Talking Sopranos
Talking Sopranos is a 92-episode rewatch podcast hosted by Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa, based on the long-running HBO television series The Sopranos. Imperioli played Christopher Moltisanti, and also wrote and produced five episodes, while Schirripa played Bobby Baccalieri in the series. The podcast is available on YouTube, Spotify, the Talking Sopranos website and on the Max streaming service.
Premise
On a typical installment of Talking Sopranos, Imperioli and Schirripa interview one or two of the Sopranos actors, writers, directors, producers, and others who were involved in the production of the series; the hosts then discuss and analyze a specific episode of the program, and answer a question sent in by a fan. Episodes 47, 62, and 68 feature interviews with celebrity "superfans" rather than Sopranos cast or crew.Some episodes do not cover a specific episode of the series. Episode 39 is devoted entirely to interviewing series creator and showrunner David Chase. Episode 85 consists of interviews with four members of the cast and crew, and Rob Spragg of Alabama 3. Episode 80 discusses Sopranos prequel film The Many Saints of Newark with David Chase and the cast from the film. Episodes 76 and 90 are devoted to interviewing "superfans" from across the globe.
Production
Talking Sopranos is a Podjams production; the executive producer is Jeff Sussman and the producer is Andy Verderame.The first episode of the podcast was released on April 6, 2020, in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in [the United States], and so the hosts and guests initially filmed their parts remotely. As the series was recorded some 13–14 years after the March 2007 filming of the last Sopranos episode, several cast and crew members had died in the interim, including actors James Gandolfini, Frank Vincent, and Denise Borino-Quinn, among others. Actress Nancy Marchand and director John Patterson died during the production of the series. The final episode was broadcast on December 20, 2021.
Guests who appeared multiple times on the podcast are David Chase, Steven Van Zandt, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, John Ventimiglia, Vincent Pastore, Robert Iler, Terence Winter, Lorraine Bracco, and Aida Turturro.
On September 17, 2020, Imperioli and Schirripa signed a deal with HarperCollins book imprint William Morrow and Company to write an oral history of The Sopranos; the book, titled Woke Up This Morning: The Definitive Oral History of The Sopranos, was published on November 2, 2021.
Reception
By September 2020, Talking Sopranos had reached over five million downloads, and as of January 2021, the podcast had 9 million listeners. It regularly appears on Apple's list of Top 10 TV/film podcasts.In May 2021, the podcast won a Webby Award for Best Television & Film Podcast as the "People's Voice Winner".
A review of the podcast in The Guardian said, "It is catnip for Sopranos mega-fans: both actors were major characters and have an inexhaustible arsenal of anecdotes and trivia."