I am Italian American, and I love The Sopranos. And I’m not talking about the show, which pretty much lost a special place in my heart the day I realized they bring in these new, somewhat redeeming, and likeable characters (Richie Aprile, Jackie Jr., Tony Blundetto, Ralph Cifaretto) just to kill them off, leaving their original cast intact.

No, I love the idea of The Sopranos. While Italian-American groups rant and rave about the damage the Jersey mobsters do to our reputation, they ignore some of the more glaring mockeries of our people. For instance, the hit TV show, Everybody Loves Raymond, featured a dysfunctional family with a nagging Italian mother, a buffoonish brother, and a sex-crazed husband who left much to be desired on the domestic side of things. To make matters worse, the only principal character of actual Italian descent was Ray Romano. The rest of the cast—down to his supposedly 100% blonde Italian kids—were played by non-Italian actors. So, held up against The Sopranos—which, at the very least, makes an effort to cast Italian Americans in roles that may poke fun at Italians—Everybody Loves Raymond seems to have dodged plenty of figurative bullets in its TV run.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

2 Comments »