middle East and Africa. She was also barred from entering Egypt to film "Cleopatra" in 1962, but the ban was lifted two years later after the Egyptian officials deemed that the film brought positive publicity for the country. In addition to purchasing bonds, Taylor helped to raise money for organizations such as the Jewish National Fund, and sat on the board of trustees of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: She also advocated for the right of Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel, cancelled a visit to the USSR because of its condemnation of Israel due to the Six-Day War, and signed a letter protesting the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 of 1975. In 1976, she offered herself as a replacement hostage after more than 100 Israeli civilians were taken hostage in the Entebbe skyjacking. She had a small role in the television film made about the incident, "Victory at Entebbe" (1976), and narrated "Genocide" (1981), an Academy Award-winning documentary about the Holocaust.


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: Taylor is considered a fashion icon both for her film costumes and personal style. At MGM, her costumes were mostly designed by Helen Rose and Edith Head, and in the 1960s by Irene Sharaff. Her most famous costumes include a white ball gown in "A Place in the Sun" (1951), a Grecian dress in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958), a green A-line dress in "Suddenly Last Summer" (1959), and a slip and a fur coat in "BUtterfield 8" (1960). Her make-up look in "Cleopatra" (1963) started a trend for "cat-eye" make-up done with black eyeliner.


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: Taylor collected jewellery through her life, and owned the Krupp Diamond, the Taylor-Burton Diamond, and the La Peregrina Pearl, all three of which were gifts from husband Richard Burton. She also published a book about her collection, "My Love Affair with Jewelry", in 2002. Taylor helped to popularise the work of fashion designers Valentino Garavani and Halston. She received a Lifetime of Glamour Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) in 1997. After her death, her jewellery and fashion collections were auctioned by Christie's to benefit her AIDS foundation, ETAF. The jewellery sold for a record-breaking sum of $156.8 million, and the clothes and accessories for a further $5.5 million.


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: Taylor struggled with health problems for most of her life. She was born with scoliosis and broke her back while filming "National Velvet" in 1944. The fracture went undetected for several years, although it caused her chronic back problems. In 1956, she underwent an operation in which some of her spinal discs were removed and replaced with donated bone. Taylor was also prone to other illnesses and injuries, which often necessitated surgery; in 1961, she survived a near-fatal bout of pneumonia that required a tracheotomy. She was treated for the pneumonia with bacteriophage.


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: In addition, she was addicted to alcohol and prescription pain killers and tranquilizers. She was treated at the Betty Ford Center for seven weeks from December 1983 to January 1984, becoming the first celebrity to openly admit herself to the clinic. She relapsed later in the decade and entered rehabilitation again in 1988. Taylor also struggled with her weight – she became overweight in the 1970s, especially after her marriage to Senator John Warner, and published a diet book about her experiences, "Elizabeth Takes Off" (1988). Taylor was a heavy smoker until she experienced a severe bout of pneumonia in 1990.


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: Taylor's health increasingly declined during the last two decades of her life and she rarely attended public events after 1996. Taylor had serious bouts of pneumonia in 1990 and 2000, two hip replacement surgeries in the mid-1990s, a surgery for a benign brain tumor in 1997, and successful treatment for skin cancer in 2002. She used a wheelchair due to her back problems and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2004. Six weeks after being hospitalized, she died of the illness at age 79 on March 23, 2011, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Her funeral took place the following day at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. The service was a private Jewish ceremony presided by Rabbi Jerome Cutler. At Taylor's request, the ceremony began 15 minutes behind schedule, as, according to her representative, "She even wanted to be late for her own funeral." She was entombed in the cemetery's Great Mausoleum.


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: Taylor lived at 700 Nimes Road in the Bel Air district of Los Angeles from 1982 until her death in 2011. The art photographer Catherine Opie created an eponymous photographic study of the house in 2011.


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: Taylor was one of the last stars of classical Hollywood cinema and one of the first modern celebrities. During the era of the studio system, she exemplified the classic film star. She was portrayed as different from "ordinary" people, and her public image was carefully crafted and controlled by MGM. When the era of classical Hollywood ended in the 1960s, and paparazzi photography became a normal feature of media culture, Taylor came to define a new type of celebrity whose real private life was the focus of public interest. According to Adam Bernstein of "The Washington Post", "[m]ore than for any film role, she became famous for being famous, setting a media template for later generations of entertainers, models, and all variety of semi-somebodies."


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: Regardless of the acting awards she won during her career, Taylor's film performances were often overlooked by contemporary critics; according to film historian Jeanine Basinger, "No actress ever had a more difficult job in getting critics to accept her onscreen as someone other than Elizabeth Taylor... Her persona ate her alive." Her film roles often mirrored her personal life, and many critics continue to regard her as always playing herself, rather than acting. In contrast, Mel Gussow of "The New York Times" stated that "the range of [Taylor's] acting was surprisingly wide", despite the fact that she never received any professional training. Film critic Peter Bradshaw called her "an actress of such sexiness it was an incitement to riot – sultry and queenly at the same time", and "a shrewd, intelligent, intuitive acting presence in her later years." David Thomson stated that "she had the range, nerve, and instinct that only Bette Davis had had before – and like Davis, Taylor was monster and empress, sweetheart and scold, idiot and wise woman." Five films in which she starred – "Lassie Come Home", "National Velvet", "A Place in the Sun", "Giant", and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" – have been preserved in the National Film Registry, and the American Film Institute has named her the seventh greatest female screen legend of classical Hollywood cinema.


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: Taylor has also been discussed by journalists and scholars interested in the role of women in Western society. Camille Paglia writes that Taylor was a "pre-feminist woman" who "wields the sexual power that feminism cannot explain and has tried to destroy. Through stars like Taylor, we sense the world-disordering impact of legendary women like Delilah, Salome, and Helen of Troy." In contrast, cultural critic M.G. Lord calls Taylor an "accidental feminist", stating that while she did not identify as a feminist, many of her films had feminist themes and "introduced a broad audience to feminist ideas." Similarly, Ben W. Heineman Jr. and Cristine Russell write in "The Atlantic" that her role in "Giant" "dismantled stereotypes about women and minorities."


title: Elizabeth Taylor

text: Taylor is considered a gay icon, and received widespread recognition for her HIV/AIDS activism. After her death, GLAAD issued a statement saying that she "was an icon not only in Hollywood, but in the LGBT community, where she worked to ensure that everyone was treated with the respect and dignity we all deserve", and Sir Nick Partridge of the Terrence Higgins Trust called her "the first major star to publicly fight fear and prejudice towards AIDS." According to Paul Flynn of "The Guardian", she was "a new type of gay icon, one whose position is based not on tragedy, but on her work for the LGBTQ community." Speaking of her charity work, former President Bill Clinton said at her death, "Elizabeth's legacy will live on in many people around the world whose lives will be longer and better because of her work and the ongoing efforts of those she inspired."


title: The Sopranos

text: The Sopranos is an American crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster, portraying his difficulties as he tries to balance family life with his role as leader of a criminal organization. These are explored during his therapy sessions with psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco). The series features Tony's family members, mafia colleagues, and rivals in prominent roles—most notably his wife Carmela (Edie Falco) and his protégé/distant cousin Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli).


title: The Sopranos

text: The pilot was ordered in 1997, and the show premiered on HBO on January 10, 1999. The series ran for six seasons totaling 86 episodes until June 10, 2007. Broadcast syndication followed in the U.S. and internationally. "The Sopranos" was produced by HBO, Chase Films, and Brad Grey Television. It was primarily filmed at Silvercup Studios in Long Island City in Queens, New York City and on location in New Jersey. The executive producers throughout the show's run were David Chase, Brad Grey, Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess, Ilene S. Landress, Terence Winter, and Matthew Weiner.


title: The Sopranos

text: "The Sopranos" is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential television series of all time. The series won a multitude of awards, including Peabody Awards for its first two seasons, 21 Primetime Emmy Awards, and five Golden Globe Awards. It has been the subject of critical analysis, controversy, and parody, and has spawned books, , soundtrack albums, podcasts and assorted merchandise. Several members of the show's cast and crew were largely unknown to the public but have since had successful careers. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America named "The Sopranos" the best-written TV series of all time, while "TV Guide" ranked it the best television series of all time. In 2016 and 2022, the series ranked first in the "Rolling Stone" list of the 100 greatest TV shows of all time.


title: The Sopranos

text: In March 2018, New Line Cinema announced that they had purchased a film detailing "The Sopranos" background story, set in the 1960s and 1970s during, and in the wake of, the Newark riots. The 2021 film, "The Many Saints of Newark", is written by David Chase and Lawrence Konner and directed by Alan Taylor. The film also stars Michael Gandolfini, the son of Tony Soprano actor James Gandolfini, as a young Tony Soprano.


title: The Sopranos

text: Primarily set in New Jersey and New York City, the series follows Tony Soprano, a North Jersey-based Italian-American mobster, who tries to balance his family life with his role as boss of the Soprano family. Suffering from panic attacks, Tony engages in therapy sessions with psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi off and on throughout the series. At various points in the series, Tony finds himself at odds with his uncle Junior, his wife Carmela, other mobsters within the Soprano family, and the New York City-based Lupertazzi family, putting his life at risk on multiple occasions.


