Posted on 03/11/2019 11:40:39 AM PDT by Coleus
On June 10, 2007, less than five minutes remained in the final episode of The Sopranos.
After eight years with Tony Soprano, his family and the Family, viewers of the landmark series sat keenly alert to the final action as Tony waited for his family at Holstens in Bloomfield: The bell that sounds each time someone walks through the door. Journeys Dont Stop Believin' playing on the jukebox. The onion rings that Tony, Carmela and A.J. pop in their mouths as Meadow attempts her maddening parallel parking job outside.
Then, nothing. Cut to black.
Those final seconds hit Tonys native New Jersey and the entire viewing audience like the Big Bang, especially when everyone realized the black screen was not, in fact, a cable outage. As the waves of shock expanded outward, The Sopranos was never really over. Since that Sunday night more than 11 years ago, fans and TV critics, including former Star-Ledger writers Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz, have debated whether the abrupt end was an indication of Tonys demise or something else entirely.
So when they sat down recently with series creator David Chase for a series of interviews about the show, they did not expect any monumental clarification. And yet, behold this sentence in their new book:
I think I had that death scene around two years before the end, Chase told them.
Yes. Death scene.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
Never watched it; I worked 15-18hrs a day, 7 days a week, at my business, and lost track of the TV show.
I basically watched bits on YouTube, never sat through a whole episode, but I got the gist of it.
It was special to some of us.
Especially those of us who know the life from friends, and yes, some family.
But I respect your opinion :)
Great series, great ending. I know intense mafia wars probably can’t happen like they used to, but my wish is that we saw more of that kind of stuff in the last two seasons. NY considered north NJ a glorified crew because of the numbers, fine, actually show them getting crushed or whatever.
Freegards
I always liked how in the last scene they are eating onion rings which could be considered symbolism for communion wafers
The show is unique in my opinion as having no one worthy of sympathy.
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Gosh. That got me to thinking of all the many many characters.
And maybe the shrink, Dr. Melfi comes close. She made mistakes with Tony, yes. But I think she tried to do the right thing most all the time.
Her decision NOT to rat out the identity of her rapist to Tony was awesome. What integrity. What character. You know she really struggled with that call. You know she wanted to. Cause Tony would have had that punk dead within the hour.
I hope youre kidding. There were no winners on that show. All of them were losers or dead
The clue was the first episode in that season was titled “Members Only” and the guy who killed Tony was the guy in the Members Only jacket who came out of the restroom to Tony’s right.
If it's the episode I'm thinking of, Tony and his brother-in-law Bobby were talking about what it's like to die. I think Bobby even said something to the effect that it's like turning off a television set - everything just goes dark, which is essentially what happened in that last episode.
“..liked him in True Romance.”
Fun facts: Sopranos casting director was Georgianne Walken, Christopher Walken’s wife. Chris was also in True Romance.
Also, Steven Van Zandt, another Spranos cast member, is AKA “Little Steven” the guitarist in Bruce Springsteen’s band. Guess he needed a job when Bruce “went solo” & left the E Street Band behind.
I always thought it was Members Only, but it was just a target of opportunity. Some guy who hated Tony, or maybe worked for New York and hadn’t heard the war was over. He went by to double check that it really was Tony. And probably just hung out in the alcove by the bathrooms until he got psyched/ had a good moment.
Never could understand the controversy over this. It was always obvious to me that Tony was whacked given his earlier conversation in the boat with his BIL where they wonder what happens when you die and specifically ask does everything just go dark?
The controversy SHOULD be about WHO whacked him.
ME Too
James Gandolfini is gone so no Sopranos movie.
You know I once read that they filmed two version of the show, one for HBO, cable, and one for channels and networks that would not allow profanity and nudity.
Similar, but from way back:
The guy who plays second banana in To Live and Die in LA, and who also plays Paul (the husband's) little brother Ira in Mad About You, is John Pankow, younger brother of Jimmy Pankow, trombonist for Chicago.
And "Podkayne of Mars" is just a book but 56 years later you can find Sci-Fi fans arguing earnestly about whether she lived or died.
People love a good mystery.
If it is ever resolved half of the people will be disapointed and maybe a bit angry.
Best to leave it as is.
PS She died. Had to be.
You’ve obviously never seen gilligans island or my motherthe car. ;-)
Rewatching B5 the last few days. Season 3 was fantastic.
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