KEY POINTS:
Marc Baron was putting a brave face on his employment prospects last week. He is head guide for one of New York's most successful tourist enterprises - The Sopranos Tour - in which visitors are taken round 45 locations used in filming the TV series.
Now, after 86
episodes, 18 Emmy awards and some of the most lavish critical approval in TV history, The Sopranos - an everyday story of Mafia folk - ended last night in the US with an expected audience of 10 million watching the final episode to find out if Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), the psychologically tortured mob boss, ended up sleeping with the fishes.
Then America will have to face a grim future without whackings, infidelities, heists and family rows.
"This is Black Sunday," wrote TV chat-show host Dave Cavett in the New York Times.
Mr Baron is more sanguine. In the short term, business can only prosper, he thinks. "I've taken 20,000 people on this tour in the past six years."
Mr Baron, who has been an extra in the series, takes groups to locations that include the Skyway Diner, where Christopher Moltisanti was shot, Big Pussy's car body shop, and, of course, the Bada Bing strip club (real name Satin Dolls) where Tony Soprano runs his criminal empire, arranges collections, has rivals killed, and arranges sessions with his therapist, Dr Melfi.
The show has thrived on its unpredictability, creator David Chase having consistently avoided neat denouements. Before the final show in the US, bookies had Tony 1 to 3 on to survive while the odds on his being whacked were 2-1 against.
In fact, three finales were filmed and Chase was saying nothing about his choice.
Sydney Pollack, the film-maker (Tootsie, Out of Africa) who appeared once, believed the end would be tragic.
"Something bad is going to happen," said Pollack, who expected to see Tony die. "I don't know, but I know that David Chase can be counted on to do something that's bold and not safe."'
Certainly The Sopranos is a remarkable phenomenon, somehow persuading viewers to feel warmth for a loathsome set of characters.
In one episode Tony's henchman Paul Walnuts (Tony Sirico) butchers another hood merely for insulting a dead friend. A couple of episodes later, he admits he is seeking professional help for emotional problems. "Right now, we're working on my coping skills," he tells startled fellow-mobsters.
And on another occasion, having just kicked a man to death, Tony attends a therapy session with Dr Melfi and finds a bloody tooth still stuck to his cuff. Calmly, he flicks it off.
Concluded Cavett: "Having to make do without any new episodes of what, in the fullness of time, will be judged to be the Mt Everest of television achievement is a chilling prospect."
- OBSERVER
* The Sopranos final series begins on TV One on Thursday at 9.30pm
