January 10, 1999:The Sopranos premieres on HBO. James Gandolfini plays Tony Soprano, a man working his way up through organized crime in northern New Jersey, while juggling raising a family and going through mistresses, all while trying to hold off panic attacks.
It was the 1st production, either TV show or movie, that showed mobsters as having regular lives. Previous films such as The Godfather and Goodfellas showed their family lives as subordinate "the life" in "the family." Much as The Dick Van Dyke Show was the 1st sitcom that was not strictly a family-based comedy or a work-based comedy, but a combination of the two, The Sopranos threaded the needle.
Of course, being on pay-TV, it could be a 1-hour drama with profanity, sex scenes, and awful violence. Show creator/producer/writer David Chase wanted it to be as authentic as possible. He may have succeeded too well, often insisting that Tony was not a hero. Over 8 years, 6 seasons (there were long gaps) and 86 episodes, it won 21 Emmy Awards.
Steven Van Zandt, the lead guitarist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, played Silvio Dante, Tony's chief advisor, or consigliere. He has often been asked to comment on being part of 2 iconic pieces of pop culture based in New Jersey.
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January 10, 1999 was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season, and the NBA team owners had locked their players out, so their season didn't start until February 5. But there were 2 NFL Playoff games played that day. And the New York Jets won one of them. Stop laughing. They beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 34-24 at Giants Stadium. So it was a big day in New Jersey for a 2nd reason. In the other game, the Minnesota Vikings beat the Arizona Cardinals, 41-21 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
There were 6 games played in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-2 at Madison Square Garden.
* The Ottawa Senators beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1 at the Corel Centre in the Ottawa suburb of Kanata, Ontario. (It's now named the Canadian Tire Centre.)
* The Colorado Rockies beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-2 at the United Center in Chicago. Once-and-future New Jersey Devil Claude Lemieux scored the winning goal with 1:29 left in overtime.
* The Florida Panthers beat the Calgary Flames, 2-1 at the Saddledome.
* The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Edmonton Oilers, 6-4 at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim. (It's now named the Honda Center.)
* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Dallas Stars, 2-0 at General Motors Place in Vancouver. (It's now named the Rogers Arena.)