The Sopranos is such an all-around stunning artistic accomplishment that when you spot its imperfections, it has a way of sticking with you. That’s why I want to talk about what I believe to be the worst single shot from one of television’s greatest achievements. As well as the path it sent me down. Here we go.
Now, when most people consider The Sopranos‘ most awkward cinematography, one scene comes to mind: the final appearance of mobster Tony Soprano’s awful mother, Livia. Nancy Marchand, who played Livia, died before season three was filmed, so the showrunners were put in a tough spot for how to handle the character’s on-screen demise.
The decision was made to use pre-existing footage and voice recordings of Marchand to film one final scene between Tony and his mother. A body double of Marchand was used, with footage of her head composited into the shots. The results were… not great.
But here’s the thing: Even today major movie studios still have a tough time escaping the Uncanny Valley when resurrecting deceased actors. And that’s coming more than two decades after this episode of The Sopranos aired. All things considered, this is just a case of the cast and crew making the best of an unfortunate situation and not quite sticking the landing. But what I consider to be the show’s worst shot is a compounding of unforced errors.
Coming in at the 16:49 mark of the season-one finale and lasting for a few seconds, we see things from the perspective of Livia. She is passing her time in the medical ward of a retirement home by reading the obituaries. This is a common practice for Livia, who is morbid and death-obsessed. She is often seen browsing the latest edition of Newark’s Star-Ledger to see who has most recently passed away.
Here’s the shot in question.
Although we only see the paper for a few seconds, it’s obvious that the prop team wasn’t expecting massive high-def televisions to hit the market when this episode was being filmed more than 20 years ago. If only they had the level of foresight that Junior Soprano exhibited when recognizing that Tony did not have the makings of a varsity athlete.
The Sopranos is very open about the show’s appreciation of the local newspaper. The Star-Ledger gets a shoutout in the show’s credits, which I think is great. Support local journalism.
It’s unique that the show’s characters are often seen with actual newspapers. But what is so odd about this aforementioned shot is that the names listed in large font above these very real obituaries are covered with strips of, lets say, tape — some blank, some marked with what I assume to be fictional names. My guess is that this is to obscure the names of real people who are newly dead.
For a show that feels as realistic as The Sopranos, this obvious sign of artifice is compelling. The shot isn’t bad in a traditional sense. It’s not cinematically incorrect, poorly lit, out of focus, or aesthetically displeasing. It’s just clearly a real newspaper that was altered to mask real identities for filming purposes. And it’s bizarre that such a prop would be shown up close for a long enough period of time for this to become apparent.
In a wide or medium shot, no one would be able to notice the newspaper had been altered. You wouldn’t even need to alter it. If this were featured in a scene alongside dialogue and some dynamic blocking, most people wouldn’t even pay any attention to the paper in the first place. They’d probably be more focused on all the mob drama or A.J. Soprano’s ever-evolving collection of heavy metal band shirts. But seeing this paper up close, it may be hard to ignore how this affects your suspension of disbelief.
I say this fully aware that I am going to be paying more attention to the newspaper than most. I used to be a newspaper copy editor. My mind sees a newspaper and immediately scans for what’s wrong — because for a while, that’s how I got paid and used that money to buy food and shelter. That’s how we get to the next big problem with this shot, which compounds my fascination with it. It’s a Matryoshka doll of errors.
If you look at the top right section of the page, you’ll see the taped-over name of a recently deceased person followed by “registerd nurse, 81.” In case you missed it, there is an unfortunate typo that is very prevalent in this individual’s obituary.
So now you may have noticed that I’m going down a bit of a rabbit hole. Well, it gets worse. Because my mind is unwell.
In addition to being a newspaper copy editor, I also spent some time as an investigative reporter. As is my nature, I wanted to figure out the identity of this person who had her obituary marred by a typo, which was then forever preserved in the worst shot in one of the greatest television shows ever made.
I could never get a clear enough image of the obituary in question to enlarge and read it straight off the page. This was going to require some effort. But that’s fine. I welcome a challenge.
After some late-night digging through newspaper archives and genealogy sites, I finally found her — Mrs. Martha K. Cobuzzi. Soon I had most of the basic details on her life. Also her Social Security number, but that’s not really relevant. It starts with 0, which is pretty cool.
Born in Roscoe, New York, in 1917. Graduated from St. Mary College School of Nursing in Brooklyn. Worked as a registered nurse at Phelps Memorial Hospital in Mount Vernon, New York. Retired from nursing in 1980. Moved to the township of Marlboro, New Jersey, in 1994. Died October 21, 1998, at the age of 81.
Here’s to Mrs. Cobuzzi. I’ll never know you, and you’ll never read this. But that doesn’t matter. Thanks to an odd obsession with a typo in a poorly doctored newspaper that appeared briefly in an off-putting shot from The Sopranos, I learned about your life. Your career. The family you left behind. And in the spirit of The Sopranos, nothing’s more important than family. Or the problematic little parts of our minds that fixate on what’s wrong.
