Thank God it's back!

I looove gangster movies and shows...and this one is one of the best. From everyday guy/mob boss "Tony", 2 his living with blinders on wife "Carmela".

I can't wait 4 Sunday. I've bought all three seasons on DVD! I'm hooked. Anyone else in2 The Sopranos? Do tell:

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'The Sopranos' Returns to HBO
Thu Sep 12, 7:15 AM ET
By FRAZIER MOORE, AP Television Writer

A lot — too much — has happened since "The Sopranos" completed its third season.

That was in May 2001 as HBO's great drama wrung out a finale of unrelieved foreboding.

Sunday at 9 p.m. EDT, "The Sopranos" kicks off another 13 weekly episodes. And not a moment too soon.

Set in New Jersey, where Tony Soprano presides as husband, father and mob boss, "The Sopranos" has clipped a glimpse of the Twin Towers from its opening titles. But it wastes no time addressing the tragedy of 9-11.

"Ma really went downhill after the World Trade Center," Soprano soldier Bobby Bacala tells Tony in Sunday's opener. Then the none-too-bright Bacala adds, "Quasimodo predicted all this."

"Nostradamus," Tony impatiently corrects him. "Quasimodo's the hunchback of Notre Dame."

Whatever. Season 4 of "The Sopranos" seems poised to do something far more valuable for its audience than underline the painfully obvious. In its own way, it is bridging the abyss between Before and Now.

On "The Sopranos," no one rests easy. Not Before, and certainly not Now.

Now Uncle Junior is awaiting his RICO trial. The Feds have infiltrated Tony's ranks. Christopher, the surrogate son being groomed by Tony to succeed him, is not only a screw-up but also, unbeknownst to Tony, hooked on heroin.

On the home front, Tony's wife, Carmela, is pressing him to diversify their holdings beyond cash stuffed in mattresses "at zero growth."

"Stocks?!" he snorts, as if bowing to a better class of criminal. "We don't have those Enron-type connections!"

Full of headaches and hassles, life goes on for Tony, just as it does (with bloody exceptions) for the many others inhabiting his rancorous world. Tony's conflicts, foibles and psychotherapy continue as our rich escape.

"The Sopranos" arrived in January 1999 with Tony collapsing in an anxiety attack and landing in a psychiatrist's office. The audience fell in love.

Since then the series, in the sure hands of its creator-producer David Chase, has grown into a phenomenon not even Nostradamus could have foreseen.

It scored back-to-back Peabody awards in 2000 and '01, while James Gandolfini and Edie Falco (who play Tony and Carmela) have won two Emmys apiece. (Its 16-month hiatus means no Emmy consideration this year.)

But here's another indicator of its cultural impact: a mountain of "Sopranos" ancillary products.

_ Read about the eating disorder of Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who plays spoiled daughter Meadow Soprano, in her recent memoir.

_ Buy the architectural plans for the New Jersey manse whose exteriors serve as the Soprano residence, touted by its real-life owner as "the most famous house in the country."

_ Feast like Tony and his crew with Italian cuisine marketed under the name of Artie Bucco, fictional owner-chef of Nuovo Vesuvio Ristorante on the show.

"All this chaos!" marvels Edie Falco, who merely walking about Manhattan meets herself on magazine covers and bus-shed posters. "It's this whole tornado that goes on around us just coming to work and doing a show we're proud of."

Gale forces! Consider: During its third season, "The Sopranos" drew as many as 11.3 million viewers to a specialty, for-pay cable channel, thus rivaling the audience that watches any of the major broadcast networks.

"Before `The Sopranos,' broadcast networks felt like cable was a negligible cohabitant of the airwaves," says HBO exec Carolyn Strauss. "After `The Sopranos,' they had to wake up and say, `Here's something we have to contend with.'"

Even a "Sopranos" advertising portrait has taken on a life of its own. Shot by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, the evocative tableau gathers the 12 principals in what seems to be an Italian restaurant. And it invites endless examination, as if careful study might be rewarded with clues for the upcoming season.

