Made in America (The Sopranos)
Encyclopedia
"Made in America" is the twenty-first episode of the sixth season of the HBO television drama series The Sopranos
and the series finale
. It is the eighty-sixth overall episode of the series and the ninth episode of the second part of the sixth season, which was broadcast in two batches with a break after the twelfth episode. It was written and directed by series creator, executive producer and showrunner David Chase
. It first aired in the United States
on June 10, 2007.
The plot of "Made in America" details the aftermath of the mob war between the DiMeo crime family
—headed by series protagonist
Tony Soprano
(James Gandolfini
)—and the New York
-based Lupertazzi family. Tony also has to deal with many familial concerns involving his wife Carmela
(Edie Falco
), son A.J. (Robert Iler
) and daughter Meadow
(Jamie-Lynn Sigler
). As the series comes to a close, several characters make personal and professional adjustments.
"Made in America" was filmed in February and March 2007 and marks the first time Chase has directed an episode since the pilot. It attracted 11.9 million viewers on its premiere date. The initial critical response was mostly favorable and since the episode's original broadcast that appreciation has grown considerably, ranking it as one of the best television finales. The episode was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award and won an Emmy Award
for writing
and an Eddie Award for editing. "Made in America" and its closing scene have been the subject of discussion, criticism and analysis; parodies
of the final scene have also appeared in popular culture.
Agent Dwight Harris
(Matt Servitto
) to exchange information. However, Harris refuses to provide Tony with Phil Leotardo's (Frank Vincent
) location. Tony visits his family at a separate safehouse where they are now living. The FBI closely monitors Bobby Baccalieri's funeral, which Tony and his crew attend. Phil talks to Butch DeConcini (Gregory Antonacci
) and expresses anger over Butch's failure to kill Tony.
A sit-down between the warring crime families is arranged. Tony and Paulie Gualtieri
(Tony Sirico
) meet with Butch, Albie Cianflone (John "Cha Cha" Ciarcia) and Little Carmine (Ray Abruzzo
) of the Lupertazzi family and they negotiate a truce. Butch does not provide Tony with Phil's location, however, but tells him, "You do what you gotta do." Agent Harris calls Tony and reveals that Phil has been using pay phones in Oyster Bay
, Long Island
. Tony's crew surveils gas stations with payphones in the area, but they are initially unable to locate Phil.
With the truce agreed, Tony returns to his North Caldwell home and life begins to return to normal for Tony, his family and his crew. The exception is A.J., who, after watching his SUV explode after a pile of leaves set it afire, decides to join the U.S. Army
. Tony and Carmela discuss this turn of events with A.J.'s therapist and Tony also talks about his own life and childhood. Tony and Carmela distract A.J. from his military ambitions by getting him involved in producing a movie with Little Carmine's production company and supplying him with a new car. Meadow and Patrick Parisi (Daniel Sauli) plan their wedding.
Eventually, Benny Fazio (Max Casella
) and Walden Belfiore (Frank John Hughes
) encounter Phil at a gas station and Walden murders him with gunshots to the head and chest, while his idling SUV, left in drive, rolls over his head, crushing it. FBI Agent Ron Goddard (Michael Kelly) notifies Agent Harris of Leotardo's death, causing Harris to exclaim, "Damn! We're gonna win this thing!" (an alleged actual quote from allegedly corrupt FBI Special Agent Lindley DeVecchio
, who responded with the same words (minus the "damn") after the Colombo family's successful hit on Colombo Family Capo
Lorenzo Lampasi during the Third Colombo Civil War, won by Carmine "The Snake" Persico
. DeVecchio was tried for murder and other corrupt activities in 2007, but the charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence, but the quote lives in mob legend. DeVecchio is now retired).
Tony visits the comatose Silvio Dante
(Steven Van Zandt
) in the hospital. Tony's lawyer, Neil Mink (David Margulies
), informs Tony that someone is testifying to a grand jury and that Tony is likely to be indicted. Tony later visits his uncle Corrado "Junior" Soprano
(Dominic Chianese
) at the state mental hospital. Because of his Alzheimer's disease
, Junior barely recognizes Tony and becomes confused when Tony tries to remind him of his involvement in "this thing of ours
," whereupon Tony abruptly leaves with a tear in his eye.
Tony then meets his family for dinner at a local diner, arriving first. Carmela arrives second and Tony verifies that Carlo Gervasi (Arthur Nascarella) is going to testify against him and the DiMeo Family. A.J. then arrives and the three Sopranos talk for a while. A man, who has been intermittently staring at Tony as he sits there, gets up from the diner's counter and glances at Tony as he heads to and enters the bathroom. As Meadow enters the restaurant, Tony looks up and the screen smash cut
s to black and silence. After ten seconds, the credits roll silently.
planned the series ending and the final scene during the 21-month hiatus between seasons five and six, a long break HBO had granted him. The final scene was filmed almost exactly as Chase had envisioned. It was not intended as a setup for a future film, although Chase later commented "[t]here may be a day where we all come up with something," regarding a possible Sopranos feature
. It was then-HBO chairman Chris Albrecht
who suggested to Chase to conclude the series with the sixth season.
and Matthew Weiner
and supervising producers and writing team Diane Frolov
and Andrew Schneider
. Frequent episode director Tim Van Patten
also provided Chase with some storyline suggestions. After the episode's story had been outlined, Chase wrote the first draft. After some input from his writing staff, Chase revised the script to its finished state, although he also made minor changes during filming. "Made in America" is Chase's thirtieth and final official writing credit
(including story credits
) and his ninth as sole writer (his first since "Join the Club", the second episode of the sixth season).
Chase included allusions to real-life American Mafia
history and events in the script for "Made in America", something he is well-known for. Specifically, the line "Damn! We're gonna win this thing!", spoken in the episode by the character Dwight Harris
after being informed of the death of Phil Leotardo, alludes to former FBI supervisor Lindley DeVecchio
. DeVecchio famously uttered the line after being told that Lorenzo "Larry" Lampasi had been shot to death in front of his Brooklyn home and was later charged for informing the Mafia
on various accounts, another parallel to Tony Soprano
and Dwight Harris.
"Made in America" was directed by Chase and photographed
by Alik Sakharov
. The two served in the same capacities for the pilot episode, "The Sopranos", which was filmed in 1997. The series finale marks the second time Chase has officially directed an episode of The Sopranos, although as showrunner, he would oversee the direction of most episodes throughout the show's production. "Made in America" marks the thirty-eighth and final credit for Sakharov as director of photography.
Principal photography
commenced in late February and concluded in late March 2007. Exterior scenes and certain interior scenes of "Made in America" were filmed on location in Bergen County
, New Jersey
and in Brooklyn
and Manhattan
, New York City
, New York
. Additional interior scenes—including indoor shots of the Soprano residence and the back room of the strip club Bada Bing!—were filmed in a sound stage
in Silvercup Studios
, New York, where most such scenes of the series had been filmed. The final scene of the episode was filmed in late March 2007 at Holsten's Brookdale Confectionery, an ice cream and candy shop located in Bloomfield
, New Jersey. The Bloomfield Township Council initially tried to stop HBO from filming in the town because "[they] found the HBO mob
drama offensive to Italian-Americans" and voted to deny the production company a filming permit. However, as the council had no authority to stop filming in the town as long as the crew met the requirements stated in Bloomfield's code for filming crews, a permit was later issued.
