David Chase's First Image for The Sopranos Was Tony Waking Up
The Guardian reports that the first image David Chase had in mind for The Sopranos was a closeup of Tony Soprano opening his eyes, waking up for the day. That scene ended up later in the pilot. The opening that actually aired instead puts Tony in a therapist's waiting room, eyeing a sculpture with baffled rage.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
Take
The aired opening is a stronger thesis statement: Tony's baffled rage at a sculpture is a whole character in one reaction.
Pushback
The waking shot wasn't discarded, though. It just arrived later in the pilot, which makes it a delayed beat rather than a lost idea.