The Sets of 'The Sopranos' at the Museum of the Moving Image

Summary

Podcast Summary: "The Sets of 'The Sopranos' at the Museum of the Moving Image"

Podcast: All Of It with Alison Stewart, WNYC
Guest: Barbara Miller, Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs, Museum of the Moving Image
Date: March 2, 2026
Exhibit: "Stories and Set Design for the Sopranos" (On view through May 31st, 2026)

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the new exhibition at the Museum of the Moving Image dedicated to the iconic sets of The Sopranos. Host Alison Stewart interviews Barbara Miller, who organized the exhibit, for an in-depth look at how the show's physical environments contributed to its groundbreaking storytelling. Together, Stewart and Miller discuss the artistry, research, and meticulous detail that went into creating spaces like Dr. Melfi’s office, the Soprano family home, and Satriale’s pork store, and how these choices shaped the narrative and cultural resonance of the series.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Importance of Sets in Storytelling

[04:05] Why TV Sets Matter

• Barbara Miller: Sets differ for TV versus film because TV shows often don’t have the luxury of knowing how long they'll run. Sets are spaces where characters "live for an unforeseeable amount of time."
• The design of the pilot and first season was crucial—once those sets were established, characters would inhabit them for years.

The Exhibit’s Approach

[03:00] Multiple Perspectives on 'The Sopranos'

• The exhibit resulted from a collaboration tied to screenings of season three episodes at the museum.
• The show is examined from both a curatorial and fan-centric perspective, including screenings with creator David Chase and cast.

Authenticity and New Jersey

[06:25] Capturing Real New Jersey

• Sets needed to "have a feel for New Jersey" to honor creator David Chase’s roots and the show’s unique blending of mob drama with suburban Americana.
• Alison Stewart: Describes her own connections: “I used to say documentary. As I watched it, I was like, oh, yeah, I went to that soda shop. I went to that place to get food for my mom. You know, I recognize all the places they picked.”
• Miller highlights the show's shift: representing organized crime within "suburban America," contrasting with traditional portrayals.

Set Designers Throughout the Series

[05:17] Production Design Evolution

• Edward Pizzoni designed the pilot.
• Dean Tauscher took over for the first season, translating location shots (except Dr. Melfi’s office) into built sets at Silvercup Studios in Queens.
• Bob Shaw handled later seasons, maintaining continuity and evolving the series’ look and feel.

In-Depth: Dr. Melfi’s Office

[08:30] The Dreamscape of Tony’s Therapy

• The office is notable for its intentional circular design—"building a circular office...create an environment where Tony had no place to hide."
• The office is minimalist and Zen, reinforcing Tony’s vulnerability.

Research and Materials: The David Chase Archives

[09:41] Accessing the DNA of the Series

• Miller: David Chase provided access to his personal archive focused on the transition from pilot to series.
• Materials include handwritten notes on character arcs, research into mob life, and outlines for how characters would develop.
• Key Insight: The exhibit displays how stories were crafted not to simply “resolve” each episode but to let characters evolve over time.

  “One of the strengths of the Sopranos...is about how these characters evolve.” – Barbara Miller [10:30]

Iconic Locations: The Pork Store

[11:38] From Real Life to Set

• In the pilot, the pork store was filmed at a real shop, Santani’s.
• For the series, a replica set was built to retain continuity, resulting in the iconic Satriale’s pork store.

The Soprano Family Home

[12:35] The Heart of the Series

• The pilot used a real family’s house, with a floor plan aiding both writers and directors in visualizing family dynamics.
• For regular filming, interiors were recreated and modified at Silvercup Studios for technical and narrative purposes.

Favorite Artifact from the Exhibit

[14:22] Behind the Curtain

• Miller’s favorite: David Chase’s original, annotated notes and the production binder from the pilot.