As the show's producers needed to ensure that plot details of the ending would be kept a secret until the airdate, the scripts given to the crew members had their final pages removed. The final scene of these edited scripts was the one in which Tony is raking leaves outside his house, a scene that occurs 10 minutes before the real ending in the final cut. Chase received compliments for this scene from people who thought it was the real ending.
by Sidney Wolinsky, one of the show's three editors, under the supervision of Chase.
Chase originally wanted the black screen at the end of the episode to last "all the way to the HBO whoosh sound," meaning that no credits would roll at the end of the episode, but did not receive a waiver from the Directors Guild of America
to do so.
, who plays Silvio Dante
's wife Gabriella Dante on the show, is billed in the opening credits for this episode only (her real-life husband, Steven Van Zandt
, plays her screen husband, Silvio). The characters Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco
), Christopher Moltisanti
(Michael Imperioli
), and Bobby Baccalieri
(Steven R. Schirripa) do not appear in "Made in America" but the actors who play them are still listed in the opening credits.
" by Journey
; the scene cuts to black near the end of the song, precisely on the phrase "Don't stop". The band's lead singer, Steve Perry
, refused to let Chase use "Don't Stop Believin'" in the final scene until he knew the fate of the leading characters and did not give final approval until three days before the episode aired. He feared that the song would be remembered as the soundtrack to Tony's demise, until Chase assured that it would not be the case.
, "Made in America" was watched by an average of 11.9 million viewers on its United States
premiere date Sunday June 10, 2007. This was a 49% increase from the previous episode
and the show's best ratings for both parts of the sixth season. It was also the show's largest audience since the season five premiere.
s, which lead many critics and fans to reevaluate the ending.
Marisa Carroll of PopMatters
awarded "Made in America" a score of 8 out of 10 and particularly praised the final scene as one of the best of the series.
Mark Farinella of The Sun Chronicle
called the episode "[a] perfect ending to a perfect TV series."
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly
called "Made in America" "the perfect ending" and wrote about the final scene, "On shock of that cut to black, the marvelous way it got you to roll the scene over, again and again, in your mind's eye. Rather than bringing the series to a close, that blackout made The Sopranos live forever."
Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle
characterized the finale as "[a]n ending befitting genius of Sopranos" and wrote that "Chase
managed, with this ending, to be true to reality [...] while also steering clear of trite TV conventions."
Frazier Moore
of the Associated Press
called the episode "brilliant" and wrote that "Chase was true to himself."
Kim Reed of Television Without Pity gave "Made in America" the highest score of A+ and praised it for staying true to the show.
Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger
called the finale "satisfying" and wrote that the episode "fit[s] perfectly with everything Chase has done on this show before."
Chicago Tribune
critic Maureen Ryan's first review was mixed; she criticized the final scene for not providing any closure. Ryan later wrote "Chase got me totally wound up, then ripped me away from that world. I was really mad at first [...] I still think what Chase did was, all due respect, kind of jerky. But minutes after the finale ended, I started laughing."
s of all time. Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger wrote in an essay analyzing the finale one year after its original broadcast that he felt the episode was "brilliant".
In 2009, Arlo J. Wiley of Blogcritics
wrote "by focusing on that last ambiguous parting shot from creator David Chase
, we run the risk of forgetting just how beautifully structured and executed an hour of television 'Made in America' is" and ranked it as the eighth best series finale ever.
Also in 2009, Stacey Wilson of Film.com named "Made in America" as one of the 10 best series finales of all time and wrote "Crude, rude and no time for emotional B.S., this finale was a delicious end to a show that reveled in the ugliness of humanity."
TV Guide
included "Made in America" in their "TV's Best Finales Ever" feature, writing "What's there to say about this finale that hasn't already been said? The much-anticipated closer had everyone waiting to see if Tony was finally going to go from whacker to whackee. Instead, they got Journey, a greasy plate of onion rings and a black screen. But, the fact that we're still talking about it proves—for better or worse—that the episode did its job."
In 2011, the finale was ranked #2 on the TV Guide Network special, TV's Most Unforgettable Finales.
in the category of Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series
at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards
. It was the only category the episode was nominated in. This is the third and final time series creator/executive producer David Chase has won the award for his writing of the series.
In 2008, Chase was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award in the category of Drama Series (Night) but lost to fellow Sopranos director Alan Taylor
, who won for directing the pilot episode of Mad Men
, a series created by former Sopranos writer Matthew Weiner
.
Also in 2008, Editor
Sidney Wolinsky won an American Cinema Editors
Eddie Award in the category of Best Edited One-Hour Series for Non-Commercial Television.
The final scene of "Made in America" became the subject of much discussion, controversy and analysis after its original broadcast. The use of an abrupt cut to black followed by several seconds of silence led many viewers to initially believe that their cable
or DVR
had cut out at a crucial moment.
Opposing interpretations soon emerged among viewers regarding the ultimate fate of series protagonist
Tony Soprano
, with some believing that he was killed while others believe that he remains alive.
One argument for the former points to a conversation that Tony had in the midseason premiere
episode "Soprano Home Movies
" with his brother-in-law Bobby, in which Bobby comments on how suddenly and without sound death can happen in their lives as gangsters: "you probably don't even hear it when it happens, right?" A flashback to this scene also appears in the final minutes of "The Blue Comet
", the episode preceding "Made in America".
When questioned on the theory, HBO spokesman Quentin Schaffer stated that the conversation is a "legitimate" hint. The final scene showing a man credited as "Man in Members Only
jacket" who goes to the bathroom has been interpreted as a nod to a scene in the The Godfather
, in which Michael Corleone
retrieves a gun from the bathroom before shooting his enemies to death.
Speculation has also linked the jacket to the title of the opening episode of the season, "Members Only", in which Tony is shot and also as a symbolic reference to membership of the Mafia. Actor Matt Servitto told Entertainment Weekly that in the script, the scene continued with the man in the Members Only jacket emerging from the washroom and starting to walk towards Tony's table before the screen cuts to black, but he preferred the ending that made the final cut of the episode.Contrary arguments about the ending's meaning have also been made. It has been suggested that the final scene means that while life is fraught with fear and danger, it nevertheless goes on. The lyrics of the closing song are thought to support this.
Supporters of this interpretation point out that because of Tony's peace agreement with the Lupertazzi family and their tacit sanction of a hit on Phil, there was no legitimate basis to expect a hit on Tony.
