LODI, N.J. - The dancers never stop at the Bada Bing, but they took an hour off at its real-world counterpart to watch the final episode of "The Sopranos."
Fans lined up three-deep at the bar of Satin Dolls, the Lodi strip club that doubled as the mob family's headquarters on the HBO series. As the series ended, fans had mixed reactions to the final scene of Tony and his family eating dinner at a cozy family restaurant.
"It was a big dud," said Joseph Manuella, 57, of Glen Rock, who was among about 200 fans watching the show at Satin Dolls.
"People were getting ready for the big bang, like maybe the whole family was going to get whacked in the restaurant. But it was like a fireworks show without the finale."
So ended the complex relationship between New Jersey and its most famous fictional family. Some viewers thrilled to mob hits up and down the Turnpike, while others objected to what they saw as knocks on Italian-Americans. The show highlighted the state's stark beauty and its dingiest corners.
Tom Devlin, who drove out from Pittsburgh just to watch the final episode at the club, thought the show -- especially the ending -- was great. He thinks there will be "at least a couple of movies coming out of that show. That's why they didn't kill him."
Most fans said they would truly miss the show, particularly residents of the blue-collar north Jersey that were home to most of its locations. They had closely followed Tony, Carmela, and the rest of the cast since the show debuted on Jan. 10, 1999.
Among them was Jane Souza, the manager of a Kearny restaurant a few steps down from the building that served as Satriale's Pork Store on the show.
"It was very exciting," Souza said. "A lot of people would come and watch. The only downside was that they took up all the parking, but they would always give plenty of notice. And the actors were very nice to talk to."
Souza proudly pointed to several framed pictures taken of her and cast members including James Gandolfini, Robert Iler, Drea de Matteo and Tony Sirico.
While few television shows have been as exhaustively analyzed and deconstructed, there is little disagreement on one point: For better or worse, "The Sopranos" imported its vision of modern-day New Jersey to the rest of the nation.
Well, a slice of New Jersey at least.
New York Giants offensive tackle Kareem McKenzie, who hails from Willingboro in the southern half of the state, considers himself a casual fan of the series but acknowledged he has tuned in to the rebroadcast of the shows during the week (the Giants are often otherwise occupied on Sundays, particularly during the fall).
"Strip clubs, malls -- it's definitely more a North Jersey thing," McKenzie said. "South Jersey is more rural."
Not everyone has been enthralled with the depiction of Italian-Americans as mobsters, a stereotype that has become a staple of popular culture.
"It seems as though bigotry is not OK, except when it comes to Italian-Americans," said Emanuele Alfano, head of Italian American One Voice, a coalition of Italian-American organizations. "They have shown us as the lowest of the low: Killers, drug addicts, wife-beaters. The women are always promiscuous, the young people are always stupid. People don't see it; as long as they're being entertained, they don't care."
