LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - As the actors end their roles in "The Sopranos," a program that made many of them household names and faces, some worry about being typecast while others fear they might have trouble working again.
Take Dominic Chianese, the 76-year-old who plays Uncle Junior, for example. He knows he has been typecast just by the things that keep happening to him. He's not worried about working because he can always sing Italian love songs for a living.
Recently, he was sitting in a Mongolian restaurant in New York City and two Mongolians came over.
"They started teasing, and said 'you know your show is teaching people in Mongolia how to be criminals."'
And to add insult to injury, pretty much everywhere Chianese goes, people think he is the actual Uncle Junior, who, in the show, is now demented and, frankly, was never very nice to start with.
"They like the old bugger, I don't know why, but they do. He's falling apart, I feel so sorry for him. My health is fine but that would be real funny if I really had dementia. 'You do a great job there Dominic. How do you do that?' What? What are you talking about?"'
Chianese and other actors on the show say filming the last nine episodes of an extended sixth season on cable channel HBO has taken an emotional toll.
'EMOTIONAL ITALIANS'
The new episodes start on Sunday and continue on until early June, when, bada bing, it will all be over -- just as it was for so many other beloved TV series, including "M*A*S*H," "All in the Family" and "Seinfeld."
Brought together by the show's creator, David Chase, in 1999, they created a unique television ensemble. Almost all had strong Italian-American profiles, whether they were Italian or not and many had not received the kind of recognition they would get when "The Sopranos" swung into gear becoming a critical and ratings success.
Actors like James Gandolfini, who plays the conflicted mob boss Tony Soprano, hit instant stardom even though his character morally corrupts those he comes into contact with.
The question for him is whether he will be able to find the kind of textured roles that tap into his extraordinary power as an actor. The same may hold true for Edie Falco, who plays his wife Carmela on the show.
In various interviews, she has talked of leaving "The Sopranos" as a new beginning but then she said she immediately thinks she will have to sell all her possessions to make ends meet.
Chianese told Reuters recently that mood on the set has been hard.
"Everybody feels it coming to an end. But I know we'll all stay together somehow, stay in touch. But there is a feeling of sadness. You can tell ... everybody's emotional. They don't talk too much about it, but you can tell."
Falco agrees. In an interview with Reuters, she said, "We're pretty darn close, and things are getting a little heavy. For a bunch of emotional Italians, we're definitely feeling it."
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - He is a fat, balding, heavy-breathing man with an explosive temper and a reptilian gaze. Starting on Sunday and lasting nine weeks, Americans are going to be on tenterhooks, wondering if he will live or die.
He is, of course, mob boss Tony Soprano, the first of a new breed of anti-hero to dominate the U.S. television screen, a character whose corrupt, sometimes murderous deeds have failed to stop a large part of America from adoring him.
Now everyone wants to know, as "The Sopranos" heads into its final nine episodes after six acclaimed seasons on cable channel HBO, whether Tony gets whacked or whisked into the witness protection program.
Will Tony, the conflicted head of a northern New Jersey crime family, get the last laugh, or will the state, federal and local law enforcement agencies pursuing him all these years come out on top?
One hallmark of the show has been that it is often hard to tell the good guys from the bad ones. And as far as honor among thieves is concerned, forget about it.
Tony, played by James Gandolfini, inhabits a world where he can trust no one, not even his own mother, who in collusion with an uncle once tried to have him killed. They failed, and Tony thought seriously about killing mom.
Media scholar Robert Thompson, head of Syracuse University's Center for the Study of Popular Television, said Tony Soprano's persona as a "lovable, huggable murderer" helped him cultivate a huge following.
"This was a show that demonstrated how novelistic and how sophisticated television could be," Thompson said. "It is not only about bad guys, it's about people who are at the heart, horribly, morally corrupted individuals. But at the same time, they were presented in a way where we really could identify with them."
Instead of bringing the show to commercial broadcast television, series creator and guiding light David Chase struck a deal with HBO to carry the program. Its runaway success helped give HBO new clout in the industry and raised the bar creatively for television as a whole.
As a subscription-based channel free of the advertising and regulatory constraints facing commercial television, HBO could let "The Sopranos" indulge in sexually frank scenes and profanity, with Tony uttering such bon mots as: "You don't shit where you eat. And you really don't shit where I eat."