Falco laughs at the truth behind that photo session.

Leibovitz, she says, "posed us like that and took a million shots. By the end of it we're bored out of our minds. And THAT becomes the photo everyone attaches meaning to!"

In a recent interview at HBO's midtown headquarters, the 39-year-old Falco presents herself in jeans and thrift-shop jersey — quite a different display than the lacquered, big-haired Carmela.

But Falco is an actress who thrives on contrasts. As Carmela, she is the madonna moll. She fuses vulnerability with toughness, grace with corruption to claim the show's emotional center.

"Carmela is easier for us to identify with than anybody else," says Maurice Yacowar, writer of the new book "`The Sopranos' on the Couch."

"Tony and his colleagues are examples of people who have no control over their impulse to advance their self-interest," says Yacowar, professor of film studies at the University of Calgary. "But while Carmela is often tempted, she can control her urges. And yet she accepts all the benefits from living in Tony's world while managing to ignore her complicity with him."

Like most of the characters, Carmela is dynamic and steadily evolving. ("Look for more drama in her relationship with Tony as she asserts her independence from him," Yacowar advises.)

Yet Falco is caught short when asked how Carmela has changed through the run of the show. "I don't have a bird's-eye view," she says.

"I have no idea how this acting thing works, at all," she goes on, "but I know the conditions under which to make it happen: I show up on the set and there's the crew, there's my `husband' and 'kids,' there's my oven. Then I'm as alive and three-dimensional a person as I am in my real life."

Season 4 was filmed from October 2001 through this July, in the gap between Before and Now.

But weeks earlier, on the morning of Sept. 11, Falco was part of an unthinkable reunion with her co-stars.

"I ran into Jim (Gandolfini) on the street," she recalls. "He was riding his bike downtown to see what was going on. He said, `Go to my apartment.'"

She did, joining others gathered around the TV.

"Then Jim came back and told us what he saw. It was surreal. There's my fake husband and all our friends from the show. Meanwhile, out the window you could see the fire."

A year later, New York in many ways is getting back to normal. Among other signs: a resumption of the city's famous incivility. This makes Falco's rising fame even odder for the 20-year Manhattan resident, who grew up on Long Island: People she doesn't know are being nice to her.

"`Good to see you!' `Like your haircut!' That's something I'll never get used to," Falco says.

She'd better. This summer, she appeared in the John Sayles film "Sunshine State," for which she won critical raves. Then, shortly after "The Sopranos" wrapped, she opened on Broadway in a hit revival of Terrence McNally's "Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune," co-starring Stanley Tucci.

In a few hours, Falco will report to the Belasco Theatre, where she, a confirmed morning person, will enjoy a pre-performance nap.

"It's so quiet. No one bothers me," says Falco, joking she might still go there to sleep even after the show closes.

That will be right after New Year's. A week later, shooting resumes for "The Sopranos" — its fifth, and likely final, season.

Already for viewers, the next feverish wait will have begun.

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Fugettaboudit! BadaBing!

"The Sopranos" has clipped a glimpse of the Twin Towers from its opening titles.



I really wish these programs would quit pretending the towers never existed .They also completely removed them from the opening credits of "Sex & the City".I dont understand why seeing the towers is harmful to veiwers of shows such as these.

Dont get me wrong ,tho. I love these shows and cant wait till Sunday.

I will be watching HBO sunday night as well. After waiting so long for the fourth season I hope its not disappointing like the third season was for me. Does anyone have info on the supposed movie to be released to theaters at the end of the cable run?

The new Deniro film 'City by the Sea' left the WTC towers in there, just one or two scenes.
Whether they're there or not, i can't help but think about them in the NY skyline shots, so why pull them?

I actually prefer it with the towers, but that's me.

oh, and thanx for the info June7.

Set in New Jersey, where Tony Soprano presides as husband, father and mob boss, "The Sopranos" has clipped a glimpse of the Twin Towers from its opening titles. But it wastes no time addressing the tragedy of 9-11.

