i finished watching the season 6 and i realized that there are a lot of reference to the real cosa nostra:

tony speaks about a war between joe bonanno and carlo gambino;
christopher about gravano that lives in arizona under fbi protection;
paulie that had problems with the Colombos and others

these references were already present in the seasons 1-5 or only in the last?i can't remember

tony refered to sammy the bull in season 2 when discussing if pussy would flip with silvio.

he also refered to albert anastasia once in a doctors office meeting with uncle junior. I forget what they were discussing

when carmine lupertazi said "whack jersey" that stuck out for me w/the luchesse reference!

I remember an FBI agent mentioning Massino flipping. Then there's Eugene Pontecorvo talking about Joe Bonanno when he wanted to retire. Gotti is mentioned several times. Joe Colombo is mentioned by Silvio. The Castellano hit is mentioned by Johnny Sack. Salvatore Lucania is mentioned by Paulie. "We're gonna win this thing" was a reference to Greg Scarpa's handler, Lindley Devecchio, supposedly. The Doc Santoro hit bares obvious simalirities to the Gerlando Sciascia hit. There's a ton of things.

Gotti was also mentioned when tony was golfing with cusamano and his friends. Crazy joe gallo was brought up in the episode D-girl

Meadow also brings up Luciano in an episode at the dinner table after the feds search the house. Can't remember but think it was the third season.

Tony mentioned John Gotti to Dr Melfi in the episode "Cold Cuts" and he calls him "johny gotti" which is actually what people outside LCN call him.

It was well done to because Tony says "Johny Gotti" and Dr Melfi says you mean "John Gotti"

To be fair, you can't really fictionalize the mob without referring to real events. If anything, most of the pretend scenarios are based off or real events.

The sopranos is notorious for referring to real life things. i.e. The Godfather, Goodfellas, ect. Naturally, they have to mention the real LCN.

I think that in one of the earliest episodes all five family names are mentioned.

in another scene fbi agent sanseverino (def not spelled correct) mentions joe massino when telling ade how long she may b snitching for

When Tony was golfing with his neighbor the Dr. and his friends he told them a story about Gotti out bidding him on an Ice cream truck and then one of the stock brokers spoke about a hit.

I think one of the most creative statement was Paulie's "I made it through on the skin of my balls when the Colombo's were going at it", especially with Tony Sirico being known for his wiseguy early years.



Thats Meadow in one of her speeches innit? And she names the Profaci Family instead of Colombo to underline the early days. Like she petulantly informs Finn later on, they're just bringing "alternate modes of conflcit resolution" to the new world.

I for one often found myself wondering at Meadow's hipocrisy and naivety, especially in later ep's.
Although it is kind of a plot point, Meadows rebelling against and then returning to her father's world, so its probably the point to get frustrated with her character. She could have got out, till she realised she didn't want out.

Vito Spatafore > John D'Amato.
- Both were top earners and aspired to take the lead.
D'Amato had the chance to do it but he was executed because of his "secret" sexual orientations.
- Both were leaning towards NY (Vito and Phil were best buddies in the beginning).

It was Agent Sanseverino who was talking to Ade La Cerva about how long it took to build up a case against Joe Massino.

Janice mentions the Paul Castellano hit to Richie right after their gun-sex scene.


That was season 1.