title: The Sopranos

text: David Chase had worked as a television writer and producer for more than 20 years before creating "The Sopranos". He had been employed as a staff writer or producer for several television series, including "", "Switch", "The Rockford Files", "I'll Fly Away", and "Northern Exposure". He had also co-created the short-lived original series "Almost Grown" in 1988. He made his television directorial debut in 1986 with the "Enough Rope for Two" episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". He also directed episodes of "Almost Grown" and "I'll Fly Away" in 1988 and 1992, respectively. In 1996, he wrote and directed the television film "The Rockford Files: Punishment and Crime". He served as showrunner for "I'll Fly Away" and "Northern Exposure" in the 1990s. Chase won his first Emmy Award in 1978 for his work on "The Rockford Files" (shared with fellow producers) and his second for writing the 1980 television film "Off the Minnesota Strip". By 1996, he was a coveted showrunner.


title: The Sopranos

text: The story of "The Sopranos" was initially conceived as a feature film about "a mobster in therapy having problems with his mother". Chase got some input from his manager Lloyd Braun and decided to adapt it into a television series. He signed a development deal in 1995 with production company Brillstein-Grey and wrote the original pilot script. He drew heavily from his personal life and his experiences growing up in New Jersey, and has stated that he tried to apply his own "family dynamic to mobsters". For instance, the tumultuous relationship between series protagonist Tony Soprano and his mother Livia is partially based on Chase's relationship with his own mother. He was also in psychotherapy at the time and modeled the character of Jennifer Melfi after his own psychiatrist.


title: The Sopranos

text: Chase had been fascinated by organized crime and the mafia from an early age, witnessing such people growing up. He also was raised on classic gangster films such as "The Public Enemy" and the crime series "The Untouchables". The series is partly inspired by the Richard Boiardo family, a prominent New Jersey organized crime family when Chase was growing up, and partly on New Jersey's DeCavalcante family. He has mentioned American playwrights Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams as influences on the show's writing, and Italian director Federico Fellini as an important influence on the show's cinematic style.


title: The Sopranos

text: Chase and producer Brad Grey pitched "The Sopranos" to several networks; Fox showed interest but passed on it after Chase presented them the pilot script. They eventually pitched the show to Chris Albrecht, president of HBO Original Programming, who decided to finance a pilot episode which was shot in 1997.


title: The Sopranos

text: Chase directed it himself. They finished the pilot and showed it to HBO executives, but the show was put on hold for several months.


title: The Sopranos

text: During this time, Chase, who had experienced frustration for a long period with being unable to break out of the TV genre and into film, considered asking HBO for additional funding to shoot 45 more minutes of footage and release "The Sopranos" as a feature film. In December 1997, HBO decided to produce the series and ordered 12 more episodes for a 13-episode season.


title: The Sopranos

text: North Jersey prosecutor and municipal judge Robert Baer filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Chase in Trenton, New Jersey federal court, alleging that he helped to create the show. Baer lost the suit, but he won a ruling that a jury should decide how much he should be paid for services as a location scout, researcher, and story consultant. Baer argued that he had introduced Chase to Tony Spirito, a restaurateur and gambler with alleged mob ties, and Thomas Koczur, a homicide detective for the Elizabeth, New Jersey Police Department. Chase had conducted interviews and tours with both, which strongly inspired some characters, settings, and storylines portrayed in "The Sopranos". On December 19, 2007, a federal jury found against Baer, dismissing all of his claims.


title: The Sopranos

text: Many of the actors on "The Sopranos" are Italian American, like the characters they portray, and many appeared together in films and television series before joining the cast of "The Sopranos". The series has 27 actors in common with the 1990 Martin Scorsese gangster film "Goodfellas", including main cast members Lorraine Bracco, Michael Imperioli, and Tony Sirico.


title: The Sopranos

text: The casting directors were Georgianne Walken and Sheila Jaffe. The main cast was put together through a process of auditions and readings. Actors often did not know whether Chase liked their performances or not. Michael Imperioli beat out several actors for the part of Christopher Moltisanti; he said that Chase had "a poker face, so I thought he wasn't into me, and he kept giving me notes and having me try it again, which often is a sign that you're not doing it right." Chase said that he wanted Imperioli because of his performance in "Goodfellas."


title: The Sopranos

text: James Gandolfini was invited to audition for the part of Tony Soprano after casting director Susan Fitzgerald saw a short clip of his performance in the 1993 film "True Romance". Lorraine Bracco played the role of mob wife Karen Hill in "Goodfellas", and she was originally asked to play the role of Carmela Soprano. She took the role of Dr. Jennifer Melfi instead because she wanted to try something different and felt that the part of the highly educated Dr. Melfi would be more of a challenge for her. Tony Sirico had a criminal history, and he signed on to play Paulie Walnuts so long as his character was not to be a "rat". Sirico had originally auditioned for the role of Uncle Junior with Frank Vincent, but Dominic Chianese landed the role.


title: The Sopranos

text: Chase was impressed with Steven Van Zandt's humorous appearance and presence after seeing him induct The Rascals into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, and invited him to audition. Van Zandt, a guitarist in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, had never acted before. He auditioned for the role of Tony Soprano, but HBO felt that the role should go to an experienced actor, so Chase wrote a new part for him. Van Zandt eventually agreed to star on the show as consigliere Silvio Dante, and his real-life spouse Maureen was cast as his on-screen wife Gabriella.


title: The Sopranos

text: The cast of the debut season of the series consisted of largely unknown actors, with the exception of Bracco, Chianese, and Nancy Marchand, but many cast members were noted for their acting ability and received mainstream attention for their performances.


title: The Sopranos

text: Subsequent seasons saw established actors Joe Pantoliano, Robert Loggia, Steve Buscemi, and Frank Vincent join the starring cast, along with well-known actors in recurring roles such as Peter Bogdanovich, John Heard, Robert Patrick, Peter Riegert, Annabella Sciorra, and David Strathairn.


title: The Sopranos

text: Several well-known actors appeared in one or two episodes, such as Lauren Bacall, Daniel Baldwin, Annette Bening, Polly Bergen, Sandra Bernhard, Charles S. Dutton, Jon Favreau, Janeane Garofalo, Hal Holbrook, Tim Kang, Elias Koteas, Ben Kingsley, Linda Lavin, Ken Leung, Julianna Margulies, Sydney Pollack, Wilmer Valderrama, Alicia Witt, and Burt Young. Ray Liotta, who was eventually cast as two of the Moltisanti brothers in "The Many Saints of Newark" film prequel, was approached by Chase at one point to appear in third or fourth seasons of the show, but the plan didn't work out.


title: The Sopranos

text: Series creator and executive producer David Chase served as showrunner and head writer for the production of all six seasons of the show. He was deeply involved with the general production of every episode and is noted for being a very controlling, demanding, and specific producer. He wrote or co-wrote between two and seven episodes per season and would oversee all the editing, consult with episode directors, give actors character motivation, approve casting choices and set designs, and do extensive but uncredited rewrites of episodes written by others.


title: The Sopranos

text: Many members of the creative team behind "The Sopranos" were handpicked by Chase, some being old friends and colleagues of his; others were selected after interviews conducted by producers of the show.


title: The Sopranos

text: Many of the show's writers worked in television before joining the writing staff of "The Sopranos". The writing team and married couple Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess worked on the series as writers and producers from the first to the fifth season; they had previously worked with Chase on "Northern Exposure".


title: The Sopranos

text: Terence Winter joined the writing staff during the production of the second season and served as executive producer from season five onwards. He practiced law for two years before deciding to pursue a career as a screenwriter, and he caught the attention of Chase through writer Frank Renzulli.


title: The Sopranos

text: Matthew Weiner served as staff writer and producer for the show's fifth and sixth seasons. He wrote a script for the series "Mad Men" in 2000 which was passed on to Chase, who was so impressed that he immediately offered Weiner a job as a writer for "The Sopranos".


title: The Sopranos

text: Cast members Michael Imperioli and Toni Kalem portray Christopher Moltisanti and Angie Bonpensiero respectively, and they also wrote episodes for the show. Imperioli wrote five episodes of seasons two through five, and Kalem wrote one episode of season five.


title: The Sopranos

text: Other writers included Frank Renzulli, Todd A. Kessler (co-creator of "Damages"), writing team Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider who worked with Chase on "Northern Exposure", and Lawrence Konner, who co-created "Almost Grown" with Chase in 1988. In total, 20 writers or writing teams are credited with writing episodes of "The Sopranos". Of these, Tim Van Patten and Maria Laurino receive a single story credit, and eight others are credited with writing a sole episode. The most prolific writers of the series were Chase (30 credited episodes, including story credits), Winter (25 episodes), Green and Burgess (22 episodes), Weiner (12 episodes), and Renzulli (9 episodes).


title: The Sopranos

text: Many of the directors had previously worked on television series and independent films. The most frequent directors of the series were Tim Van Patten (20 episodes), John Patterson (13 episodes), Allen Coulter (12 episodes), and Alan Taylor (9 episodes), all of whom have a background in television. Recurring cast members Steve Buscemi and Peter Bogdanovich also directed episodes of the series intermittently.


title: The Sopranos

text: Both episodes were photographed by the show's original director of photography Alik Sakharov, who later alternated episodes with Phil Abraham.


title: The Sopranos

text: This look was achieved by Chase collaborating with Sakharov. "From the pilot, we would sit down with the whole script and break the scenes down into shots. That's what you do with feature films."


title: The Sopranos

text: "The Sopranos" is noted for its eclectic music selections and has received considerable critical attention for its effective use of previously recorded songs.


