Today'Sopranos' sings its final song VOTE IN THE POLL BELOW!
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Article RatingNOTE: THERE IS STILL TIME TO VOTE IN THE SOPRANOS POLL!
The big question going into this Sunday's series finale of "The Sopranos," airing at 9 p.m. on HBO, is whether mob boss-under-fire Tony Soprano will live or die.
But there's no question about the legacy of "Sopranos." That will live on for many, many years.
Just as "I Love Lucy" was the defining show of the 1950s, and "Seinfeld" was the defining show of the '90s, "Sopranos" loomed large in the 2000s.
It had the three ingredients that make for a great television show: big viewership, loads of awards, and, most important of all, a noticeable influence on programs that followed it onto the small screen, from FX's "Rescue Me" to HBO's "Big Love" to something as mainstream as CBS's new hit "Shark."
"Sopranos" also established cable as the equal to broadcast in terms of quality programming. FX's "The Shield," TNT's "The Closer" and Sci Fi's "Battlestar Galactica" would not have thrived if Americans had not been programmed to look to cable for the most daring shows.
Critics say "Sopranos" will go down as one of the best dramas in TV history.
"I think you'd have to place it at or very near the top for all time," says Tim Goodman, the TV critic at the San Francisco Chronicle. "I mean, you have to take into consideration what HBO can get away with as you compare it to dramas of the past, but the fact is that 'The Sopranos' completely redefined what viewers expect in a drama and, at the same time, wholly legitimized HBO original programming and cable television as a go-to option."
Ken Tucker, critic at large for Entertainment Weekly, agrees.
"It's one of the greatest dramas in TV history," he says. "It's not perfect -- it had its slow episodes, its moments of self-importance -- but those are very minor quibbles with a show that was so brilliantly written, directed and acted."
"Sopranos" was different from anything on television from its very first episode, on Jan. 10, 1999.
The show told the story of New Jersey mobster Tony Soprano and his family.
It was more violent and employed unique dramatic techniques, such as long spans with virtually no dialogue, to great effect.
Through most of TV history, main characters had been likeable and sympathetic. If they were involved with crime, it was usually as a crime fighter, not a criminal.
Tony Soprano wasn't like that. A murdering, cheating, perhaps sociopathic mob boss with serious mommy issues, he was nonetheless oddly likeable. Watching him confess his problems to his psychiatrist in private humanized him despite the despicable things he did in public.
Tony was the first anti-hero to truly thrive as the lead of a hit TV drama, and his electronic brethren continue to thrive today: Dennis Leary's tormented Tommy on "Rescue Me"; James Woods' cold prosecutor on "Shark"; and Bill Paxton's law-breaking, multiple-wives-marrying Bill on "Big Love."
"Tony Soprano made the TV world safe for more repugnant protagonists," says Hal Boedeker, TV critic at the Orlando Sentinel.
Critics, and subsequently viewers, loved him for it. "Sopranos" was a critical hit from the moment it hit the air, and has racked up 96 Emmy nominations over seven seasons while also being showered with awards from the Television Critics Association and Golden Globes.
Lead actors James Gandolfini (Tony) and Edie Falco (Tony's wife, Carmela) won Emmys, as have several supporting cast members. Interestingly, the show has never won best drama despite multiple nods. Many thus consider it a favorite to finally capture the trophy this year.
As critical and Emmy love built for "Sopranos," so did the show's buzz, and then its viewership. The show averaged just 3.5 million viewers during its first season in 1999. It nearly doubled that in season two, and the season four premiere in 2004 averaged 13.4 million total viewers, an all-time best for any cable series.
Considering HBO is available in only about a fourth of the country's households with televisions, that's quite a feat.
Though viewership dipped to around 8 million last week, it was still the most-watched show on cable, outdrawing the final game of the Eastern Conference finals, a Boston Red Sox-New York Yankees game, and the highly publicized premiere of USA Network's new series "The Starter Wife."
The finale is expected to draw even more. Tributes to the show have run in countless newspapers, magazines and television sites this week, and the cast has been on TV talk shows and radio programs.
You'd have to be living under a rock, or perhaps in seclusion with Tony and his gang at the end of last week's cliffhanger, not to know that "Sopranos" was ending.
The show will live on not only figuratively, in its influence on other shows, but also literally, via syndication. Repeats with the dirty language, topless dancers and particularly grisly murder scenes removed currently air on A&E.
But whether Tony himself will make it through Sunday's series ender remains the big question. Bettors at Bodog.com, where surfers can also predict whether Phil Leotardo or Tony gets whacked first, seemed to believe as of Friday that Tony will survive.
The critics aren't so sure.
"Tony is a goner," Boedeker predicts. "The recent episodes are so grim that I have to think he will die. I hope the rest of his immediate family -- Carmela, Meadow and A.J. -- survives. It all depends on what frame of mind David Chase was in. I don't think Chase will pull his punches."
Editor's note: What did you think of the Sopranos? Cast your vote at www.cumberlink.com.