In an interview conducted by Brett Martin several weeks after the finale's original broadcast, Chase shared his views on the final episode and the reaction to it. On the fans of the show and the demand for an unambiguous and definitive ending, Chase remarked, "There was so much more to say than could have been conveyed by an image of Tony facedown in a bowl of onion rings with a bullet in his head. Or, on the other side, taking over the New York mob. The way I see it is that Tony Soprano had been people's alter ego
. They had gleefully watched him rob, kill, pillage, lie and cheat. They had cheered him on. And then, all of a sudden, they wanted to see him punished for all that. They wanted 'justice.' They wanted to see his brains splattered on the wall. I thought that was disgusting, frankly. [...] The pathetic thing—to me—was how much they wanted his blood, after cheering him on for eight years." Chase also made comments about the purported lack of finality in the final episode: "This wasn't really about 'leaving the door open.' There was nothing definite about what happened, but there was a clean trend on view—a definite sense of what Tony and Carmela
's future looks like. Whether it happened that night or some other night doesn't matter." On the future of the Soprano children, Chase said, "A.J.'s not going to be citizen-soldier or join the Peace Corps
or try to help the world; he'll probably be some low-level movie producer. But he's not going to be a killer like his father, is he? Meadow
may not be a pediatrician or even a lawyer, but she's not going to be a housewife-whore like her mother. She'll learn to operate in the world in ways Carmela never did. [...] Tiny, little bits of progress—that's how it works." On moments during and after the final scene, Chase referred to a scene from the episode "Stage 5": "There are no esoteric clues in there. No Da Vinci Code
. Everything that pertains to that episode was in that episode. And it was in the episode before that and the one before that and seasons before this one and so on. There had been indications of what the end is like. Remember when Gerry Torciano was killed? Silvio was not aware that the gun had been fired until after Gerry was on his way down to the floor. That's the way things happen: It's already going on by the time you even notice it. [...] I'm not saying anything. And I'm not trying to be coy. It's just that I think that to explain it would diminish it." Chase also addressed the widespread opinion that the open-ended finale was insulting to the show's longtime fans: "I saw some items in the press that said, 'This was a huge fuck you to the audience.' That we were shitting in the audience's face. Why would we want to do that? Why would we entertain people for eight years only to give them the finger
? We don't have contempt for the audience. In fact, I think The Sopranos is the only show that actually gave the audience credit for having some intelligence and attention span. We always operated as though people don't need to be spoon-fed every single thing—that their instincts and feelings and humanity will tell them what's going on."
At the 2008 TCA Awards
, held on July 22, Chase commented "I wasn't going to do this, but somebody said it would be a good idea if we said something about that ending. I really wasn't going to go into it, but I'll just say this...when I was going to Stanford University
's graduate film school and was 23 [years old], I went to see Planet of the Apes
with my wife. When it was over, I said, 'Wow...so they had a Statue of Liberty
, too.'"
In a November 2008 interview with Entertainment Weekly
' s Steve Daly, Chase stated "There's more than one way of looking at the ending. That's all I'll say."
In a December 2008 radio interview with Richard Belzer
, Chase was more specific about the ending and referred to scenes from "Stage 5" and "Soprano Home Movies" in relation to the final scene.
appeared in.
The ending was referred to during the opening act of the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards
on September 16, 2007, performed by Family Guy
characters Brian
and Stewie
and in the Family Guy episode "Lois Kills Stewie", which aired on November 11, 2007.
The January 31, 2008 episode of The Celebrity Apprentice
, "The Croc and the Rat", featured a parody of The Sopranos' ending after contestant and former The Sopranos actor Vincent Pastore
was fired by Donald Trump
.
"Made in America" is parodied in the series finale
of the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris
, "Everybody Hates the G.E.D.", which premiered on May 8, 2009. In the final scene of that episode, the title character and his family members individually arrive at a local diner, while the Bon Jovi
song "Livin' on a Prayer
" plays on the jukebox.
The ending was parodied on the May 23, 2010 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live
as a facetious alternate ending to Lost
.
Actors Tony Sirico
and Steve Schirripa
appeared as themselves on the Sesame Street
special, Elmo's Christmas Countdown, in which The Sopranos' ending was spoofed.
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
and the series finale
Series finale
A series finale refers to the last installment of a series with a narrative presented through mediums such as television, film and literature. In many Commonwealth countries, the term final episode is commonly used in regards to a television series...
. It is the eighty-sixth overall episode of the series and the ninth episode of the second part of the sixth season, which was broadcast in two batches with a break after the twelfth episode. It was written and directed by series creator, executive producer and showrunner David Chase
David Chase
David Chase is an American writer, director, and producer of television series. Chase has worked in television for more than 30 years; he has produced and written for shows as The Rockford Files, I'll Fly Away, and Northern Exposure. He has created two original series; the first, Almost Grown,...
. It first aired in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on June 10, 2007.
The plot of "Made in America" details the aftermath of the mob war between the DiMeo crime family
DiMeo Crime Family
The DiMeo crime family, later referred to as the Soprano crime family, is a fictional Mafia family from the HBO series The Sopranos. It is thought to be loosely based on the DeCavalcante crime family, a real New Jersey Mafia family....
—headed by series protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
Tony Soprano
Tony Soprano
Anthony John "Tony" Soprano, Sr. is an Italian-American fictional character and the protagonist on the HBO television drama series The Sopranos, on which he is portrayed by James Gandolfini. The character was conceived by The Sopranos creator and show runner David Chase, who was also largely...
(James Gandolfini
James Gandolfini
James J. Gandolfini, Jr. is an Italian American actor. He is best known for his role as Tony Soprano in the HBO TV series The Sopranos, about a troubled crime boss struggling to balance his family life and career in the Mafia...
)—and the New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
-based Lupertazzi family. Tony also has to deal with many familial concerns involving his wife Carmela
Carmela Soprano
Carmela Soprano née DeAngelis, played by Edie Falco, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. She is the wife of Mafia boss Tony Soprano and the program's most prominent female character.-Character biography:...
(Edie Falco
Edie Falco
Edith "Edie" Falco is an American television, film and stage actress, known for her roles in Oz as Diane Wittlesey, as Carmela Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos, and as the titular character on the Showtime series Nurse Jackie...
), son A.J. (Robert Iler
Robert Iler
Robert Michael Iler is an American actor, known for his portrayal of A.J. Soprano on The Sopranos which aired on HBO from 1999-2007....
) and daughter Meadow
Meadow Soprano
Meadow Mariangela Soprano , played by Jamie-Lynn Sigler, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos.-Character:Meadow is the first-born child of Tony and Carmela Soprano...
(Jamie-Lynn Sigler
Jamie-Lynn Sigler
Jamie-Lynn Sigler is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Meadow Soprano on the HBO television series The Sopranos.-Early life:...
). As the series comes to a close, several characters make personal and professional adjustments.
"Made in America" was filmed in February and March 2007 and marks the first time Chase has directed an episode since the pilot. It attracted 11.9 million viewers on its premiere date. The initial critical response was mostly favorable and since the episode's original broadcast that appreciation has grown considerably, ranking it as one of the best television finales. The episode was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award and won an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for writing
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series
The Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series is awarded to one television episode each year at the Primetime Emmy Awards. Often regarded as the highest honor that can be bestowed upon an individual episode of television, the nominees and winners often reflect outstanding achievement in...
and an Eddie Award for editing. "Made in America" and its closing scene have been the subject of discussion, criticism and analysis; parodies
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of the final scene have also appeared in popular culture.
Plot
In the aftermath of the mob war that left top members of his crew dead or injured, Tony wakes up in the safehouse where he and his closest associates have taken up residence. Tony meets with FBIFBI on The Sopranos
A major plotline on the fictional HBO drama The Sopranos has been the Federal Bureau of Investigation's ongoing pursuit of the DiMeo and Lupertazzi crime families. The Bureau's investigations have met with varying degrees of success...
