August 28th, 2026Jeff Glorfeld says: It’s all Tony’s fault…
Does it seem like the world’s gone mad? Too much orange? Jeff Glorfeld has thoughts.
The Sopranos, considered by many critics to be one of the most influential television series ever made, went into production in 1997 and was broadcast in the United States on the HBO cable service from January 10, 1999, to June 10, 2007, comprising 86 episodes in six seasons.
Australian viewers during that time could watch the show on pay-TV services such as Amazon Prime Video or Foxtel Now.
Warning: Readers who may never have watched the series but were intending any day now to sit down and view The Sopranos for the first time, please be advised, the following article references elements of The Sopranos to draw conclusions about the social and political environment in which we live in 2026. Please do not complain to the publishers and editors of this publication about spoilers.
For a while now we’ve been reading news and commentary about an orange-tinted, badly ageing, hysterical politician who has captured an inordinate amount of media coverage by spewing barely comprehensible, hate-filled rhetoric.
Her main target is migrants – the non-white kind, but she pretty much seems to look down her nose at everyone.
Yes, we’re talking here about The Perils of Pauline, not the Disasters of Donny. OK, we really are talking about Donny. It used to be said (maybe it still is?) that when the USA sneezes, the world catches a cold. Remember that one?
Maybe it seems overly facile to blame DJ Trump for Pauline Hanson – after all, she wandered out of Queensland obscurity and into the national conversation in 1996, and by 2001 it appeared her time was up. But in 2016, there she was again, this time as a newly minted senator.
And you know who else arrived onto the global stage like an infestation of Rhinella marina (aka cane toads) in 2016? Of course you do.
But well before any of the events that happened after 2016, The Donald, as he was generally known in the New York media, was little more than a self-promoting real-estate developer who fancied himself a man-about-town playboy.
So, The Sopranos TV series launched in 1999. Here is a partial list of the things that happened to Donald Trump in 1999, generated by Search Assist, the AI feature of the Duck Duck Go search engine:
* He began dating Slovenian model Melania Knauss.
* He finalised his divorce from second wife Marla Maples.
* He featured in a sensational gossip saga in which two former girlfriends vied for his attention.
* He announced his takeover of the Miss USA Pageant, and that he would start a modelling agency.
* He spent months teasing the media about a possible run for president of the US.
Here is where we head into the weeds, out where the buses don’t run.
The Sopranos TV series is based around the life of Tony Soprano, masterfully played by the late James Gandolfini.
Tony is a man of prodigious appetites who calls himself a waste management consultant but who in reality is a chief of a New Jersey organised crime family; his late father was in the mob, his uncle is a gangster, his mother is a bitter, manipulative woman.
Outwardly he leads an unassuming life, with a nice but unpretentious house in the suburbs, and a wife and two children.
Tony runs a crew of men who take care of the day-to-day criminal activities that provide him with an extremely comfortable life: extortion, theft, any number of illegal rackets, even murder.
The members of his gang don’t seem especially smart, but their loyalty to him is absolute, which is really the most important quality any of them possesses.
Tony’s wife, Carmela, brilliantly played by Edie Falco, holds his home and family together while he spends his days managing his criminal enterprise. She knows how her husband makes a living, and that he is a serial cheater, that he has sex with any number of other women.
A Catholic, she confesses her shame to a priest, that she knows her husband does bad things, and she admits that she stays with him because she enjoys the material comforts he provides for herself and their children.
Now here’s where we try to square the circle. In every instance where we refer to Tony, as in Soprano, substitute the name Donald, as in Trump. Since 2016 (another convergence?) people have been asking, how did Donny happen? And why? I blame Tony Soprano.
Let’s break it down. Imagine 1999 Donald on Thursday nights, or whenever, watching The Sopranos. Whether he understands it or not, this is what he sees, pure synergy:
x – Manipulative, unscrupulous parents – check.
x – Prone to violence – check.
x – Values loyalty over competence – check.
x – Indifferent to the needs of others – check.
x – Sexually promiscuous – check.
x – Seeks personal comfort over physical exertion – check.
x – Love of money – check.
The list could go on much longer but you get the idea: Donny wanted to be Tony.
The Sopranos’ final episode was broadcast on June 10, 2007, in the USA, written and directed by series creator David Chase.
The ending is still talked about today among fans, as the television screen goes dark, leaving Tony Soprano’s fate ambiguous. As for the other guy, the one who plays golf and starts wars, we’re still waiting for that show to end.
California-born Jeff Glorfeld found a home in Australia and a career in journalism in 1985. But in 2018 family ties pulled him back to the USA, where he keeps his Aussie connections alive with occasional contributions to The Local and a national weekly radio program, The Down Under Hour.
