January 10, 1999 –
David Chase’s landmark series about the lives of gangsters and their existential angst, The Soprano, starring James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, and Lorraine Bracco debuted on HBO on this date.
After the pilot aired, a real-life “wise guy” told James Gandolfini never to wear shorts again. The encounter seems to have been incorporated into season four, episode one, For All Debts Public and Private, when New York City mob boss Carmine tells Tony that he’d heard about his recent backyard party, and that “a don doesn’t wear shorts.“
The Haus of Dcaligari 