This is the Downbeat on ninety seven to one The free So there's been a
couple of big name Anthony too been in a little bit of hot water for
allegedly well alleged relations with a minor. And it's like a woman that works
in coal. Uh, not so much, we'll go under age, damn.
One of those is NBA star Josh Kaddy. The other Tampa Bay Ray's
star shortstop Wander Franco, who you know fled authorities in the Dominican Republic for
a while. He will have a trial eventually. Is that case is still
up for grabs, but he can't come back to America until that case is
solved. But there's a story that involves something with these guys, and our
own detective Dick Shale is directly in the middle of it. Not so much
the underage angle. Okay, well it would have been solved by now if
it's for the case. I can't wait to hear what you're talking about.
When can I hear this? You can hear it at nine thirty five right
here on the Downbeat on ninety seven Won the Freak with Me, Kevin Turner,
Danny Baylis, Mike's Roy and our producer JJ Jackson two one four eight
one seven seven eight seven one nine seven one. She has the text message
board up. We do two look at it up and she checked your phone
calls and all that stuff. Also voicemails. iHeartRadio app red button. You
can leave us a vmail up to thirty seconds and you know it's funny and
good worth it. We'll put it on the air. They called v mails
now and not talk about Oh they're talkbacks. Still just checking. I didn't
get the memo. If that changed too, I didn't check my emails was
born. If that changed? Nothing changed on that, okay, but up
to thirty seconds, I still work here. I don't know if that's changed
still, and you always will. You have a lot of faith. But
uh, little Steeler, do you want formal intro for this? Mikey,
Yeah, I guess I mean intro? Yeah, what's the intro? It's
oh, I forgot it was old. There's this umbrella sing the umbrellas,
lights, cameras a holes. Is that the former intro? We're just winging
it a guess, lights, camera, a holes. We're talking entertainment.
I saw this like a week ago, the countdown until today January tenth,
twenty twenty four, because it's a significant day anniversary in television history. On
this date. In nineteen ninety nine Jan ten, HBO premiered a television show
called The Sopranos and it was very successful. Rolling Stone has it as the
number one television show of all time. I was going a varieties list.
They actually have I Love Lucy number one, They have mad Men number two,
they have Sopranos as number three. But you'd be hard pressed to find
a list of top one hundred shows of all time and not find the Sopranos
in the top five, oftentimes at number one. And I think it's kind
of wild man twenty five years for a show that was super impactful, I
think to us to a lot of people listening, or at least intriguing to
those who had never seen it. And let's just start with that your soprano
history. Kevin didn't watch it for many years, gave it a shot during
COVID watched the first episode. Went now not for me because the graphics suck,
which they didn't. You know, I just made that up in my
head because I didn't know if I wanted to do the investment, knew how
the show ended, and that did stop me from watching it for a long
time. I know how it ends. I had to watch it because I
was a smartass. Finally settled in summer of twenty one, did the challenge,
watched it and loved it. Dang, you missed the first season because
I thought it was a show about opera singers. Got a hip to the
reality that it was a show about the Mob, and then, of course
I'm in so I think I watched the the first season on DVD and then
got caught up live on HBO and became my favorite television show at that time
of all time. And that's you know, it revolves. It rotates between
you know, one, two, or three, depending on when you ask
me. But it was so such a part of the fabric of my of
culture, of my entertainment world that the radio station that I worked at previously
every Monday when that thing aired on Sunday, was there Monday or Tuesday,
depending on if it was football season or not. We dedicated a fifteen minute
segment to reviewing the night the previous night's episode, called Sopranos Talk, and
we did it every after every episode. Maybe we waited until like Wednesday or
Thursday to get people time to watch it. But we were that dedicated to
that show. And did that start probably two thousand and one. Okay,
so third season yep, yep? Third or yeah, second or third?
Do you recall when it switched from new show to cultural phenomenon. I think
people started really really locking in on it and realizing that it was greatness probably
about season three, and I think that's when it takes off for a lot
of people. Like the first couple of seasons, like Kevin said, it's
low budget. Man, it's hard to watch at times. There's continuity issues
abound, there's ridiculous acting moments that you're just like what. But once you
kind of fight through those first couple of seasons, it really does take off.
And it's dense, it's funny, it's layered, it is psychological.
You know, it peels back a lot of stuff. Oh, let me
say, I think it's very relatable it as much as a world of New
Jersey mobsters can be relatable. Well, keep in mind too, premium cable
hbos not everyone has any right you do. The other thing TiVo invented the
same year the show came out. Know TV was way more communal back then.
TV's not communal at all. Yeah, it sucks, but that doesn't
exist anymore. And one thing about the series, and I don't know if
this was the first series to really kind of bring this dynamic to light,
but it was the protagonist, the sympathetic protagonist that was inherently a terrible person,
a guy that was a murderer. Tony Soprano had blood on his hands.