title: The Sopranos

text: Chase personally selected all of the show's music with producer Martin Bruestle and music editor Kathryn Dayak, sometimes also consulting Steven Van Zandt. The music was usually selected once the production and editing of an episode was completed, but on occasion sequences were filmed to match preselected pieces of music.


title: The Sopranos

text: The show's opening theme is "Woke Up This Morning" (Chosen One Mix), written by, remixed and performed by British band Alabama 3. With few exceptions, a different song plays over the closing credits of each episode. Many songs are repeated multiple times through an episode, such as "Living on a Thin Line" by The Kinks in the season three episode "University" and "Glad Tidings" by Van Morrison in the season five finale "All Due Respect". Other songs are heard several times throughout the series. A notable example is "Con te partirò", performed by Italian singer Andrea Bocelli,


title: The Sopranos

text: While the show utilizes a wealth of previously recorded music, it is also notable for its lack of originally composed incidental music, compared with other television programs.


title: The Sopranos

text: Two soundtrack albums containing music from the series have been released. The first, titled "The Sopranos: Music from the HBO Original Series", was released in 1999. It contains selections from the show's first two seasons and reached #54 on the U.S. "Billboard" 200.


title: The Sopranos

text: A second soundtrack compilation titled "", was released in 2001. This double-disc album contains songs and selected dialogue from the show's first three seasons.


title: The Sopranos

text: The majority of the exterior scenes taking place in New Jersey were filmed on location, with the majority of the interior shots filmed at Silvercup Studios in New York City, including most indoor shots of the Soprano residence, the back room of the strip club Bada Bing!, and Dr. Melfi's office. The pork store was called Centanni's Meat Market in the pilot episode, an actual butchery in Elizabeth, New Jersey.


title: The Sopranos

text: After the series was picked up by HBO, the producers leased a building with a storefront in Kearny, New Jersey which served as the shooting location for exterior and interior scenes for the remainder of production; renamed Satriale's Pork Store.


title: The Sopranos

text: The strip club Bada Bing! was owned and operated by Silvio Dante on the show, and is an actual strip club on Route 17 in Lodi, New Jersey. Exteriors and interiors were shot on location except for the back room. The club is called Satin Dolls and was an existing business before the show started.


title: The Sopranos

text: The club continued to operate during the eight years that the show was filmed there, and a business arrangement was worked out with the owner. Locations manager Mark Kamine recalls that the owner was "very gracious" as long as the shooting did not "conflict with his business time".


title: The Sopranos

text: Scenes set at the restaurant Vesuvio, owned and operated in the series by character Artie Bucco, were filmed at a restaurant called Manolo's located in Elizabeth for the first episode. After the destruction of Vesuvio within the context of the series, Artie opened a new restaurant called Nuovo Vesuvio; exterior scenes set there were filmed at an Italian restaurant called Punta Dura located in Long Island City. All the exterior and some interior shots of the Soprano residence were filmed on location at a private residence in North Caldwell, New Jersey.


title: The Sopranos

text: Tony Soprano is seen emerging from the Lincoln Tunnel and passing through the tollbooth for the New Jersey Turnpike. Numerous landmarks in and around Newark and Jersey City, New Jersey, are then shown passing by the camera as Tony drives down the highway. The sequence ends with Tony pulling into the driveway of his suburban home. Chase has said that the goal of the title sequence was to show that this particular mafia show was about New Jersey, as opposed to New York, where most similar dramas have been set.


title: The Sopranos

text: In the first three seasons, between Tony leaving the tunnel and passing through the toll plaza, the show had a shot of the World Trade Center towers in Tony's right side-view mirror. After the September 11 attacks, this shot was removed and replaced with a more generic shot, beginning with the show's fourth season.


title: The Sopranos

text: In a 2010 issue of "TV Guide", the show's opening title sequence ranked #10 on a list of TV's top 10 credits sequences, as selected by readers.


title: The Sopranos

text: A parody of the opening sequence was used in an episode of "The Simpsons". In "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge", a variation on the sequence is used, with Fat Tony leaving a Springfield tunnel instead of Tony. Fat Tony then continues to drive through Springfield to the same soundtrack as the original.


title: The Sopranos

text: "The Sopranos" features a large cast of characters, many of whom get significant amounts of character development. Some only appear in certain seasons, while others appear (sporadically or constantly) throughout the entire series. All characters were created by David Chase unless otherwise noted.


title: The Sopranos

text: Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) is the series's protagonist. Tony is one of the capos of the New Jersey-based DiMeo crime family, at the beginning of the series; he eventually becomes its undisputed boss. He is also the patriarch of the Soprano household. Throughout the series, Tony struggles to balance the conflicting requirements of his family with those of the Mafia family he controls.


title: The Sopranos

text: Because he is prone to bouts of clinical depression, after a fainting spell (triggered by a panic attack), Tony's physician refers him for treatment by psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), in the show's first episode.


title: The Sopranos

text: She treats Tony to the best of her ability even though they routinely clash over various issues. Melfi is usually thoughtful, rational, and humane—a stark contrast to Tony's personality. Tony, a serial womanizer, occasionally divulges his sexual attraction to Dr. Melfi; Melfi harbors some degree of attraction to Tony, too, but never admits or acts on it. Melfi is drawn to the challenge of helping such an unusual client and naively assumes that their doctor-patient relationship will not affect her personal life in any way.


title: The Sopranos

text: Adding to Tony's complicated life is his relationship with his wife Carmela (Edie Falco), which is strained by his constant infidelity and her struggle to reconcile the reality of Tony's business, of which she is often in denial, with the affluent lifestyle and higher social status it brings her. Both have up-and-down relationships with their two children: the intelligent-but-rebellious Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler), and underachiever Anthony Jr. ("A.J.") (Robert Iler), whose everyday teenage issues are further complicated by their eventual knowledge of their father's criminal activities and reputation.


title: The Sopranos

text: The starring cast includes members of Tony's extended family, including: his disapproving, manipulative mother, Livia (Nancy Marchand); his aimless, histrionic older sister, Janice (Aida Turturro); his paternal uncle Corrado "Junior" Soprano (Dominic Chianese), nominal boss of the crime family following the death of then-acting boss Jackie Aprile Sr. (Michael Rispoli); his maternal cousin Tony Blundetto (Steve Buscemi); and Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli), who is often referred to as Tony's "nephew", but is actually his cousin by marriage.


title: The Sopranos

text: Both Livia and Janice are scheming, treacherous, shrewd manipulators with major-yet-unaddressed psychological issues of their own. The single-mindedly ambitious Uncle Junior is chronically frustrated by having not been made boss of the DiMeo family, despite old-school mob traditions entitling him to the position by seniority. He feels his authority is perpetually undermined by Tony's greater influence in the organization, and barely contains his seething jealousy at having to watch both his younger brother (Tony's father) and now Tony leapfrog him in the organization. As their professional tensions escalate, Uncle Junior employs increasingly desperate, behind-the-scenes measures to solve his problems with Tony, who still idolizes his uncle, and wants to retain Junior's affection and approval.


title: The Sopranos

text: Uncle Junior and Christopher are fixtures in Tony's real family, as well as his crime family, so their actions in one realm often create further conflicts in the other. Christopher, an entitled, insecure DiMeo associate who is as ambitious as he is insubordinate and incompetent, is also a chronic substance abuser. Tony Blundetto is a well-respected DiMeo family soldier who returns after completing a lengthy prison sentence; he leaves prison committed to "going straight" (to Tony's dismay), but also has an intense violent streak.


title: The Sopranos

text: Those in Tony's closest circle within the DiMeo crime family include Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt). Silvio is Tony's consigliere and best friend. He runs the family's strip club headquarters, and other businesses. Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri (Tony Sirico), a tough, short-tempered, aging soldier who is fiercely loyal to Tony and Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero (Vincent Pastore), a veteran gangster who runs an automotive body shop. Paulie "Walnuts" and "Big Pussy" (often called just "Pussy") have worked with Tony and his father. Also in Tony's criminal organization are: Patsy Parisi (Dan Grimaldi), and Furio Giunta (Federico Castelluccio). Patsy is a soft-spoken soldier with a head for figures; Furio, an Italian national who joins the family later in the series, serves as Tony's violent enforcer and bodyguard.


title: The Sopranos

text: Other significant characters in the DiMeo family include Bobby "Bacala" Baccalieri (Steven R. Schirripa); Richie Aprile (David Proval); Ralph Cifaretto (Joe Pantoliano); Eugene Pontecorvo (Robert Funaro); and Vito Spatafore (Joseph R. Gannascoli). Bobby is a subordinate of Uncle Junior's whom Tony initially bullies, but later accepts into his inner circle. Ralph is a clever, ambitious top-earner; but his arrogant, obnoxious, disrespectful, and unpredictably violent tendencies turn Tony resentful. Richie Aprile is released from prison in season 2, and quickly makes waves. Pontecorvo is a young soldier who becomes a "made" man alongside Christopher. Spatafore works his way up through the ranks to become top earner of the Aprile crew but is secretly gay.


title: The Sopranos

text: Friends of the Soprano family include Herman "Hesh" Rabkin (Jerry Adler); Adriana La Cerva (Drea de Matteo); Rosalie Aprile (Sharon Angela); Angie Bonpensiero (Toni Kalem), along with Artie (John Ventimiglia) and Charmaine Bucco (Kathrine Narducci). Hesh is an invaluable adviser and friend to Tony, as he was when Tony's father ran things. Adriana is Christopher's loyal and long-suffering girlfriend; the two have a volatile relationship but appear destined to stay together. Christopher often ignores Adriana's advice and winds up regretting it. Rosalie is the widow of previous DiMeo boss Jackie Aprile Sr. and a very close friend of Carmela. Angie is Salvatore Bonpensiero's wife. She later goes into "business" for herself, and quite successfully.


