Today the show has been embraced by a new generation, and it shaped new age of TV that pushed new boundaries in terms of narrative and formal expectations & demands—what @jmittell.bsky.social labels "complex tv." And today the ending is often cited as one of the best of all time 4/4
10.06.2025 22:14 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
DAILY NEWS response to the final episode of THE SOPRANOS
Some thought the cable had gone out. Many were angry their long investment in the saga was to be left unresolved: was Tony assassinated? Does he just go on as before? Creator David Chase defended the ending as preserving the uncertainty that shaped the lives of the characters since episode 1. 3/4
10.06.2025 22:07 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
The unnamed man in the Members Only jacket in the diner who might or might not be there to kill Tony.
Tony looks up just as Meadow walks in the diner
Cut to black
In the last scene, Tony is with his family at a diner; “Don’t Stop Believin’” plays in the background. The camera cuts between Tony’s POV, the entrance, & other patrons. Just as his daughter Meadow is about to enter, Tony looks up—& the screen cuts to black before the credits roll in silence. 2/4
10.06.2025 22:07 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Tony Sopranos looking up from the jukebox at the diner
Tony, Carmella, and AJ at the diner looking at menus, while waiting for Meadow to join them
On this date in 2007, the finale of THE SOPRANOS, “Made in America,” aired on HBO, immediately sparking controversy. Unlike the finale to SEINFELD 9 years earlier or the LOST finale 3 years later, both of which were pretty much universally loathed, the finale of SOPRANOS deeply divided its fans. 1/4
10.06.2025 22:07 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 1
Panel from a 1989 Don Rosa Donald Duck story: Scrooge chastises Donald: "DONALD, YOUVE HAD MORE JOES THAN ANYONE IN DUCKBURG, BUT YOU NEVER HAVE TWO BUCKS TO RUB TOGETHER!" To which Donald replies, "AW, MONEY'S ONLY PAPER UNTIL YOU
SPEND IT!"
Cover of DONALD DUCL #45 with Donald singing in the bathtub while the nephews applaud and turn the pages of the sheet music.
Donald's transformation from a slacker in the Idle Hour Club in THE WISE LITTLE HEN to an *almost* respectable middle-class citizen is fascinating. "Almost," because Donald remains a bachelor and both his childcare duties & lack of a career marks him a marginal figure in 1950s Duckburg/America. 3/3
09.06.2025 18:21 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Donald being assaulted by his would-be beneficiaries in his first Mickey Mouse short, THE ORPHAN'S BENEFIT (1934)
Donald's first official starring role in DONALD'S OSTRICH (1937)
The first Disney comic with a story by Carl Barks. The cover is by Walt Kelly, soon-to-be creator of POGO
From this minor role, Donald's popularity will go on to rival that of Mickey himself, even starring in his own series of animated shorts. Beginning in 1943, Carl Barks will take Donald on a remarkable series of comic book adventures with his nephews and his irascible Uncle Scrooge. 2/3
09.06.2025 18:21 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Title for THE WISE LITTLE HEN (1934)
Donald and his BFF dancing and singing
Mrs. Hen and her chicks enjoying the fruits of the harvest. Donald is not invited since he did not help
On this day in 1934, the world's most famous duck was born, making his debut in the Silly Symphony short, THE WISE LITTLE HEN. Along with Peter Pig, Donald dances & loafs, playing sick when Mrs. Hen asks for help with the planting. They learn their lesson when they're not invited to the feast. 1/3
09.06.2025 18:21 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 1
Protestor holding sign that reads: "The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential
command."
George Orwell, 1984
Protestor holding a sign that reads "1984"
It goes without saying that the novel is having something of a moment in 2025.
09.06.2025 04:01 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The novel gifted popular culture with many words and concepts including: Big Brother, doublespeak, Thought Police—not to mention "Orwellian" and "1984." 2/2
09.06.2025 03:59 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Original cover 1984
On June 8, 1949, George Orwell's 1984 was published, telling of a near-future in which conformity is enforced through constant surveillance & the manipulation of thought through language. 1/2
09.06.2025 03:59 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
President Johnson signing the Public Broadcasting Act in 1967
The original 1967 logo for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The show ended in 1942 following the entrance of the US into World War II. But its popularity laid the foundation for further advancements in educational public radio and tv—culminating with the signing of the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act & the creation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting 2/2
08.06.2025 02:25 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Supplementary educational bulletin for THE WORLD IS YOURS (CBS radio)
Photograph of a live episode of THE WORLD IS YOURS being produced, 1939
On this date in 1936, the first episode of THE WORLD IS YOURS premiered on CBS radio—the first national, federally-sponsored educational program. Produced with the Smithsonian, the show's success proved that the federal government could play a role in education via mass media. 1/2
08.06.2025 02:25 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Valle Drive In in Newton, Iowa
Valle Drive In in Newton, Iowa
My last visit to a drive-in was 27 years ago, in Newton, Iowa, at the Valle Drive-in, infant son in tow. MEN IN BLACK, I think, although the star of the show was a tremendous storm that had everyone huddled in their cars scanning the skies for tornadoes. It was awesome—I must do that again 4/4
06.06.2025 21:29 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Abandoned drive-in theater
Abandoned drive-in theater
Today there are around 120 drive-ins in the U.S., in 25 states. Their ongoing survival, however attenuated, speaks to something unique about the experience, despite so many more convenient and frankly better ways to watch movies if the point is, well, watching the movie. 3/4
06.06.2025 21:29 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Movie poster for 1970s horror movie, Drive-In Massacre
Poster for movie titled DRIVE-IN (1976)
By the 1970s, with gas skyrocketing and cars getting smaller (and less comfortable for hanging out for a double feature with your friends), the drive-in began to decline—accelerating following in the 80s with VHS and in early 21st century with DVD and then streaming. 2/4
06.06.2025 21:29 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
First drive-in theater opened today in 1933. Photo of cars and small screen in distance.
Article from 1933 about the opening of the theater
Today in Pop Culture history: the first drive-in movie theater opens in Camden, NJ 6/6/1933. It would not be until after WWII that drive-ins would take off, benefiting from the baby boom, the highway act, suburban sprawl, and big-ass cars. As many as 4000 dotted the country in the 50s and 60s 1/4
06.06.2025 21:29 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 1