Agent Dwight Harris
Dwight Harris
Special Agent Dwight Harris, played by Matt Servitto, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. He is an FBI agent assigned to Tony Soprano's case...
(Matt Servitto
Matt Servitto
Matt Servitto is an American actor, probably best known for his role on The Sopranos as FBI agent Dwight Harris. He also appeared on all 3 seasons of the Peabody Award-winning series Brotherhood as Rep. Donatello and had a guest appearance on Sex and the City as Carrie Bradshaw's editor...
) to exchange information. However, Harris refuses to provide Tony with Phil Leotardo's (Frank Vincent
Frank Vincent
Frank Vincent is an American actor, musician, author and entrepreneur. He is a favorite performer of director Martin Scorsese, having played important roles in three of Scorsese's most acclaimed films: Raging Bull , Goodfellas and Casino . He often plays a gangster and works both in features and...
) location. Tony visits his family at a separate safehouse where they are now living. The FBI closely monitors Bobby Baccalieri's funeral, which Tony and his crew attend. Phil talks to Butch DeConcini (Gregory Antonacci
Greg Antonacci
Gregory Antonacci is an American television actor, director, producer and writer.As a director, producer and writer, he worked on a number of television series namely Brothers, The Tortellis, Perfect Strangers, The Royal Family, The John Larroquette Show, Herman's Head, It's a Living and other...
) and expresses anger over Butch's failure to kill Tony.
A sit-down between the warring crime families is arranged. Tony and Paulie Gualtieri
Paulie Gualtieri
Peter Paul "Paulie Walnuts" Gualtieri played by Tony Sirico, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. He is a caporegime and later underboss in the Soprano crime family.-Plot details:...
(Tony Sirico
Tony Sirico
Genaro Anthony "Tony" Sirico, Jr. is an American character actor who is most famous for his role as Paulie Gualtieri in the television series The Sopranos.- Background and career :Sirico was born in Midwood, Brooklyn...
) meet with Butch, Albie Cianflone (John "Cha Cha" Ciarcia) and Little Carmine (Ray Abruzzo
Ray Abruzzo
Ray Abruzzo is an Italian-American actor, noted for his appearances on television.He made regular appearances in the following series: Dynasty , The Practice and The Sopranos .Other TV credits include: Falcon Crest, Murder She Wrote, L.A...
) of the Lupertazzi family and they negotiate a truce. Butch does not provide Tony with Phil's location, however, but tells him, "You do what you gotta do." Agent Harris calls Tony and reveals that Phil has been using pay phones in Oyster Bay
Oyster Bay (town), New York
The Town of Oyster Bay is easternmost of the three towns in Nassau County, New York, in the United States. Part of the New York metropolitan area, it is the only town in Nassau County that extends from the North Shore to the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2010 census, the town population was...
, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
. Tony's crew surveils gas stations with payphones in the area, but they are initially unable to locate Phil.
With the truce agreed, Tony returns to his North Caldwell home and life begins to return to normal for Tony, his family and his crew. The exception is A.J., who, after watching his SUV explode after a pile of leaves set it afire, decides to join the U.S. Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. Tony and Carmela discuss this turn of events with A.J.'s therapist and Tony also talks about his own life and childhood. Tony and Carmela distract A.J. from his military ambitions by getting him involved in producing a movie with Little Carmine's production company and supplying him with a new car. Meadow and Patrick Parisi (Daniel Sauli) plan their wedding.
Eventually, Benny Fazio (Max Casella
Max Casella
Max Casella is an American actor. He is known for his roles on the television series The Sopranos, Doogie Howser, M.D., and as the voice of Daxter in the Jak and Daxter video game series.-Life and career:...
) and Walden Belfiore (Frank John Hughes
Frank John Hughes
Frank John Hughes is an American film and television actor best known for his portrayal of "Wild Bill" Guarnere in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, Tom Fox in Catch Me If You Can, Tim Woods in 24 and Walden Belfiore in The Sopranos.-Early life and career:A native of the South Bronx, Hughes...
) encounter Phil at a gas station and Walden murders him with gunshots to the head and chest, while his idling SUV, left in drive, rolls over his head, crushing it. FBI Agent Ron Goddard (Michael Kelly) notifies Agent Harris of Leotardo's death, causing Harris to exclaim, "Damn! We're gonna win this thing!" (an alleged actual quote from allegedly corrupt FBI Special Agent Lindley DeVecchio
Lindley DeVecchio
Lindley DeVecchio is a former U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agent in charge of managing mob informants. DeVecchio worked for the FBI during the Mafia wars in New York during the 1980s and 1990s....
, who responded with the same words (minus the "damn") after the Colombo family's successful hit on Colombo Family Capo
Capo
A capo is a device used on the neck of a stringed instrument to shorten the playable length of the strings, hence raising the pitch. It is frequently used on guitars, mandolins, and banjos. G.B...
Lorenzo Lampasi during the Third Colombo Civil War, won by Carmine "The Snake" Persico
Carmine Persico
Carmine John Persico, Jr. also known as "Junior", "The Snake" and "Immortal", has been the de-facto boss of the Colombo crime family since the early 1970s. Persico has overseen gang wars, murders, and major rackets, most of the time from prison. He has been serving life imprisonment without...
. DeVecchio was tried for murder and other corrupt activities in 2007, but the charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence, but the quote lives in mob legend. DeVecchio is now retired).
Tony visits the comatose Silvio Dante
Silvio Dante
Silvio Manfred Dante, often referred to as "Sil", played by Steven Van Zandt, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. He is the consigliere to Tony Soprano in the Soprano crime family. Silvio has one of the lowest profiles on the show. He is usually a behind the scenes figure...
(Steven Van Zandt
Steven Van Zandt
Steven Van Zandt is an Italian-American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve...
) in the hospital. Tony's lawyer, Neil Mink (David Margulies
David Margulies
David Joseph Margulies is an American actor.Margulies was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Runya , a nurse and museum worker, and Harry David Margulies, a lawyer. Margulies graduated from City College of New York. Immediately afterward, he made his stage debut in the off-Broadway play Golden 6...
), informs Tony that someone is testifying to a grand jury and that Tony is likely to be indicted. Tony later visits his uncle Corrado "Junior" Soprano
Junior Soprano
Corrado John Soprano, Jr., played by Dominic Chianese, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. Usually referred to as "Junior" or "Uncle Jun", he is the mentor and surrogate father for capo Tony Soprano. A younger Corrado sometimes appears in flashbacks and is played by Rocco...
(Dominic Chianese
Dominic Chianese
Dominic Chianese is an American film, television and theatre actor, perhaps best known for his role as Corrado "Junior" Soprano on the HBO TV series, The Sopranos.-Early life:...
) at the state mental hospital. Because of his Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
, Junior barely recognizes Tony and becomes confused when Tony tries to remind him of his involvement in "this thing of ours
American Mafia
The American Mafia , is an Italian-American criminal society. Much like the Sicilian Mafia, the American Mafia has no formal name and is a secret criminal society. Its members usually refer to it as Cosa Nostra or by its English translation "our thing"...
