TVSquad

Back in November we reported that a movie version of the award-winning HBO series The Sopranos would not be happening. The source of that information was none other than show creator David Chase. So, you would think that this information would be very reliable. Mmmm, perhaps not. For, you see, another rumor has popped up from a resource even more reliable than the man who actually created the program.

With all the stories that have been buzzing around the season premiere of The Sopranos, you knew that the inevitable "somone's running a Sopranos tour" article would come out eventually. Well, now it's official; the writer of this AP story rides along with a tour group to see the New Jersey locations where various episodes of the show were filmed. Included in the tour was the Lodi strip club Satin Dolls (you can see it from Rt. 80!), where the scenes at the Bada Bing club were shot. Also on the tour was a stop under the Pulaski Skyway, spots in Newark, Kearny, and Harrison, and the giant lumberjack that fronts a carpet store on Truck Route 1&9 in Jersey City.

Now, I see many of these sites on an average drive from my humble Garden State abode into New York City... heck, I drive over the Skyway at least twice a week. So it's odd to hear about people from London, Wales, and Florida snapping pictures of these places and saying that the tour ranked up there with going to the Empire State Building. But, hey, at least New Jersey is getting tourists to go to places other than Atlantic City (let's just say the NJ section in Lonely Planet's USA guide is a bit thin).