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| steel driving hammer |
Test you bastards.
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| steel driving hammer |
Not the Stones, the Sopranos!!
1 hours, 12 minutes ago
By DAVID BAUDER, AP
NEW YORK - Tony Soprano and his mob family on the HBO series � some of them at least � have a longer lease on life.
AP Photo
AP Photo
HBO and producers of the award-winning drama have announced an agreement for a sixth season. The cast is currently wrapping up production on the fifth season.
Fans of "The Sopranos" have to wait, however. The series has been off the air since December and was widely expected to return in the fall. But HBO now says the fifth season won't begin until March.
The sixth season will consist of 10 episodes, shorter than the 13-episode seasons "The Sopranos" usually offers, HBO spokeswoman Tobe Becker said Thursday.
It's widely assumed that the sixth season will be the last for "The Sopranos." Then again, it was widely assumed the fifth season would, too.
Series creator David Chase signaled the intention to keep going last week in an interview with the New York Daily News.
"I'd planned out an arc for season five that would have ended the show," he said. "But as we're getting into it, we're finding there's a lot more material. We could cram it into 13 episodes, but I don't know that it's the right thing to do."
Chase and his production team began negotiations that led to the extra 10-episode season.
Production for the sixth season will start in early 2005. No air dates have been set.
It's expected that the full cast of the show will remain � for a while. Some characters have been killed off over the years, including Ralphie Cifaretto last season. (Following the memorable beheading, Joe Pantoliano landed a role as an FBI agent in an upcoming CBS series.)
James Gandolfini, a 2000 and 2001 Emmy winner for his performance as Tony Soprano, is back after resolving a contentious salary dispute with HBO this spring.
Six full seasons will give HBO 75 episodes of "The Sopranos," increasing the possibility it may try to sell the series into syndication.
The show's often violent content may make that difficult, and scenes would have to be cut from each episode to fit in commercials. But producers have filmed alternate scenes in certain episodes to be more palatable to a mass audience.
HBO, which owns the rights to "The Sopranos," hasn't decided whether to offer the series for syndication. But it has begun marketing specially edited episodes of "Sex and the City.
The cable net announced its intention to extend its top-rated series The Sopranos for a sixth season this morning after reaching an agreement with creator David Chase, who had hinted at the extra episodes last week.
"I'm delighted that David Chase has decided to give us another chapter in the great Sopranos saga," said HBO CEO Chris Albrecht in a statement released by the network.
Chase, who's wavered on returning every season since the fourth, has agreed to produce an extra 10 episodes for the Mafia series' sixth and final installment--a compromise on the 13 episodes that have been typical of every other season.
The fifth season, currently in production, will air 13 episodes starting in March 2004. Production on the sixth season won't begin until early 2005, which means fans will have to wait at least another two years to find out what happens to their favorite New Jersey Mob family.
You expected different?
News of the return of Tony and his ziti-sucking famiglia is particularly timely as the sixth and final season of HBO's other original programming cornerstone Sex and the City bows this weekend.
Industry watchers had predicted the cable net would try to persuade at least one of its star shows to stay on so that HBO could maintain its Sunday night stranglehold on Nielsen numbers.
In addition, the extra season will bring the total number of episodes produced to 75, a much more marketable number should the network try to shop the show for syndication. Since the series has only been available to about a third of the TV sets in the country, The Sopranos could be a slam-dunk for syndication for any other network with wider exposure.
Meanwhile, it's reportedly smiles all around on the set of The Sopranos. While no official announcement was made, the entire cast is expected to return for the sixth season, since recent contract negotiations included the possibility of an extra season.
That's a far cry from the attitude on set three months ago when star James Gandolfini threatened to quit over a salary dispute. Gandolfini's refusal to show up for work put the series' entire future in jeopardy until executive producer Brad Grey arranged a sit-down to resolve the feud brewing between the network and the TV don.
The effort was apparently worth the headache. "When you produce a show as rewarding as The Sopranos, you obviously want it to continue," Grey said in a statement Wednesday.
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| steel driving hammer |
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| *ginda |
SDH - I thought of you when I heard about the new season. If I remember correctly, the last time we saw Tony he was leaving the family home with a suitcase in his hand, and Adrianna was being squeezed by the Feds. Tense times ahead. |
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