," whereupon Tony abruptly leaves with a tear in his eye.
Tony then meets his family for dinner at a local diner, arriving first. Carmela arrives second and Tony verifies that Carlo Gervasi (Arthur Nascarella) is going to testify against him and the DiMeo Family. A.J. then arrives and the three Sopranos talk for a while. A man, who has been intermittently staring at Tony as he sits there, gets up from the diner's counter and glances at Tony as he heads to and enters the bathroom. As Meadow enters the restaurant, Tony looks up and the screen smash cut
Smash cut
A smash cut is a technique in film and other moving visual media where one scene abruptly cuts to another without transition, usually meant to startle the audience. To this end, the smash cut usually occurs at a crucial moment in a scene where a cut would not be expected...
s to black and silence. After ten seconds, the credits roll silently.
Conception
Showrunner David ChaseDavid Chase
David Chase is an American writer, director, and producer of television series. Chase has worked in television for more than 30 years; he has produced and written for shows as The Rockford Files, I'll Fly Away, and Northern Exposure. He has created two original series; the first, Almost Grown,...
planned the series ending and the final scene during the 21-month hiatus between seasons five and six, a long break HBO had granted him. The final scene was filmed almost exactly as Chase had envisioned. It was not intended as a setup for a future film, although Chase later commented "[t]here may be a day where we all come up with something," regarding a possible Sopranos feature
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
. It was then-HBO chairman Chris Albrecht
Chris Albrecht
Chris Albrecht is an American media executive. Albrecht is currently the President and CEO of Starz, LLC, Liberty Media Corp.'s pay cable and movie unit. Albrecht is the former Chairman and CEO of HBO. He founded Foresee Entertainment, an independent content creation, development and distribution...
who suggested to Chase to conclude the series with the sixth season.
Writing
As with every episode of the season, the plot outline of "Made in America" was developed by Chase and his writing staff, which for the final season consisted of three writing entities: executive producers Terence WinterTerence Winter
Terence Winter is an American writer and producer of television and film. He is the creator, writer, and executive producer of the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire...
and Matthew Weiner
Matthew Weiner
Matthew Weiner is an American writer, director and producer of television drama. He is the creator, executive producer, head writer, and show runner of the AMC television series Mad Men. He is also noted for his work on the HBO series The Sopranos, on which he served as a writer and producer...
and supervising producers and writing team Diane Frolov
Diane Frolov
Diane Frolov is an American television writer and producer. She has written for several television shows, including The Sopranos and Northern Exposure. She frequently co-writes episodes with her husband, Andrew Schneider.-Career:...
and Andrew Schneider
Andrew Schneider
Andrew Schneider is an American screenwriter and television producer, whose credits include writing for The Sopranos, Northern Exposure, and Alien Nation. He frequently co-writes episodes with his wife, Diane Frolov. In 1992 Schneider won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama...
. Frequent episode director Tim Van Patten
Tim Van Patten
Tim Van Patten is an American television director, actor, screenwriter, and producer. As a director, Van Patten has directed episodes of The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Boardwalk Empire, Rome, The Pacific, Game of Thrones, Ed, and Sex and the City. Van Patten is perhaps best known for portraying...
also provided Chase with some storyline suggestions. After the episode's story had been outlined, Chase wrote the first draft. After some input from his writing staff, Chase revised the script to its finished state, although he also made minor changes during filming. "Made in America" is Chase's thirtieth and final official writing credit
WGA screenwriting credit system
In the United States, screenwriting credit for motion pictures and television programs under its jurisdiction is determined by either the Writers Guild of America, East or the Writers Guild of America, West . Since 1941, the Guilds have been the final arbiter of who receives credit for writing a...
(including story credits
WGA screenwriting credit system
In the United States, screenwriting credit for motion pictures and television programs under its jurisdiction is determined by either the Writers Guild of America, East or the Writers Guild of America, West . Since 1941, the Guilds have been the final arbiter of who receives credit for writing a...
) and his ninth as sole writer (his first since "Join the Club", the second episode of the sixth season).
Chase included allusions to real-life American Mafia
American Mafia
The American Mafia , is an Italian-American criminal society. Much like the Sicilian Mafia, the American Mafia has no formal name and is a secret criminal society. Its members usually refer to it as Cosa Nostra or by its English translation "our thing"...
history and events in the script for "Made in America", something he is well-known for. Specifically, the line "Damn! We're gonna win this thing!", spoken in the episode by the character Dwight Harris
Dwight Harris
Special Agent Dwight Harris, played by Matt Servitto, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. He is an FBI agent assigned to Tony Soprano's case...
after being informed of the death of Phil Leotardo, alludes to former FBI supervisor Lindley DeVecchio
Lindley DeVecchio
Lindley DeVecchio is a former U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agent in charge of managing mob informants. DeVecchio worked for the FBI during the Mafia wars in New York during the 1980s and 1990s....
. DeVecchio famously uttered the line after being told that Lorenzo "Larry" Lampasi had been shot to death in front of his Brooklyn home and was later charged for informing the Mafia
American Mafia
The American Mafia , is an Italian-American criminal society. Much like the Sicilian Mafia, the American Mafia has no formal name and is a secret criminal society. Its members usually refer to it as Cosa Nostra or by its English translation "our thing"...
on various accounts, another parallel to Tony Soprano
Tony Soprano
Anthony John "Tony" Soprano, Sr. is an Italian-American fictional character and the protagonist on the HBO television drama series The Sopranos, on which he is portrayed by James Gandolfini. The character was conceived by The Sopranos creator and show runner David Chase, who was also largely...
and Dwight Harris.
Filming
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
by Alik Sakharov
Alik Sakharov
Alik Sakharov, A.S.C. is a Soviet-born American cinematographer and television and film director....
. The two served in the same capacities for the pilot episode, "The Sopranos", which was filmed in 1997. The series finale marks the second time Chase has officially directed an episode of The Sopranos, although as showrunner, he would oversee the direction of most episodes throughout the show's production. "Made in America" marks the thirty-eighth and final credit for Sakharov as director of photography.
Principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
commenced in late February and concluded in late March 2007. Exterior scenes and certain interior scenes of "Made in America" were filmed on location in Bergen County
Bergen County, New Jersey
Bergen County is the most populous county of the state of New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 905,116. The county is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Hackensack...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
and in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
and Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Additional interior scenes—including indoor shots of the Soprano residence and the back room of the strip club Bada Bing!—were filmed in a sound stage
Sound stage
In common usage, a sound stage is a soundproof, hangar-like structure, building, or room, used for the production of theatrical filmmaking and television production, usually located on a secure movie studio property.-Overview:...
in Silvercup Studios
Silvercup Studios
Silvercup Studios is the largest film and television production facility in New York City. Located in the neighborhood of Long Island City, in the borough of Queens, the studio complex has been operating since 1983 in the former Silvercup Bakery building...
, New York, where most such scenes of the series had been filmed. The final scene of the episode was filmed in late March 2007 at Holsten's Brookdale Confectionery, an ice cream and candy shop located in Bloomfield
Bloomfield, New Jersey
Bloomfield is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 47,315. It surrounds the Bloomfield Green Historic District.-History:...