BTW - From what I've read, the episodes filmed while the towers existed were 2 remain in the opening sequence, unedited.

Since the show is based in current times, those filmed since the collapse have a new beginning, sans the towers...according 2 David Chase, producer, creator, writer of The Sopranos.

That's just life...can't go 2 NY and see the towers now, so why would they still b in the opening sequence?




p.s. (u're welcome mr.christian)

Oh, and on the same topic... Meadow Soprano, er...the actress who portrays her, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, is gonna get hitched... read on:

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Bada Bing! "Sopranos" Kid to Wed
Thu Sep 12, 3:15 PM ET
By Julie Keller

Meadow Soprano is officially off the market. So fuhgeddaboutit.

Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who plays the daughter in Tony Soprano's biological family on the HBO Mafia drama, has accepted a proposal for marriage from boyfriend A.J. Discala (no relation to her TV brother A.J. Soprano), her publicist, Kerri Brusca, confirmed Thursday.

The 21-year-old starlet agreed to swap "I do's" with her 31-year-old boyfriend and manager during a Labor Day weekend cruise in Mexico, Brusca says. People magazine reports that Discala popped the question and recited a poem after Sigler came out of the shower.

The couple worked together for a year as manager-client before starting to date last year. They plan to make it official next summer.

So far, Discala has lasted longer than any of Meadow's beaus, who, if they're lucky, merely get shaken down by Tony but if unlucky (see Jackie Jr.), wind up sleeping with the fishes.

For the past two weeks, however, Sigler has kept the engagement cloaked in mob-like secrecy. The magazine reports that the actress did wear her square-cut diamond engagement ring to the September 5 party celebrating the Sopranos season premiere, but she switched it to her right hand to avoid any questions.

The betrothal is part of what is shaping up to be a rather fairy-tale-like fall for the actress. On top her wedding-planning duties, Sigler, a veteran singer and stage performer, also needs to get her pipes in tune.

Last summer, she made her Broadway debut in Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, and she just signed on to star as Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Her latest run on the Great White Way kicks off October 1, and she'll be interviewed tonight on The Caroline Rhea Show about her split show-biz life as Mafia princess and budding Broadway star.

In August, the diminutive actress also released Wise Girl, an autobiography chronicling her longtime battle with an eating disorder and a bout last summer with Lyme disease, which temporarily paralyzed her from the waist down.

Sigler will also grace the big screen in the upcoming feature films Extreme Dating and Goddess.

And she'll resume her place in The Sopranos clan, going head to head with her mobster pop over the death of the aforementioned Jackie Jr., when the long-coming fourth season kicks off Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO.

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Could u imagine showing up 2 this event? 2 cool!

OH - This just in:

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The Odds On Those Who Might B Whacked This Season

Meanwhile, in completely unrelated Sopranos news Thursday, an offshore online gambling company called BetWWTS.com is taking bets on which goodfella gets whacked this season.

The company's oddmakers list loose-cannon Ralph Cifaretto as the favorite casualty at 5-to-6 odds, followed by cancer-stricken Uncle Junior (8/5), Italian-born enforcer Furio Giunta (2/1), potentially treacherous Paulie Walnuts (3/1) and the Tony's heroin-addled nephew Christopher Moltisanti (4/1). Tony himself is the longest shot, at 10-to-1.

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Yeah, I gotta go with whackin' Ralph...he's trouble in a bucket.

June7 said:

Ralph is the new Richie. Of course he has to get whacked. Just like Jackie Jr. got whacked, because he was the new Matthew Drinkwater (from season 2). Junior, yeah, but he's the last link to Tony's obsession with the elders in his family. Furio could go, Paulie's one of the old crew, so if he goes it probably won't be until the final season. Although they did whack Bompasero, so who knows.

June7 said:[quote]Set in New Jersey, where Tony Soprano presides as husband, father and mob boss, "The Sopranos" has clipped a glimpse of the Twin Towers from its opening titles. But it wastes no time addressing the tragedy of 9-11.

