In the 46th episode of The Sopranos, the aptly named ‘Watching Too Much Television’, Tony takes his son Anthony Junior to Newark, New Jersey, to see the place Tony and his sister Janice grew up in. Their first stop is at a church that Tony’s grandfather “helped build 80 years ago”, which is actually the St. Patrick’s Church in Jersey City in real life.
“This neighborhood used to be beautiful”, Tony says, before going on a rant about how Italian immigrants were dedicated to hard work and building their own places of gathering, culminating in a line about how valuable real estate is.
The two continue driving until they arrive at an even more dilapidated area of Newark, parking in front of a row of run-down houses. They are approached by an African American man and his sister who offer to sell them drugs. After Tony politely refuses their proposition, things become tenser when the man proclaims “no eyeing if you ain’t buying”.
The woman is a bit more abrupt in relaying the same message which prompts a more offensive remark from Tony. Things threaten to get out of control when the man leaps to this sister’s defence, but Tony tries to play it down, saying he’s just here to show his son ‘the old neighbourhood’. The man says that this is their neighbourhood now, lifting his shirt up to show a pistol tucked in his waist. “Yeah, I can see that”, says Tony, with the writers quite unambiguously trying to make a broader point about the state of Newark and its changing demographics.
Though it is admittedly harder to showcase any significant nuance about the city in a scene spanning a mere three minutes, it can still appear unfair to both the area as well as the referenced groups of people to leave the scene at that particular point. We must remember, however, that we are not here to be properly and comprehensively educated about Newark and its history, we have come along for the proverbial ride so that we can catch a glimpse at how Tony Soprano views the area. Tony’s own memories, ideals, biases and preconceptions weigh heavily into how this entire scenario plays out to us.
Much earlier during the series, in episode 7, Down Neck, the only one in the entire Sopranos run directed by a female director no less, Tony reflects on some of his memories as a child in this very neighbourhood. This includes a scene in which his father, Giovanni “Johnny Boy” Soprano and his uncle Corrado John “Junior” Soprano Jr chase down an Italian American man by the name of Rocco Alatorre, delivering a beatdown on the unfortunate Rocco, presumably for delinquent payments.
Later during the episode, we see a further two instances involving the city and his father, one showing an amusement park, where Johnny Boy used to meet with other mobsters using their daughters as cover, and the other one where Tony’s parents argue about leaving Jersey for Reno, with Olivia Soprano saying that she would rather smother her own children than move to Nevada.
The moves between these two extremes versions of Newark without truly attempting to bridge the gap, despite the allusions to what took place for Tony’s parents and the other Italians there to move away. For five days in 1967, Newark was the stage for one of the many race riots that occurred that year, with that summer being dubbed the ‘Long Hot Summer of 1967’.
In regards to Newark specifically, a combination of poverty, classism, racism, neglect, police misconduct, and urban renewal policies which failed to address the needs of the African American and Hispanic communities in the area, culminated in the unrest which marked the city for decades. But just as the show fails to truly investigate what took place there, so too the actual newspapers and journalists who lived there.
“Very little original reporting was done in the black community, while downtown business interests and the suburbs were lavishly covered”, said journalist Jonathan Lazarus to the New York Times in 2017. “When the city exploded, The News lacked black reporters with deep ties to the community to adequately explain the ferment”, Lazarus added.
Moving to the present, series creator David Chase is ready to add another chapter to The Sopranos saga. While Chase considers The Sopranos a completed story told in the exact way he wanted, his forthcoming film The Many Saints of Newark will deal with Newark in the 1960s, with the 1967 riots playing a pivotal part in showing the relationship between the Italian American and African American communities in the city.
Although Joseph Siravo played a young Johnny Boy in the original series, Punisher actor Jon Bernthal will be playing the character in the film. The phrase ‘many saints’ also alludes to the character of Christopher Moltisanti, with this last name being the Italian version of the two words. Naturally, Moltisanti’s father will make an appearance, played by Alessandro Nivola. Most notably, Michael Gandolfini, James Gandolfini’s son, will be playing a younger version of Tony Soprano, a role which has become synonymous with his father.
“I was interested in Newark and life in Newark at that time. I used to go down there every Saturday night for dinner with my grandparents. But the thing that interested me most was Tony’s boyhood. I was interested in exploring that”, said Chase.
The Many Saints of Newark is scheduled to be released in March of 2021.