He was an absolute murderer. If he didn't do it himself, he
ordered him. He was a philanderer, he was a glutton, He was
a terrible human being. But you still rooted for him. Yeah, and
that spawned an entire wave that to this day, we still have those shows
of the guy that has conflicted and kind of the big version of him is
inherently pretty evil that we root for. Walter White, He's probably there one
A and B. I'm Walter White probably doesn't exist without Tony Soprano, and
a lot of iconic characters of the last twenty five years don't either. For
me, I didn't have HBO at the time. I don't think completely missed
it. Obviously, you hear about it a ton but I think it's funny.
The first episode I ever watched with the Sopranos was the absolute last episode,
because I was somewhere with my brother. I wasn't with him, but
he was into it. I went to a watch party of some kind.
I'm like, sure, whatever, it's a party, and I watched the
dead last episode and I loved it. I thought it was cool, interesting,
but I didn't really understand it, and obviously as a very nuanced ending
or ambiguous I suppose, which is awesome. We can get to that here
in a second. But I was intrigued. But then years and years went
by and then it kind of just bothered me. So like two years ago,
I watched the first season and like a lot of people say, I
was in love with it, Like I'm sick of hearing that this is the
greatest show of all time. And I don't necessarily love mob stuff, or
I didn't. I'm kind of into it now because of the damn show.
But I watched it, and then another year went by and then I'm like,
you know what, I'm gonna plow through this. I'm gonna make myself
do this. And then season two and season three, and then I did
get into it. I was excited to just cram the damn thing and ultimately
I love it and it sticks with you too, like because you say the
density of it. It's just a fascinating, weird story that I don't know
how these can get green lit something this unique, but obviously glad it did
because twenty five years later today it's it's stuck on all the big boy lists
and it's stuck with me too. The thing that makes the show incredibly unique
is, yes, you do have all of the New Jersey Mob tropes and
they are all over the place. The thing that makes the show unique is
Tony Soprano is a guy that is struggling with the life that he's leading and
it's manifesting in panic attacks and he ends up going to the doctor and they
recommend talk therapy. And that's what that's kind of the centerpiece of this because
in every episode, pretty much every episode, there is at least a scene
with him and his therapist. Yeah, and Melfi doctor Melfie that and and
who was from Good she played what's her name? Ray Liota's wife and Goodfellas.
But anyway, that that is a big, big, big component of
this show. Is you kind of get to see the idiosyncrasies of this guy's
personality and and the the struggle that he has, and kind of what a
dim Woody is. In fact, all of his buddies they're they're kind of
dumb, you know, they're they're their self awareness does not exist. I
will say that, you said that like a week ago when we were talking,
and I will admit I think that's the first time I ever thought that
they're all kind of dumb. And I think you're right because I watch it
and they're so smart. They're so predisposed and perfect to do this job,
which is a strong arm people be criminals and just screw people out of money
essentially, and they're they're very good at it. Because they're so successful,
I never really thought of them as a bunch of dumb ass. Yeah,
you think about it, kind of are they don't. He's the least of
the dumb ass, right, So he's the leader and he but he's smart
kind, he's pretty He is smart Because think about it, societally, you
the people that end up leaning on violence as the ultimate solution to a problem,
or the ones that are are not quite equipped upstairs to be able to
negotiate something. So therefore you have this syndicate, this crime syndicate that they
make a lot of money. They do really well. There's different levels of
how much money these people and their crews make, but by and large,
yeah, they're just kind of idiots that they get to a boiling point and
rather than using their brains, they blow brains out. Yeah, and that's
how they solve problems. And it's just a world that we are so removed
from. That's the first thing you said is that it's they're dumb, but
they're good at what they do. The second thing is how funny. The
show is hilarious and almost like on a second watch, I think I would
laugh a lot. I didn't laugh all that much the first time. You
will. You'll see things that are just little hidden nuggets that are and I've
pulled some clips and a lot of those are represented in these clips. Whenever
you guys are ready to get to a few of these, we'll hit them.
Yeah, let's do it todays. I we'll start with one that I
don't think is that funny. And Mikey, you pointed this one out to
me earlier, and this is a clip where Tony soprano is sitting at a
dinner table with Polly Walnuts, which is a member, a high ranking member
of his crew, and another guy that I think is kind of a connected
guy, but not part of his immediate crew. They're out on a night
on the town with three much younger, much paid for women that there.
It's kind of like the Friday is for the wives, Saturdays for the mistress,
if you remember that from Goodfellas. This is obviously a Saturday night and
these guys are out and Polly Walnuts, who is notorious for running his mouth
and not knowing when to shut up, starts kind of spilling the beans and
telling remember when story about a guy that ended up mysteriously dying. And this
is Tony's kind of interesting response that he probably heard in therapy from his doctor.