BTW - From what I've read, the episodes filmed while the towers existed were 2 remain in the opening sequence, unedited.

Since the show is based in current times, those filmed since the collapse have a new beginning, sans the towers...according 2 David Chase, producer, creator, writer of The Sopranos.

That's just life...can't go 2 NY and see the towers now, so why would they still b in the opening sequence?




Actually ,now that I think about it , it would make little sense to still see the towers in the credits ,if the events of 9/11 are mentioned in the show.In fact ,It would be considered a huge continuity error.

Thanx for all the info
[This message was edited Thu Sep 12 16:14:40 PDT 2002 by MrTation]
[This message was edited Thu Sep 12 16:15:03 PDT 2002 by MrTation]

The Sopranos is an excellent show. One of the few dramas worth watching imho.

David Chase is saying one more Year&then a Movie&a few spin off projects.I liked the first two Seasons the best.I think the Show lost some edge when Uncle Pussy got Wacked IMHO.will be watching Sunday Night.Props to you June7.

I love the Sopranos, better than God Father.

i love the sopranos but i missed the whole 3season and most of the season before i wouldnt even know where to begin...the last episode i seen was the son pass out and they found out he had panic attacks or something

MrTation said:[quote]June7 said:[quote]Set in New Jersey, where Tony Soprano presides as husband, father and mob boss, "The Sopranos" has clipped a glimpse of the Twin Towers from its opening titles. But it wastes no time addressing the tragedy of 9-11.

BTW - From what I've read, the episodes filmed while the towers existed were 2 remain in the opening sequence, unedited.

Since the show is based in current times, those filmed since the collapse have a new beginning, sans the towers...according 2 David Chase, producer, creator, writer of The Sopranos.

That's just life...can't go 2 NY and see the towers now, so why would they still b in the opening sequence?




Actually ,now that I think about it , it would make little sense to still see the towers in the credits ,if the events of 9/11 are mentioned in the show.In fact ,It would be considered a huge continuity error.

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Isn't Tony driving the car the exact same route, seeing the exact same cars drive by and wearing the same clothes and having the same expression on his face every week when he gets out also a continuity error?

Christopher said:

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Dude!! Rent the tapes or DVD's from Blockbuster!!!

I Hate the Sopranos it's a Boring, Dumb show that I can see anytime in my Own Neighborhood. I wish they would take it Off the Air! Nobody should live in this Life! A lot of Brooklyn people have been acting like Wannabes ever since this Stupid Show came on the Air. They should Remove it already. The Godfather and Goodfellows is Much Better than the Sopranos.

so any comments on the season premiere??? Y'all think Tony lied to Christopher about that cop killing his father or what!? Did Ralphie fuck Tony's sister??? Good looorrrd!

Well wait a minit...
as i recall, a thread about simulating organized crime,
esspeacially of the ITALIAN sort, is inflamitory and derogitory to the Italian people.
I think it was said it hits to close to home and some Italians feel that it should not be portrayed, even in levity.
or was it just me???

MrTation said:

They clipped them because they're gone. Simple as that.

The show takes place in the present.

I have to admit, I avoided this show perpetually, mainly because it was so popular I fugured it had to suck, but after renting season one on DVD and watching the whole thing as I was as hooked as a housewife watching The Youn And The Restless. I can't stop wondering what will happen next. Good show.

And way to go Natasha (again), or Vagina or whatever your name is this week. "I don't like it! It's stupid. Therefore, rather than simply not watching it, it shouldn't exist"

"Stop liking 'The Sopranos', stop saying negative things about Prince and why won't he divorce Mani already so I can have sex with him"...

If I was Tony, you would be SO whacked.

divo02 said:

of course Tony pulled at Christopher.He knows that He is Glassy-Eyed&Snorting up stuff So He was testing Him to see what He would do.Ralphie&Tony's Sister are Glassy-Eyed&Glued on each other.those two Loose Cannons could flip the Whole Script if they get together? Loose Lips that could Sink the Whole Ship? stay tunned on them?Tony it seems is trying to cut His Loses&Pit people subtly against one another.very Cleaver so nobody gets the Money.