title: The Sopranos

text: Artie & Charmaine are childhood friends of the Sopranos, and owners of the popular restaurant, Vesuvio. Charmaine wishes to have no association with Tony and his crew due to fears that Tony's criminal ways will ultimately ruin everything she and Artie have achieved. Artie, however—a law-abiding, hard-working man—is drawn to his childhood friend Tony's glamorous, seemingly carefree lifestyle. Charmaine bitterly resents Artie's chronic tendency to disregard her wishes while catering to Tony's; their marriage suffers greatly as a result. Charmaine also had a brief sexual encounter with Tony (when he and Carmela had temporarily broken-up) when all four were teenagers.


title: The Sopranos

text: John "Johnny Sack" Sacramoni (Vince Curatola), Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) and "Little" Carmine Lupertazzi Jr. (Ray Abruzzo) are all significant characters from the New York City-based Lupertazzi crime family, which shares a good amount of its business with the Soprano organization. Although the Lupertazzis' and DiMeos' interests are often at odds, Tony maintains a cordial, business-like relationship with "Johnny Sack", preferring to make mutually beneficial deals, not war. Johnny Sack's second-in-command and eventual successor, Phil Leotardo, is less friendly and harder for Tony to do business with. Little Carmine is the son of the family's first boss and vies for power with its other members.


title: The Sopranos

text: When Tony Soprano collapses after suffering a panic attack, he begins therapy with Dr. Jennifer Melfi. Details of Tony's upbringing - with his father's influence looming large on his development as a gangster, but more so that of Tony's mother, Livia, who is vengeful, narcissistic, and possibly psychopathic - are revealed. His complicated relationship with his wife Carmela is also explored, as well as her feelings regarding her husband's "cosa nostra" ties. Meadow and Anthony Jr., Tony's children, gain increasing knowledge of their father's mob dealings. Later, federal indictments are brought as a result of someone in his organization talking to the FBI.


title: The Sopranos

text: Tony's uncle Corrado "Junior" Soprano, who controls his own crew, orders the murder of Brendan Filone and the mock execution of Christopher Moltisanti, associates of Tony's, as a reprisal for repeated hijackings of trucks under Corrado's protection. Tony defuses the situation by allowing his uncle to be installed as boss of the family (following the death of previous boss Jackie Aprile from cancer), while Tony retains actual control of most dealings from behind the scenes. Corrado discovers the subterfuge, after talking to Livia and falling for her subtle manipulation, and he orders an attempt on Tony's life. The assassination is botched and Tony responds violently, before confronting his mother for her role in plotting his downfall; she appears to have a psychologically triggered stroke as a result. Junior is arrested by the FBI on charges related to the federal indictments before Tony gets a chance to murder him in retaliation.


title: The Sopranos

text: Jackie's brother Richie Aprile is released from prison, proving to be uncontrollable in the business arena, siding more with Junior than Tony, despite the fact that Tony is the acting boss of the family after Junior's arrest. Richie starts a relationship with Janice, Tony's sister, who has arrived from Seattle to take care of their mother. "Big Pussy" returns to New Jersey after a conspicuous absence.


title: The Sopranos

text: Christopher Moltisanti becomes engaged to his girlfriend Adriana La Cerva, despite his past abuse. Matthew Bevilaqua and Sean Gismonte, two low-level associates dissatisfied with their perceived lack of success in the Soprano crew, try to make a name for themselves by attempting to kill Christopher as a favor to Richie, even though he didn't ask them to. Their plan fails and Christopher kills Sean, but Christopher is critically wounded. He manages to recover after surgery. Tony and Big Pussy locate Matthew and kill him. A witness to the murder goes to the FBI and identifies Tony, but later retracts his statement.


title: The Sopranos

text: Junior is placed under house arrest as he awaits trial. Richie, frustrated with Tony's authority over him, entreats Junior to have Tony killed. Junior feigns interest, then informs Tony of Richie's intentions, leaving Tony with another problem to address. However, the situation is defused unexpectedly when Janice kills Richie in a violent argument; Tony and his men conceal all evidence of the murder, and Janice returns to Seattle.


title: The Sopranos

text: After a food poisoning incident that causes vivid dreams, Tony finally comes to terms with his suspicion that Big Pussy might be an FBI informant. He manages to search Pussy's bedroom under false pretenses and discovers damning evidence. Tony kills Pussy on board a boat (with assistance from Silvio Dante and Paulie Gualtieri), disposing of his body at sea.


title: The Sopranos

text: Following the "disappearance" of Richie Aprile, the return of the ambitious Ralph Cifaretto, having spent an extended period of leisure time in Miami, marks the . He renews a relationship with Rosalie Aprile, the widow of Jackie Aprile Sr. With Richie assumed to have joined the Witness Protection Program, Ralph unofficially usurps control over the Aprile crew, proving to be an exceptionally dexterous earner. While Ralph's competitive merit would seemingly have him next in line to ascend to capo, his insubordination inclines Tony not to promote him and he instead gives the promotion to the unqualified but competent Gigi Cestone, causing much resentment and tension between him and Ralph.


title: The Sopranos

text: Ralph ultimately crosses the line when, in a cocaine-induced rage, he gets into a confrontation with his (possibly pregnant) girlfriend Tracee and beats her to death. This infuriates Tony, who had come to care for the girl, to the point where he violates the traditional mafia code by beating Ralph in front of the entire family. Bad blood temporarily surfaces between the two but is shortly resolved after Ralph apologizes. Cestone suffers a fatal heart attack, thereby forcing Tony to reluctantly promote Ralph to capo.


title: The Sopranos

text: After getting arrested at the airport for stolen airplane tickets that Tony gave her, Livia is set to testify against him in court. Before that can happen, Livia dies of a stroke and Tony has to deal with his complicated feelings surrounding their relationship. Junior is diagnosed with stomach cancer; following surgery and chemotherapy, it goes into remission.


title: The Sopranos

text: One night after work, Dr. Melfi is raped by a stranger in a parking complex. After police mishandle evidence, the suspect is released from custody without facing charges. Dr. Melfi struggles with the fallout of the assault and the notion that she could ask Tony to deal out his brand of justice, which she ultimately decides against. Meanwhile, Tony begins an affair with Gloria Trillo, who is also a patient of Dr. Melfi. Their relationship is brief and tumultuous.


title: The Sopranos

text: Rosalie's son Jackie Aprile Jr. becomes involved with Meadow and then descends into a downward spiral of recklessness, drugs, and crime. Tony initially attempts to act as a mentor to Jackie and encourages him to stay in school, but he becomes increasingly impatient with Jackie's escalating misbehavior, particularly as Jackie's relationship with Meadow begins to become serious. Inspired by a story from Ralph about how Tony, Jackie Sr., and Silvio Dante got made, Jackie and his friends Dino Zerilli and Carlo Renzi make a similar move and attempt to rob Eugene Pontecorvo's Saturday night card game so they can gain recognition from the family.


title: The Sopranos

text: The plan takes a turn for the worse when Jackie panics and kills the card dealer, provoking a shoot-out. Dino and Carlo are killed, but Jackie manages to escape. Tony decides to let Ralph handle the decision regarding Jackie Jr.'s punishment, but he strongly implies that he thinks Ralph should kill Jackie. Despite his role as a surrogate father, Ralph decides to have Jackie Jr. killed when other members of the crew play up how badly Jackie had disrespected him.


title: The Sopranos

text: A.J. continues to get in trouble at school — despite success on the football team — which culminates in his expulsion and his parents considering sending him to military school. When he suffers a panic attack, his second after the one his old school failed to report, Tony realizes A.J. can't attend military school and he blames himself. Meadow is hit hard by Jackie Jr.'s death, resorting to drinking and then storming out of his funeral reception.


title: The Sopranos

text: New York underboss Johnny Sack becomes enraged after learning Ralph Cifaretto joked about his wife's weight. He seeks permission from boss Carmine Lupertazzi to have Ralph clipped, but is denied. Johnny orders the hit anyway. Tony receives the okay from Carmine to hit Johnny for insubordination. Junior Soprano tips Tony to use an old outfit in Providence for the work. After catching his wife eating sweets secretly instead of following her diet, Johnny Sack talks it out with her and then calls off the hit on Ralph, averting bloodshed.


title: The Sopranos

text: Tony and Ralph invest in a racehorse named Pie-O-My, who wins several races and makes them both a great deal of money. When Ralph's 12-year-old son Justin is severely injured in an archery accident, Tony comes to believe Ralph burned Pie-O-My in a stable fire to collect $200,000 in insurance money. Tony confronts Ralph and Ralph denies setting the fire. The two engage in a violent brawl, culminating in Tony strangling Ralph to death. Tony and Christopher dispose of the body and tell the rest of the crew that the likely culprit for Ralph's disappearance is Johnny Sack.


title: The Sopranos

text: While he is leaving court, Junior is hit in the head with a boom mic and falls down several steps. Tony advises him to take advantage of the opportunity, act mentally incompetent and employ it as a ruse for not continuing the trial. When that fails, Eugene Pontecorvo intimidates a juror, resulting in a deadlocked jury, forcing the judge to declare a mistrial.


