Don’t look now, but it’s been almost two decades since the greatest television show ever made aired its series finale.
On June 10, 2007, HBO aired the now-iconic final episode of The Sopranos. The show had already cemented itself as one of the most important pieces of television ever made, but the finale took things to a whole new level. It also quickly became one of the most highly debated endings of all time.
The episode, titled “Made in America,” not only marked the end of the show but also the end of a golden era of modern television. For 7 years, The Sopranos redefined what television could be. And the ending that we got was absolutely perfect… no matter what anyone else may try to tell you.
‘The Sopranos’ ended on June 10, 2007
Created by David Chase, the show followed the life of mob boss Tony Soprano, played brilliantly by the late James Gandolfini. Tony is a complex, brooding man who struggles to balance a life of organized crime and his own mental health battles.
To say that The Sopranos changed television forever would be a massive understatement. Shows like Breaking Bad and The Wire never would have been made if Tony Soprano and his problems had never found their way into our living rooms.
Despite all of that, absolutely nothing could have prepared the world for the show’s final scene.
The finale follows Tony as he does his best to navigate the usual tensions and scenarios that we’d grown accustomed to seeing him deal with for 6 seasons. In the closing moments of the show, he arrives at a diner, meets his family, and grabs a table.
While Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” plays on the jukebox, we then go back and forth from Tony and his family at the table while Meadow is outside struggling to parallel park. We are also shown a few suspicious-looking individuals who appear to have trouble on their minds…
Right as the tension builds, and you expect something big to happen, we fade to black. And just like that, the greatest television show ever ended. No gunshots. No bloodshed. Just silence.
In real time, tens of thousands of people actually believed their TVs had glitched. Crazy, right? Some pushed buttons on their remotes. Others simply sat frozen. But all had questions.
Were Tony and his family killed? Was the entire thing simply paranoia? That’s totally up for you to decide, as David Chase still refuses to offer any answers all these years later.
Love it or hate it, The Sopranos completely changed the way shows can handle series finales. We don’t always have to tie things up neatly—especially if our characters don’t need or deserve that kind of ending.
While the finale is certainly still polarizing all these years later, time has allowed those who hated the creative decision to see it for what it actually was: bold and creative. In one evening, the ending of The Sopranos created a brand new cultural reference point. It’s been analyzed, parodied, and debated more than any TV show’s finale ever.
Who knows, maybe somewhere Tony and his family are enjoying a nice dinner in that exact same booth. Or maybe they aren’t.
The post On This Day in 2007, ‘The Sopranos’ Aired Its Iconic Series Finale appeared first on VICE.
