We've flirted with Ozark, made goo-goo eyes at Netflix's excellent Canadian mob show Bad Blood, and got way past first base with Breaking Bad, but frankly no other series has floated our (dis)organised crime boat like The Sopranos.
So, with a little bit of extra leisure time on our hands, we've decided to watch all 86 episodes again. Aware that we're far from alone in doing so, we'd better warn you that * THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS VINTAGE SPOILERS *
The first thing that wallops you in the face when you press 'play' on 1999's self-titled opening installment is just how fucking awesome the theme tune, 'Woke Up This Morning', is. Sadly, it did diddly squat to improve the finances of its performers, the Alabama 3.
“Our manager at the time did a buy-out deal on the Sopranos theme, so we’ve made fuck all money from it,” the late, extremely great Reverend D. Wayne Love told me back in the day. “It’s a genuine phenomenon in the States. My mate phoned me from Yankee Stadium and said, ‘Here, listen to this…’ Next thing I know, there are 80,000 people fucking singing it! Then, on his new album, you’ve got Jay-Z rapping over the track."
“Another weird one,” his bandmate, Larry Love, butted in, “was the Emmy Awards. When the Sopranos came on, they had a 64-piece orchestra playing a glizty, schmaltzy, Hollywood version of ‘Woke Up This Morning’.”

Over the course of its eight year run, Hot Press got up close and personal with several of its stars.
An absolute cracker was Paul Nolan's 'Gangsta Rap' with Frank Vincent, AKA Phil Leotardo, who'd previously starred in that other mob classic, Good Fellas.
A wonderfully warmhearted man who's since passed away, Frank confirmed what we'd heard about The Sopranos being a very happy set.
“Absolutely,” he nodded. “Everyone on the show was friends to begin with, we’re all New York actors. I must have done five movies with Dominic Chianese (Junior) and eight with Tony Sirico (Paulie Walnuts). I’d also been in a movie with James Gandolfini called Night Falls On Manhattan. We didn’t act together, but we met over lunch during the shooting of the film. So we all knew each other from working together, and to tell you the truth, in the beginning I was a little bit bummed out not to be on the show when all my friends were. People would say, ‘When are you going on the show?’ and I’d say, ‘I don’t know, it’s up to David if I get to go on.’
“But then obviously I joined the cast. There was a great bond between the actors, and we were doing charity work together, playing softball games and different things to raise money, so the family just kept getting closer and closer because we were seeing each other socially. And everybody was thrilled to be working on a project this great.”
Which is exactly what we wanted to hear!

https://www.hotpress.com/culture/from-the-archives-hot-press-spent-some-quality-time-with-sopranos-star-frank-vincent-in-2007-20763594

Shortly after Paul's chinwag with Frank, I got to hang out in Dublin with Joey Pantoliano who picked up a 2003 Best Supporting Actor Emmy for his portrayal of Tony’s psychotic lieutenant, Ralphie Cifaretto. Despite going through some serious mental health issues at the time, Joey loved being able to act out his childhood Mafioso fantasies on screen.
“The power of that character and that show took me unawares,” he admitted. “I had no idea joining The Sopranos that Ralphie would end up more or less defining me. That’s the power of TV and being in people’s living rooms every week. It can be a much more intimate and personal experience than film.”
Having been out of the series for five years, did he have prior knowledge of how David Chase was going to end The Sopranos?
“No, I was sat there going, ‘What the fuck?’ like everyone else,” he laughed. “It was a stroke of genius though. The Sopranos wasn’t a mafia show; it was the dissection of an American family who just happened to be caught up in that world. It’s a distinction made first, obviously, by David, who was generous enough to let you create your own outcome. Were they whacked, did they go into witness relocation? The important thing is that the family were together at the end, whatever the end was!”

Being from Hoboken, New Jersey, Pantoliano had plenty of people to base Ralphie’s character on.
“It’s a mile square and was a seaport community populated first by the Dutch, then the Irish, then the Italians, then the Puerto Ricans. Everybody hated the next wave of arrivals, so the Irish would look at the Italians and go, ‘Those Ginny bastards, they stink and smell!’ ‘Ginny’ being shorthand for ‘guinea negro’, which is what dark-skinned Italians were often called. My grandfather was as a matter of fact the first Italian in Hoboken to become a fireman. He was from a place in Naples called Avellino, where they’re famous for being thieves. We’ll steal a wallet right out of your pants! A lot of the people I grew up with, including my cousin Florie, got involved with the mob and did serious jail time.
“Hoboken also happens to be a very musical city – Sinatra’s from there, so was Jimmy Roselli, who we all wanted to be growing up. We’d have the teardrop silk pants up to here; Oleg Cassini knit shirts and see-through socks. I wanted to dress nice but we didn’t have the money, so I started stealing my clothes and that felt fucking great. Then The Beatles and The Rolling Stones came along and it turned into something else. It wasn’t cool to look and act like a thief anymore."

https://www.hotpress.com/culture/hot-press-meets-joey-pantoliano-9609989

The good news for Sopranos fans is that Tony and some of the chaps are returning in September in The Many Saints Of Newark, a one-off David Simon-penned prequel which rewinds to the 1960s and '70s. Along with Michael Gandolfini who's poignantly stepping into his father's shoes, there's room in the cast for Alessandro Nivola, Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Corey Stoll, Billy Magnussen, Joey Diaz, Michael Gandolfini and Ray Liotta. We're counting down the seconds as is Steve Van Zandt, AKA Silvio Dante.
“I keep getting phone calls: ‘Can’t wait to see you.’" Steve told Hot Press last year. "I’m like, ‘Not unless there’s a time machine!’ It’s a prequel so obviously my character would be 20/30 years younger and no amount of make-up and CGI is going to make me look like a teenager! I’m looking forward to it. I’ve seen several drafts of the script. David Chase is just not capable of doing anything that’s less than great."

Whilst fully acknowledging Mr. Chase's genius, Steve also made sure that American TV and film producer Brad Grey got his props for convincing HBO to run with the original TV series.
“Without his belief and persistence it is very possible that there would have been no Sopranos,” Steve noted. “Honestly, that is the truth. Everybody else had passed, but Brad whose company had had success after success with the likes of The Larry Sanders Show and The Wedding Singer, was determined to get it made. David Chase, had done The Rockford Files revival but didn’t then have the muscle to get stuff automatically made. It took him a year, but Brad eventually persuaded HBO to come on board and the rest, as they say, is history. It’s depressing; him and James Gandolfini both gone. Value every day, my friend, value every day…”
Amen to that, brother!