Unless you've been in a cave in Afghanistan, you are probably aware that The Sopranos finally returns to HBO this Sunday night:
- Cable's biggest hit and TV's most acclaimed series in years returns (finally) Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT with the first of 13 new episodes this fall and the promise of just one more season to follow next year.
But thanks in part to a marketing barrage that includes books, DVDs, Italian food products — and even a spread in Architectural Digest on the North Caldwell, N.J., digs used in the series — The Sopranos has become as unavoidable as the tollbooths on the New Jersey Turnpike.
The marketing overkill might have been unnecessary. Befitting a series about a mobster in therapy, loyal viewers' sense of anxiety has been growing as the months passed. Even minor stars made into household names by the show have tired of answering fans' inevitable questions.
''People stop you everywhere and say, 'When are you guys coming back?' '' says Steven Schirripa, the oversized actor who plays Bobby ''Bacala'' Baccalieri, one of Mob boss Tony Soprano's trusted minions. ''I was going to get a T-shirt that said, 'Sept. 15: Don't ask me.' ''
HBO chairman Chris Albrecht says the buzz is a tribute to the show's power. (So is $75 million in video and DVD sales.) ''I'm confident that when the show airs, it's really going to be like seeing old family members and friends that you've missed,'' he says. ''It fits with the relationship people have with the show, that they're anxiously awaiting a reunion.''
Sunday's premiere could easily draw 12 million viewers, a record for any cable series.
What took so long?
* David Chase, the guiding hand behind the series as creator and executive producer, wanted more time to hone story lines in preparation for an unusually long eight-month production schedule. (Typical network dramas produce 22 episodes but spend less time filming each one; they're also shorter, to leave room for commercials.)
Article comments
1 - Ryan Olson
I think I've been anticipating the new season a bit too much. The show even crept into my dreams last night...
Bring it on!
2 - Eric Olsen
I've been trying to not think about it - but the time has come.
3 - Dr. Sphincter
I have not been in a cave in Afganistan but I don't have cable TV and I didn't know a thing about the Soprano's opening until Sunday night at about 6 PM. My friends were over for the weekend and they said they were going back to their hotel to watch the big show. That's how I found out about it and that's how I came to watch it.
They are HBO freaks and doubtless get to see all the hype and promotion that broadcast-only TV viewers like me have not seen. I guess if you don't have cable TV, you might as well be living in a cave in Afganistan. In a cave and reading a blog or even more retarded--something printed on actual paper! Ugh. How degraded I feel.