title: The Sopranos

text: Following the death of Bobby Baccalieri's wife, Janice pursues a romantic relationship with him. Bobby is initially reluctant to move on, but after an incident with his kids and Anthony Jr. trying to summon his deceased wife's ghost, he becomes more receptive to Janice's advances.


title: The Sopranos

text: Christopher's addiction to heroin deepens, prompting his associates and family to organize an intervention, after which he enters a drug rehabilitation center. Adriana's friend Danielle Ciccolella is revealed to be an undercover FBI agent named Deborah Ciccerone-Waldrup, who tells Adriana the only way for her to stay out of prison for heroin distribution at her bar is to become an informant. Adriana reluctantly agrees and starts sharing information with the FBI.


title: The Sopranos

text: Carmela, whose relationship with Tony is tense due to financial worries and Tony's infidelities, develops a mutual infatuation with Furio Giunta. Furio, incapable of breaking his personal moral code and that of the Neapolitan mafia, clandestinely returns home to Italy. After Tony's former mistress calls their home, Carmela throws Tony out. As a result, their plan to buy a beach house falls through and Tony pesters the owner until he gets his deposit back.


title: The Sopranos

text: Anthony Jr. starts attending a new high school, with Tony suggesting he needed to pull some strings to get him in. A.J. gets a girlfriend but is intimidated by her family's wealth. Meadow initially struggles with her ex-boyfriend's death. As she considers taking a gap year or switching schools, she sees a therapist that Dr. Melfi recommended. Eventually, Meadow finds a worthwhile cause by volunteering at a law center. She gets an apartment with some roommates and starts dating again. Her relationship with Carmela becomes strained after several arguments. Both the kids take their parents' separation hard, with A.J. asking to live with his dad instead of his mom.


title: The Sopranos

text: Tony decides to quit therapy, thinking he isn't making any progress. He thanks Dr. Melfi for all her help and they part amicably. Stuck in a deadlock over a deal with the Lupertazzi family, Tony is approached by Johnny Sack with a proposal to murder Carmine. He considers it, even after managing to reach an agreement with Carmine, but he later becomes suspicious of Johnny's intentions and turns him down.


title: The Sopranos

text: A string of new characters is introduced, including Tony's cousin Tony Blundetto, who simultaneously along with other Mafiosi, is released from prison. Among the others released are former DiMeo crime family capo Michele "Feech" La Manna, Lupertazzi family capo Phil Leotardo, and semi-retired Lupertazzi consigliere Angelo Garepe. Tony offers Tony B a job, but he respectfully declines, as he is determined to lead a straight life. He initially begins to take courses to earn a degree in massage therapy and aspires to open up a massage parlor. After Carmine Lupertazzi dies of a stroke, his death leaves a vacancy for the boss of the Lupertazzi family, which will soon be fought over by underboss Johnny Sack and Carmine's son Carmine Lupertazzi Jr. After Feech proves to be an insubordinate presence, Tony arranges for him to be sent back to prison by setting him up with stolen property, violating his parole.


title: The Sopranos

text: The war between Johnny Sack and Carmine Jr. begins when Johnny has Phil kill "Lady Shylock" Lorraine Calluzzo. Tony B's attempt to stay straight comes to a head when he gets into a brawl with his employer. Angelo, who was a good friend to Tony B in prison, and Lupertazzi capo Rusty Millio offer Tony B the job of taking out Joey Peeps in retaliation for Lorraine's death. Tony B initially declines but, desperate to earn, accepts the job. He catches Joey outside a bordello, shoots him, and quickly flees the scene. Johnny believes Tony B is involved and retaliates by having Phil and his brother Billy Leotardo kill Angelo. Tony B finds the Leotardo brothers and opens fire, killing Billy and wounding Phil.


title: The Sopranos

text: Separated from Carmela, Tony is living at his parents' house. Carmela, the sole authority figure in the home, becomes frustrated as her rules lead A.J. to resent her so she allows him to live with his father. She has a brief relationship with Robert Wegler, A.J.'s guidance counselor; he breaks it off abruptly when he suspects that she is manipulating him to improve A.J.'s grades. Tony and Carmela reconcile; Tony promises to be more loyal and agrees to pay for a piece of real estate Carmela wishes to develop.


title: The Sopranos

text: Tony gets Meadow's boyfriend Finn De Trolio a summer job at a construction site, which is run by Aprile crew capo Vito Spatafore. Finn comes in early one morning and catches Vito performing fellatio on a security guard. Vito tries to buddy up to Finn so that he keeps quiet, but Finn soon quits the job out of fear.


title: The Sopranos

text: After covering up a murder that occurred at The Crazy Horse, Adriana is arrested and pressured by the FBI to start sharing more relevant information about the family to avoid being charged as an accomplice. Rather than taking the risk of wearing a wire, Adriana confesses to Christopher and tries to persuade him to co-operate and become an informant against Tony. A grief-stricken Christopher instead informs Tony, who has Silvio pick up Adriana under the pretense of taking her to the hospital to see Christopher after he supposedly tried committing suicide, but Silvio instead drives her out to the woods and executes her. Adriana's betrayal and subsequent execution are too much for Christopher to handle and he briefly relapses into drug use to deal with the pain.


title: The Sopranos

text: Phil Leotardo and his henchmen beat Benny Fazio while trying to acquire the whereabouts of Tony B; Phil also threatens to have Christopher taken out if Tony B's whereabouts are not disclosed soon. To pacify New York and give his cousin a painless death, Tony tracks Tony B to their Uncle Pat's farm and executes him. Phil is furious that he did not get the opportunity to do it himself. Tony and Johnny meet at Johnny's house in a reconciliatory manner, but Johnny is arrested by Federal agents, while Tony escapes.


title: The Sopranos

text: A senile and confused Uncle Junior shoots Tony one night in his house. Rendered comatose, Tony dreams he is a salesman on a business trip who mistakenly exchanges his briefcase and identification with a man named Kevin Finnerty. Tony's recovery from the shooting changes his outlook and he tries to mend his ways. However, he is faced with more problems in his business and personal life.


title: The Sopranos

text: Once Tony is out of the hospital, Johnny Sack's daughter is about to get married and the Soprano family attends the wedding. Johnny is approved to leave prison for six hours to attend, but he is humiliated by having to pay for the metal detectors and the presence of U.S. marshals at the event. As his daughter is about to drive away with her husband, Johnny's time expires and the marshals publicly take him back to prison. In a moment of weakness and despair, Johnny bursts into tears as he is handcuffed, dismantling the remaining respect his and Tony's crews had for him.


title: The Sopranos

text: Vito Spatafore is outed as gay after running into a friend making collections at a New York gay nightclub. The rumor spreads quickly, and once word gets to Meadow that everyone else knows, she tells Tony and Carmela about the incident between Finn and Vito. Finn is forced to tell Tony's entire crew what happened with Vito and the security guard at the construction site, solidifying their suspicions about Vito's sexuality. Tony is urged to deal with the problem by the intensely homophobic Phil Leotardo, now the acting boss of New York, whose cousin is married to Vito.


title: The Sopranos

text: Once Vito is confronted by other members of the crew, he flees to a New Hampshire town, where he poses as an author and starts a romantic relationship with a male cook at a local diner. Despite finally living an authentic life, Vito misses the benefits his old job afforded him, so he eventually returns to New Jersey. He asks Tony to allow him to return to work, making a case that he could bring in a lot of money in Atlantic City. Vito visits his wife and children and continues to maintain that he is not a homosexual.


title: The Sopranos

text: Tony mulls over the decision to let him back into the crew, as well as whether to let him live. When Tony fails to act, Phil intervenes and brutally executes Vito. When one of the members of the New York family, Fat Dom Gamiello, pays a visit to the Jersey office and won't stop making jokes about Vito and his death, Silvio Dante and Carlo Gervasi kill Fat Dom out of anger at his disrespect. Once more, it appears that the families are on the verge of an all-out war.


title: The Sopranos

text: During the first half of the season, Christopher and Little Carmine head to Los Angeles in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to try to sign Ben Kingsley for a slasher film they are trying to make called "Cleaver", which is a mix of "The Godfather" and "Saw". While in Los Angeles, Chris goes back to drinking and using cocaine for a short period, and he robs famous actress Lauren Bacall. When "Cleaver" comes out, Carmela is upset that the boss, who is based on Tony, sleeps with his underling's girlfriend, who seems to be based on Christopher's ex Adrianna. Tony's negative portrayal in the movie further strains his relationship with Christopher, along with the fact that Christopher had an affair with realtor Julianna Skiff, a woman Tony was romantically interested in. When Christopher's new girlfriend Kelli Lombardo accidentally gets pregnant, they decide to get married in Las Vegas. Later they welcome a baby girl.


title: The Sopranos

text: Tony considers killing several of his associates for relatively minor infractions, including Paulie Gualtieri. Christopher is unable to thrive in the business because of his addiction, deflecting his problems by relapsing and killing his friend from Narcotics Anonymous and co-writer of "Cleaver", J. T. Dolan. He is then seriously injured in a car accident while driving under the influence of narcotics. Tony, the sole passenger, finally loses patience with Christopher's failings and suffocates him. He later tries to justify his actions by bringing up the infant car seat that was impaled by a branch in the accident, implying that Christopher was a danger to his daughter.