, New Jersey. The Bloomfield Township Council initially tried to stop HBO from filming in the town because "[they] found the HBO mob
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
drama offensive to Italian-Americans" and voted to deny the production company a filming permit. However, as the council had no authority to stop filming in the town as long as the crew met the requirements stated in Bloomfield's code for filming crews, a permit was later issued.
As the show's producers needed to ensure that plot details of the ending would be kept a secret until the airdate, the scripts given to the crew members had their final pages removed. The final scene of these edited scripts was the one in which Tony is raking leaves outside his house, a scene that occurs 10 minutes before the real ending in the final cut. Chase received compliments for this scene from people who thought it was the real ending.
Post-production
"Made in America" was editedFilm editing
Film editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. It involves the selection and combining of shots into sequences, and ultimately creating a finished motion picture. It is an art of storytelling...
by Sidney Wolinsky, one of the show's three editors, under the supervision of Chase.
Chase originally wanted the black screen at the end of the episode to last "all the way to the HBO whoosh sound," meaning that no credits would roll at the end of the episode, but did not receive a waiver from the Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
to do so.
Cast notes
Maureen Van ZandtMaureen Van Zandt
Maureen Van Zandt is an Italian-American television actress best known for her small role Gabriella Dante, a close friend to Carmela Soprano on the HBO series, The Sopranos....
, who plays Silvio Dante
Silvio Dante
Silvio Manfred Dante, often referred to as "Sil", played by Steven Van Zandt, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. He is the consigliere to Tony Soprano in the Soprano crime family. Silvio has one of the lowest profiles on the show. He is usually a behind the scenes figure...
's wife Gabriella Dante on the show, is billed in the opening credits for this episode only (her real-life husband, Steven Van Zandt
Steven Van Zandt
Steven Van Zandt is an Italian-American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve...
, plays her screen husband, Silvio). The characters Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco
Lorraine Bracco
Lorraine Bracco is an American actress. She is best known for her TV roles as Dr. Jennifer Melfi on HBO series, The Sopranos, and Angela Rizzoli on the TNT series, Rizzoli & Isles...
), Christopher Moltisanti
Christopher Moltisanti
Christopher "Chris" Moltisanti, played by Michael Imperioli, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. He was Tony Soprano's protégé and a Capo in the Soprano crime family.-Biography:...
(Michael Imperioli
Michael Imperioli
James Michael Imperioli , commonly known as Michael Imperioli, is an American actor and television writer. He is perhaps best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2004. He also...
), and Bobby Baccalieri
Bobby Baccalieri
Robert "Bobby Bacala" Baccalieri, Jr., played by Steve R. Schirripa, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. He was a Capo and later the acting underboss of the DiMeo Crime Family, as well as Tony Soprano's brother-in-law...
(Steven R. Schirripa) do not appear in "Made in America" but the actors who play them are still listed in the opening credits.
Music
The song played during the final scene is "Don't Stop Believin'Don't Stop Believin'
"Don't Stop Believin is a popular song by the American rock band Journey, originally released as a single from their 1981 album Escape, which became a #9 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 on its original release. It re-entered the UK Singles Chart in 2009 as a result of increased prominence of digital...
" by Journey
Journey (band)
Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded...
; the scene cuts to black near the end of the song, precisely on the phrase "Don't stop". The band's lead singer, Steve Perry
Steve Perry (musician)
Stephen Ray "Steve" Perry is an American singer and songwriter best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Journey from 1977–1987 and 1995–1998. Perry had a successful solo career throughout the late 1980s and early '90s.Perry's voice has garnered acclaim from musical peers and music...
, refused to let Chase use "Don't Stop Believin'" in the final scene until he knew the fate of the leading characters and did not give final approval until three days before the episode aired. He feared that the song would be remembered as the soundtrack to Tony's demise, until Chase assured that it would not be the case.
Ratings
According to Nielsen ratingsNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
, "Made in America" was watched by an average of 11.9 million viewers on its United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
premiere date Sunday June 10, 2007. This was a 49% increase from the previous episode
The Blue Comet
"The Blue Comet" is the twentieth episode of the sixth season of the HBO television drama series The Sopranos and eighty-fifth episode overall. It is the eighth episode of the second part of the sixth season, which was broadcast in two separate batches and the show's penultimate episode...
and the show's best ratings for both parts of the sixth season. It was also the show's largest audience since the season five premiere.
Initial
"Made in America" received mainly favorable to semi-favorable initial reviews from critics while early fan reception was mixed to negative, described by one critic as "a mixture of admiration and anger". During the weeks following the episode's original broadcast, "Made in America" and its closing scene in particular became the subject of much discussion and analysis. Several new interpretations and explanations of the ending were presented in magazines and on blogBlog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s, which lead many critics and fans to reevaluate the ending.
Marisa Carroll of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
awarded "Made in America" a score of 8 out of 10 and particularly praised the final scene as one of the best of the series.
Mark Farinella of The Sun Chronicle
The Sun Chronicle
The Sun Chronicle is a daily newspaper in Attleboro, Massachusetts, USA...
called the episode "[a] perfect ending to a perfect TV series."
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
called "Made in America" "the perfect ending" and wrote about the final scene, "On shock of that cut to black, the marvelous way it got you to roll the scene over, again and again, in your mind's eye. Rather than bringing the series to a close, that blackout made The Sopranos live forever."
Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
characterized the finale as "[a]n ending befitting genius of Sopranos" and wrote that "Chase
David Chase
David Chase is an American writer, director, and producer of television series. Chase has worked in television for more than 30 years; he has produced and written for shows as The Rockford Files, I'll Fly Away, and Northern Exposure. He has created two original series; the first, Almost Grown,...
managed, with this ending, to be true to reality [...] while also steering clear of trite TV conventions."
Frazier Moore
Frazier Moore
Frazier Moore, Jr. is a television critic for the Associated Press.-Background:Moore was born in Atlanta to El'Eckler Ussery Moore and Frazier Moore, Sr., a professor of advertising and public relations at the University of Georgia. Moore grew up in Athens, Georgia, and attended the University of...
of the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
called the episode "brilliant" and wrote that "Chase was true to himself."
Kim Reed of Television Without Pity gave "Made in America" the highest score of A+ and praised it for staying true to the show.
Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to The Jersey Journal of Jersey City, The Times of Trenton and the Staten Island Advance, all of which are owned by Advance Publications.The Newark Star-Ledgers daily...
called the finale "satisfying" and wrote that the episode "fit[s] perfectly with everything Chase has done on this show before."
Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
critic Maureen Ryan's first review was mixed; she criticized the final scene for not providing any closure. Ryan later wrote "Chase got me totally wound up, then ripped me away from that world. I was really mad at first [...] I still think what Chase did was, all due respect, kind of jerky. But minutes after the finale ended, I started laughing."
Retrospective
Retrospective reviews of "Made in America" have been positive; the episode has been included on several lists of the best series finaleSeries finale
A series finale refers to the last installment of a series with a narrative presented through mediums such as television, film and literature. In many Commonwealth countries, the term final episode is commonly used in regards to a television series...
s of all time. Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger wrote in an essay analyzing the finale one year after its original broadcast that he felt the episode was "brilliant".
