Introduction: the Literary and Cultural Origins of 21st Century American Television Series

Our volume coalesces around the observation that beginning in the approximate year 1999 and extending to the present day, American art and culture has manifested itself on American television screens, and particularly within the new technological and creative contexts of the serialized subscription drama. In this introduction, we will largely eschew abstract theoretical discussion of the series and their particular literary investments in favor of a panorama of scenes from across the genre that will illuminate and foreshadow by example the intricate connectivities between the television series and the works of literature and other forms of cultural production that sustain them, explored in the chapters that follow.1 Let us begin with the premiere of The Sopranos on January 10, 1999.2

The opening credits feature Tony Soprano, mob boss, emerging from the Lincoln Tunnel on the New Jersey side with a spectacular image of Lower Manhattan in his rear-view mirror. The implications are clear: all traditions, especially as regards the mob narrative in America, are left behind. This poignant visual signals HBO’s break from the constraints of 20th century network broadcasting. In hindsight, this is the moment when HBO began shaping new narrative strategies that would speak to the turbulent emotions of 21st century America, strategies that would manifest in unprecedented narrative subtlety corroborated by a density and sophistication of literary and cultural refence that progresses well beyond the conventions of the 20th century.

The Sopranos takes the traditional mob narrative to a new sub-culture: the American suburb. Accordingly, Tony is introduced to America through discourse with his female therapist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi (played by Lorraine Bracco of Goodfellas fame). As Tony begins his exploration of early 21st century American life, the camera captures him in stasis. He is lying in bed, unable, or at least unmotivated, to move. Compare this image to the introduction of either Don Vito Corleone or Paul “Paulie” Cicero. In the opening scene of The Godfather, the viewer appreciates that Don Vito’s slightest of hand gestures elicits an immediate response from his consigliores; in this case, to offer Bonasera a tissue as he relates the story of his daughter’s sexual assault. In Goodfellas, Henry Hill provides voiceover during the introduction of Paul Cicero: “Paulie may have moved slow, but that was only because Paulie didn’t have to move for anybody.” As the camera zooms in on Tony’s eye as he lies in bed, the viewer is initiated into a psychological exploration of the anxieties at the center of American life during the turbulent transition from the 20th to the 21st century, a profound unease leaving not even mob bosses unaffected.