Entertainment

‘The Sopranos’ Star Steve Schirripa Officially Returns to His Mobster Roots

Nairavoice · Nov 6, 2026 · 6 min read

Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of The Sopranos‘ infamous finale, yet all these years later, the HBO megahit still looms large. David Chase‘s portrait of organized crime in America, centered on the DiMeo crime family boss Tony Soprano, is recognized as the series that launched the modern era of prestige television. It’s also one of the most iconic mafia stories ever told on-screen, with the complicated Tony and the people around him being exactly what many viewers still think of when imagining modern mobsters who balance everyday life with more nefarious activities. One of Tony’s closest confidantes is now about to return to his glory days on Disney Channel.

Big City Greens Season 5 is welcoming Steve Schirripa to town this week, and with him comes a bit of danger for the titular family. The animated Disney sitcom has been following the 10-year-old country boy Cricket Green as he navigates life in the big city with his fish-out-of-water loved ones. His natural curiosity and mischievousness have gotten him and those around him into plenty of trouble before, but have also helped earn him a spot in his neighbors’ hearts. There’s never been a real-life mobster in the neighborhood, though. Ahead of the new episode “Wise Gals” airing tomorrow, November 7, Collider can exclusively share a sneak peek that introduces Schirripa not as “Bobby Bacala,” but as the sinister Don Ravioli, who isn’t afraid to get rid of problematic customers himself.

The footage opens with Nancy and Gloria waking up tied together and dangling over a near-boiling pot of pasta sauce. “Wise Gals” sees Nancy deciding to take Gloria out for a night on the town out of fear that she’s grown too boring, but in their fun, they dine and dash from the wrong restaurant. Ravioli is determined to make them pay with their lives, ordering his goons to slowly lower them into the deadly, bubbling vat beneath them.

They’re briefly interrupted by his nephew, Gio, who accidentally stumbles upon this execution and begs him to stop with all the mob stuff because “it’s stereotypical and overdone.” Don isn’t ready to give up his old life as a criminal kingpin, though, calling it “cool” to drop people to their tomatoey dooms, and insisting Gio’s just too young to understand the magic of the mafia.

Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours.
Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from
the encounter.

Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you
completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the
conversation is.

Lecter is the most dangerous kind of opponent: the one who finds you interesting. He
never raises his voice, because he has never needed to.
You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve
is exactly the door he would knock on.
The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence.
It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person.
He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part.

Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is
after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.

The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence
against him. It is the entire reason he showed up.
He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool
you would normally reach for.
His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend
the rest of your life proving him wrong.
He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life.

Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work
out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.

Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from:
a mind the equal of the hero’s, pointed the wrong way.
You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he
has already built the room.
This is the rare nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs
the game to be worth playing.
It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down.

Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that
is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.

Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the
answer was decided long before you opened your mouth.
You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no
interest in how capable you are.
No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences
quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work.
Call it. He will wait.

‘Big City Greens’ Season 5 Injects a Little ‘Sopranos’ Magic

Although the elderly Don Ravioli is a bit different than the sensitive Bobby, trying to relive his heyday as a mob boss, the role still gave Schirripa a chance to draw upon his gangster persona once more. He hailed “Wise Gals” for capturing some of that Sopranos energy while also letting him relive his own glory days in a new comedic way. “Voicing the role of Don Ravioli on Big City Greens brought back some fond memories of my years on The Sopranos, and just like The Sopranos, this episode is smart, dramatic, and hilariously funny,” he said. “I loved it!!”

Scirripa is the latest big name to join the Big City Greens voice cast in Season 5, which also notably welcomed Dylan Sprouse back to the Mouse House, and features Stephen King, Luke Combs, Chad Michael Murray, Meghan Stalter, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Cobie Smulders, Clark Gregg, and Mike Colter, among others. The main ensemble includes Chris Houghton, Marieve Herington, Bob Joles, Artemis Pebdani, Zeno Robinson, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Anna Akana. In addition to “Wise Gals,” this weekend’s release will also see the family take part in “Big Sweater,” following Cricket’s grandfather Nick as he’s forced to knit, well, a really big sweater after accidentally ruining Smalton’s prized roadside attraction.