In 2009, Arlo J. Wiley of Blogcritics
Blogcritics
Blogcritics is a blog network and online magazine of news and opinion. The site—a self-proclaimed "sinister cabal of superior writers"—was founded in 2002 by Eric Olsen and Phillip Winn...
wrote "by focusing on that last ambiguous parting shot from creator David Chase
David Chase
David Chase is an American writer, director, and producer of television series. Chase has worked in television for more than 30 years; he has produced and written for shows as The Rockford Files, I'll Fly Away, and Northern Exposure. He has created two original series; the first, Almost Grown,...
, we run the risk of forgetting just how beautifully structured and executed an hour of television 'Made in America' is" and ranked it as the eighth best series finale ever.
Also in 2009, Stacey Wilson of Film.com named "Made in America" as one of the 10 best series finales of all time and wrote "Crude, rude and no time for emotional B.S., this finale was a delicious end to a show that reveled in the ugliness of humanity."
TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
included "Made in America" in their "TV's Best Finales Ever" feature, writing "What's there to say about this finale that hasn't already been said? The much-anticipated closer had everyone waiting to see if Tony was finally going to go from whacker to whackee. Instead, they got Journey, a greasy plate of onion rings and a black screen. But, the fact that we're still talking about it proves—for better or worse—that the episode did its job."
In 2011, the finale was ranked #2 on the TV Guide Network special, TV's Most Unforgettable Finales.
Awards
In 2007, "Made in America" won an Emmy AwardEmmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
in the category of Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series
The Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series is awarded to one television episode each year at the Primetime Emmy Awards. Often regarded as the highest honor that can be bestowed upon an individual episode of television, the nominees and winners often reflect outstanding achievement in...
at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards
59th Primetime Emmy Awards
The 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California on September 16, 2007 and were televised live on Fox at 8:00 p.m. EDT for the first time in high definition...
. It was the only category the episode was nominated in. This is the third and final time series creator/executive producer David Chase has won the award for his writing of the series.
In 2008, Chase was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award in the category of Drama Series (Night) but lost to fellow Sopranos director Alan Taylor
Alan Taylor (director)
Alan Taylor is an American television and film director, television producer, and screenwriter. Taylor has directed for numerous programs on both network television and premium cable, most notably on HBO...
, who won for directing the pilot episode of Mad Men
Mad Men
Mad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The series premiered on Sunday evenings on the American cable network AMC and are produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each...
, a series created by former Sopranos writer Matthew Weiner
Matthew Weiner
Matthew Weiner is an American writer, director and producer of television drama. He is the creator, executive producer, head writer, and show runner of the AMC television series Mad Men. He is also noted for his work on the HBO series The Sopranos, on which he served as a writer and producer...
.
Also in 2008, Editor
Film editing
Film editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. It involves the selection and combining of shots into sequences, and ultimately creating a finished motion picture. It is an art of storytelling...
Sidney Wolinsky won an American Cinema Editors
American Cinema Editors
Founded in 1950, American Cinema Editors is an honorary society of film editors that are voted in based on the qualities of professional achievements, their education of others, and their dedication to editing itself. The society is not to be confused with an industry union, such as the I.A.T.S.E...
Eddie Award in the category of Best Edited One-Hour Series for Non-Commercial Television.
Interpretations of final scene
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
or DVR
Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
had cut out at a crucial moment.
Opposing interpretations soon emerged among viewers regarding the ultimate fate of series protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
Tony Soprano
Tony Soprano
Anthony John "Tony" Soprano, Sr. is an Italian-American fictional character and the protagonist on the HBO television drama series The Sopranos, on which he is portrayed by James Gandolfini. The character was conceived by The Sopranos creator and show runner David Chase, who was also largely...
, with some believing that he was killed while others believe that he remains alive.
One argument for the former points to a conversation that Tony had in the midseason premiere
Season premiere
In North America, a season premiere is the first episode of a new season of a given television show. It often airs in September or October, after several months of reruns.-Evaluating the changes:...
episode "Soprano Home Movies
Soprano Home Movies
"Soprano Home Movies" is the thirteenth episode of the sixth season of the HBO television drama series The Sopranos and seventy-eighth episode overall. It served as the midseason premiere to the second part of the show's sixth season, the broadcast of which was split into two...
" with his brother-in-law Bobby, in which Bobby comments on how suddenly and without sound death can happen in their lives as gangsters: "you probably don't even hear it when it happens, right?" A flashback to this scene also appears in the final minutes of "The Blue Comet
The Blue Comet
"The Blue Comet" is the twentieth episode of the sixth season of the HBO television drama series The Sopranos and eighty-fifth episode overall. It is the eighth episode of the second part of the sixth season, which was broadcast in two separate batches and the show's penultimate episode...
", the episode preceding "Made in America".
When questioned on the theory, HBO spokesman Quentin Schaffer stated that the conversation is a "legitimate" hint. The final scene showing a man credited as "Man in Members Only
Members Only
Members Only is a brand of clothing that became popular in the 1980s with the Members Only jacket. The brand was created in 1975 and introduced to American markets in 1979 by Europe Craft Imports .Members Only was renowned for their brand of jackets, which were first introduced in 1981 and...
jacket" who goes to the bathroom has been interpreted as a nod to a scene in the The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
, in which Michael Corleone
Michael Corleone
Michael Corleone is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's novels, The Godfather and The Sicilian. He is also the main character of the Godfather film trilogy that was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, in which he was portrayed by Al Pacino, who was twice nominated for an Academy Award for his...
retrieves a gun from the bathroom before shooting his enemies to death.
Speculation has also linked the jacket to the title of the opening episode of the season, "Members Only", in which Tony is shot and also as a symbolic reference to membership of the Mafia. Actor Matt Servitto told Entertainment Weekly that in the script, the scene continued with the man in the Members Only jacket emerging from the washroom and starting to walk towards Tony's table before the screen cuts to black, but he preferred the ending that made the final cut of the episode.Contrary arguments about the ending's meaning have also been made. It has been suggested that the final scene means that while life is fraught with fear and danger, it nevertheless goes on. The lyrics of the closing song are thought to support this.
Supporters of this interpretation point out that because of Tony's peace agreement with the Lupertazzi family and their tacit sanction of a hit on Phil, there was no legitimate basis to expect a hit on Tony.
Comments from David Chase
Chase has made various comments about the finale but has avoided providing an explanation to the meaning of the final scene. In his first interview after the broadcast of the finale with New Jersey paper The Star Ledger, Chase stated "I have no interest in explaining, defending, reinterpreting, or adding to what is there. No one was trying to be audacious, honest to God. We did what we thought we had to do. No one was trying to blow people's minds, or thinking, 'Wow, this'll piss them off.' People get the impression that you're trying to fuck with them and it's not true. You're trying to entertain them. [...] Anybody who wants to watch it, it's all there."In an interview conducted by Brett Martin several weeks after the finale's original broadcast, Chase shared his views on the final episode and the reaction to it. On the fans of the show and the demand for an unambiguous and definitive ending, Chase remarked, "There was so much more to say than could have been conveyed by an image of Tony facedown in a bowl of onion rings with a bullet in his head. Or, on the other side, taking over the New York mob. The way I see it is that Tony Soprano had been people's alter ego
Alter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...
