The hit HBO series, The Sopranos, is really big here. Nearly everyone you meet watches it faithfully. I guess you can imagine why since it takes place in Jersey. I think a lot of the country gets the wrong impression of Jersey because of it. They all think that Jersey is filled with people in the mob, everyone has a toxic waste dump next door and there are ugly buildings and factories everywhere.

Rick and I are somewhat out of the loop since we never subscribed to HBO and before moving here had heard about the series of course, but never watched even one episode. [Hey, we are just now discovering 24 too!] We have some catching up to do. So, I bought the first season on DVD and we’ve watched about 4 episodes now. I don’t think we’ll watch all six previous seasons, but at least we’ll get the gist of what’s going on. At least we hope so.

Our neighbors told us that many of the scenes when they are supposed to be in Vermont or Maine, are really filmed in and around our Township of West Milford! When the owners of the pet store where I buy dog food and I were chatting one day, the subject of The Sopranos came up [in the context of us just having moved to Jersey and people’s perception of what it’s like] and they told me that the strip club Bada Bing, is actually a real club on Route 17 called Satin Dolls where they film those segments of the show. They call it a “Gentlemen’s Club.” Hey, they can call it whatever they want it doesn’t change the fact it’s a strip joint.

Just last week in our local paper the front page story was all about how they were filming an episode right up the road from our house! So now we’ll have to watch and see what we can recognize when that episode airs this fall. Here is the story from the paper:

If it’s too small to read: “The HBO hit series, The Sopranos, was filming in West Milford on Awosting Road on Tuesday. The scenes involved a car chase and something in the woods. The set was closed to the public, but James Gandolfini (who plays boss Tony Soprano) was visible through private property woods. We don’t know what the storyline is, but judging by the bruises on his face, it isn’t going to be portrayed as Tony’s best day.”

Guess we’ll be subscribing to HBO soon.