[proslaviy]

I loved how it ended. I think it's very creative. Finally, every one will debate (untill the movie comes out) how this show ended. If you ask me, I think Tony and his family got whacked pounding onion rings to the tune of Journey. New Jersey at it's best.

[xquFzpNw]

. . . i guess closure is Tony lives on and his issues continue

Touche~

Despite what James Gandolfini tells the media about wanting to expand his repertoire, I'll bet that we have not heard the last of The Sopranos.

[Attaniuri]

Here's a question, as there seems to be some debate about this: what was the last image you saw on last night's show?

Since last night, I've been ranting about how terrible the last shot was: Meadow busting into the restaurant and heading for the table? Please. After a few hours of this, I realized that most people seem to have seen an episode that ends with Tony Soprano looking at the door and hearing a bell ring. However, I'm confident that what I saw ran a few seconds longer than that.

There was a video posted on YouTube showing the last scene being Tony's face, but it has since been taken down by HBO copyright. Another notable difference between these two accounts is that the credits flash on the Tony-ending tape and they scrolled in the version that I saw last night. There were definitely at least two different endings shown simultaneously. Not that there's much of a difference in the result, other than Meadow definitely made it into the restaurant with her family intact.

I was watching on Time-Warner HDTV. From what I've seen, it's about 80-90 percent of viewers with the Tony ending, and 10-20% with Meadow. I really hope someone can back me up here.

[Terinalo]

What I saw showed the Tony ending ... Meadow was still making her way from the car into the diner ... and I kept glued to the credits thinking that there might be something more coming ...

If you have T/W Cable the latest Soprano episodes are available for free on HBO On Demand (check Channel 200 in lower Manhattan) --

I just played the final episode (Epidsode 86 "Made in America") -- I fast forwarded to the final scene in the diner. Knowing how the scene plays out it's interesting to re-watch that final scene ...

1) Check out the stranger at the counter who comes in just ahead of AJ -- and see that aside from one possible direct look his glances throughout the scene are not directed to Tony -- nor does it seem that they are directed even to the Sopranos table. It does seem that Tony sort of looks at the guy -- but only once (other than a quick side glance as the guy passes the table on the way into the bathroom). The camera never indicates that the two make eye contact.

2) The two black guys who have entered the diner after the guy from the counter goes to the bathroom don't look towards Tony's table at all (plus we don't actually see them come in the door, when the camera cuts back they are aleady inside) -- both are focused on the glass cabinet of food [pies??] inside the door. And we don't see them outside the diner before they come in -- despite all the exterior shots when Meadow is parking her car (and where the front entry to the diner is seen). However I remember when watching the episode last night that their appearance in the diner really made me think something big was about to go down.

Film is amazing that way -- how it can make you think something is happening when all that you've been shown are bits and pieces and inferences.

3) The final shots in the version I saw last night -- and just re-watched now -- shows this: Meadow is running across the street then then camera cuts inside the diner to a 3-shot of Tony, Carmella and AJ at the table and Tony reaches up to the little juke box thing at the end of the table when the bell rings -- the camera cuts to Tony in a single shot close up as he looks up towards the door of the diner -- then the picture cuts to black. (Meadow is not shown coming through the door).

I think it was a perfect way to end the series. Everything is up in the air -- and everyone is acting true to character. What might happen is left up the viewers imagination. No resolution. No ending. Just our own personal versions of how the Soprano saga will play out.

[Snweyuag]

I really think the version I saw was an editing fluke, but I'm confident in what I saw. After watching the YouTube version of the official ending, I know that I would have been wondering what happened to Meadow. In the cut I saw, everyone was together and safe, for at least 2 seconds.

I'm not a rabid fan by any means, but I much prefer the intended ending to the film-school junk I watched last night. It was only a few seconds extra, but both the visual and audio editing were worse than I ever saw even in film class.

[avaicavum]

Watching the several re-runs of the Final Episode scheduled later this week on TWNYC in both English and Spanish should suffice to clear up any lingering uncertainty about the closing nanoseconds. What I saw Sun. evening and again today (I've DVR'd it) showed Tony's face just after Meadow walked up to the diner and before it went to black and the credits rolled. Lame writing perhaps, but nothing inept about the film editing.

[Green_Monkey23]

Still, that's not what I saw, ManhattanKnight. On Sunday, I saw that Meadow had crossed the threshold into the diner, and was approaching her family. The editing was absolutely inept, as it is apparently a completely different version of events than is being commonly discussed.

[AnetTeilor]

This is the last frame before it went to black (at least as shown on HBO Manhattan Ch. 701 Sun. night) (Meadow never appears inside the diner):

[Buincchotourbss]

Again- not it. I've seen the official version on YouTube, and that's not what I saw on Sunday. I'm not the only one.

[ATTILAGLIC]

Schadenfrau, has a point. What I saw was Meadow running into the restaurant, and the whole show clipped to black in mid sequence.

[diutuartina]

I found this clip on Youtube. It's identical to what I saw and recorded Sunday night.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wV6GKNv5Fx8

[Spongebob]

Again, I don't think anyone is suggesting the clip that MK posted isn't accepted as the official ending. The version I saw ran for a few seconds after that.

[WaydayTew]

Schade, did you see a pre-recorded ending that was later clipped when it was shown on air, taped by MK?

[averkif]

I have no idea, Rapunzel. I went to a friend's house to watch the show- I assume it was on regular HBO. We watched it on Time-Warner HDTV in the Bronx, and he backs me up on what we saw. I've also spoken with two people in Jersey City who saw the version I watched.

