What movies or TV series have you watched more than five times? You will have to guess

For me that’s an easy question. Anyone who reads my blog probably already knows the answer.

I’m 100% Italian, and ever since I saw my first mob movie — The Godfather — when I was about fifteen years old, something clicked. I remember that day like it was yesterday. I was with my cousin Johnny Ricci and we saw it at the theater in the old City Line Shopping Center along City Line Avenue in Philadelphia.

I was completely mesmerized by that movie — but not for the reasons most people think.

It wasn’t the violence, and it wasn’t even the history of the Mafia. Now, years later, I appreciate those parts too, but what struck me at fifteen years old was something different. It was the family life. The dialogue. The way Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola captured the Italian household.

When I watched it, it felt like I was looking through a window into my own house growing up.

The way people talked. The respect for the father. The loud conversations at the table. The loyalty to family above everything else. The humor mixed with seriousness. It all felt incredibly familiar to me.

It was the first time I had ever seen Italian-American family life portrayed on screen in a way that actually felt real.

After that I became hooked on the genre. I started watching everything even remotely connected to that world.

A Bronx Tale
Goodfellas
Casino
Scarface
Donnie Brasco
The Untouchables
Once Upon a Time in America
The Irishman
Mean Streets

And of course all three Godfather films.

At some point I guess I became a little obsessed with that whole world. Not the criminal part of it so much, but the culture, the personalities, and the larger-than-life characters. There’s something about those stories that pulls you in.

But if we’re talking about something I’ve watched more than five times… that really isn’t the right number.

Five times would be rookie numbers.

Because the one I’ve watched more than anything else — and I mean by a mile — is the HBO series The Sopranos.

I’ve watched the entire series from beginning to end so many times I’ve honestly lost count. Ten? Fifteen? Maybe more.

Sometimes I’ll even watch a few episodes while I’m working out. I’ve seen them so many times that I don’t even need to fully pay attention — I already know what’s coming. It’s almost like background noise at this point.

But let me say this — there’s another TV show that would probably be tied with The Sopranos in terms of how many times I’ve watched it.

Seinfeld.

Completely different world, completely different subject, but just as rewatchable.

If The Sopranos is about family, loyalty, and the complicated psychology of people trying to run two lives at once, Seinfeld is about the absurdity of everyday life. It’s about nothing — and somehow that’s exactly why it works.

The writing is brilliant. The timing is perfect. And every character is memorable.

Jerry with his constant observational humor.
George with his endless bad decisions and excuses.
Elaine with her blunt honesty.
And Kramer — who might be one of the greatest comic characters ever created.

The funny thing is, if I really think about it, this habit of watching the same shows over and over started when I was a kid.

When I was little, it was The Three Stooges. I must have watched those shorts a hundred times. Moe, Larry, and Curly — and later Shemp — never got old. The slapstick, the timing, the ridiculous situations. As a kid it was comedy gold.

Then a few years later it was Batman — the old TV series with Adam West and Burt Ward. That show had everything a kid could want: bright colors, villains, gadgets, and those famous fight scenes with the big “POW!” and “BAM!” popping up on the screen.

But when I was about fifteen, another show came along that completely hooked me.

The Honeymooners.

Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden and Art Carney as Ed Norton — absolute perfection. Even though the show was filmed in the 1950s, the humor still worked. Two working-class guys dreaming big, getting into trouble, arguing with their wives, and somehow always ending up back where they started.

The timing between Gleason and Carney was incredible.

And even today, those episodes still hold up.

So when I look back at it, I guess every stage of life had its show.

As a little kid — The Three Stooges.

As a boy — Batman.

As a teenager — The Honeymooners.

As an adult — mob movies and The Sopranos.

And mixed into all of that somewhere… Seinfeld.

Different times, different styles of comedy and storytelling — but all of them had one thing in common.

Great writing. Great characters. And something real about human nature.

That’s what makes a show worth watching not just once…

but ten times.

twenty times.

maybe a hundred.