The Sopranos ranked first in "Rolling Stone"'s list of the 100 greatest TV shows of all time. In March 2018, New Line Cinema announced that they have purchased a film detailing the "Sopranos" background story, set in the 1960s during the Newark riots. Titled "The Many Saints of Newark", it is written by David Chase and Lawrence Konner and will be directed by Alan Taylor. David Chase had worked as a television producer for more than 20 years before creating "The Sopranos". He had been employed as a staff writer or producer for several television series, including "", "Switch", "The Rockford Files",
Quality television television critics argued were "quality television", such as "The Sopranos". Claims that television programs are of higher quality include a number of subjective evaluations and value judgements. For example, Robert J. Thompson's claim that "quality television" programs include "...a quality pedigree, a large ensemble cast, a series memory, creation of a new genre through recombination of older ones, self-consciousness, and pronounced tendencies toward the controversial and the realistic" includes a number of subjective evaluations. The criteria for "quality television" set out by the US group Viewers for Quality Television ("A quality show is something we anticipate...[it] focuses more on relationships...[and]