***The Official Sopranos Episode 80 Thread***

[youtalkfunny]

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John "Cha Cha" Ciarcia plays one of Phil Leotardo's flunkies.

Cha Cha co-hosts Big Pussy's "Wiseguys Show" on Sirius, where he has also asserted that he only agreed to be on the show as long as they promised to never make him a rat, or a gay character.

Cha Cha takes a lot of pride in this. He doesn't seem to have noticed that he's had about three lines, total, in his two seasons on the show.

(I still love him on the radio, though)

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Wait, Sirius does Radio Drama?

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Vincent Pastore played Big Pussy on The Sopranos. Nowadays, he has a weekly radio show on Sirius, on the uncensored comedy channel. It's Vinny, Cha Cha (who plays Albie, Phil's "right hand man", according to Cha Cha), and a few other Italian guys who always get bit parts in mob movies. Sopranos regulars often stop by--not the stars, but the bit players, like Tony Darrow, or Sharon Angela, or Gabrielle van Zandt. If Pussy can't be there, Frank Vincent often fills in.

The show is hysterically funny. I wish it ran daily, instead of weekly (Wednesday afternoons, reruns on the weekend afternoons). Even the phone number to call in is funny (1-866-YO-VINNY "with a Y").

It's just a bunch of old Italian guys busting each other's chops for three hours. Imagine what it would be like sitting in front of Satriales, or the back room at the Bing, shooting the breeze with the fellas. Sample conversation:

JOE CAUSI: Did you hear they're coming out with a new "King Kong" movie?

JOE RAGANO: Two hundred million dollars, it costs.

JOE CAUSI: Two hundred TWENTY million.

UNCLE PHIL: It's in color? Or black and white?

CHA CHA: Yeah, they spent $200,000,000, but they didn't spring for color film! What the [censored] is the matter with you?

UNCLE PHIL: (ignores Cha Cha) It's a new movie? Or they restored the old one?

JOE CAUSI: It's a new movie.

UNCLE PHIL: It's set in modern-day New York?

JOE CAUSI: No, it's set in 1933.

UNCLE PHIL: But you said it's a new movie! It's the 1933 movie...

CHA CHA: [censored] [censored] [censored]!

Regular segments include:

GUESS THE WISEGUY: Callers try to identify audio clips from mob movies. If they fail, they get "whacked" by gunfire sound effects. "Whack this [censored] guy!" POW! POW!

MEATBALL SERENADE: Some restaurant sends the guys some pasta, and they eat it, and tell us how good it is.

MOVIES: Movie news and reviews, like the King Kong example.

WHAT'S YOUR BEEF?: Callers bitch about life. Hosts crack jokes.

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED THIS WEEK?: Commentary on the news of the day. If somebody got arrested for anything, Cha Cha wants to execute him.

(If you like "radio drama", Sirius also has a station where they play "Radio Classics" like The Shadow, The Lone Ranger, Jack Benny, Amos 'N Andy, Abbott and Costellow, etc.)

[g-bebe]

This episode was terribly boring, I thought. I think I saw what they were trying to show us about Juniors character, but he's minor now. What does this episode have to do with anything relevant, aside from the feds slowly starting to get stuff on Tony?

[gusmahler]

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What does this episode have to do with anything relevant, aside from the feds slowly starting to get stuff on Tony?

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Huh?!? It was an incredibly important episode. There's seemingly been more plot development in the last two episodes than there have been in over a season.

1) Episode 80 shows that Tony doesn't trust Paulie. We've suspected this, but never really seen this in full detail before. (We've recently learned that he can't trust Chris, making the fight with Bobby loom even larger.)

2) It completes the Junior saga. Junior's story has been left hanging for a long time. This episode shows once and for all that Junior is no longer a threat.

3) It shows Phil coming into power in NY, not taking it easy after his illness of last season.

[thirddan]

don't mean to bump this thread with a new episode out, but i just saw this one...

did anyone catch the godfather 3 reference in the last shot of juniour with him in the chair petting the cat? this is exactly how michael is in gf3 when he dies, alone in a lawn on a chair with a dog (or cat?)...pretty nice allusion i thought...dont think we'll be seeing junior much anymore...