Rating: 
June 11, 2007
THERE was nothing wrong with your television.
That's the way the creator of "The Sopranos" wanted it to end after eight years and 80 dramatic hours - with a blank screen and a long silence.
For those who thought Tony Soprano was going to get blown from here to Canarsie in last night's finale, the disappointment might be hard to take.
There was no spectacular end for the big guy. He didn't get blown up by a bomb after turning his car's ignition.
There was no spectacular splatter on Satriale's sidewalk.
There was just fried food, which may be the only thing that will kill Tony. But for now, he lives to eat another day.
To the shock of most viewers, Big Tony Soprano went out with a whimper and an onion ring.
After all that therapy and all those murders, the last words before the screen went black were, "I got these for the table." Onion rings.
What the . . . ?
In a finale that was spectacularly disappointing, creator David Chase delivered just one hit.
After making us think for the last five minutes that Tony was about to get killed . . . nothing. Dead air. Chase will have to live with what he did last night.
The show opened with Tony waking up in the hideaway and then going to meet his fed connection, Agent Harris. Is he going to turn? No freakin' way.
Because he is the wheeler-dealer that he is, he tries to cut a deal with the feds to deliver more info on the mysterious Arabs in exchange for Harris asking his guy in the Brooklyn office the whereabouts of Phil Leotardo.
Harris tells Tony that Phil is in Oyster Bay.
What followed was one of the most spectacular hits in TV history - one that had to make all of America retch, not just the kid who witnessed it at the service station.
It begins with Phil pulling into the Raceway Service Station to make a setup call on a pay phone. He stops the car and, before getting out, tells his two little grandkids in the back seat, "Wave bye-bye to Grandpa!"