title: The Sopranos

text: A.J. is dumped by his fiancée and he slips into depression, culminating in a suicide attempt in the backyard pool. After spending some time in a mental institution, he returns home but is still haunted by existential questions and he ultimately decides to join the army. Tony and Carmela come up with a movie set job to keep him from enlisting, with Tony promising he'll one day finance A.J.'s nightclub. Dr. Melfi is convinced by colleagues that Tony is making no progress and may even be using talk therapy to excuse his own actions and as practice for manipulative behavior. She drops him as a patient and he fully quits therapy.


title: The Sopranos

text: Johnny dies from lung cancer while imprisoned, and Phil officially takes over the Lupertazzi family after having his rivals killed. Phil renews his past feud with Tony and refuses to compromise with New Jersey on a garbage deal. When Tony assaults a Lupertazzi soldier for harassing Meadow while she was on a date, Phil initiates open war on the Soprano crew. He orders the executions of Bobby Baccalieri, who is shot to death; Silvio Dante, who ends up comatose; and Tony, who goes into hiding. Since Phil won't back down until Tony is executed, a deal is eventually brokered whereby the rest of the Lupertazzi family agrees to ignore the hit on Tony, allowing him to go after Phil without fear of repercussions. FBI agent Dwight Harris informs Tony of Phil's location, allowing Tony to have him killed.


title: The Sopranos

text: Tony starts suspecting that Carlo Gervasi, a capo from New Jersey, has become an informant in an attempt to help out his son, who has recently been arrested for dealing ecstasy. Tony meets his lawyer, who informs him that subpoenas are being delivered to New Jersey and New York crews alike. Tony visits Uncle Junior for the first time since the shooting, and although he doesn't forgive him, he comes to understand the full extent of his dementia and that his uncle likely hadn't meant to kill him.


title: The Sopranos

text: Tony plans to have a quiet dinner at a diner with his family. As Meadow arrives at the door, the camera cuts to Tony. A bell signals the door opening, Tony looks up and the show smash cuts to black; after a few seconds, the credits roll in silence.


title: The Sopranos

text: "The Sopranos" was a major ratings success throughout its run, despite being aired on premium cable network HBO, which had been available in significantly fewer American homes than regular networks. The show frequently attracted equal or larger audiences than most popular network shows of the time. The Nielsen ratings for the first four seasons are not entirely accurate, as Nielsen reported aggregate numbers for cable networks prior to January 2004, meaning that people who were included in the ratings estimates were actually watching HBO channels other than the main one on which "The Sopranos" aired.


title: The Sopranos

text: "The Sopranos" has been hailed by many critics as the greatest and most groundbreaking television series of all time. The writing, acting, and directing have often been singled out for praise. The show has also received considerable attention from critics and journalists for its technical merit, music selections, cinematography, and willingness to deal with difficult and controversial subjects including crime, family, gender roles, mental illness, and American and Italian-American culture.


title: The Sopranos

text: "The Sopranos" is credited for creating a new era in the mafia genre deviating from the traditional dramatized image of the gangster in favor of a simpler, more accurate reflection of ordinary day-to-day mob life in a suburb. The series sheds light on Italian family dynamics through the depiction of Tony's tumultuous relationship with his mother. Edie Falco's character Carmela Soprano is praised in Kristyn Gorton's essay "Why I Love Carmela Soprano" for challenging Italian-American gender roles. "New Yorker" editor David Remnick described "The Sopranos" as mirroring the "mindless commerce and consumption" of modern America. The series has an overall rating of 92 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and 94 out of 100 on Metacritic.


title: The Sopranos

text: "The Sopranos" has been called "perhaps the greatest pop-culture masterpiece of its day" by "Vanity Fair" contributor Peter Biskind. Remnick called the show "the richest achievement in the history of television."


title: The Sopranos

text: In 2002, "TV Guide" ranked "The Sopranos" fifth on their list of the "Top 50 TV Shows of All Time," while the series was only in its fourth season. In 2007, Channel 4 (UK) named "The Sopranos" the greatest television series of all time.


title: The Sopranos

text: The first season of the series received overwhelmingly positive reviews. Following its initial airing in 1999, "The New York Times" stated, "["The Sopranos"] just may be the greatest work of American popular culture of the last quarter century." In 2007, Roger Holland of PopMatters wrote, "the debut season of "The Sopranos" remains the crowning achievement of American television."


title: The Sopranos

text: "Time Out New York"s Andrew Johnston had high praise for the series, stating: "Together, Chase and his fellow writers (including Terence Winter and "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner) produced the legendary Great American Novel, and it's 86 episodes long." Johnston asserted the preeminence of "The Sopranos" as opposed to "The Wire" and "Deadwood" in a debate with television critics Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz, both of whom would later include "The Sopranos" in their 2016 book titled "TV (The Book)" as the 2nd greatest American television series of all time, behind only "The Simpsons" and ahead of "The Wire", with Seitz considering the show's ending to be the greatest ending for any television show.


title: The Sopranos

text: In November and December 2009, many television critics named "The Sopranos" the best series of the decade and all time in articles summarizing the decade in television. In numbered lists over the best television programs, "The Sopranos" frequently ranked first or second, almost always competing with "The Wire". In 2013, "TV Guide" ranked "The Sopranos" No. 2 in its list of The 60 Greatest Dramas of All Time, In the same year, the Writers Guild of America named it the best-written television series of all time and "TV Guide" ranked it as the greatest show of all time.


title: The Sopranos

text: A 2015 "The Hollywood Reporter" survey of 2,800 actors, producers, directors, and other industry people named "The Sopranos" as their #6 favorite show. In 2016 and 2022, "Rolling Stone" ranked it first on the magazine's list of 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In September 2019, "The Guardian" ranked the show first on its list of the 100 best TV shows of the 21st century, stating that it "hastened TV's transformation into a medium where intelligence, experimentation and depth were treasured" and describing it as "something to aspire to" for anyone currently making TV. In 2021, "Empire" ranked "The Sopranos" at number three on their list of The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.


title: The Sopranos

text: Certain episodes have frequently been singled out by critics as the show's best. These include the pilot, titled "The Sopranos", "College" and "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano" of the first season; "The Knight in White Satin Armor" and "Funhouse" of the second; "Employee of the Month", "Pine Barrens" and "Amour Fou" of the third; "Whoever Did This" and "Whitecaps" of the fourth; "Irregular Around the Margins" and "Long Term Parking" of the fifth and "Members Only", "Join the Club", "Kennedy and Heidi", "The Second Coming", "The Blue Comet" and "Made in America" of the sixth season.


title: The Sopranos

text: Chase's decision to end the last episode abruptly with just a black screen was controversial. While Chase has insisted that it was not his intention to stir controversy, the ambiguity over the ending and question of whether Tony was murdered has continued for years after the finale's original broadcast and has spawned numerous websites devoted to finding out his true intention.


title: The Sopranos

text: "The Sopranos" won and was nominated for many awards throughout its original broadcast. It was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in every year it was eligible and is the first cable TV series to receive a nomination for the award. After being nominated for and losing the award in 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2003 (losing the first time to "The Practice" and the last three to "The West Wing"), "The Sopranos" won the award in 2004, and again in 2007. Its 2004 win made "The Sopranos" the first series on a cable network to win the award, while its 2007 win made the show the first drama series since "Upstairs, Downstairs" in 1977 to win the award after it had finished airing. The show earned 21 nominations for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series and won the award six times, with creator David Chase receiving three awards. "The Sopranos" won American Film Institute's Drama Series of the Year Award in 2001.


title: The Sopranos

text: "The Sopranos" won at least one Emmy Award for acting in every eligible year except 2006 and 2007. James Gandolfini and Edie Falco were each nominated six times for Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress, respectively, both winning a total of three awards. Joe Pantoliano won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in 2003, and Michael Imperioli and Drea de Matteo also won Emmys in 2004 for their supporting roles on the show. Other actors who have received Emmy nominations for the series include Lorraine Bracco (in the Lead Actress and Supporting Actress categories), Dominic Chianese, Nancy Marchand, Aida Turturro, Tim Daly, John Heard, Annabella Sciorra and Steve Buscemi, who was also nominated for directing the episode "Pine Barrens".


title: The Sopranos

text: In 1999 and 2000, "The Sopranos" earned two consecutive George Foster Peabody Awards. Only two other series have won the award in consecutive years: "Northern Exposure" (1991 and 1992) and "The West Wing" (1999 and 2000). The show also received numerous nominations at the Golden Globe Awards (winning the award for Best Drama Series in 2000) and the major guild awards (Directors, Producers, Writers, and Actors).


title: The Sopranos

text: In 2001, the American Psychoanalytic Association presented the producers and writers with an award for "the artistic depiction of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy" and also presented Lorraine Bracco with an award for creating "the most credible psychoanalyst ever to appear in the cinema or on television."


title: The Sopranos

text: "The Sopranos" had a significant effect on the shape of the American television industry. It has been characterized by critics as one of the most influential artistic works of the 2000s and has been cited as helping to turn serial television into a legitimate art form on the same level as feature films, literature, and theater. "Time Magazine" editor James Poniewozik wrote in 2007, "This mafia saga showed just how complex and involving TV storytelling could be, inspiring an explosion of ambitious dramas on cable and off."


title: The Sopranos

text: Maureen Ryan of PopMatters described "The Sopranos" as the most influential television drama ever. "No one-hour drama series has had a bigger impact on how stories are told on the small screen, or more influence on what kind of fare we've been offered by an ever-growing array of television networks."


