January 10, 1999: "The Sopranos" Premieres

January 10, 1999: The Sopranos premieres on HBO. James Gandolfini plays Tony Soprano, a man working his way up through organized crime in northern New Jersey, while juggling raising a family and going through mistresses, all while trying to hold off panic attacks.

It was the 1st production, either TV show or movie, that showed mobsters as having regular lives. Previous films such as The Godfather and Goodfellas showed their family lives as subordinate to "the life" in "the family." Much as The Dick Van Dyke Show was the 1st sitcom that was not strictly a family-based comedy or a work-based comedy, but a combination of the two, The Sopranos threaded the needle.

Of course, being on pay-TV -- sometimes called "prestige television" -- it could be a 1-hour drama with profanity, sex scenes, and awful violence. It's been suggested that all prestige TV since is, stylistically, descended from The Sopranos. Show creator/producer/writer David Chase wanted it to be as authentic as possible. He may have succeeded too well, often seeing fans treat Tony as a hero, and insisting to them that Tony was not a hero. Over 8 years, 6 seasons (there were long gaps) and 86 episodes, it won 21 Emmy Awards.

It made stars out of James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Vincent Pastore, Robert Iler, Jamie-Lyn Sigler, Tony Sirico, Drea de Matteo, David Proval, Aida Turturro and Steve Schirripa; boosted the careers of Lorraine Bracco, Joe Pantoliano and Steve Buscemi; revived those of older actors Dominic Chianese and Nancy Marchand; showed that legendary Four Seasons singer Frankie Valli could act as well as sing; and showed that Steven Van Zandt could be more than Bruce Springsteen's guitarist and arranger.

And the opening sequence, showing Gandolfini as Tony driving home from New York through North Jersey, is iconic. Though an observant New Jerseyan such as myself will note that the familiar images are a bit out of order. Sure, he could go through the Lincoln Tunnel, be able to see the Statue of Liberty (and, until 2001, the World Trade Center), and Newark's Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, and go through the Ironbound section of Newark and see planes taking off from Newark Airport, before reaching home in North Caldwell, Essex County.

But he wouldn't get that close to Lady Liberty, or go over the Newark Bay Bridge, unless he left Manhattan via the Holland Tunnel. And he wouldn't pass the Goethals Bridge (which finally closed for a long-needed replacement in 2017), Elizabeth or the Linden oil refinery, all of which are south of the Airport.

The series showed that the Mob had changed, but not that much. Tony didn't want things to change, but he couldn't stop them, no matter how much he doth protest. In an early scene inside the house, his daughter, Meadow (Sigler), said, "Daddy, stop being so old-fashioned. It's 1999." He said, "Out there, it's 1999. In here, it's 1954." (Even though, as we later found out, Tony wasn't born until 1959.)

The show was rough. It was violent. It was profane. It was ugly, no matter how many people on it were good-looking. Still, it was beloved, and it was epic.

When the aforementioned Michael Kay had Van Zandt on as a guest on his YES Network talk show CenterStage, Little Steven commented on how it was to be a part of two things -- the band and the show -- that helped to ingrain New Jersey into America's pop-culture consciousness. Van Zandt played Silvio Dante, Tony's chief advisor, or consigliere. 

Some of the New Jersey locations were made famous as well: The house in North Caldwell, that stood in for the Soprano family house; Satin Dolls, the strip club on Route 17 in Lodi that stood in for the gang's hangout, the Bada Bing!; Centanni's Meat Market in Elizabeth, which was re-dressed as Satriale's Pork Store, another gang hangout, said to be in Kearny, and since demolished in real life; and Holsten's, the Bloomfield ice cream parlor that stood in for the diner in the series' famous final scene in 2007.

Bloomfield is where my parents were living when I was born (but it's not the town where I was born), and we still have friends in the area. I've been to Holsten's, both before and after that scene was shot there, and I say it's the best ice cream parlor in New Jersey. You wanna make somethin' of it?

Nancy Marchand, who played Tony's mother Livia, died in 2000, after the show's 2nd season. The part was not recast, and the character was said to have died. James Gandolfini died in 2013. Frank Vincent, who played Phil Leotardo, died in 2017. The other members of the main cast are still alive. (UPDATE: Tony Sirico, who played Peter Paul Gualtieri, a.k.a. "Paulie Walnuts," died on July 8, 2022.) 

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January 10, 1999 was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season, and the NBA team owners had locked their players out, so their season didn't start until February 5. But there were 2 NFL Playoff games played that day. And the New York Jets won one of them. Stop laughing. They beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 34-24 at Giants Stadium. So it was a big day in New Jersey for a 2nd reason. In the other game, the Minnesota Vikings beat the Arizona Cardinals, 41-21 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

There were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1 at the Corel Centre in the Ottawa suburb of Kanata, Ontario. (It's now the Canadian Tire Centre. The town was absorbed into Ottawa proper in 2001.)

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-2 at the United Center in Chicago. Once-and-future New Jersey Devil Claude Lemieux scored the winning goal with 1:29 left in overtime.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Calgary Flames, 2-1 at the Saddledome.

* The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Edmonton Oilers, 6-4 at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim. (It's now named the Honda Center.)

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Dallas Stars, 2-0 at General Motors Place in Vancouver. (It's now named the Rogers Arena.)