Who's Gonna Get Whacked?

When it comes to "The Sopranos," everyone knows that on television, the boss of the mob is a swaggering Italian-American named Tony Soprano.

But the real Godfather, the guy who created the show, is a modest Italian-American writer and producer named David Chase.

When "The Sopranos" made its debut on HBO in 1999, critics hailed the show as a great work of art, and Chase as a genius. Viewers loved it, too.

But now, the end is near. Chase and his crew recently began shooting the sixth and final season, which won't air until next spring. Chase is no mobster; he doesn't have a record. But, as reports, there's a lot of him in "The Sopranos."

Take, for example, his mother. "My mother was sort of the model for Livia Soprano," says Chase.

Livia Soprano, Tony's mother on the show, and a nasty piece of work, was played by the late Nancy Marchand. Once, Livia ordered a mob hit on her son.

"Livia tries to kill Tony - did your mother?" asks Simon.

"No, my mother never tried to kill me," says Chase.

"I heard one story that she went at you with a fork once?" asks Simon.

"Yeah, she was trying, she was threatening to poke my eye with a fork," says Chase, laughing. "But, she was hysterical."

Chase found the fork attack so unforgettable, he used it in the show, when Tony flashes back to his childhood. But Tony eventually grows up and takes his revenge: He commits his mother to an old-age home, but not without a fight.

"The Sopranos" always opens with Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini, behind the wheel leaving the Big Apple behind for his luxurious home in the Jersey suburbs. Besides being a son and a gangster, Tony's a husband, a father, a philanderer, a thief, and a murderer. What's not to love?

"He's so ridiculous. He really is. He's so deluded, self-deluded and he lies to everyone, most of all to himself," says Chase. "And he thinks that he tries very hard but he doesn't really. He just seems lost."

Tony is lost and trying to find himself in analysis. But he's also trying to seduce his analyst, Dr. Melfi, played by Lorraine Bracco.

You don't say "don't" to Tony Soprano easily, and Melfi knows it. Tony's constantly on the verge of exploding. Tony's depressed. He takes Prozac. And Gandolfini, the actor, exudes all that violence and rage. Chase saw that in him, and exploited it.

"I have a little bit of a temper but it's, you know, a useless temper," says Gandolfini. "It doesn't accomplish anything generally. It's just a lot of ranting and raving and nothing. So David probably saw that and put it into the character. You know all writers are vampires. And they'll look around and they watch you when you're not even thinking they're watching you, and they'll slip stuff in."

Chase, the vampire, is 59, and works out of a movie studio in Queens. He and his writers, easily some of the best vampires in the business, are developing plotlines for the last 13 episodes of the last season.
There's only one more season, but still so many issues to resolve.

Does Tony survive, or does Chase whack him in the last episode? And what about Carmela, Tony's wife, played by Edie Falco? After splitting up with Tony, Carmela took him back. But will they stay reconciled?

Chase confessed to 60 Minutes Wednesday that Carmela's not easy: "Carmela's been difficult. It's been a difficult character because you can get to a thing with her where, where she's just bitching, she's just complaining. And she's no fun. And she's just a nag. But Carmela's trapped and so she's always reactive as opposed to proactive. So, Carmela's a hard character to write."

When Simon told Falco that, she said, "Hmmm….That's surprising to me."

60 Minutes Wednesday met Falco at her favorite cafe near her home in Lower Manhattan. Over a cappuccino, Simon asked her what it's like working for Chase.

"I think for me, it's sort of a father thing, because he actually reminds me a great deal of my dad in a lot of different ways," says Falco.

What's so special about Chase?

"He's a hell of a lot smarter than 99 percent of the people that I've worked with," says Gandolfini. "And he's a hell of a lot smarter than me. So I know when to shut up and listen."

"He's very hard on himself and writing these things, I think, he puts himself through a lot," says Falco. "And I know he oversees every step of the production - pre, during and post. And it really costs him."

"Sure it costs him, but he admitted to us that once it ends he thinks he'll get depressed," says Simon, laughing.