Here's some news on the season premier:

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"Sopranos" Premiere Mobs Ratings
Tue Sep 17, 5:35 PM ET
By Kimberly Potts

The killer of Christopher Moltisanti's gangster pop wasn't the only thing that got whacked Sunday night.

The much- (much, much...) awaited fourth season premiere of HBO's The Sopranos not only racked up the cable network's all-time best ratings for an original series, but it also mowed down all the regular networks' programming in the ratings.

After a 16-month wait between the show's May 2001 third-season finale, The Sopranos' return Sunday night pulled in 13.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen, almost 3 million more than tuned in for runner-up NBC's repeat of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

In fact, The Sopranos would have ranked sixth among all shows--cable or broadcast--last week, a virtually unheard-of achievement for a cable series, especially since HBO is a pay-cable net that reaches about as third as many homes as the broadcast networks. (Nielsen keeps broadcast and cable shows separate in its ratings rundown.)

For the week, CBS took the top spot, averaging 9.6 million viewers behind its 9-11 coverage and reliable repeats like C.S.I. and Everybody Loves Raymond. ABC, on the strength of the week's highest-rated program, Monday Night Football, finished second (9 million prime-time viewers) and NBC trailed in third with 7.9 million, followed by Fox (7.1 million), UPN (3.4 million), the WB (3.2 million) and PAX (1.5 million).

Overall cable ratings for the 51st week of the 2001-02 TV season won't be released until Thursday, while the new season officially--for Nielsen purposes--kicks off on September 24, though ABC, UPN and the WB have tried to get a jump on the competition by premiering several of their new series this week.

Meanwhile, those all-time high numbers for HBO and the mobsters mean that a whole lot of viewers are anxious to see just which one of Tony Soprano's cohorts may be sleeping with the fishes before the end of the season. Rumors have been rampant for months that a key character will be offed this season, with an Internet gambling company even laying out the odds of which character is mostly likely to join the hit list.

Will it be crazy Ralphie Cifaretto, whose new alliance with Soprano sis Janice makes them the scariest couple since, well, Richie Aprile and Janice? Or what about increasingly drug-addled loose cannon Christopher? Or Tony's wing(haired) man Paulie Walnuts, whose current jail stint has made him even less happy--and perhaps less loyal?--with his Soprano crew?

Even the show's stars claim they don't know the answer to that one, since spoiler-hatin' Sopranos creator David Chase is said to have filmed several season enders.

But one's thing's for sure: those Joisey guys aren't the only ones who should be quaking in their cement boots. HBO and the broadcast networks have officially gone to the mattresses in the Sunday night ratings war.

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As far as my views on whether Tony was lying 2 Christopher? Nah, though it was an opportunity 2 rub out someone who was no longer of any value 2 him. Y not give Chris the satisfaction of rubbing out his father's killer?

Also - Tony told his therapist that he's grooming Chris 4 bigger things...Chris just don't know it.

Also, what's up with Paulie? I didn't like how they just showed him in jail 4 something we had no clue about...I also don't like the direction they're taking him in, with his apparent soon 2 b defiance of Tony.

Overall, an excellent premiere! I can't wait 4 Sunday's at 9pm again!

June7 said:

I heard that the actor who plays Paulie Walnuts is ill (not terminally) and that they had to downplay him for the first couple episodes. Thus, the abrupt, brief jail scene.

So...do y'all think that Adrienna (sp?) is going to become an informant?

Also, what is the deal with the "no-shows" and such that they were saying that they'd give to Paulie at the construction site? I know it's some shady way to get money, but what exactly do they do?

I thought it was a pretty good show--what did everyone else think?

Loved the puke scene last night!!!

CarrieLee said:

HAHAHAHA..
that was soo fuckin funny..!



