NBC Chief Ponders "The Sopranos"

The network president has raised eyebrows in Hollywood by sending a letter to NBC execs and industry types outside the network asking for their opinions regarding the sex-and-violence factor in HBO's Mob hit.

Wright's letter, first obtained Tuesday by The New York Times, was sent out to production companies along with a tape of one of the more brutal episodes of The Sopranos, which includes the violent beating of a pregnant stripper outside the Bada Bing Club.

"I want you to help think about an issue that I believe is having a major impact on our business--the nature of the content in HBO's The Sopranos," the letter reads. "As you know, the show has been widely acclaimed by media critics and by opinion leaders in New York and Los Angeles. It has won a Peabody Award along with West Wing and is AOL Time Warner's premier show on HBO. All that said, it is a show we could not and would not air on NBC because of the violence, language and nudity."

The letter left many people scratching their heads. After all, you'd think Wright would be too busy trying to etch "you are the weakest link" into viewers' heads, rather than talking about a show on another network.

Wright, however, insists his goal was not so much to criticize the show, as to seek guidance on how its extreme content affects NBC's future programming. "As we move ahead making plans for our new season, I believe we need to give serious thought to this issue," he said. Wright told Inside.com he sent out a similar mailing when ABC first launched NYPD Blue, which featured language and nudity never previously seen on broadcast TV.

But HBO execs are still taking Wright to task over his sex-and-violence mailer.

"I take exception to his implication that there is inappropriate content on the show," HBO Chairman Jeff Bewkes told the Times. "I feel it's unjustified. It's hard to understand what he's trying to do. If he's trying to say that you can't put content like this on mass-audience, advertiser-supported television, that is self-evident. People choose to pay for HBO."

Some also noted that the letter from Wright was especially bizarre given that Wright's own network brought us the XFL--Vince McMahon's poorly rated football league that promised more scantily clad cheerleaders and more bone-crushing games.

Others within NBC, however, said Wright's letter simply voiced the frustration of many execs at the broadcast networks, who feel they're at a disadvantage because HBO does not have to bow to censors or advertising, and "you can do whatever you want," as one NBC employee told Inside.

Still, if there's one thing The Sopranos isn't short on, it's dialogue. Since the premiere of its third season, TV critics and fans have noted that creator David Chase has given the series a more violent, sexually explicit--and even sadistic--tone. The latest installments have included the rape of Lorraine Bracco's character, an execution-style killing and the beating of a man in the head with a golf club.

The complaints aren't just over sex and violence. Italian-American groups have continued to rail against the series, saying it reinforces Mob stereotypes in the Italian community.

Despite The Sopranos' stomach-turning scenes or mobster mentality, fans and critics have reconciled the violence with the show's top-notch writing, and award-winning performances from the likes of James Gandolfini and Edie Falco. Its premiere in March pulled in a record 11.3 million viewers, and its cast members have already landed on the cover of Newsweek.

For broadcast networks, that might have been the most stomach-turning scene of them all.