'Sopranos' signoff marks end of era

June 08, 2007 When HBO introduced Tony Soprano to audiences in 1999, he was mashing a cigar between his thin lips and gazing intently at a family of ducks that had taken up residence in his swimming pool. In this tranquil scene, Soprano was not the mobster who would go on to shoot his friend on a boat then dump the body overboard, cut off his cousin's head or even smother his beloved nephew following a car crash. Both sociopathic killer and troubled human being, Tony (James Gandolfini) has confounded and defined his audience in a way no other character on television has.

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