'The Sopranos' at 25: TV's golden age begins

'The Sopranos' paved the way for new worlds and a wild west of platforms, full of promise and hope

James Gandolfini, as Tony Soprano, in a publicity still for the HBO series in 1999. Picture: Anthony Neste//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

Some 25 years after its debut on HBO, The Sopranos consistently sits at the top of lists of the greatest TV shows of all time. 

The pressures of being number one was not something that its creator, David Chase, had ever entertained.