James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano in The Sopranos
By
Guy Howie
Published 35 minutes ago
After joining ScreenRant in January 2025, Guy became a Senior Features Writer in March of the same year, and now specializes in features about classic TV shows. With several years' experience writing for and editing TV, film and music publications, his areas of expertise include a wide range of genres, from comedies, animated series, and crime dramas, to Westerns and political thrillers.
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Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents:
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When the pilot episode of landmark crime drama The Sopranos aired in January 1999, not many media commentators would have foreseen this wildly experimental HBO series transforming the entire landscape of television. But then, they also wouldn’t have predicted that a wholly unrelated Robert De Niro mobster movie with exactly the same premise would come out two months later.
De Niro’s gangster role wasn’t his typical fare, either. It saw him star opposite Billy Crystal as a mafia don wracked with mental health problems he needed to work through. This setup will inevitably sound familiar to any fan of The Sopranos, since it’s the storyline that initially frames the show.
Incredibly, although the series does share some actors with the movie Analyze This, there’s ostensibly no connection whatsoever between the people who came up with the idea for each, Sopranos creator David Chase and screenwriters Kenneth Lonergan and Peter Tolan. Plenty of TV shows have tried to replace The Sopranos, but it was actually a 1999 film that came closest.
The Sopranos Pilot Aired Just 2 Months Before Analyze This Came Out
Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) in The Sopranos
If David Chase had stuck to his original plan to make The Sopranos a movie, it might have been competing with Analyze This directly at the box office. While the show’s pilot first aired on January 10, 1999, Robert De Niro’s feature-length gangster comedy directed by Harold Ramis reached theaters on March 5 of the same year.
If The Sopranos hadn’t moved well beyond its original premise by season 2, accusations of plagiarism might well be bandied about by those involved in one project or the other. It’s difficult to tell who might have stolen from whom, however, as both were apparently in the works as early as 1996.
Analyze This Has Exactly The Same Premise As The Sopranos Pilot
Ben and Paul walk through a parking lot in Analyze This
Sopranos creator Chase was understandably horrified to see pre-production buzz around Analyze This doing the rounds in the mid-1990s, just as he was working on the first season of his show (via The Guardian). The similarities between the pilot episode Chase wrote and the premise of Robert De Niro’s comedy movie are spooky.
Both are premised on a central character who’s a mafia don, seeking out a psychiatrist to cope with crippling panic attacks caused by the stress of his criminal career and unresolved childhood trauma. Naturally, given their backgrounds, they aren’t forthcoming with their feelings in therapy sessions at first, but their respective shrinks get them to talk soon enough.
Robert De Niro’s Analyze This Character Is A Lot Like Tony Soprano
Paul Vitti in Analyze This is remarkably similar to Tony Soprano, in his demeanor, the way he talks, and the way he initially reacts to having his vulnerabilities exposed to a medical professional. As well as panic attacks, both men experience erectile dysfunction related to their mental health, and hold themselves responsible for a parent’s suffering.
Just as these characteristics help make Tony the ultimate antihero in The Sopranos, they help us sympathize with Vitti in Analyze This. Meanwhile, the juxtaposition of their macho attitudes with internal fragilities provides its fair share of comedy moments in both the TV show and the movie.
Yet, whereas The Sopranos has gone down in history as arguably the greatest TV show of all time, Analyze This is generally regarded as an entertaining but lightweight comedy film. Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal nail their performances in the movie, but it can’t be compared with the depth and intensity of David Chase’s TV masterpiece.
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Like Follow Followed The Sopranos TV-MA Crime Drama
10/10
126
9.2/10
Release Date
1999 - 2007
Network
HBO
Cast
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James Gandolfini
Tony Soprano
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Edie Falco
Carmela Soprano
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Like Follow Followed Analyze This R Comedy Crime Release Date March 5, 1999 Director Harold RamisCast
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Robert De Niro
Paul Vitti
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Billy Crystal
Dr. Ben Sobel
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Lisa Kudrow
Laura MacNamara Sobel
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Chazz Palminteri
Primo Sidone
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The Sopranos
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Analyze This
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Are the similarities between The Sopranos and Analyze This just a coincidence?
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35 minutes ago
These kind of "coincidences" tend to happen a lot in Hollywood.
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