David Chase on being hired as a writer on Kolchak: The Night Stalker along with his friend Paul Playdon
David Chase on some favorite episodes of Kolchak: The Night Stalker that he wrote including, "The Zombie"
David Chase on some of the behind-the-scenes drama on Kolchak: The Night Stalker and why he began to take a more humorous, surreal tone with his scripts for that show
David Chase on what his particular brand of writing and surrealism brought to Kolchak: The Night Stalker and the type of humor he was developing as a writer on that show
David Chase on becoming a writer on The Rockford Files in 1976, and on show creator Stephen J. Cannell and star James Garner
David Chase on the rules Stephen J. Cannell set forth for writing story on The Rockford Files
David Chase on writing an entire Rockford Files script that was all exposition, "Irving the Explainer"
David Chase on writing for The Rockford Files; on what appealed to him about the show
David Chase on what he brought to The Rockford Files as a writer
David Chase on the "rules" Stephen J. Cannell set forth for writing The Rockford Files series
David Chase on coming up with the idea for The Sopranos; on how it is based on his own mother and his relationship
David Chase on why he didn't want to do a "TV version of 'The Godfather'" but wanted to focus on the relationship between the mobster and the women in his life; on why the "mob wife" was important to the idea of The Sopranos
David Chase on how the original version of The Sopranos for Fox had no murder scenes and how that changed when it went over to HBO
David Chase on how he knew The Sopranos should be made at HBO when they understood why he had to shoot it in New Jersey
David Chase on what he wanted to accomplish with The Sopranos pilot
David Chase on how much of the story arc of The Sopranos he had pre-planned, on how he did not envision past the first 13 episodes
David Chase on the original premise for The Sopranos when it was a movie
David Chase on why FOX passed on The Sopranos because it was too dark; on the compromise he made to have it made with no murders in the pilot for FOX
David Chase on knowing HBO was the right home for The Sopranos when Chris Albrecht immediately understood the need to shoot the series in New Jersey
David Chase on creating the look for the pilot of The Sopranos; on what he wanted to show about New Jersey
David Chase on shooting the pilot for The Sopranos and truly believing it was not going to test well; on not having planned past the first thirteen episodes
David Chase on how he originally wrote a script for The Sopranos movie in which "Tony" would go to confront his mother, but she was already dead (he changed this when it became a series and had cast Nancy Marchand as the mother)
01:45
David Chase on coming up with the names for The Sopranos; on how both his parents and The Rockford Files influenced the character development of "Tony Soprano"; on how James Gandolfini was cast
David Chase on how The Sopranos was a show in which everything the characters say is a lie
00:24
David Chase on the decisions he made about writing and directing the scenes between "Tony Soprano" and "Dr. Melfi" on The Sopranos pilot
02:30
David Chase on shooting the scenes between "Tony" and "Dr. Melfi" on The Sopranos and why the therapy scenes looked different than the rest of the show
01:43
David Chase on why he felt The Sopranos was covering new ground with a mobster as a protagonist and why he and the crew enjoyed working on the show
David Chase on creating the backstories for each character on The Sopranos and keeping track of them on the show so that there were no gaffes
David Chase on how the character "Carmela Soprano" was "not realistic" for a mob wife and why the character was problematic for him
David Chase on the female characters on The Sopranos and whether or not they were in danger of being killed off
David Chase on how the character "Livia Soprano", "Tony's" mother on The Sopranos was based on his own mother; on some of the real-life quotes he used on the show; on how the character was originally supposed to die on the first episode but Chase changed his mind
David Chase on one of his favorite Sopranos characters - "Junior Soprano" and the portrayal of senior citizens on his show as real
David Chase on the names of The Sopranos characters like "Uncle Junior"
David Chase on the writing process on The Sopranos; on what he looks for in a writer
David Chase on how "no one was safe" from being killed on The Sopranos including "Tony Soprano"
David Chase on arguing with HBO over having "Tony Soprano" murder someone on The Sopranos
David Chase on how the Journey song "Don't Stop Believin'" came to be used on the last episode of The Sopranos; on the reaction to the finale