Woke up this morning and didn’t expect to see The Sopranos celebrated more than two decades after the show’s premiere.
Michael Imperioli and Lorraine Bracco reunited at the Emmy Awards on Monday, January 15, following the HBO series’ 25th anniversary earlier this month.
“2024 marks the 25th anniversary of this series that Lorraine and I were so fortunate to be part of,” Imperioli, 67, said as the costars stood on a set based on the office where James Gandolfini’s Tony got therapy for six seasons.
Bracco, 69, added, “And speaking for Michael, myself and the entire cast and crew, it was an honor working with Sopranos creator David Chase and, of course, the great James Gandolfini.”
The twosome presented Supporting Actress in a Drama Series to Jennifer Coolidge for her role as Tanya McQuoid in The White Lotus.
The Sopranos premiered via HBO in January 1999 with the late Gandolfini starring as Tony Soprano, a north New Jersey mob boss who moonlights as a “waste management consultant,” as he tells Bracco’s Dr. Jennifer Melfi during the first episode.
Throughout the show’s six seasons on the air, viewers followed along as Tony clashed with his family — wife Carmela Soprano (Edie Falco) and two kids, Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) and A.J. (Robert Iler) — and made enemies out of other crime families.
When the final episode aired in June 2007, the screen went black, signaling the end of an era. However, fans were torn with what really happened to Tony in the last scene, which is left rather ambiguous when it comes to whether he’s alive or dead.
“If it’s time to go, it’s time to go. Have a party and move on,” the late Gandolfini told CBS’ 60 Minutes of his character’s fate in 2005, years before the finale even aired. “I had a good run, man. I’m fine. I had a good run.”
Gandolfini died at age 51 in 2013 following a heart attack. During the same 60 Minutes interview eight years before his death, the actor was asked if he was concerned about being remembered as Tony Soprano.
“There are worse things to be associated with,” he replied.
When remembering Gandolfini on the 10th anniversary of his death in June 2023, many former Sopranos stars spoke about working alongside the legend.
“It’s like tennis — when you play with a better player, your game improves,” Sopranos guest star Julianna Margulies, who played Julianna Skiff, told Vanity Fair at the time. “It’s just how it is; you just play better. You don’t have to hit the ball very hard because they’re hitting it so hard. All you have to do is put your racket out.”
Steven Van Zandt, who played Silvio Dante, recalled Gandolfini receiving a “big raise” and splitting “it up amongst the cast” during the same interview.
“He pulled each and every one of us in his trailer during work one day and gave us all a check. I remember, I think, it was for $36,000,” Drea De Matteo, who played Adriana La Cerva, added. “I think he felt like he had hit the jackpot, and he just wanted to f—kin’ share it with everybody. He was just a different … he’s just a different breed. A completely different breed.”
