The dark world of "The Sopranos" is so hard-edged that it looks real. But though it's great television, the fact is that it's only television. And as with all things TV, the season has ended. So where are you going to get your "Sopranos" fix until the show returns in January?
Don't worry about it.
Since all of the show is shot within a couple of hours' drive from Philadelphia, in New Jersey and New York, you can take your own private "Sopranos" tour.
Drive north on the New Jersey Turnpike to the Holland Tunnel, across lower Manhattan to the FDR Drive and over the Queensboro Bridge into the borough of Queens, where most of the show's studio shots are filmed at the Silvercup Studios (42-22 22nd St., Long Island City).
Head back down the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and over the Verrazano Bridge to Staten Island and the Atlantis Marina at Great Kills Harbor.
That's where Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and young Anthony Jr. (Robert Iler) did some father-son bonding on the family boat in one recent episode. Well, it's where this and other boating scenes were filmed, anyway. In the show, Tony is a Jersey kind of guy, and the boat is supposed to be docked in Jersey City.
So let's get over to Jersey already. Head over the Goethals Bridge and up the New Jersey Turnpike to the little Bergen County town of Lodi.
Most of the place names in "The Sopranos" have been changed to protect the innocent roadside architecture. A good example is the Bada-Bing, the alleged gentlemen's club where Tony and his buds hang out. In real life, the Bada-Bing is actually Satin Dolls, 230 N.J. State Route 17 South in Lodi. Both interiors and exteriors are shot at the club.
The Bada-Bing is owned by Silvio, who is played by a real, live Jersey icon - Stevie Van Zandt, the Springsteen E-Street Band guitarist from the Jersey shore suburb of Middletown.
Next, steer that Caddy (you rented one for this occasion, right?) west on I-80 to Paterson and the Great Falls Park, an oasis from the gritty city. There, on a walkway above the falls, you can see the place where a group of made men "convince" a guy who owes them a little cash to embezzle from his company while looming - and threatening - below is the gurgling pool of the falls.
Zip back down the turnpike and you'll pass the Hackensack Meadowlands, the marsh long alleged to be a dumping ground for mob booty and buddies - and a place that gets a lot of off-hand mention in the show.
