I've seen other posts about the worst character on the Sopranos. Now I want to see what most people on here believe the best character. Only one rule, it can't be Tony!

Patsy Parisi.

The toothless old Black chick who offered Uncle Junior a half-and-half.

Ah, to be 75 again.

Either Uncle Jun or Silvio. Watching Uncle Jun progress from a usually clever gangster to a demented old man was interesting, and Sil is just an all around awesome character.

The dental student staying at the Cusimanos.

Nice choices. My favorite character is Bobby Bacalla

I'm going to split my vote between main characters and semi-regular ones.

For main characters,I love Paulie Walnuts.I know he's the easy pick,but IMHO,he never failed to deliver the goods. He comes across as the typical streetwise,old school Mafiosi,with the added quality of being batsh*t crazy at times.

For the lesser guys,I always looked forward to Little Carmine's scenes. His total butchery of the English language was a constant source of amusement for me. What made it even funnier was that a lot of times whoever he was talking to would have this look on their face that said "what the **** is this nitwit talking about",but he would never pick up on it,and just keep going.

-historically, historical changes come from war-

Chris/Paulie/Silvio and Uncle Junior..

Christopher as he sums up the state of OC today "where’s my arc Paulie"- in other words what’s in it for me its a shame really.

Great episode. When he loses the car. When the cops bring him home ones black. Janice asks who stole his car. He goes. You know who. Hahahahah

Georgie. Poor guy could cure AIDS and cancer, and Tony would still beat the shit out of him for not curing diabetes.

Uncle Junior is my favorite character, some of his lines were great.

Guy comes home with a bouquet of flowers for his wife. "I guess I'll have to spread my legs now"she says. Why,he asks,don't you have a vase?

Great ensemble acting so it's hard to pick on that basis, but Michael Imperioli as Christopher, maybe, if I had to pick.

Also a special shout out to Mikey Palmice's hot piece of ass redhead wife.

Tony is displacing his anger towards his mothers inability to use a the phone on Georgie. Here's what SopranosAutopsy.com has to say..

It’s not just moblife that is giving Tony agita, it is his personal life as well. The situation with his mother is weighing heavily on him. She causes a kitchen fire, she doesn’t answer her phone after dark, she drives away her caretaker, and she’s become a threat behind the wheel of her car – all these things give Tony no choice but to check her into the Green Grove retirement community (he cannot know that this act will directly cause an assassination attempt against him by season’s end).

In Melfi’s office, it is becoming increasingly apparent just how toxic Livia is. When Melfi tells him that some people are just not “ideal candidates for parenthood,” Tony tries to defend his mother with an anecdote – but the best he can come up with is the story of how she laughed at her husband when he fell down some stairs. (Stairs become an important recurring element throughout the series.) Tony’s anger swells. Melfi tells him to “own the anger instead of displacing it. Otherwise it controls your life.” In the very next scene, we see it control him – he displaces his anger towards his mother on to Georgie who, like Livia, doesn’t understand how the telephone works.

In the previous episode, we saw how two explosions functioned as a visual rhyme linking Tony’s professional and personal lives. Similarly, in this episode, two rhyming scenes of Tony lashing out violently with a telephone visually link his professional and personal lives: in the first case, he’s infuriated to learn about the Comley truck hijacking; in the second, he vents his anger toward his mother by beating Georgie with the telephone receiver.





Tony’s attack is brutal, but it’s just B.A.U. (business as usual) – the girls climb back on their poles and keep on dancing. Goergie is an inoffensive employee of the Bing who will find himself getting in the way of these mobsters and suffering for it in episodes to come. The Comley truck drivers are also innocent civilians who are hurt by the mob: one gets beat up and the other dies from a stray bullet. The phenomenon of civilians being made to suffer by mob actions, either purposely or inadvertently, is one that will repeat over and over.

My favorite character (other than Tony) would have to be Chris. He was very realistic. Michael Imperioli did a great job with the character. One of my favorite scenes is when he shows up to dispose of Ralphie while he is on heroin. Superb acting.

I say Sil

Among the characters who had regular roles, my favorite would have been Paulie. He was a kiss-ass to Tony, but a self-described "half a gangster" who was complicated. He killed the waiter over the lousy tip that Christopher left and then lamented that his fighting with Christopher could have left one of them hurt. From his diatribe to shoelaces hitting the bathroom floor to the relationship he had with his mother, Paulie was an interesting character.

For the recurring roles, I liked Johnny Sacc the best. He played Ralphie and Paulie like a violin, had a hot temper, but worshipped the ground his wife walked upon.

I liked Johnny Sacc too, He was probably the only likable member of the New York family..

Uncle June was the absolute best character of them all (hands down)
I also loved Melfie but for other reasons LOL

One of my favorite story lines was the Ginny Sacc "weight" joke that Ralph made. When Paulie relayed it to Johnny Sacc, Johnny was obviously livid. He took his anger out on a guy from Ralph's crew by beating him outside of a bar and then urinating on him. To me, that was the ultimate insult and then Sacc goes home with blood all over his suit.

One wonders if Johnny Sack walked into the Bing just a few seconds earlier in this scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiK-UQDK-M0

O/T on Ginny Sack, the actress who played her -- Denise Borino -- had never acted before winning that role in an open casting call. Unfortunately, she passed a few years ago from liver cancer...she was in her mid-40s, IIRC.

I remember reading that about Denise Borino. That was very unfortunate. She was at least the 2nd character on the "Sopranos" to be cast who was not an actor.

The other was Silvo Dante, played by rocker Steven Van Zandt. He was offered the role after the Sopranos creater watched Van Zandt induct the Young Rascals to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. His charisma was what David Chase was looking for on the show.

It's hard to believe that it's been 8 years since the last episode. Madonne!

Just watched a Law & Order episode on which Vito and Little Carmine actors appeared as, of course, gangsters. It's interesting how actors get typecast and, even though they are in a hit movie or series, they will take rather minor roles on TV shows.

I feel the same way but I think Junior faked it to avoid being in the mob anymore.