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 organized crime casts a shadow over both the state and its Italian American community." At the end of the series, the PublicMind conducted a second national survey on "The Sopranos". In this poll, 41% of the 776 people polled said that they watched the show regularly, and 61% of this group (194 people, or 25% of the total) disagreed with the idea that the show portrayed Italian Americans in a negative light. Professor Roberts stated: "The show helped to perpetuate one of the more problematic and stereotypical images of Italian Americans. Both Italian and Italian American cultures have much more