LITTLE ROCK — It’s Christmas Day and the usual television programming is off enjoying time with family and friends.
Or buried deep in special programming such as the annual movie marathons (see below).
So today is a good time to reflect on one of the more seminal events in recent TV memory. Or maybe not so recent.
It’s hard to believe that more than five years have passed since we last saw Tony Soprano and his wife and son at Holsten’s diner on The Sopranos.
In the last moments of the Season 6 finale, Tony looked up at the camera and the screen abruptly went blank and silent.
I thought it was brilliant. Many disagreed.
It was on June 10, 2007, that the “Made in America” episode aired and was seen by 11.9 million viewers. That’s 11.9 million confused viewers. Did having the screen go suddenly dark mean that Tony was dead or not?
I believe so, but it has been the subject of discussion ever since.
Who better to ask than series creator, executive producer and show runner DavidChase? Chase also wrote and directed the series finale.
Associated Press entertainment writer Jake Coyle recently sat down with Chase to discuss his new film, Not Fade Away. The conversation eventually turned to The Sopranos and Coyle got Chase to reflect on the controversial ending. Here are a few choice tidbits from that interview.
“I was proud of it,” Chase said of the final episode. “What I didn’t understand was that the ending would be so talked about that it would completely obliterate the rest of the episode that came before it.
“I think a lot of people thought they were being made a fool of. That was the best ending I knew to come up with and I thought it said some things, but people didn’t get it because they were angry. Or maybe it wasn’t executed well.
“To me, the question is not whether Tony lived or died, and that’s all that people wanted to know. There was something else I was saying that was more important than whether Tony Soprano lived or died. About the fragility of all of it.
“The whole show had been about time in a way, and the time allotted on this Earth.
“Tony was dealing in mortality every day. He was dishing out life and death. And he was not happy.
“All I wanted to do waspresent the idea of how short life is and how precious it is. The only way I felt I could do that was to rip it away. And I think people did get it. It made them upset emotionally, but intellectually they didn’t follow it. And that could very well be bad execution.
“Did Tony die? Am I supposed to do a scene and ending where it shows that crime doesn’t pay?
“He was an extremely isolated, unhappy man. And then finally, once in a while he would make a connection with his family and be happythere.
“But in this case, whatever happened, we never got to see the result of that. It was torn away from him and from us.
“[The show’s meaning] was about time and love. What have we got except love and each other to guard against all that isolation and loneliness?”
So. Was Tony whacked as he looked up to see Meadow enter the diner? Chase isn’t saying. Discuss among yourselves.
Or fuhgeddaboutit.
By the way, Sopranos fanatics can order a bowl of onion rings at Holsten’s in Bloomfield, N.J., for $3.25.
If you go, sit in the one with the sign that reads “This booth reserved for the Soprano family.” MOVIES ON TV TODAY
That movie: The annual TBS marathon of A Christmas Story began Monday and continues all day today.
Don’t put your eye out.
Curtain times are 7 and 9 a.m. and 1, 3 and 5 p.m.
Lifetime: Lifetime has a string of Christmas movies today. Here are the ones new for this year.
11 a.m., The March Sisters at Christmas.
1 p.m., Love at the Christmas Table.
3 p.m., Christmas Angel.
5 p.m., The Christmas Consultant.
Hallmark: And over on Hallmark ...
11 a.m., The Christmas Heart.
2 p.m., The Wishing Tree.
5 p.m., Matchmaker Santa.
8 p.m. Hitched for the Holidays.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. E-mail:
Style, Pages 32 on 12/25/2012