The Sopranos (The Sopranos episode) not be picked up by HBO and, in that case, planned to ask the network for additional money to shoot another 45 minutes and turn it into a feature film. Chase was also pressured by another, completely new development deal offered to him by another network, which he kept postponing until he heard HBO's verdict on "The Sopranos". Right before Christmas of 1997, David Chase received a phone call and learned that HBO did like the pilot and ordered a full season, all of which happened about two hours before the deadline for accepting the other network's deal. Chase was
The Sopranos of the New York City Columbus Day Parade won an injunction preventing Mayor Michael Bloomberg from inviting cast members of "The Sopranos" to participate in the parade. Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind conducted a national survey in August 2001 which polled 800 people. 37% said that they watched the show regularly, and 65% of this group (192 people, or 24% of the total) disagreed that the show portrayed Italian Americans in a negative way. Professor William Roberts was associated with the poll, and is the author of several books on modern Italian history; he commented that: "The show's inflated image of