"How will we know the difference, that's my question," says Falco. "But I say that, with all due love and respect, as you know."

Chase is a New Jersey guy through and through. He grew up in the suburbs in the same kind of place where much of his show is filmed. He comes from a large Italian-American family whose name in the old country was DeCesare. His father owned a hardware store. His now infamous mother worked for the phone company. And David grew up, went to college, got married, and was always nuts about mobsters and movies.

One of the films that made an early impression on him was "The Public Enemy" starring James Cagney. Simon sat down with Chase to watch the old movie again.

"What is it about mobsters that you find so fascinating?" asks Simon.

"They're outlaws," says Chase.

And never has such a colorful and lethal group of outlaws been assembled on one television show. There's Christopher, the junkie who wants to be a Hollywood screenwriter; Uncle Junior, who's creeping into senility; Paulie Walnuts, who's got a mother fixation; Cousin Tony; Silvio Dante; Johnny Sack; Big Pussy; and Bobby Bakala.

They're all hoods and killers, but they enjoy doing shtick.

"Was that part of the notion from the start, that it would be a mobster drama with laughs?" asks Simon.

"I just like comedy a lot. And most of the time in the so-called drama that I write, there's a, I guess, a sense of the absurd to it," says Chase. "I mean, I find life, even when something very sad is going on, there's something ridiculous usually happening."

Chase wrote and produced other television shows, but he was frustrated and desperate to create more multi-dimensional characters. He finally got the chance with "The Sopranos," creating characters who are more complex than most of the characters on TV.

"They're flailing and they're trying to find something. They're trying to figure it out. And they're kidding themselves and they're kidding their families," says Chase. "And I think that's really the basic difference. That they don't have, they certainly don't have the answer."

Most of the actors on the show are Italian-Americans. But that's not the only thing they have in common. They tremble in fear of losing their jobs, not because HBO might cancel the show, but because Chase, a known serial killer of TV characters, might decide to deep-six them.

"One of the things I like about doing this show is that you can kill people off," says Chase. "And it helps with my problem, which is I get bored with things really easily."

"So, in your world, when you get bored with somebody, you can kill them off, and not do time," says Simon.

"Yeah," says Chase, who has wielded the axe liberally. Among the characters pushing up daisies is Ralph Cifaretto, beaten to death by Tony himself, his body parts separated and buried in the Jersey soil. Tony also killed his cousin, because somebody had to. And Big Pussy, caught singing to the Feds, was pushed overboard to sing to the fishes.

Chase, however, hasn't spared women from being whacked. Christopher's girlfriend, Adrianna, was driven into the woods and shot.

Who's next? Tony himself? Or perhaps Chase will surprise us in the last episode and have Tony kill Carmela.

"That would be unlikely. Who would cook?" says Falco, laughing.

Strolling with Chase through Carmela's kitchen on "The Sopranos" set, something struck us about Chase: the man has absolutely no conceit. We thought he'd boast or at least take some pride in his creation. We were wrong.

"When you started thinking about the Sopranos, did you have any sense that this was gonna be your masterwork?" asks Simon.

"No, not at all. In fact, I really didn't want to do a TV series," says Chase.

Nor did he claim any bragging rights about inventing a larger-than-life icon, one of the most recognizable television characters of all time.

"This is a personality in our culture," says Simon. "Tony Soprano is going to mean something to several generations of people."

"How did that happen?" asks Chase.

"You made it happen," says Simon.

"I know, but that was not the intention," says Chase. "I was just trying to earn some money and get some film to show."

"Now that you've created Tony Soprano and he is this figure in our imaginations, in our lives, how do you feel about having the power to decide whether he lives or dies?" asks Simon.

"Doesn't – he's only a fictional character," says Chase, laughing.

OK, so he's "only a fictional character." Years ago, he didn't exist outside Chase's mind. But now, he belongs to all of us. He is part of America. And when the last show of the last season approaches, millions of Americans will be speculating on his fate as if he were a member of the family – which, of course, he is.