title: The Sopranos

text: Hal Boedeker stated in PopMatters in 2007 that the series was "widely influential for revealing that cable would accommodate complex series about dark characters. "The Sopranos" ushered in "Six Feet Under", "The Shield", "Rescue Me", and "Big Love"." "Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan said in 2013 shortly after Gandolfini's death, "Without Tony Soprano, there would be no Walter White."


title: The Sopranos

text: Weiner said that when he became a writer for "The Sopranos" after having written the "Mad Men" pilot, "Whatever I had intended ["Mad Men"] to be ... was very different after seeing how seriously David Chase took human behavior. Real human behavior", giving "Maidenform" and how Peggy Olson's baby affects her as examples.


title: The Sopranos

text: The series helped establish HBO as producers of critically acclaimed and commercially successful original television series. Michael Flaherty of "The Hollywood Reporter" has stated that "The Sopranos" "helped launch [HBO's] reputation as a destination for talent looking for cutting-edge original series work."


title: The Sopranos

text: The show has frequently been accused of perpetuating negative stereotypes about Italian Americans. Several major organizations have voiced their concern that "The Sopranos" presents a very distorted and harmful stereotype of Italian Americans and their cultural values, including the National Italian American Foundation, Order Sons of Italy in America, Unico National, and the Italic Institute of America.


title: The Sopranos

text: In 2000, officials in Essex County, New Jersey, denied producers permission to film scenes in the South Mountain Reservation, which is county-owned property, by Essex County, New Jersey Executive James Treffinger, who argued that the show depicts Italian Americans "in stereotypical fashion". In 2002, organizers of the New York City Columbus Day Parade won an injunction preventing Mayor Michael Bloomberg from inviting cast members of "The Sopranos" to participate in the parade.


title: The Sopranos

text: Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind conducted a national survey in August 2001 that polled 800 people, out of which 37% said that they watched the show regularly, and 65% of this group (192 people, or 24% of the total) disagreed that the show negatively portrayed Italian Americans. Professor William Roberts, who was associated with the poll, said that "The show's inflated image of organized crime casts a shadow over both the state [of New Jersey] and its Italian American community."


title: The Sopranos

text: He further stated "The show helped to perpetuate one of the more problematic and stereotypical images of Italian Americans. Both Italian and Italian American cultures have much more diverse and interesting heritages than the American public generally realizes." Humanities professor Camille Paglia, herself an Italian American, has spoken negatively about "The Sopranos", arguing that its depiction of Italian Americans was inaccurate, inauthentic, and dated.


title: The Sopranos

text: Chase has defended his show, saying that "It is not meant to stereotype all Italian Americans, only to depict a small criminal subculture".


title: The Sopranos

text: Actors from "The Sopranos" have reprised their roles, or at the very least parodied their roles, in various other media. Tony Sirico and Steve Schirripa appear in two separate Muppet-related Christmas specials, "" and "Elmo's Christmas Countdown", parodying their roles on "The Sopranos". Sirico also appeared in a series of commercials for Denny's in-character as Paulie Gualtieri, a nod to the restaurant chain's mention in "Pine Barrens". James Gandolfini appeared on "Weekend Update" as a "New Jersey Resident" on the October 2, 2004, episode of "Saturday Night Live" to comment on the recent resignation of New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey. Gandolfini's character went unnamed, and hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler insisted at the segment's conclusion that he was "unidentified", but the character was clearly meant to be Tony Soprano.


title: The Sopranos

text: Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Robert Iler reprised their roles as Meadow and A.J. Soprano in a Chevrolet television commercial initially broadcast in 2022 during Super Bowl LVI. David Chase directed the commercial and treated it as a continuation of "The Sopranos" story. At Chase's insistence, former "Sopranos" director of photography Phil Abraham performed the filming. The ad recreates the opening-title sequence of "The Sopranos", with Meadow driving a Silverado EV (as opposed to Tony's Chevrolet Suburban) and meeting A.J. at Bahrs Landing, featured in "The Many Saints of Newark". Along the way, she passes some "Sopranos" landmarks including Satriale's. Chase wanted the commercial to continue the intrigue surrounding "The Sopranos" finale: besides the visual allusion to the episode with Meadow's parking, Chase intentionally left open why Meadow and A.J. were at the restaurant and who they could be meeting there.


title: The Sopranos

text: The first four seasons of "The Sopranos" were released on VHS in five-volume box sets which lack bonus material.


title: The Sopranos

text: All six "Sopranos" seasons were released as DVD box sets, with the sixth season released in two parts. A complete series box set was released in 2008.


title: The Sopranos

text: The sixth season was released on Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD in 2006 and 2007. The first season was released on Blu-ray in 2009. A complete series box set was released in 2014.


title: The Sopranos

text: On September 17, 2020, Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa signed a deal with HarperCollins book imprint William Morrow and Company to write an oral history of the show; the book, titled "Woke Up This Morning: The Definitive Oral History of The Sopranos", was released on November 2, 2021.


title: The Sopranos

text: A video game based on the series, titled "The Sopranos: Road to Respect", was developed by 7 Studios and released by THQ for the PlayStation 2 in November 2006. The game features the voices and likenesses of key "Sopranos" cast members.


title: The Sopranos

text: Several cast members of "The Sopranos" have started podcasts regarding the series. Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa began hosting a podcast called "Talking Sopranos" on April 6, 2020, where the two provide inside info as they follow "The Sopranos" series episode-by-episode and interview cast and crew from the series. By September 2020, the podcast had reached over five million downloads. In May 2021, the podcast won a Webby Award for Best Television & Film Podcast by method of "People's Voice Winner".


title: The Sopranos

text: Drea de Matteo and Chris Kushner began hosting a re-watch podcast on March 13, 2020, called "Made Women"; in July, the podcast was retooled and renamed "Gangster Goddess Broad-Cast".


title: The Sopranos

text: In March 2018, New Line Cinema announced that they had purchased a film detailing "The Sopranos" background story, set in the 1960s and '70s during, and in the wake of, the Newark riots. The 2021 film, "The Many Saints of Newark", is written by David Chase and Lawrence Konner and directed by Alan Taylor. Alessandro Nivola was cast in the film as Christopher Moltisanti's father Dickie, and Michael Gandolfini, James Gandolfini's son, as the younger version of Tony Soprano. Vera Farmiga, Jon Bernthal, Ray Liotta, Corey Stoll, Billy Magnussen and John Magaro are other cast members.


title: The Sopranos

text: The film was initially scheduled to be released on September 25, 2020, however, the film's release was delayed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States; it was released on October 1, 2021, in theaters and on HBO Max.


title: The Sopranos

text: Chase has expressed interest in producing a sequel to "The Many Saints of Newark" that follows Tony Soprano in his 20s, provided he could collaborate with former "Sopranos" writer Terence Winter. Upon hearing this, Winter replied he would do it "in a heartbeat. Absolutely."


title: Mount Everest

text: Mount Everest (; Tibetan: "Chomolungma" ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow height) of was most recently established in 2020 by the Chinese and Nepali authorities.


title: Mount Everest

text: Mount Everest attracts many climbers, including highly experienced mountaineers. There are two main climbing routes, one approaching the summit from the southeast in Nepal (known as the "standard route") and the other from the north in Tibet. While not posing substantial technical climbing challenges on the standard route, Everest presents dangers such as altitude sickness, weather, and wind, as well as hazards from avalanches and the Khumbu Icefall. , over 300 people have died on Everest, many of whose bodies remain on the mountain.


title: Mount Everest

text: The first recorded efforts to reach Everest's summit were made by British mountaineers. As Nepal did not allow foreigners to enter the country at the time, the British made several attempts on the north ridge route from the Tibetan side. After the first reconnaissance expedition by the British in 1921 reached on the North Col, the 1922 expedition pushed the north ridge route up to , marking the first time a human had climbed above . The 1924 expedition resulted in one of the greatest mysteries on Everest to this day: George Mallory and Andrew Irvine made a final summit attempt on 8 June but never returned, sparking debate as to whether they were the first to reach the top. Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary made the first documented ascent of Everest in 1953, using the southeast ridge route. Norgay had reached the previous year as a member of the 1952 Swiss expedition. The Chinese mountaineering team of Wang Fuzhou, Gonpo, and Qu Yinhua made the first reported ascent of the peak from the north ridge on 25 May 1960.


title: Mount Everest

text: The Tibetan name for Everest is "Qomolangma" (,  "Holy Mother"). The name was first recorded with a Chinese transcription on the 1721 Kangxi Atlas during the reign of Emperor Kangxi of Qing China, and then appeared as "Tchoumour Lancma" on a 1733 map published in Paris by the French geographer D'Anville based on the former map. It is also popularly romanised as "Chomolungma" and (in Wylie) as "Jo-mo-glang-ma". The official Chinese transcription is whose pinyin form is "Zhūmùlǎngmǎ Fēng". While other Chinese names exist, including "Shèngmǔ Fēng"  "Holy Mother Peak"), these names largely phased out from May 1952 as the Ministry of Internal Affairs of China issued a decree to adopt as the sole name (romanised: Mount Qomolangma). Documented local names include "Deodungha" ("Holy Mountain"), but it is unclear whether it is commonly used.


