To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the influential show’s premiere, The Sopranos team reunited in New York on Wednesday night. In attendance was creator David Chase, writer-producer Matthew Weiner, and many members of the show’s cast, includng Edie Falco (Carmela), Jamie-Lynn Sigler (Meadow), Robert Iler (AJ), Michael Imperioli (Christopher), Dominic Chianese (Junior), Lorraine Bracco (Melfi), and Steven Van Zandt (Silvio). The event, which was put together by Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz (to paraphrase the immortal words of Jay Sherman, buy their book!), included remembrances of the late James Gandolfini, whose absence was impossible not to think about, and — in lighter news — the time Paulie Walnuts didn’t want to be killed off:
Michael Imperioli brought up a recurring Sopranos ritual — taking the cast member whose character was just offed out to dinner in Little Italy. Still, not every actor was thrilled at the very likely prospect that he or she may be written out of the show. Producer Terence Winter recalled what Tony Sirico (Paulie Walnuts) said to him, in a perfectly Paulie way: “If I f*cking die, you f*cking die.” Seated right before Winter, Sirico just smiled and did not deny the story.
Much of the event was centered around the show’s still-controversial final scene at Holsten’s restaurant in New Jersey, where reportedly part of The Sopranos prequel movie will take place. “HBO contacted us to shoot on location,” Holsten’s co-owner Chris Carley told Page Six. “They’re going to shoot some scenes here.” Some will win, some will lose, but everyone gets onion rings.
Anyway, happy birthday, The Sopranos.
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(Via Rolling Stone)