And you saw this a lot too. He would take things that the
very smart doctor Melpie would say, and then he would use these quotes with
his bodies to make him sound smarter than he actually is. And here's one
of those instances. And Tom from when we all rented that house on the
shore with the bunks of seventy eight, Carlo Sylvio cranking Knopoly place up the
beach, Sony spends when the Bronx rented it. That's where that hippie kid
missed seriously drowned during that party. Hey Tom, you okay? Yeah,
yeah, he's sure, Tea, you'd be kind of quiet, that's sure.
Remember when it's the lowest form of conversation. So right there, he
just smites Polly and gets up with his lady and goes to the dance form
Polly sitting there going you bastard. Among all the quotes, that one hit
me hard. I don't know, remember when is the lowest form of communication?
I thought that's really beautiful and concise. Yeah. Another quote that I've
always loved is great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, Small minds
discuss people. And I've always I always kind of thought of that. I
try to think of that as I'm bitching about some individual. Mm hmm.
This guy's a real prick. Tony's married to a woman named Carmela. It's
his wife. They have two kids together, Anthony Junior and a Meadow,
and they have a very volatile relationship. This is a scene that I've just
always been one of my personal favorites. It's just a very tiny little thing
that's thrown in there. But Carmela is on the phone. She's trying to
take on a new trying to develop a career of her own as a involved
in the real estate world, and she's trying to get something handled on the
phone, and Tony comes out to confront her to complain about the type of
orange juice she bought. Oh, was that it's the paving guy. I'm
thinking of having the driveway redone? Is this a third degree pulp? You
like it with pulp? Not this much. I like the one that says
some pulp. Who's that for? I write you up a list. She
throws her phone at him because he doesn't like the one with pulp. He
likes the one with some pulp, which is the inconsequential quotes. I'm smiling
and laughing and thinking it damn big Tony. Okay, there's one of my
favorite episodes of all time. Christopher and Paulie members of Michael Imperiali and Polly
Walnuts. They're part of Tony's crew and they are sent to uh collect or
get something from another crew and this guy is Russian. He's this big Russian
guy. They show up at his house. I think they abduct him,
and they take him into the woods. They're supposed to to whack him,
and he ends up getting away. Okay, so this guy gets away,
Polly gets off a couple of shots. One of them hits him because you
see the blood kind of splatter from his neck. So they go out trying
to make sure this guy is dead because it's not beneficial for them, and
whatever they're objective is, I don't remember specifically this guy. And they're in
the snow in the woods, it's freezing cold, and this thing becomes an
all day, all night affair of them trying to find the body of this
guy that they and they get lost, and they get lost. They're on
the phone with ton Polly loses a shoe. They're they're stuck inside the truck.
They don't know where they are. They're eating ketchup packets for food.
Anyway. At one point after they lose this guy, Tony, with terrible
cell reception, calls Polly walnuts and this is what happens. We'll find it.
I'm busy, my head is killing me. Hello, fair. The
guy you're looking for some kind of ex command though or some shit. He
kills sixteen Cheching rebels single handed. Hey, hey that you damn it would
just say talk, So I'm gonna talk fast. The guy you're looking for
is an ex command though he killed sixteen Chechen rebels single handed. Get he
was with the Interior Ministry. Guys who've got a Russian green? Beray,
this guy cannot come back to tell this story. Do you understand? I
hear you, huh telling you there? Call me back. You're not gonna
believe this. He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians. Guy was an inferiod decorator. His
house looked like, I mean, that's beautiful. Holy, you won't believe
this. Chechoslovakians. This guy was an interior decorator. His house looked like
as so good. It just illustrates how dim witted these guys are. Let's
see, Okay, we got that, we got some pulp, we got
that. Okay, I'll save the best for last. Chris. Chrissy is
Tony, I guess nephew. Yeah, Carmela's cousin. I don't know somehow
they're related, As you know, a lot of these Battalian mob families are
as they're depicted in these shows. I mean, Chrissy is part of his
crew. Chrissy is very troubled. He is a junkie. He's addicted.
For a great portion of this series, he's addicted to heroin. And Tony
and his crew and their families decide to get a guy that's kind of a
mediator to conduct an intervention for Christopher, and Christopher shows up and sits down
and the you know how these things go beat people. They try not to
be confrontational. It's about how this person made you feel by your drinking and
drugging and your addiction and the behaviors that you exhibited, you know, coming
forth from those things. And this is the greatest scene to me. This
rivals when Doyle loses it and sling blade and kicks everybody out of the house
because he doesn't we don't have a f and band, Randy, everybody,
get the f out. The way this thing devolves and how quickly it devolves.