That line was chosen by Fred R. Shapiro, editor of "The Yale Book of Quotations," as one of the 10 best lines from the program. Another was Tony's line, "I won't pay. I know too much about extortion."
NO MESSAGE
Terence Winter, a writer and producer on the series, said the show was not intended to convey any message about corruption, morality or family values, even though almost every episode is a study in moral corruption.
"Art asks questions. It doesn't give answers," he said in a recent interview. "We don't feel and we're not beholden by any kind of pressure from anywhere to wrap stories up in a neat bow or to explain things or to necessarily have a moral at the end of the day.
"Certain people think Tony lives a very glamorous life. And certain people think, 'I wouldn't want to be Tony Soprano for all the money in the world.' We don't take a position. ... We just sort of present the characters for who they are."
As far as Winter is concerned, the more uncertainty about how the series ends, the better.
"We are so sworn to secrecy. And truth is, the audience really doesn't want to know, they think they want to know. They don't. You want to see it go down and enjoy whatever happens."
Sopranos Tunes Up for Swan Song
by Gina Serpe
Fri, 6 Apr 2007 12:32:28 PM PDT
It's the beginning of the end for Tony Soprano—whether that's just the TV end or the end end remains to be seen...and, in some corners, wagered upon.
Backed by heavy anticipation, The Sopranos final nine-episode run kicks off on HBO Sunday, bringing to a close eight years and six seasons of the mob family drama. And heading into its swan song, the most anticipated question of all is what fate will befall the small screen don.
As the second half of the extended final season is ready to roll, the show's cast and crew remain mum on whether James Gandolfini's don will go out with a bang or simply a bada-boom.
In an interview with NPR several years ago, creator David Chase made it clear that the end was not only nigh for Tony Soprano, but that it was already decided upon.
"The gangster movie is a long American tradition," he said. "But they've all been, except for The Godfather trilogy…it's usually the rise and fall. It's been that way since the beginning. The criminal rises from the gutter, has his moment of glory, and then goes down and pays for his crime in a hail of bullets. That's usually the template."
It's a sentiment Tony Soprano himself agrees with, when questioned in Sunday's premiere episode on his take on the life span of a mob boss.
"My estimate? Historically?" he says. "Eighty percent of the time it ends in the can like Johnny Sack, or on the embalming table at Cozarelli's...No risk, no reward."
The online oddsmakers at bodog.com seem to agree. The gaming site is taking wagers on whether Tony will survive, and the line favors him sleeping with the fishes before the end of the season. The site is also taking bets on which main character will be offed first: Johnny Sack (1-to-1), Uncle Junior (3-to-1), Christopher (4-to-1), Paulie Walnuts (4-to-1) and Phil Leotardo (6-to-1) are the current favorites to join Big Pussy, Adriana, Ralphie, Vito, et al. in the so-called "whacked pack," while Tony (10-to-1), A.J. (13-to-1), Dr. Melfi (14-to-1), Meadow (18-to-1) and Carmela (20-to-1) should be sticking around for at least a few episodes.
In any case, the last go-round opens with Tony celebrating his 47th birthday with wife Carmela (Edie Falco), sister Janice (Aida Turturro) and several other family members in their upstate New York vacation home as trouble brews back in New Jersey. Tony's rivals are plotting and the feds are busy building their case against him, which sets up the a story line that could see him enter the witness protection program.
Back for the season opener is rival mob boss Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent), who has recovered from his heart attack, but not his beef with Tony. Johnny Sack (Vince Curatola), who's suffering from terminal lung cancer, continues to languish in prison. The question of succession remains unanswered and Christopher (Michael Imperioli) is finishing work on his gangster slasher flick, something, in a wink to Sopranos fans, Tony praises.
"One hundred years from now, we're dead and gone, people will be watching this f---ing thing," he says.
People will also be watching this thing now, though how many remains unclear.
While the Sopranos continues to be considered one of the best dramas on television, its audience has dwindled in recent years.
The show hit its ratings peak during its fourth season, averaging a series-high 11 million viewer. Last season, The Sopranos averaged closer to 8.5 million, which is still a hit by anyone's standards, especially pay-cable.