  “We like to kind of pull the curtain back to show how things happen. It feels like magic, but it’s work.” – Barbara Miller [14:22]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On suburban authenticity:

  "It was average America. It was suburban America. ... Shooting the action of organized crime in suburban New Jersey ... was a real change from how mob activity had ever been represented on screen."
  — Barbara Miller [07:10]

• On the purpose of set design:

  "The design of sets for television is a space where characters live for, you know, an unforeseeable amount of time."
  — Barbara Miller [04:05]

• On Dr. Melfi’s office:

  "He wanted to create an environment where Tony had no place to hide. There were no corners to hide in, so he was exposed."
  — Barbara Miller [09:00]

• On the show’s evolution:

  "They had no idea what was coming. They're producing a pilot, and all these years later, it becomes this iconic thing."
  — Barbara Miller [15:10]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [03:00] – Exhibit’s curatorial approach and special screenings
• [04:05] – Importance of sets in serialized TV
• [05:17] – The show's different production designers
• [06:25] – Authenticity and the depiction of New Jersey
• [08:30] – In-depth on Dr. Melfi’s office design
• [09:41] – Artifacts and research from David Chase’s personal archive
• [11:38] – Satriale’s pork store: from real location to set
• [12:35] – Creating and modifying the Soprano family home
• [14:22] – Miller’s favorite objects in the exhibit

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Conclusion

This episode offers an engaging, behind-the-scenes look at how The Sopranos' settings shaped the narrative and cultural identity of the show. Through vivid anecdotes, expert insight, and the magic of archival materials, listeners gain a new appreciation for the craft—and community—behind television’s most iconic mob family.

To visit:
"Stories and Set Design for the Sopranos" is on view through May 31st at the Museum of the Moving Image.

Transcript

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[Alison Stewart]

You are listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. Let's get in the mood here. It's Sunday night. It's about 1999. You turn on HBO when you hear this.

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[Alison Stewart]

Mama always said you'd be there. For six seasons and 86 episodes, the Sopranos changed the face of premium TV. It was famous for its character driven storytelling. But just like any beloved TV show, the sets where the action takes place can be just as important. Consider Dr. Melfi's office, where Tony Soprano is trying to figure out why he would have panic attacks. Or consider the steamy, gritty aura of the Bada Bing Club. All are featured in a new exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image. It's called Stories and Set Design for the Sopranos. Barbara Miller is the Museum of the Moving Images deputy director of Curatorial affairs. She organized this exhibit, which is on view now through March 31st. And she's here now to talk about the sets of the Sopranos. Hi, welcome to the show.

[Barbara Miller]

Hi, Alison. So good to be with you.

[Alison Stewart]

Okay, the Sopranos is. And this is the most overused word, but it actually applies here. It's an iconic television show, right?

[Barbara Miller]

Absolutely.

[Alison Stewart]

In terms of the exhibit itself, what kind of physical objects are on view?

[Barbara Miller]

Yeah. So we had some material, and we have some material in the museum's collection related to the design of the pilot episode of the Sopranos and the first season of the Sopranos, and sort of, on the occasion of my colleague, curator of film, Michael Koreski, organizing a series of evening showing episodes from season three of the Sopranos, we decided, as we do often at Museum of the Moving Image, to kind of look at this sort of iconic work of art from multiple perspectives. So we had these screenings in our theater from last Thursday through Saturday with David Chase and cast members in person, which was incredible, showing these episodes and having these conversations with these avid fans in attendance. But we also, in our galleries, explored the show from a different angle, and that was sort of establishing the series as it went from a pilot, which David Chase wrote into the first season of the series. Series.

[Alison Stewart]

Just generally speaking, outside of the Sopranos, why are sets so important? When we think about television and we remember television.

[Barbara Miller]

Yeah, it's a. It's a great question. And, you know, it's really different, I think, in some ways for TV than it is for film. Right. You make a film, you sort of know what the beginning and the middle and the end is, and you're creating sets, and you sort of know where it's going. You're creating environments for the action to play out over a very sort of limited amount of time, you can see the ends for television. And I think especially in the model of the Sopranos, where there was a pilot with no idea what was gonna happen after that. Is it gonna go for a full season? Is there gonna be another season after that? The design of sets for television is a space where characters live for, you know, an unforeseeable amount of time. And I think that's why we focused our attention on this sort of the design of the pilot and the design of the first season, because once those sets were established, that's where the characters had to live for all those years.

