"Sopranos" Screenwriter Returns to Harvard

The Mob came to Harvard yesterday, as writer/producer Todd A. Kessler '94 told students about his experience with the hit HBO series, "The Sopranos."

Kessler described life in the television industry and the challenges of writing fresh material on a cliched topic for about 100 people in the audience. His speech was preceded by a screening of last season's finale, an episode he wrote.

Kessler broke into the theatrical writing scene with his senior thesis, a play called "Darlene," which was adapted into a screenplay under the direction of Spike Lee, who Kessler met in a seminar the director taught at Harvard.

Kessler left movie writing for television after his screenplay was shelved. The advantage of TV, he said, is that "it allows you to see your work actually produced during your lifetime."

After working for Fox and NBC, Kessler moved to HBO, where his work has been nominated for Emmys in Best Dramatic Writing and Best Dramatic Series.

Working for HBO is preferable to writing for a television network, Kessler said, because instead of "selling a product, or attempting to second-guess what the audience wants," he can write about issues of interest to him.

He stressed the collaborative nature of TV writing: Four writer/producers work on the series and collectively outline the plots of each episode. One of the four then actually writes the dialogue, which is reviewed by series creator David Chase.

Chase lends authenticity to the ethnic drama "Sopranos" by incorporating precise details from his own childhood experience as an Italian-American in New Jersey.

"I'll put down 'pappardelle' [pasta] and he'll change it to 'orcchiette,'" Kessler said.

According to Kessler, Chase envisions the series as "the third segment of a trilogy that began with 'The Godfather' and continued with 'Goodfellas.'"

"The Sopranos" has been acclaimed for its humorous, unconventional depiction of life in the Mob. The main character, Tony Soprano, kills informers and enjoys long dinners in Italian restaurants. He also visits a psychiatrist who exhorts him to "go beyond anger to the sorrow underneath."

The episode screened yesterday demonstrated some of that psychological complexity, involving the conflict between the main character's conscious and unconscious minds.

Nicole C. Devincenzo '04, a first-time viewer, said she was impressed by the show's complexity. Themes like difficult parent-child relationships and the coming-of-age process make the series resonate with viewers' own experiences in a way that previous depictions of the Mafia do not, she said.

Kessler said this unusual appeal is a crucial aim of the series, which will begin its third season March 4.

"We're showing that they're not just stone killers out there," he said. "They're more like us than we want to believe."