‘The Sopranos’: Does The Family Home Really Exist? Here’s Where to Find It
There are some television shows that really stick with fans and become a phenomenon. It can be difficult to predict just which shows are going to explode in popularity. Who could have foreseen the My Little Pony fandom, for instance?
Of course, a show can start out with a passionate fan base and then lose it all when they go on for too long and take a turn for the worst. There’s a real art to being able to gain enough loyal fans to stay on the air, end when the time is right, and go on to enjoy fandom after the series has come to a conclusion. HBO’s gritty series The Sopranos is one of those shows.
The Sopranos premiered more than two decades ago, but that hasn’t stopped fans from singing its praises. Those who would like to visit the real-life Sopranos household might be interested to know that the house does really exist.
‘The Sopranos’ ran for six seasons
When The Sopranos premiered in 1999, it was groundbreaking television. The series aired for an impressive six seasons, and — while there may have been a few episodes that weren’t so great — it was critically acclaimed as an impressive success. When the show finally came to its dramatic conclusion, it left fans with more questions than answers, but even that somehow seemed fitting and meaningful.
The series centered around a New Jersey mob boss named Tony Soprano who was skillfully portrayed by James Gandolfini. The series primarily followed Tony’s story through his own telling, but the audience did get glimpses of another perspective through his sessions with a psychotherapist.
The show was punctuated by darkly comedic moments that cut through the extremely violent scenes that have come to typify the mob crime genre. More than anything, audiences were drawn to the character of Tony Soprano as a kind of antihero, a trope that would become much more common following The Sopranos‘ success.
The Sopranos’ family home was significant
The setting of The Sopranos was crucial to its overall theme. Instead of the gritty urban street scenes that so many mob movies depend upon, the series took place in the New Jersey suburbs. Tony Soprano lives with his wife, Carmela, and their kids in a sprawling McMansion.
The family, in so many ways, looks just like their well-to-do neighbors. They’re all driving the same giant SUVs and keeping up the same appearances to maintain their suburban social status.
While the television show is not based on any real mob boss, the writers do admit that it was loosely inspired by a Jersey crime family called the Boiardos. Like the Sopranos, the Boiardos lived in a wealthy suburban neighborhood and raced to keep up with the Jonses, sending their kids to the same schools as their neighbors and otherwise living the American Dream by all exterior appearances.
The Soprano house really exists
Fans who want to drive by the Soprano house can go to the real-life North Caldwell, New Jersey and make their dreams come true. According to Mental Floss, the exterior shots for the series were of a house located at 633 Stag Trail Rd. While the interior shots were taken in a different location, the real-life home can be viewed in detail because it went up on the market in 2019.
According to The New York Times, the sellers were asking for an ambitious $3.4 million, when comparable homes in the neighborhood were selling for closer to $2 million. They insisted that the “intrinsic value” of the home couldn’t be quantified, and at least some of that ephemeral value has to do with its fictional life as Tony Soprano’s home. In addition to a heftier price tag, anyone living in the house will also have to deal with fans who still regularly drive by for photo ops.