[Alison Stewart]

Who are the designers we're talking about?

[Barbara Miller]

Yeah. So the production designer for the pilot episode was Edward Pizzoni. And then for the first season, the production designer was Dean Tauscher. And for the balance of the series, Bob Shaw was the production designer. Kind of amazing you know, New York based production designer, and he, of course, made tremendous contributions to the look and the feel of the series. But the foundational environments were laid by Ed in the pilot and then by Dean's work as he took those environments that were all location shot, right, except for Dr. Melfi's office. They were all shot on location. Had to take those environments, turn them into built sets at Silver cup studios in Queens. And then that's sort of where they. Where this. Where the characters lived from, you know, 1999 through 2007.

[Alison Stewart]

So what kind of research did the designers do when they were creating the various locations for the Soprano, the pork store, the Soprano home. How important was accuracy?

[Barbara Miller]

You know, I think it really needed to have a feel for New Jersey. Right? I mean, it was, yes, my home state.

[Alison Stewart]

I used to say documentary. As I watched it, I was like, oh, yeah, I went to the. After that school, I went to that soda shop. I went to that place to get food for my mom. You know, I recognize all the places they picked.

[Barbara Miller]

You know, I think it's so great that you say that, because it's not. You know, obviously we don't. Most of us don't live in the world of the. Of organized crime. But these. These environments is the way that these mobster, these criminals really moved through the world was just this. It was America.

[Alison Stewart]

It was average America.

[Barbara Miller]

It was average America. It was suburban America. And I think, you know, shooting the, you know, framing the action of organized crime in suburban New Jersey, largely right, was a real change from how mob activity had ever been represented on scre. And I think, you know, David Chase, as a native of New Jersey and of, you know, that neighborhood where Tony and Carmela lived, really wanted to lean into that. And I think that was really important to him. Even though after the pilot, all of the built sets were at Silver cup studios in Queens, all of the exterior shots, all. I mean, all of the exterior shots that were meant to represent New Jersey were shot in New Jersey, without exception.

[Alison Stewart]

We're talking about the sets of the Sopranos, the subject of a new exhibit at the museum of the moving image stories and set designs for the Sopranos. It's on view through the 31st.

[Barbara Miller]

May 31st.

[Alison Stewart]

May 31st. Thank you very much. My guest is Barbara Miller, the museum's deputy director of Curatorial Affairs, Dr. Melfi's office. Let's talk about that. We've talked about it a couple of different times. The place where we see Tony Soprano at his most vulnerable. What are some of the details from that office that maybe you should pay attention to.

[Barbara Miller]

Yeah, it's really great. I mean, it's kind of a dream for me watching it. It's like a dreamscape. It's not. It kind of doesn't make sense in the context of the show. You sort of see Tony walk in there a few times into this nondescript building through some other courtyard. But inside the room, it's, first of all, it's circular. It's like very sort of free of trappings. It's not kind of loud, it's not a lot of traffic through it. It's not ostentatious. It's just very kind of Zen space. And on view in the exhibit, there are a few reference images that the production designer, Ed Pizzoni kind of pulled in order to create that space. And Ed Pizzoni talked about how he thought about that space was building a circular office. Part of it was want to create an environment where Tony had no place to hide. There were no corners to hide in, so he was exposed.

[Alison Stewart]

That's so interesting. You have, you had access to David Chase's personal archives for the exhibit. What did you decide to use and what did you learn?