title: Mount Everest

text: In 1849, the British survey wanted to preserve local names if possible (e.g., Kangchenjunga and Dhaulagiri), and Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India argued that he could not find any commonly used local name, as his search for a local name was hampered by Nepal and Tibet's exclusion of foreigners. Waugh argued that because there were many local names, it would be difficult to favour one name over all others; he decided that Peak XV should be named after British surveyor Sir George Everest, his predecessor as Surveyor General of India. Everest himself opposed the name suggested by Waugh and told the Royal Geographical Society in 1857 that "Everest" could not be written in Hindi nor pronounced by "the native of India". Waugh's proposed name prevailed despite the objections, and in 1865, the Royal Geographical Society officially adopted Mount Everest as the name for the highest mountain in the world. The modern pronunciation of Everest () is different from Sir George's pronunciation of his surname ( ). In the late 19th century, many European cartographers incorrectly believed that a native name for the mountain was Gaurishankar, a mountain between Kathmandu and Everest.


title: Mount Everest

text: In the early 1960s, the Nepali government coined the Nepali name "Sagarmāthā" (IAST transcription) or "Sagar-Matha" (सगर-माथा, , "goddess of the sky"), which means "the Head in the Great Blue Sky", being derived from सगर (sagar), meaning "sky", and माथा (māthā), meaning "head".


title: Mount Everest

text: In 1802, the British began the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India to fix the locations, heights, and names of the world's highest mountains. Starting in southern India, the survey teams moved northward using giant theodolites, each weighing and requiring 12 men to carry, to measure heights as accurately as possible. They reached the Himalayan foothills by the 1830s, but Nepal was unwilling to allow the British to enter the country due to suspicions of their intentions. Several requests by the surveyors to enter Nepal were denied.


title: Mount Everest

text: The British were forced to continue their observations from Terai, a region south of Nepal which is parallel to the Himalayas. Conditions in Terai were difficult because of torrential rains and malaria. Three survey officers died from malaria while two others had to retire because of failing health.


title: Mount Everest

text: Nonetheless, in 1847, the British continued the survey and began detailed observations of the Himalayan peaks from observation stations up to distant. Weather restricted work to the last three months of the year. In November 1847, Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India, made several observations from the Sawajpore station at the east end of the Himalayas. Kangchenjunga was then considered the highest peak in the world, and with interest, he noted a peak beyond it, about away. John Armstrong, one of Waugh's subordinates, also saw the peak from a site farther west and called it peak "b". Waugh would later write that the observations indicated that peak "b" was higher than Kangchenjunga, but given the great distance of the observations, closer observations were required for verification. The following year, Waugh sent a survey official back to Terai to make closer observations of peak "b", but clouds thwarted his attempts.


title: Mount Everest

text: In 1849, Waugh dispatched James Nicolson to the area, who made two observations from Jirol, away. Nicolson then took the largest theodolite and headed east, obtaining over 30 observations from five different locations, with the closest being from the peak.


title: Mount Everest

text: Nicolson retreated to Patna on the Ganges to perform the necessary calculations based on his observations. His raw data gave an average height of for peak "b", but this did not consider light refraction, which distorts heights. However, the number clearly indicated that peak "b" was higher than Kangchenjunga. Nicolson contracted malaria and was forced to return home without finishing his calculations. Michael Hennessy, one of Waugh's assistants, had begun designating peaks based on Roman numerals, with Kangchenjunga named Peak IX. Peak "b" now became known as Peak XV.


title: Mount Everest

text: In 1852, stationed at the survey headquarters in Dehradun, Radhanath Sikdar, an Indian mathematician and surveyor from Bengal was the first to identify Everest as the world's highest peak, using trigonometric calculations based on Nicolson's measurements. An official announcement that Peak XV was the highest was delayed for several years as the calculations were repeatedly verified. Waugh began work on Nicolson's data in 1854, and along with his staff spent almost two years working on the numbers, having to deal with the problems of light refraction, barometric pressure, and temperature over the vast distances of the observations. Finally, in March 1856 he announced his findings in a letter to his deputy in Calcutta. Kangchenjunga was declared to be , while Peak XV was given the height of . Waugh concluded that Peak XV was "most probably the highest in the world". Peak XV (measured in feet) was calculated to be exactly high, but was publicly declared to be in order to avoid the impression that an exact height of was nothing more than a rounded estimate. Waugh is sometimes playfully credited with being "the first person to put two feet on top of Mount Everest".


title: Mount Everest

text: In 1856, Andrew Waugh announced Everest (then known as Peak XV) as high, after several years of calculations based on observations made by the Great Trigonometrical Survey.


title: Mount Everest

text: In 1955, the elevation of was first determined by an Indian survey, made closer to the mountain, also using theodolites. In 1975 it was subsequently reaffirmed by a Chinese measurement of . In both cases the snow cap, not the rock head, was measured.


title: Mount Everest

text: The height given was officially recognised by Nepal and China. Nepal planned a new survey in 2019 to determine if the April 2015 Nepal earthquake affected the height of the mountain.


title: Mount Everest

text: In May 1999, an American Everest expedition directed by Bradford Washburn anchored a GPS unit into the highest bedrock. A rock head elevation of , and a snow/ice elevation higher, were obtained via this device. Although as of 2001, it has not been officially recognised by Nepal, this figure is widely quoted. Geoid uncertainty casts doubt upon the accuracy claimed by both the 1999 and 2005 (see § 21st-century surveys) surveys.


title: Mount Everest

text: In 1955, a detailed photogrammetric map (at a scale of 1:50,000) of the Khumbu region, including the south side of Mount Everest, was made by Erwin Schneider as part of the 1955 International Himalayan Expedition, which also attempted Lhotse.


title: Mount Everest

text: In the late 1980s, an even more detailed topographic map of the Everest area was made under the direction of Bradford Washburn, using extensive aerial photography.


title: Mount Everest

text: On 9 October 2005, after several months of measurement and calculation, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping announced the height of Everest as with accuracy of ±, claiming it was the most accurate and precise measurement to date. This height is based on the highest point of rock and not the snow and ice covering it. The Chinese team measured a snow-ice depth of , which is in agreement with a net elevation of . An argument arose between China and Nepal as to whether the official height should be the rock height (8,844 m, China) or the snow height (8,848 m, Nepal). In 2010, both sides agreed that the height of Everest is 8,848 m, and Nepal recognises China's claim that the rock height of Everest is 8,844 m. On 8 December 2020, it was jointly announced by the two countries that the new official height is .


title: Mount Everest

text: It is thought that the plate tectonics of the area are adding to the height and moving the summit northeastwards. Two accounts suggest the rates of change are per year vertically and per year horizontally, but another account mentions more lateral movement (), and even shrinkage has been suggested.


title: Mount Everest

text: The summit of Everest is the point at which Earth's surface reaches the greatest distance above sea level. Several other mountains are sometimes claimed to be the "tallest mountains on Earth". Mauna Kea in Hawaii is tallest when measured from its base; it rises over when measured from its base on the mid-ocean floor, but only attains above sea level.


title: Mount Everest

text: By the same measure of base to summit, Denali, in Alaska, also known as Mount McKinley, is taller than Everest as well. Despite its height above sea level of only , Denali sits atop a sloping plain with elevations from , yielding a height above base in the range of ; a commonly quoted figure is . By comparison, reasonable base elevations for Everest range from on the south side to on the Tibetan Plateau, yielding a height above base in the range of .


title: Mount Everest

text: The summit of Chimborazo in Ecuador is farther from Earth's centre () than that of Everest (), because the Earth bulges at the equator. This is despite Chimborazo having a peak above sea level versus Mount Everest's .


title: Mount Everest

text: Geologists have subdivided the rocks comprising Mount Everest into three units called formations. Each formation is separated from the other by low-angle faults, called detachments, along which they have been thrust southward over each other. From the summit of Mount Everest to its base these rock units are the Qomolangma Formation, the North Col Formation, and the Rongbuk Formation.


title: Mount Everest

text: The Qomolangma Formation, also known as the Jolmo Lungama Formation, runs from the summit to the top of the Yellow Band, about above sea level. It consists of greyish to dark grey or white, parallel laminated and bedded, Ordovician limestone interlayered with subordinate beds of recrystallised dolomite with argillaceous laminae and siltstone. Gansser first reported finding microscopic fragments of crinoids in this limestone. Later petrographic analysis of samples of the limestone from near the summit revealed them to be composed of carbonate pellets and finely fragmented remains of trilobites, crinoids, and ostracods. Other samples were so badly sheared and recrystallised that their original constituents could not be determined. A thick, white-weathering thrombolite bed that is thick comprises the foot of the "Third Step", and base of the summit pyramid of Everest. This bed, which crops out starting about below the summit of Mount Everest, consists of sediments trapped, bound, and cemented by the biofilms of micro-organisms, especially cyanobacteria, in shallow marine waters. The Qomolangma Formation is broken up by several high-angle faults that terminate at the low angle normal fault, the Qomolangma Detachment. This detachment separates it from the underlying Yellow Band. The lower five metres of the Qomolangma Formation overlying this detachment are very highly deformed.


title: Mount Everest

text: The bulk of Mount Everest, between , consists of the North Col Formation, of which the Yellow Band forms the upper part between . The Yellow Band consists of intercalated beds of Middle Cambrian diopside-epidote-bearing marble, which weathers a distinctive yellowish brown, and muscovite-biotite phyllite and semischist. Petrographic analysis of marble collected from about found it to consist as much as five per cent of the ghosts of recrystallised crinoid ossicles. The upper five metres of the Yellow Band lying adjacent to the Qomolangma Detachment is badly deformed. A thick fault breccia separates it from the overlying Qomolangma Formation.