Comparisons between Tulsa King and the Sopranos are pretty easy to make. Opportunities to mention the the Goonies in the same sentence as either mob drama are rare.
A Tulsa King / Sopranos / Goonies triangle just can’t be ignored.
- Season 4 of Tulsa King premiered on Paramount+ last Friday.
- New episodes will drop on Fridays through December.
- Dutton Rules podcast co-host Billy Dukes will review/recap episodes and offer Tulsa King preview videos weekly.
Related: Tulsa King Ep. 1 Stunner: [SPOILER] Deaths Turn Season 4 Upside Down
Tulsa King Season 4, Ep. 1 spoilers are coming. Also on the way are a couple of pretty gnarly photos that feature severed body parts. If you’d like to skip both of those things, don’t scroll beyond Sylvester Stallone’s Dwight Manfredi looking pensive in a church.
Tulsa King Just Paid Tribute To the Sopranos In a Major Way
If you’ve made it this far, you don’t need a recap on what the Sopranos was. The HBO show is considered to be a sort of Godfather of modern television. The protagonists were all mobsters, thus blurring lines between good and evil. It was fantastic television.
Tulsa King is the latest show to sprout from that family tree and during Season 4, Ep. 1 it kissed the ring. Dwight attends a meeting of heads of different mafia family and during that that meeting Quiet Ray (James Russo) reveals the reason Luca from Buffalo won’t be attending.
Ray and Luca had a bit of a misunderstanding over the future of the Invernizzi family.
Sopranos fans have seen this gag before.
The head-in-the-bowling-bag trick is one Tony Soprano used during a fall 2002 episode. Ralph Cifaretto is the unlucky one in that scene (remember that) but it’s worth asking why this is a merely a hat-tip and not just theft.
It’s because it’s hard to steal from yourself. Terrence Winter is the showrunner and head writer for Season 4 of Tulsa King. In fall 2002, Winter was a writer on the Sopranos. He literally paid tribute to himself (or at least to his team).
Tulsa King‘s Call Back To the Goonies
In the above pictures from Tulsa King, the man in the blue suit is named Turco and the actor is Robert Davi, who has been a character actor for decades.
His most notable roles may be as James Bond villain Franz Sanchez (1989) and as Jake Fratelli, one of Mama Fratelli’s scheming kids in the Goonies. She had three of them, Jake, Francis and Sloth (“Hey you guys!”) although one turns out to be good in the end. IYKYK.
Actor Joe Pantoliano played Jake’s brother Francis Fratelli in the Goonies. He’s also been in a ton of films since then, including Bad Boys, the Matrix and Memento.
His Emmy Award comes from the Sopranos however. From 2001 to 2004 he appeared in 21 episodes and then — quite suddenly — he stopped appearing. Can you guess why?
Joe Pantoliano played Ralph Cifaretto, the OG head in a bowling bag.
So in the above picture you have one Fratelli brother hat-tipping another’s death in a classic mob drama by holding up a dismembered head.
Sadly, Sloth actor John Matuszak died in 1989, one year after Mama Fratelli actress Anne Ramsey. Much of the rest of the cast lives on however, so be on the lookout.
This is at least the second time a Taylor Sheridan show has pulled from the Goonies family tree. On Yellowstone, cowboy Jimmy dated Mia for at least one season. That was actress Eden Brolin, daughter to Josh Brolin, who played older brother Brand.
‘Tulsa King’ Season 4 Episode 1 Previews Tragedy [PICTURES]
This gallery begins with pictures from Episode 1, titled “W.W.D.D.”
Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes
