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"The Sopranos" All Happy Families (2004)
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Overview
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Original Air Date:
28 March 2004
(Season 5, Episode 4)
Plot:
Feech makes a pain of himself by trying to return to his past glory. Carmela tries to work with Anthony's teacher to rein in the out-of-control son. full summary | add synopsis
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Goodbye, Feech
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Continuity: A.J. is in the principal's office. When he gets up from his seat, he is wearing tan khaki pants but when we cut to a shot of him leaving the office, he is wearing dark jeans.
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Anthony 'A.J.' Soprano, Jr.:
[happily] I might be learning disabled!
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References "The Honeymooners: The $99,000 Answer (#1.18)" (1956)
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LA PETITE MER
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After being mentioned briefly in Season 3, Feech La Manna (Robert Loggia) was introduced in the Season Five premiere, and proved himself a worthy presence on the show. Unfortunately, his stay wasn't very long, in fact All Happy Families features Loggia's last appearance in the series. According to David Chase, his departure had to do with memory problems (the actor was past his seventies), an ironic fact given the previous episode dealt with the possibility of Uncle Junior having Alzheimer's. Nonetheless, Loggia's four-episode guest spot remains one of the highlights of the show's great history, and his exit is every bit as good as his entrance.
The need to take Loggia off the series is narratively transformed into Tony's need to get rid of Feech, whose attempts to get his old power back is causing more trouble than anything, and with Christopher's help the nuisance is dealt with rather painlessly. Meanwhile, the war that's raging between Little Carmine and Johnny Sack gets uglier with the killing of the former's loan-shark, and on the private front AJ's mediocre grades lead to Carmela having a sit-down, and perhaps something else, with the school counselor, Robert Wegler (David Strathairn).
Aside from Loggia leaving the series, the most notable achievement of this episode is Strathairn's riveting performance: best known in mainstream cinema for playing unpleasant fellas, such as Kathy Bates' abusive husband in Dolores Claiborne or, most famously, Kim Basinger's vicious pimp in the extraordinary L.A. Confidential, he joins TV's best crime drama playing a nice guy, albeit with a few characterial flaws, and gives a humane portrayal justly remembered by Empire magazine as one of the show's five best guest spots (the other four, in case you're wondering, are Robert Patrick, Jon Favreau, Ben KIngsley and the already mentioned Loggia). His story arc allows the writers to move away a little from the gangster universe, which is always refreshing, and also sheds new light on the personality of Mrs. Soprano, a quite different woman since she dumped Tony.
The title may be highly ironic (no one's really happy in the episode), but hey, at least the viewers are satisfied. And for those lamenting the disappearance of a superb recurring presence, consider this: his replacement is just as marvelous.