The Sopranos And Me

1
The year I retired from a 30 year career as a teacher and lecturer, The Sopranos began its run---January 1999. The series extended eventually to eighty-six hour-long episodes by the end of which I was fully ensconced in an early retirement, a sea-change in Tasmania and a new career as a writer and poet, editor and publisher. Following The Sopranos has been like watching a movie that lasted for eight years, with occasional intermission breaks for births, deaths, terrorist incursions, and wars that look to go on much longer than the series itself. My following was episodic to say the least. I never watched one of the 86 episodes---just snatches as I flicked the remote after midnight---my TV watching time.

The series revolved around a New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faced as he tried to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he headed. The series won a multitude of awards including twenty-one Emmys and five Golden Globes. The Sopranos was a major ratings success and has been the most commercially successful cable series in the history of television. For an outline of the plot and of all the tributes it has received go to Wikipedia.-Ron Price with thanks to Wikipedia, 24 December 2011.

I have never been fascinated by organized
crime and the Mafia, not from an early age,
even though classic gangster films like The
Public Enemy, and The Godfather, as well
as crime series like The Untouchables, and
endless who-dun-its occupy a core of TV’s
programming. I must admit that some of
these crime series give my mind a rest by
their very repetitiveness & predictability.1

I have often thought that the experience
of the Baha’is in Iran had a blood-and-guts
theme that would make a successful series
if a good writer or writers, a good director
and producer could be found. Time will tell.

1 I have watched many episodes of Law and Order and Criminal Minds in the last dozen years since retiring from the world of jobs.

Ron Price
24 December 2011
married for 44 years, a teacher for 35, a writer and editor for 12, and a Baha'i for 52(in 2011):icon_arrow:
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