In 2004, you didn’t need to be a TV expert to see that the Emmys were about to take a radical turn: Broadcast television still dominated the nominations, but original cable programming was quickly catching up. And on Sept. 19, at the 56th Primetime Emmy Awards held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, the barrier was finally broken when HBO’s “The Sopranos” became the first cable show to take home the top prize for best drama series.
The signs were there, of course. “The Sopranos” had been nominated in the category every year it was eligible; it lost from 1999 to 2003 to “The Practice” (1999) and “The West Wing” (NBC) (the other years). And it wouldn’t be the only time the suburban New Jersey mobster story would take home the award: “The Sopranos” would win for its final season, in 2007. That would be only the second time, up to that point, that a drama series would win the award after its run had ended; the other instance was in 1977, with “Upstairs, Downstairs” (PBS).
As Glenn Close presented the Emmy, David Chase, his cast and producers took the stage to accept the game-changing award, and Chase referenced a segment that had just aired about the series' farewell episodes with a comment that seems hilariously ironic today.
“This is really cool,” Chase said. “And watching those farewell episodes before gave me these great ideas of how to end the show.”
The final episode of “The Sopranos” notoriously ended with a shot of star James Gandolfini, possibly, probably, about to be punched, and then cut to black.
Chase then referred to Al Pacino’s Oscar-nominated character in “The Godfather”/“The Godfather Part II”: “Personally, for me, you have to understand this: Watching Tony Soprano shake hands with Michael Corleone completely stunned me.” (Pacino won his first Emmy for his portrayal of Roy M. Cohn in “Angels in America” earlier in the night. Gandolfini introduced him.)
Chase also made sure that the people working below the production line were recognized: “This statue really belongs to our crew, to the people in New York and also to our post-production people; they just don’t seem to get recognized.” He added that his family is his inspiration: “They actually give me ideas.”
This wasn't the only Emmy of the night for “The Sopranos”: Michael Imperioli (supporting actor) and Drea de Matteo (supporting actress) also won awards, and Terence Winter won for drama writing, in a year in which the series received four of the five nominations in that category.
Meanwhile, the big surprise among the contenders was “The West Wing’s” failure to secure its fifth consecutive Emmy for best drama series; though each of its seven seasons earned it a nomination in the category, it would not win best drama series again. “West Wing” tied with “Hill Street Blues” and “L.A. Law” for the most Emmy wins for best drama series, until “Mad Men” (created by “Sopranos” veteran Matthew Weiner) and “Game of Thrones” joined the club in 2011 and 2019 with four wins each.
As for the rest of the competition, “Joan of Arcadia” (CBS) received a nomination in its debut season but was not given a series spot again during its run; “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (CBS) ended up being nominated three times in the category but never earned a win; and “24” was nominated five times in the category, winning in 2006.
