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for 'The Sopranos'
HBO's offer that could not be refused. NJ soaper.
HBO needs “The Sopranos” more than “The Sopranos” needs HBO.
Faced with the impending exit of its signature comedy series, “Sex and the City,” early next year, HBO did not want to lose two critical darlings and ratings draws within a few months of each other, especially not when the network’s other highly regarded show, “Six Feet Under,” lost viewers this season.
So when HBO executives noticed “Sopranos” creator/executive producer David Chase, the man who has banged the fifth and final season drum since season four, telling the press that he might need a few more episodes to satisfactorily wrap up his storylines, they reacted.
They offered the supporting cast a reported 25 percent raise from this season for filming just 10 episodes, as opposed to the regular 13, for a season six.
And Chase decided, indeed, that Tony Soprano’s saga should continue for another year.
Last night HBO and “Sopranos” executive producer David Grey confirmed that an agreement had been reached for a sixth and final season, though that decision is much less surprising than it would have been three weeks ago.
Chase met with the cast earlier this week to discuss the return. The meeting reportedly did not include Drea de Matteo, increasing speculation that she’ll be the fifth-season whack.
But the cast principals, including James Gandolfini, Edie Falco and Lorraine Bracco, were all agreeable to a sixth season.
Ever since Chase began publicly considering a sixth season, the deal seemed likely. HBO needed the extra episodes to seriously pursue a syndication deal.
The program, widely considered the most successful cable show ever, will have 65 episodes filmed when production ends on season five.
Though usually dramas need 100 episodes to enter syndication, 75 may work for “The Sopranos.”
Viewership has been limited to the households that receive HBO, which represents less than a third of the country. Thus although it’s a huge hit for the pay cable network, only a few million people have watched it.
A few months ago, when “Sopranos” patriarch Gandolfini and HBO sued and counter-sued one another in a salary dispute, prospects for season six looked dim.
Since then, though, life on the “Sopranos” set has been dandy. Gandolfini distributed $500,000 of his new salary to co-stars last week, and even though the fifth-season debut date was pushed from fall 2003 to March 2004, production has run smoothly.
Production for season six will begin in late 2004 or early 2005, following the rather spread-out pattern “The Sopranos” has established in its run.
June 18, 2003© 2003 Media Life
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