. They had gleefully watched him rob, kill, pillage, lie and cheat. They had cheered him on. And then, all of a sudden, they wanted to see him punished for all that. They wanted 'justice.' They wanted to see his brains splattered on the wall. I thought that was disgusting, frankly. [...] The pathetic thing—to me—was how much they wanted his blood, after cheering him on for eight years." Chase also made comments about the purported lack of finality in the final episode: "This wasn't really about 'leaving the door open.' There was nothing definite about what happened, but there was a clean trend on view—a definite sense of what Tony and Carmela
Carmela Soprano
Carmela Soprano née DeAngelis, played by Edie Falco, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. She is the wife of Mafia boss Tony Soprano and the program's most prominent female character.-Character biography:...
's future looks like. Whether it happened that night or some other night doesn't matter." On the future of the Soprano children, Chase said, "A.J.'s not going to be citizen-soldier or join the Peace Corps
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
or try to help the world; he'll probably be some low-level movie producer. But he's not going to be a killer like his father, is he? Meadow
Meadow Soprano
Meadow Mariangela Soprano , played by Jamie-Lynn Sigler, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos.-Character:Meadow is the first-born child of Tony and Carmela Soprano...
may not be a pediatrician or even a lawyer, but she's not going to be a housewife-whore like her mother. She'll learn to operate in the world in ways Carmela never did. [...] Tiny, little bits of progress—that's how it works." On moments during and after the final scene, Chase referred to a scene from the episode "Stage 5": "There are no esoteric clues in there. No Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum and discover a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to...
. Everything that pertains to that episode was in that episode. And it was in the episode before that and the one before that and seasons before this one and so on. There had been indications of what the end is like. Remember when Gerry Torciano was killed? Silvio was not aware that the gun had been fired until after Gerry was on his way down to the floor. That's the way things happen: It's already going on by the time you even notice it. [...] I'm not saying anything. And I'm not trying to be coy. It's just that I think that to explain it would diminish it." Chase also addressed the widespread opinion that the open-ended finale was insulting to the show's longtime fans: "I saw some items in the press that said, 'This was a huge fuck you to the audience.' That we were shitting in the audience's face. Why would we want to do that? Why would we entertain people for eight years only to give them the finger
Finger (gesture)
In Western culture, the finger , also known as the middle finger, is an obscene hand gesture, often meaning the phrases "fuck off" , "fuck you" or "up yours"...
? We don't have contempt for the audience. In fact, I think The Sopranos is the only show that actually gave the audience credit for having some intelligence and attention span. We always operated as though people don't need to be spoon-fed every single thing—that their instincts and feelings and humanity will tell them what's going on."
At the 2008 TCA Awards
TCA Awards
The TCA Awards are awards presented by the Television Critics Association in recognition of excellence in television excellence. There are eleven categories, which are presented every summer.-Categories:...
, held on July 22, Chase commented "I wasn't going to do this, but somebody said it would be a good idea if we said something about that ending. I really wasn't going to go into it, but I'll just say this...when I was going to Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
's graduate film school and was 23 [years old], I went to see Planet of the Apes
Planet of the Apes (1968 film)
Planet of the Apes is a 1968 American science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle. The film stars Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly and Linda Harrison...
with my wife. When it was over, I said, 'Wow...so they had a Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...
, too.'"
In a November 2008 interview with Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
In a December 2008 radio interview with Richard Belzer
Richard Belzer
Richard Jay Belzer is an American stand-up comedian, author, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as John Munch, which he has portrayed as a regular cast member on the NBC police drama series Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, as well as in guest...
, Chase was more specific about the ending and referred to scenes from "Stage 5" and "Soprano Home Movies" in relation to the final scene.
Parodies
Aspects of the "Made in America" episode—particularly the final scene—have been widely parodied. Shortly after its original broadcast, the ending was spoofed in a promotional video produced by the Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign, which former The Sopranos actor Vince CuratolaVince Curatola
Vincent Curatola is an American actor and writer. Curatola's best-known role is that of the cold, calculating, chain smoking Johnny Sack from the HBO drama, The Sopranos...
appeared in.
The ending was referred to during the opening act of the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards
59th Primetime Emmy Awards
The 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California on September 16, 2007 and were televised live on Fox at 8:00 p.m. EDT for the first time in high definition...
on September 16, 2007, performed by Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
characters Brian
Brian Griffin
Brian Griffin is a character from the animated television series Family Guy. He is voiced by Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family, in a 15-minute short on December 20, 1998. Brian was created and designed by MacFarlane himself...
and Stewie
Stewie Griffin
Stewie Griffin is a fictional character from the animated television series Family Guy. Once obsessed with world domination and matricide, Stewie is the youngest child of Peter and Lois Griffin, and the brother of Chris and Meg....
and in the Family Guy episode "Lois Kills Stewie", which aired on November 11, 2007.
The January 31, 2008 episode of The Celebrity Apprentice
The Apprentice (U.S. Season 7)
The Celebrity Apprentice is the seventh installment of the United States version of the reality television series, The Apprentice. This season features celebrity candidates vying for the title of Donald Trump's, "Best Business Brain," as a way to revitalize the series, with the winner donating...
, "The Croc and the Rat", featured a parody of The Sopranos
Vincent Pastore
Vincent Pastore is an Italian-American actor, often cast as a mobster and best known for the role of Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero on The Sopranos.-Early life:...
was fired by Donald Trump
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump, Sr. is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have...
.
"Made in America" is parodied in the series finale
Series finale
A series finale refers to the last installment of a series with a narrative presented through mediums such as television, film and literature. In many Commonwealth countries, the term final episode is commonly used in regards to a television series...
of the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris is an African American television period sitcom inspired by the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock , while growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York . The show is set from 1982 to 1987; however, Rock himself was a teenager during years...
, "Everybody Hates the G.E.D.", which premiered on May 8, 2009. In the final scene of that episode, the title character and his family members individually arrive at a local diner, while the Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi is an American rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Formed in 1983, Bon Jovi consists of lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi , guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, as well as current bassist Hugh McDonald...
song "Livin' on a Prayer
Livin' on a Prayer
"Livin' on a Prayer" is Bon Jovi's second single from their Slippery When Wet album. Written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora with Desmond Child, the single, released in late 1986, was well-received at both rock and pop radio and its music video was given heavy rotation at MTV, giving the band...
" plays on the jukebox.
The ending was parodied on the May 23, 2010 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy Kimmel Live! is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and broadcast on ABC.The nightly hour-long show made its debut on January 26, 2003, following Super Bowl XXXVII. Jimmy Kimmel Live! is produced by Jackhole Productions in association with ABC Studios...
as a facetious alternate ending to Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
.
Actors Tony Sirico
Tony Sirico
Genaro Anthony "Tony" Sirico, Jr. is an American character actor who is most famous for his role as Paulie Gualtieri in the television series The Sopranos.- Background and career :Sirico was born in Midwood, Brooklyn...
and Steve Schirripa
Steve Schirripa
Steven R. "Steve" Schirripa is an American actor, voice artist, producer, and comedian, best known for playing Bobby Baccalieri on The Sopranos....
appeared as themselves on the Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
special, Elmo's Christmas Countdown, in which The Sopranos