Watching Too Much Television

"Watching Too Much Television"

"Watching Too Much Television" is the forty-sixth episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and was the seventh of the show's fourth season. Its teleplay was written by Nick Santora and Terence Winter from a story by Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess, Terence Winter and David Chase. It was directed by John Patterson and originally aired on Sunday October 27 2002.

Guest starring roles

• Sharon Angela as Rosalie Aprile
• Oksana Babiy as Irina Peltsin
• Carl Capotorto as Little Paulie Germani
• Max Casella as Benny Fazio
• Vondie Curtis-Hall as Maurice Tiffen
• Matthew Del Negro as Brian Cammarata
• Joseph R. Gannascoli as Vito Spatafore
• Lola Glaudini as Agent Deborah Ciccerone Waldrup
• Dan Grimaldi as Patsy Parisi
• Marianne Leone as Joanne Moltisanti
• Richard Maldone as Ally Boy Barese

• Anna Mancini as Donna Parisi
• Patty McCormack as Liz LaCerva
• Frank Pellegrino as Bureau Chief Frank Cubitoso
• Richard Portnow as Harold Melvoin
• Peter Riegert as Ronald Zellman
• Matt Servito as Agent Dwight Harris
• Lewis J. Standlen as Dr. Ira Fried
• Lauren Toub as Liz DiLiberto
• Maureen Van Zandt as Gabriella Dante
• Karen Young as Agent Robyn Sanseverino

Episode recap

Paulie Walnuts gets out of jail and a huge party is thrown for him at the Bada Bing!. Tony and Ralphie get an idea from Brian Cammarata the next day: to defraud the HUD fund with bogus housing deals. Tony recruits Assemblyman Zellman and a friend of his, Maurice Tiffen, the formerly idealistic head of a non-profit low income housing program, to put the plan into action. They also recruit Dr. Ira Fried to initially buy the property. Zellman confesses that he has started seeing Irina; Tony appears to give his blessing.

Adriana's surreptitious meetings with FBI continue. Believing that the FBI will stop hassling her if they can't use her testimony, she asks Christopher to finally set a date for their wedding. Later, during a casual conversation, she finds out that marital privilege may not apply after all. She secretly goes to a lawyer, who tells her that marital privilege will only apply to conversations that take place after they get married, are not in the presence of a third party, and do not further any criminal enterprise. Since every conversation she's ever had with Christopher violates at least one of these rules, marriage will not solve her legal problems. This is reinforced by the FBI agents, who discuss the likelihood of her nuptials among themselves and voice no serious objection, in fact being marginally in favor of the proposed union.

Elsewhere, Carmela and Furio Giunta's tentative flirtation continues, as he calls her with the pretense of looking for his missing sunglasses, which he intentionally hid. Later on, when Furio goes to pick up Tony in the morning, he refuses Carmela's offers to come inside for coffee, claiming he needs to sit in his car because it is having engine problems. Adriana reluctantly continues to meet with the FBI but Paulie is giving up more information in his meetings with Johnny Sack. They meet for a meal and he divulges the HUD scheme, while also seeking assurance from Johnny that their discussions are kept private.

At the end of the episode, while driving, Tony hears the Chi-Lites' "Oh Girl" on the radio and briefly starts crying. He stops at Assemblyman Zellman's house, finding Irina there. He goes upstairs where he finds Zellman and beats him with his belt, causing him to cry in front of Irina.

Title reference

• Adriana watches the TV series Murder One and learns that she doesn't have to turn state's evidence against Christopher if they get married. However, her friend tells her that according to an episode of Murder She Wrote, that is not always the case.

References to other media

• Silvio makes a reference to the movie Papillon to Paulie when they first meet each other after he gets out of jail, naming Paulie after the eponymous character who was sentenced to live in a penal colony on Devil's Island.
• Adriana watches The A-Team on television.

Connections to prior episodes

• Like he did with Meadow in the pilot episode, Tony takes A.J. to see the church his grandfather built when he first came from Avelino. However, unlike Meadow, A.J. is bored with the whole experience: his favorite part of the expedition comes when he and Tony drive through his great-grandfather's old neighborhood, and are solicited by drug dealers. Upon realizing who they are, A.J. points and exclaims, "So that's a crack ho!"

Music

• The song they play to welcome Paulie back ("Paulie's song") is "Nancy (With the Laughing Face)" by Frank Sinatra.
• The song which is played over the end credits is Oh Girl by The Chi-Lites. The song was also heard earlier at the bath house, where Tony, Zellman and Tiffen discuss it.
• When Zellman and Tony are talking in the changing rooms after the Russian bath, the Booker T and the MGs song "Green Onions" is playing.
• On Tony's car radio, en route to Assemblyman Zellman's house, Oh Girl is preceded by You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet by Bachman-Turner Overdrive.