Sons Of Anarchy: What Does SAMCRO Stand For?

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Though it may not get as much credit as shows like "The Sopranos" or "Breaking Bad" as far as the golden age of television goes, "Sons of Anarchy" certainly had its part to play in this prolific era for small screen entertainment. Hailing from the mind of Kurt Sutter, of "The Shield" fame, the series premiered on FX in 2008, running for seven seasons and 92 episodes, growing its audience along the way in addition to being nominated for five Emmys. 

The show centers on Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) who discovers a manifesto written by his late father and founder of the motorcycle club SAMCRO. This leads Jax to question just about everything in his life, laying the foundation for the seven seasons of TV that followed (not to mention the spin-off series "Mayans MC," which ran for five seasons and spanned 50 episodes).

At the center of it all was the motorcycle club SAMCRO. That and all of the crime, intrigue, and brotherhood that followed. But what does SAMCRO actually mean? Where did the name come from? Was it inspired by something in the real world? Or is it a pure work of fiction? The answers lie somewhere in the middle, but SAMCRO does, indeed, stand for something.

SAMCRO is an acronym that stands for Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original. The club is based in the fictional town of Charming, California, with Jax serving initially as the vice president and eventually the president of SAMCRO. John Teller, his father, was one of the founding members of the club in the '60s.

The club was sometimes referred to as "Sam Crow." Indeed, the manifesto that Jax finds written by his father was titled "The Life and Death of SAM CROW: How the Sons of Anarchy Lost Their Way." But it all goes back to that acronym, so much so that when the series was given the green light by FX in 2007, it was under the title "Forever Sam Crow."

"Forever Sam Crow" refers to the nickname of the group at the center of the project: The Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original (Samcro). At the time, FX said that the show was the "brainchild" of John Linson, who executive produced the series alongside Sutter. He knew several motorcycle club members in Northern California, which helped inspire all seven seasons of what we'd come to know as "Sons of Anarchy." It's, admittedly, a catchier name than "Forever Sam Crow." Still, the fact that the show originally took its title from the name of the club speaks volumes about its importance to the series. 

Though SAMCRO isn't a real-life biker club, it did take inspiration from one of the most famous ones around: Hells Angels. David Labrava, who viewers would recognize as Happy Lowman, was a real-life member of the Hells Angels and, in addition to his on-screen role, was an adviser to the production. And to think, "Sons of Anarchy" could have been an HBO show.

As for how actual motorcycle clubs such as the Hells Angels felt about SAMCRO and "Sons of Anarchy" as a show? "There's a certain amount of apprehension when we started doing this in some of the outlaw community," Sutter admitted in a 2011 interview with GQ. "My sense is, at least with guys that I'm in contact with, they really dig it. There're some people that have issue with it and think it's bulls***." Speaking further, Sutter explained that the majority of the feedback he's received was positive, even though the show certainly took some liberties along the way:

"The guys that I know in that world completely get the fact that it's TV. They completely get the fact that we're blowing up and dramatizing the things that they do. I went to [Hells Angels founding member] Sonny Barger's birthday party last year. All his guys were there, and they f***ing love the show. Their response was, 'It's a soap opera, but it's OUR f***ing soap opera.' And they watch both airings — FX broadcasts the show twice on Tuesdays — they watch both showings to catch everything. And they knew it down to the nuance, they really pay attention. The feedback has been really positive, and I keep those lines of communication wide open. As many liberties as we take, I really want it to feel like homage and not exploitation."

You can grab "Sons of Anarchy: The Complete Series" on DVD or Blu-ray from Amazon.