RIP Tony Soprano

I’m pretty shocked by the news that Tony Soprano died today at age 51 of a suspected heart attack. It’s weird and ironic, because in the last week I’ve been looking online for the complete DVD set of the Soprano’s at a reasonable price. I wanted to show it to my wife who is from New Jersey where all this stuff went down every week on the show.

And it brings up a larger point that I was trying to explain to her. When I was in high school and college, after the NFL went off the air on Sunday’s it wasn’t time to pack up the laundry my mom did and head back to the dorms just yet. The Sopranos would come on, and my mom and dad and I would watch them every week. We would laugh at the stupid shit that Paulie would say. We would laugh at Tony’s son. We would argue about who was on the hot seat to get whacked next.

It truly became known in our house as “Family Hour”. And not too long after that I visited New York City and there was a billboard with the Soprano’s gun on the side of a large building in Times Square that said exactly that: ‘Family Hour’. That’s all it said and that’s all the ad needed to say.

When the show ended I was closer to being an adult and my parents were going through a divorce – much like Tony and Carmella on the show. But we always had the memories of family hour and to this day I still debate with friends, co-workers, and anyone who enjoyed the show their theory on if when the screen went black; did Tony get whacked?

Personally, I think he was shot. RIP, Tony and thanks for the memories.