[Barbara Miller]

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. So like I mentioned, the production design material that's on view in the exhibit is pulled from the museum's collection. But we had the opportunity to go in very generously. David Chase allowed us to go into his personal archive. And I really wanted to limit the exploration to that kind of moment where he was moving from a pilot into planning for the first season. How is he taking those characters, how is he expanding upon those stories? Because there kind of was. There were no other scripts written, right. They shoot. HBO shoots the pilot in 1997, it gets green, the series gets greenlit six months later, and all of a sudden, okay, we have to figure out who these people are, what they're going to be doing, what are these stories going to be about. And the material in David Chase's archive really speaks to some of the research that they did, you know, much, much more fine grained research into the mob, sort of looking for themes that they could then bring into the stories. So there are handwritten notes that chart character development and story arcs and figuring out kind of what the main focus is going to be for each, for each episode. But I think really tellingly, one of the strengths of the Sopranos, one of the reasons people love it so much, and it has, you know, stood the test of time. It's not like, you know, every Episode has a little button at the end. Okay, this is done. Now moving on to something else. It really is about how these characters evolve. So the notes that we have on view are really looking at characters. They're not just looking at sort of story beats necessarily and resolving something at the end of an episode. So that was really great. Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

One of the places that people will recognize who watch the show the entire season is the pork store in. It's not what we think of as Satriale's pork store in the pilot. Right.

[Barbara Miller]

In the pilot, it was shot at. At a real business called Santani's. Right. It's a meat market. So they. They sort of took over the market for, you know, for the time it took them to shoot the pilot. And then when they were moving into a series, they couldn't realistically use a real business to. To keep shooting at day to day. So they had to scout multiple locations sort of in the area to see use as an ongoing set. So they actually took. They built a set to look like Centani. So there was continuity. Obviously the name changed because they couldn't use that name, but there is a lot of continuity in terms of the look between Santanis and the set that they built nearby that became Satriale's.

[Alison Stewart]

I want to talk about the Sopranos home. There are many key scenes that take place there. And I see in the show there's a floor plan of their house. Why was that necessary? And for, I guess, the writers to understand how this family lived.

[Barbara Miller]

Yeah, you know, that's a good question. Probably it was. I mean, it was important maybe for the writers to see how all the spaces connected. When they shot the pilot, they shot within this family's private home. Right. They shot the outside with the pool and the ducks and all that. And they also used the inside of the house as a set. And I think having those plans there was important maybe for the writers to understand, you know, the spaces they could use, but really also to plan, you know, how it was shot.

[Alison Stewart]

Right.

[Barbara Miller]

For the director of cinematography and all the folks that were working on it. After the pilot, they continued to use the exteriors of the Recchia family home in Caldwell, ongoing, really, through all of the series. But they built a dedicated set for the interiors at. At Silver cup, and they modified the layout of the house somewhat so that it was easier for them to use. They kind of added a stair, a main stairway. You know, that entryway in the actual home is single story. But they, you know, for. For different sort of story reasons and. And and, you know, creative reasons. They built, they. They modified the house somewhat to be able to. To add continuity there. Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

What's your favorite thing in the exhibit? I know that's a hard question, but one that you just like. You like to tell people about.

[Barbara Miller]

Oh, gosh, it's really tough. I mean, having those handwritten notes from David Chase and his writing team and really seeing the DNA of the show come together. I mean, that's. For us, that's really the magic, right? At the museum, we like to kind of pull the curtain back to show how things happen. It's not. It feels like magic, but it's work. We show the work that's important for us. So seeing that work take place, seeing David Chase's sort of ideas and the contributions of his writers as the outlines for the different episodes come together, that's really, really magical. I think also, just having the production binder there from the pilot episode, that feels kind of magical. They didn't really know. You realize they had no idea what was coming. They had no idea what was coming. And they're just. They're out there, you know, they're doing. They're producing a pilot, and all these years later, it sort of becomes this iconic thing.

[Alison Stewart]

The name of the exhibit is Stories and Set Designs for the Sopranos. It's on view through May 31st. My guest is Barbara Miller, the museum's deputy director of curatorial affairs. It's on exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image. Thanks for joining us.

[Barbara Miller]

Oh, thank you so much, Elsa. It's a pleasure.

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