Tuesday, June 12, 2007

One Last Word On DeCesare's Joke Of An Ending

"Most hated it, some loved it. Plenty want to see Tony make the jump to the big screen.

The day after the blockbuster final episode of "The Sopranos," die-hard fans were still sparring online over its leave-'em-hanging cliffhanger ending.

"This was the biggest letdown ever in the history of television," said an NYDailyNews.com user named hogannana65. "I sat in my living room stunned, shocked and appalled that it was over."

By a 2-to-1 margin, News readers in an online poll whacked the most anticipated TV moment in years.

The cut-to-black ending, which never revealed whether Tony and the Sopranos lived or died, left most viewers as cold as a corpse in a Jersey swamp."

And there you have the difference between a real show such as Newhart or Seinfeld, and the poorly done pap offered by cable. What mega-hit from network television wouldn't have taken into consideration the stars feelings, as well as that of the audience? Gandolfini should have been all but running the show and he let DeCesare surround him with bad actors, horrid scripts, directors who's next clue will be their first, and camera work reminiscent of Little Sally's 4th Grade Graduation. Not that it's cool to allow the inmates to run the asylum, but one wonders precisely why the big guns from Sopranos had so little input. "Sorry, David, but this script sucks," was most likely never heard at Silvercup studios, and that leads me to believe that the actors were more than happy to take the money and run. Me, I grieve for the Bing Girls. They at least were professionals high atop their individual areas of expertise, and didn't get the chance to go out with a bang.

And at long last one finally chirps up...

"...there was at least one other slaying that was actually filmed - although it ended on the cutting-room floor, according to one actress.

A Scores stripper who appeared several times on the show told The Post that she was on the set when Paulie Walnuts was rubbed out in the Bada Bing jiggle joint by an unknown shooter. She said she was standing nearby in the scene with a group of girls when Paulie was shot and fell to the ground, bleeding, as "everyone was screaming, 'Oh, my God!' "

In the version of the scene that made it to the small screen, Paulie does enter the club to meet fellow capo Carlo, but there's no one else around at the time, and, realizing that he's been stood up, he leaves and finishes out the rest of the episode still breathing.

As for possible alternative endings - think DVD extras - an HBO spokesman insisted none was even scripted, much less filmed.

"We're planning to release [the finale on DVD] in October. There will be no alternative endings on the DVD, because there were none shot," the rep said. "

For some of the show's fans - and its actors - the series ended as it should have: ever-ambiguous and complex.

"I thought it was phenomenal . . . I know people were disappointed, but it's not David's style [to tie up loose ends]," said Joseph R. Gannascoli, who played the gay mobster whacked last season by Leotardo."

Well of course you thought it to be phenomenal, you talentless pool of suet. Who else besides a hack like DeCesare would have provided work for someone missing even the most basic understanding of the theatrical profession. "Analyze This" was the premise from the get-go, with "Brokeback Mountain Of A Fairy" thrown in to capitalize on the gay goat herder movie that had the soccer moms all a' twitter.

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