‘The Sopranos’ Changed How Television Told Stories. These Scripts, Sketches and Set Designs Reveal What Made the Mob Drama So Thrilling

An exhibition at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York provides visitors with a behind-the-scenes look at the award-winning HBO show

Sonja Anderson | Daily Correspondent

March 27, 2026

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The pilot episode of “The Sopranos” aired on January 10, 1999. With 21 Emmy wins, the six-season show changed television forever. Now, fans can get a behind-the-scenes look at exactly how the HBO hit came to life.

“Stories and Set Designs for ‘The Sopranos’” is on view at the Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI) in New York. It features scripts, notes and research material from series creator David Chase’s personal archive, as well as concept art and design sketches for key settings.

“By joining the design materials to the writing materials, we wanted to provide a closer look at how ‘The Sopranos,’ and a television series more broadly, moves from that initial pilot stage into series production,” exhibition curator Barbara Miller tells Artnet’s Richard Whiddington. “It uncovers the mystery of how these things happen. It’s work; it’s not magic.”

The show’s main character is Tony Soprano, a mafia boss in New Jersey. The series spotlights Tony’s mob leadership and familial dysfunction, punctuated by his appointments with his psychiatrist, Jennifer Melfi. Set in a world of organized crime, the show examines morality, spirituality and the American dream. It won over millions of viewers.

Miller tells the New York Times’ Sara Aridi that the show’s treatment of family dynamics and consumerism makes the show relatable, while its mafia content is “so far from our own experience that it’s kind of thrilling.”

In “The Sopranos,” key settings include Melfi’s office, Tony’s suburban mansion, the Bada Bing strip club and Satriale’s Pork Store. Visitors to the exhibition can see detailed drawings of each setting—like the back room of Satriale’s, where Tony’s mafia crew hangs out and conducts business.

Designing sets for television comes with unique challenges, Miller tells Alison Stewart of WNYC’s “All of It.” “You make a film, you know what the beginning and the middle and the end is,” the curator says. In contrast, the designers behind “The Sopranos” had no idea how long the show would run.

“The design of sets for television is a space where characters live for an unforeseeable amount of time,” Miller tells “All of It.” “That’s why we focused our attention on the design of the pilot and the design of the first season, because once those sets were established, that’s where the characters had to live for all those years.”

The exhibition also displays research that informed the plot of “The Sopranos.” One display case is filled with typed research summaries and newspaper clippings about real crime families. As Artnet reports, visitors will see notes titled “Wiseguy Research” and a list of “Sopranos” characters and their positions in the mob hierarchy.

“Having those handwritten notes from David Chase and his writing team, and really seeing the DNA of the show come together, for us, that’s really the magic,” Miller tells “All of It.”

In connection with the exhibition, MOMI hosted screenings of three episodes from the show’s third season—when it reached “masterpiece territory,” Michael Koresky, the museum’s senior curator of film, tells the Times. The screenings of “University,” “A Second Opinion” and “Amour Fou” also featured talks with Chase and several cast members.

Chase tells the Times that he can’t believe “The Sopranos” still resonates with people. He assumed that in the decades after the show’s conclusion in 2007, it would fade from the limelight.

“I’m glad I was wrong,” he tells the Times. “It was the best creative experience I ever had.”

“Stories and Set Designs for ‘The Sopranos’” is on view at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City through May 31, 2026.

Sonja Anderson | Read More

Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in Chicago.