This NY Post article confirms what I saw, but I did not see the part with the man approaching the table:

--Matt Servitto, who played FBI Special Agent Harris, said Chase briefly kept the camera rolling after what amounted to Tony's final moment on screen - and that the extra footage appeared to clearly spell the end for the supreme Soprano.

"[Tony's daughter] Meadow got into the diner, sat down . . . The menacing 'Members Only' jacket-wearing man at the counter was a little bit more in play, and I think she's sitting there with the family kind of all together . . . and all of a sudden, the menacing man gets up, starts walking toward their booth. End of show," Servitto said.

"The scene cut as the [menacing] guy was advancing toward [Tony], as if he was about to shoot Tony. It was, I think, less ambiguous that Tony was going to get shot.--

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06122007...iss.htm?page=0

[jurhoonee]

Maybe it was planned like that. Like some areas saw Tony as the last clip, while others saw Meadow. You know to add more spice to the ending.

[frkksptn]

In an online search, I typed, "sopranos", "finale", and "different endings." From what I could glean, multiple endings were shot -- and different HBO feeds were showing different endings. Wow-wee.

[kavaTeexy]

Downloaded and watched the episode last night, what can I say I thought it was boring and predictable. I think after season 3 the whole show just went no where. The last 6 episodes was like some slow motion Chinese opera. I mean jesus Christ everyone knows that eventually all bad guys get whats coming to them and this is no exception. I mean Chase didn't have to show tony get shot or anything you know thats where the ending goes. As much as everyone would have liked to see Sopranos get hit or a gang style shootout I'm glad it ended in suspense. You know there will be a Soprano's movie years on.

[KellyLynchIV]

It sounds like the good patrons of the real-life Bada Bing saw the same ending I did:

"Instead the mobster, who suffers the same worries as the rest of us, even if he gets relief from the occasional murder, finished the show munching onion rings in a New Jersey diner surrounded by a smiling wife and two content kids.

Sure a guy looking like a hit man had entered the restroom behind Tony and might be expected to come back out and kill the entire family, but then the screen went black for about five seconds and that was that. Some fans were disappointed."

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/...3264846&page=1

[sposteTipsKage]

'Sopranos' tours has fans flocking to Hudson
Fade to black? Not a chance for fans of "The Sopranos."

More than a week after the series finale, the addiction to the show seems stronger than ever, with legions of fans making a journey to Jersey to see real-life remnants of the hit TV mob drama.

Their obsession starts at the place where the series ended: Business is booming at the diner where lead character Tony Soprano sat with his family in the controversial series finale.

Fans not only want to eat at Holsten's (actually an ice cream parlor in Bloomfield), they want to sit in the same booth where Tony, the fictional New Jersey mob boss, played the Journey song, "Don't Stop Believin.' "

"The phone just rings constantly all day from people wanting to make reservations," said co-owner Chris Carley. "They ask 'Can we reserve the booth? Can we get a T-shirt?'

Carley, who watched the final scenes filmed there over two days, fields calls from fans wanting to talk about the ending. Customers who want to relive Tony's last meal can buy onion rings (for $2.50), but they cannot listen to the juke box, which was a prop for the show.

"It's just so funny that people want to sit in that booth," he said. "A lot of people are taking pictures."

The Emmy-winning HBO show explored the life of the fictional Jersey mob boss and his family, and scores of scenes have been shot across the Garden State since it debuted in 1999.

The series ended abruptly when the screen suddenly goes black as Tony and his family sit down to dinner at Holsten's, leaving fans guessing about what happens next.

Part of "The Sopranos" fascination is fueled by the lack of a real ending, said Roland T. Rust, chairman of the marketing department at the University of Maryland.

"The fact you don't have that resolution makes it more difficult for people to let go," Rust said.

Some fans are flocking to a "Sopranos"-themed bus tour. With 47 sites, it's one way fans can still connect with the show. The cost is $42 per person, which includes a cannoli. Afternoon tours for the next two weekends are already sold out.

The tour begins in Midtown Manhattan and transports up to 54 people through the Lincoln Tunnel into Jersey. Fans see the fictional Satriale's pork store in Kearny and the diner under the Pulaski Skyway in Jersey City where Tony's nephew, Christopher, got shot.

For many, the highlight is Satin Dolls, a strip club that fronts for the "Bada Bing" on Route 17 in Lodi.

"People are really in withdrawal," says Georgette Blau, president of On Location Tours. A third tour has been added, and a fourth is likely to begin next month, Blau said.

One of the most popular stops, Satriale's, will be whacked come August or September.

The owner of the building who leased it to HBO is demolishing for nine condos and a garage, aptly named "Soprano Court."

Owner Manny Costeira said construction will begin in the fall or spring and fans can buy a piece of building.

"We'll be salvaging the stones off the building for those people who are totally heartbroken about the pork store going down," he said.

The obsession with "The Sopranos" seems to be popping up everywhere.

Music downloads of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin' " jumped 371 percent in the week after it played in the show's final scene, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign borrowed from the series ending when it unveiled its new campaign song with a Web video spoof of the "Sopranos" finale.

Even Pizzaland, a North Arlington shack that zips by in the show's opening credits, has seen a huge spike in business from fans starving for a connection to the show.

The store got so busy fielding requests for custom pizzas from across the country -- the pies are sent by mail in dry ice -- that it had to shut down for walk-in customers five days before the final episode aired.

"We had to stop answering the phones," said owner Todd Maino.

His employees worked for 48 hours straight to accommodate 800 to 1,000 orders before the finale, and they're still taking 300 to 400 weekly orders for the thin crust pizza.

Pizzaland shipped two pies to Jeri Hershberger last week in Spokane, Wash. The 56-year-old is still looking for a connection to the show.

"It never was finalized," she said. "It keeps people's imaginations going."

Associated Press