hey guys i dont know if this has been brought up before but has any1 ever thought the character christopher is based on joey merlino.

They are both flashy gangsters who want to be known as being a gangster. They both lke to drink and hang in nightclubs. Christopher has a smoking hot girlfriend whle merlino has a smoking hot wife. They are roughly the same age and build and both have family ties to a top guy in there family. Chris to tony and joey to his father. And both have a problem taking orders from the older boss they dont respect. chris with uncle junior in season 1 and merlino with stanfa

No. Christopher was a fucking junkie who at times couldn't even get up from his couch. He seriously thought about cooperating a few times. Even at a time when he hadn't even been indicted for anything . Joey just completed a 12 year sentence. Do you see Christopher doing that? And who can forget his little stunt in Hollywood when he robbed Lauren Bacall . As low as Joey may have been, he wasn't close to Christopher's level.

christopher is no skinny joey!

Compared to Christopher, Joey is fucking Vito Corleone.

all very good points. I just meant the original character being young, disobediant and flashy.

But u gusy are defintely right joey is a stand up guy where as chrissy not so sure

This is not as weird as it may sound. They do look a lot like eachoter.

Skinny Joey isn't nearly as dumb as Ron Pervite and John Veasey would want you to believe.

If anyone is dumb, it's Pervite and Veasey.

Well I see a lot of similarities. I don't buy that Chris was ever going to rat. I mean if you give up your fiance for the mob thats being pretty loyal lol. But They are both young gangsters who have violent streaks and make some dumb choices as well

I agree I never felt chris was gonna rat

ive read so many threads on so many dif discussions boards about this there are way to many good points about the writing the subliminal messages the actions of chirs this and that.....he was gonna rat

He had rat written all over him. He even looked like a rat . The best thing Tony ever did was make that no good junkie suffocate in his own blood.

Like Paulie said during the famous "confrontation" sequence; he was weak and incompetent.

But I always kinda liked Christopher though.

Another similarity wud b how chris hated phill just like joey hated tino fumara from NY

I loved the character. He was great for entertainment. "He was gay, Gary Cooper?".

Joey hated Tino Fiumara?

I bet Tino Fiumara went to his grave never knowing who Joey Merlino was.

ya i read somewhere a long time ago that tino and joey had a beef about some clashing business intrests in jersey. Apparently joey would not back down to the genovese power house and they had a pretty well known hatred of each other from that point on

Just found another comparisom btween chris and joey. Scarfo wanted to whack out joey but didint cause of his father status n the family just as junior wanted to whack chrissy but didn't because of tony .

I am convinced chris's character was originally based on joey merlino

if u can post that link up it would be great

Another funny one. This man can't miss.

I can see the similarities. A young Michael Imperioli would’ve played Skinny Joey to perfection in a full length movie.

According to a NY Post article law enforcement actually thinks Christopher reminds them of Nicky Scarfo Jr

https://nypost.com/2000/01/16/goodfellas-who-might-be-role-models-goodfellas-might-be-role-models/

Michael Imperioli is about 5ft. 8 so he would still tower over Joey. And I don't think they're that alike facially except for surface similarities. As for the similarities in personality I don't really see it. At the time of filming he could've been based on any number of younger mobsters, or none at all. Carmine Galante's nephew was in the news for a high profile killing back then. He had a hot girlfriend and liked to party. Christopher probably wasn't based on him either.

Would Joey Merlino even be well known outside Philadelphia circa 1999? The way some people go on about him here you would think he has the same cachet as Brad Pitt or George Clooney. But would someone like David Chase or The Sopranos writers even know who he is?

For all we know guys like Christopher were probably modelled on some low profile New Jersey wiseguy. Or he could be a composite based on several wiseguys. That's the way they usually do it in Hollywood.

Some cops that used to work Jersey believed Chris was based on Nicky Scarfo's son. There's an article out there somewhere. Old one from when the show first began. These cops swore that most of the Sopranos were based on Jersey Luccheses.