Varun Patel
Move over ‘WAGS.’ ‘Families of The Mafia’ is an MTV reality television series that documents the lives of those related to people more exciting than sportspersons or film/music stars: crime lords! ‘Families of the Mafia’ is a reality show featuring some of the cast members of a prematurely canceled series, ‘Made in Staten Island.’
The series is created by Adam Gonzalez and Karen Gravano, who had been responsible for ‘Mob Wives.’ Just to put Karen Gravano’s (she is also a cast member on ‘Families of The Mafia) familial links to crime in perspective, Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano is her father. He belonged to the Gambino crime family and is best known for entering a plea deal by testifying against the crime family’s boss.
Families of the Mafia Filming Locations
‘Families of The Mafia’ is a reality series that documents the lives of several people related to infamous crime families. As mentioned earlier, the series features cast members from a previous show called ‘Made in Staten Island.’ ‘Made In Staten Island’ aimed to portray the struggles of a few youngsters trying to evade the criminal past of their families.
Just to be clear, none of the cast members of ‘Families of The Mafia’ are criminals. They aspire to go to college, date and, party like regular people. Hence, ‘Families of the Mafia’ can be considered to be similar to countless other reality shows out there. It documents the routine events in its cast members’ lives. Hence, the reality series is filmed entirely where the cast members stay.
Staten Island, New York
That’s right. ‘Families of the Mafia’ is entirely filmed in Staten Island, New York. Just like, ‘Made in Staten Island,’ ‘Families of the Mafia’ is also filmed in the New York borough. Have a look at the first ten minutes of the show and you will realize how ‘Families of The Mafia’ is firmly set in Staten Island.
Staten Island is where the four families depicted on the show live. These families are the Grabanos, the O’Tooles, the LaRoccas, and the Augustines. MTV describes the central conflict of the families in this manner: “the gripping realities of four mafia-tied families on Staten Island as they navigate a divide between parents attempting to guide their children to a better life, and their offspring who want to write their own stories. With one lifestyle and two generations, tensions run high as they decide whether to embrace their families’ legacy or break generational curses.”
Interestingly, before ‘Made in Staten Island,’ there had been a petition to get the show off air. There were complaints by Staten Island locals that the predecessor of ‘Families of The Mafia’ portrayed Staten Island as a place crawling with gangsters, meatheads, and junkies.
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