8 Great TV Shows That Would Have Had Incredible Prequels

3. The Tony Soprano Origins - The Sopranos

The Premise: Tony Soprano grows up to learn his father is in organised crime. Among other things he has to choose between an honest education or following in his father's footsteps. The Sopranos started with Tony receiving treatment for his panic attacks and piece by piece we learned all about the early life and childhood of Tony Soprano. It was such a detailed and intriguing character backstory that formed one of television's all-time great lead characters and it's definitely a story big enough for its own show. The relationship that Tony had with his parents was particularly interesting; his father was a mafia man and his mother possibly had a personality disorder. He attended university, juggling half-hearted studies with a life of crime, before dropping out completely to pursue the latter. It was a unique formation of a criminal, and though much of it was seen or discussed in The Sopranos, it's a brilliant story that would make an excellent show in its own right. To actually make that show, some would call sacrilege. It's a fantastic tribute to The Sopranos, to the ingenious James Gandolfini and to the characterisation in the programme, that such an upbringing is so fascinating though.