Al Gore Saw The Sopranos Finale Way Before You Did

The finale of The Sopranos was one of the most closely-guarded secrets in television, as millions of people around the world huddled around their sets to discover which horrible stadium-rock power-ballad would soundtrack the cop-out ending.

The ending of The Sopranos was kept such a secret that preview tapes weren't sent out to anyone at all - except one man. Al Gore was all set to miss the final episode of The Sopranos, until he somehow managed to coerce Sopranos executive producer Brad Grey into sending him a massively rare preview copy of the episode to watch long before losers like you got to see it. That may strike you as a grossly unfair use of political power, but don't doubt Al Gore's dedication to his cause - word is that Al Gore plans to lend the episode to the Sun, so long as the Sun promises to melt the icecaps a little slower from now on in return. The Sun can't get HBO, you see.

The Sopranos finale is fast becoming a legend, a moment like the Kennedy assassination or Princess Diana's death where people are able to tell you exactly where they were the moment that Tony Soprano's daughter ran towards a building and Tony Soprano looked up and then it finished and everyone was all like "Whaaa?" and even the cast of The Sopranos were a bit confused.

But The Sopranos finale has moved on from the world of pop culture now, and even high art - now the last scene of The Sopranos belongs exclusively to the world of politics. We're just spitballing here, but we're starting to get the impression that the result of the next US general election is going to revolve squarely around what each candidate thinks the black screen at the end of the episode meant and how well they can do air guitar to Don't Stop Believin'. Hillary Clinton has already made her Sopranos spoof, but Al Gore's Sopranos anecdote beats it hands down.

Al Gore, you see, saw the end of The Sopranos long before you did, and all because Brad Grey - the man who executive produces The Sopranos - is the head of the studio that produced Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. The New York Times reports Brad Grey's reluctant decision to send Gore a copy of the episode:

On the Sunday of the finale, he had a Halliburton-made steel case, containing a copy of the episode, delivered to the tarmac where Mr. Gore’s plane sat in Chicago. The case was locked with a code (some might call it a “lockbox”). Mr. Gore could not open it until the plane was in the air, when he was instructed to call Mr. Grey’s office for the numeric code. Mr. Gore sent Mr. Grey a photo of himself trying to pry open the case, which Mr. Grey now keeps on his desk. 

We're disgusted. How dare Al Gore have the time to sit down and watch an hour of deliberately underwhelming Sopranos conclusions when he had a series of high-profile climate change concerts to organise. Sure, we assume that the timing of this anecdote has been deliberately designed to make people sign his climate change pledge because they can see how much he likes TV shows that they also like, but saving the world single-handedly is a job with no time off, not even to watch the unsatisfying conclusion to a long-running TV show. When the world's climate makes the environment too hostile to support human life any more, it'll be all your fault, Gore. All your fault.

Read more:

Al Gore's Top-Secret Access To Final Sopranos Episode - New York Times