Adrianna ..??? an informant...

she will fuck that up so bad...

and end up getting killed...


Whats up with Silvio... he has become a complete ass...

My thoughts:

Silvio - Very bitter towards Tony right now...is he pissed that they gave the "temp-capo" job 2 Christopher? What gives? I always thought this was Tony's closest and most trusted "family" member!

Paulie - Very bitter towards Tony right now...and considering working 4 another mob boss...upset over the money not coming in 4 his construction sites, and that no one has called on his mother since he's been in jail, but pleased that Tony ruled in his favor regarding the sites.

Christopher - Tony loves this kid, and is quietly steering the future of the mob in2 his direction. Christopher needs 2 get off the heroin b4 he fucks up everything.

Adrianna - Picked up by the FBI, fucking floored over the fact that that bitch was an agent..puked all over the table a la Exorcist style (soo fucking funny!), hopefully she'll regain her composure soon enuff 2 request an attorney...they have nothing on her!

Meadow - What a little bitch! Fucks with mom and dad all thru the last 2 episodes, then does exactly what they want her 2 do by registering 4 college.

Carmela - What the fuck? Does she have a thing 4 Furio? Notice how she got all primped up when he was at the door? Worst parenting skills ever! Worried that Meadow's gonna take off 2 Europe, she freaks and sends her 2 a therapist who tells her the exact opposite of what Carmela was preaching! Just take away Meadow's passport for fuck's sake!

Anyway...this season is offering up so many more questions than answers so far, and I love it!

Let's keep this going Soprano fans!

June7 said:

This episode was one of the best I have seen. Adrianna was funny as hell puking on the FBI. But honestly with all the shit she is in what else could she do? If she does become an informant, it will be an interesting twist.

Carmela definitely has the hots for Furio...

Man, Silvio looked like he was going to wack Tony right there in the basement. He is definitely pissed about being passed over. I also think Chris is going to fuck his position all up...he's frying is brain and becoming a full-blown junkie.

I think Meadow besides being a spoiled brat, is also doing exactly what she wants. It will be interesting if she actually stays at Columbia.

Janice and Ralphie make me want to do what Ade did all over the FBI agents. They are definately not the most attractive couple in the world.

I miss Paulie...he needs to do his time and get the hell outta there.

June7 said:[quote]My thoughts:



Adrianna - Picked up by the FBI, fucking floored over the fact that that bitch was an agent..puked all over the table a la Exorcist style (soo fucking funny!), hopefully she'll regain her composure soon enuff 2 request an attorney...they have nothing on her!


Composure..??? fuck that she just isnt smart. She is more worried about not finding a good obgyn..


Carmela - What the fuck? Does she have a thing 4 Furio? Notice how she got all primped up when he was at the door? Worst parenting skills ever! Worried that Meadow's gonna take off 2 Europe, she freaks and sends her 2 a therapist who tells her the exact opposite of what Carmela was preaching! Just take away Meadow's passport for fuck's sake!

I GOT A THANG FOR FURIO...lol

Meadow - I don't see her as a spoiled brat. She's older, wiser and increasingly angrier at the hypocricy of her parents, compunded by the wanderlust of an average 18 year old who wants the hell out of the house. Carmela's scene in the bathtub at the end was about this. She knows Meadow's upset with her for the dual life of morality she leads. I like her, and her confrontation scene with her father was awesome. I wished she would've stood up to him.

Adrianna - Too scared and hurt to realize the the feds are bluffing her and have zero. She'll make a deal and stir up a huge shitstorm.

Christopher - Fucking up big time and too green to be a leader anyhow.

?: Who was the cop @ the hospital. I DON"T think it was the nurse.

?: Was the guy Chris whacked really his father's murderer?

?: What's Silvio's problem all of a sudden?

?: What's a "no-show" on a construction contract.

?: Why did Chris let that guy live who spit on him in front of the whole crew?

?: I thought Janice was "born again". Why the thing with Ritchie?