In Christopher's intervention on the Sopranos, Paul, you want to read your
statement. I don't write nothing down, so I'll keep the short and sweet.
You're weak, you have to control, and you become an embarrassment to
yourself and everybody else. Oh listen, you whoa, whoa, whoa what
we said non judgmental? Okay, let him take his medicine. Seriously,
Paula, you want to talk about sucking up? Watch it, Chrissy,
Why I thought we're being honest here? You got some balls, you know
that, all of you. You want to talk about self control? How
about you? So it's gonna be slut you got working in the place when
you got a wife and kids at home? Goys, guys, whoa whoa
far oh you Paulie, remember last winter in the woods with the Russian guys.
There he goes, mister type A personality. We are here to talk
about you killing yourself with drugs, not my personality. That's right. I'm
gonna kill myself, are you? You're gonna have a heart attack by the
time you fit here. Maybe someone will smack some damn sense. Great,
my own mother, come on. Ko calls his mom and and Hula and
everybody jumps on him and it is good. Fella's mom kicks to the ribs
while they're on the ground fire. Just two minutes into an intervention for this
guy, they're all beating his as. It's just perfect, it's so good,
and that that seems great. Episode's great too, and I get through
Chris's drug problem is a really good story. Yeah, I thought I was
like two, and this might for like the maybe the people who didn't watch
the watched White Lotus. Michael Imperioli is casting very good and he's got a
problem with prostitutes as well. He's got and that's a kind of it almost
was like Chris was in The White Lotus. Yeah, and I's got to
imagine him as older. It's kind of fun to think of it that way.
How about the art foreshadowing real life when Christopher tells James Gandalfini's character Tony
Soprano the way you eat, you're gonna be dead by a heart attack before
you're fifteen. Yeah, and that happens. Yeah, that happened. Yeah
while eating Yes, big amounts of delicious Italian food. All right. Lastly,
this is one of my favorites for so many reasons. Will break it
down afterwards, but essentially, Tony Soprano eats Indian food and goes to bed
and wakes up in the middle of the night of the night feeling something.
He thinks it's it's anxiety and dread, but it's actually food poisoning. Here's
him and Carmela in bed late at night. When Tony wakes up having any
existential crisis that just turns out to be diarrhea on myself. A bit sorry,
sorry, I go back to no, no, what? What now?
So big? Nothing? What is Tony? That is your mother talking
this black? You have a tendency towards the question. Yes, but listen
to me. All right, everything's going to be all right. I'm here,
I'm with you. The kids are safe from their beds. They love
you. Well, it's coming from here. It's something headed. It's my
stomach. I'm glaucious. What's going on? Your father is sick? Oh
my god, daddy, what happened into an Indian restaurant? It is so
recent. Who's letting those big ones? They better be called left in that
fridge? Is all I can say. So much. It's all seven parts
from the from yeah, exact fart. You have the disappointed teenage daughter is
embarrassed to be around her dad anyways, and she calling him racist because she's
kind of an activist or trying to be. She's trying to be. You
got the dumb kids, just the ones, just because the mom says he
ate Indian food and is sick. That's racist. Yeah, I love that
line from from Meadow. And then yeah, of course aj the dumb kid
who's letting all those big ones, and then Carmela. He's having this existential
middle of the night crisis. It turns out to be food poisoning. All
she's worried about is there better be some soft drinks left. The guy who
has killed people and should fear no one is sitting there going just end it
now. It's the great equalizer, dude, Just the second half one more
time, please my stomachius what's going on? Oh my god, daddy,
what happened to an Indian restaurant that is so recent? Who's letting most big
ones? They better be coke left in that fridge, is all I can
say. You're right, all of them be playing their characters perfectly. They
don't care who's letting them big ones. She's just trying to fake idiot,
fake console him and oh you you're just sick. Screw She like leaves the
bedroom. He's in there just dying out of both ends. Dude. Six
months ago, I watched the Pranus for the first time, and I might
jump right back into it and do the whole thing again. Woa that good?
Just here, Yes, and I want to watch it knowing that it's
all funny. This is a microscope of the treasure trove of little things like
this that are all throughout that series. I've seen it probably seven times,
really, and I love it every time I see it. A beautiful show
twenty five years ago today, January tenth, nineteen ninety nine, released on
HBO. What an anniversary if we can in the next segment, we need
at least a couple minutes on the final episode and the controversy and because we
didn't even mention that absolutely plus Mike, okay, something for you. And
this actually weirdly involves two kind of high profile athletes who are going through some
bad allegations involving relationships with uh, you know, underage girls. It's the
chicken vent the looo that's actually nice and once