In the NYT, Amy Winehouse > James Gandolfini

Not a surprise really, but I thought he would get the front page. Especially because the trend's been to use more front-page obits, although I'm not sure how many were entertainment folks.

http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/front-page-obituaries-more-than-doubled-in-2012-heres-why/?_r=0

But maybe the writing itself wasn't good enough, in the editors' opinion.

I guess we could go person by person to see. Hitchens made it. I love Hitchens. Did more people know his work than Gandolfini's? I doubt it. Is that the test? Do more people today know Jean Harris?

This guy's pontificated about frontpage obits before, although there's no thorough list.

http://mytimesandlife.blogspot.com/search?q=obituary

 

USA Today, which often goes 1A for celebrity obits, didn't think Gandolfini warranted it, either.



In the context of how each newspaper presents refers, The New York Times and USA Today gave Gandolfini pretty much equal play.

 

I heard one person mention the death at work today. It certainly wasn't a topic of discussion. If Tom Selleck died I'm sure it would have been mentioned more often. Good actor. Solid show. Let's not get carried away with the cultural icon crap.

 

And everyone I work with was talking about it and have been at various times for about 7 hours. An anecdotal evidence war.

 

I was at work yesterday, and everyone was buzzing about it and telling me to watch The Sopranos already, damn it! Now you have to!

I work with a lot of 40-plus, intelligent white men who pretty much were the show's exact target audience.

 

The bigger question than A1 is whether he makes the Oscars montage. He really wasn't much as a movie actor, and do they do TV in those?

 

If Jay Leno dies tomorrow where does the Times feature that story?

 

Do you work at a store called "Always 1983?"

 

Selleck's current show is pulling Sopranos numbers right now and doing it on a Friday night.

 

Considering all the late night shuffling and drama of recent years and the fact they are about to make the transition, there are additional news pegs than just the death.

 

Have you watched the History Channel lately? Some of the most low-brow shit on TV airs on the History Channel, stuff like Pawn Stars, American Pickers and the aforementioned Ice Road Truckers. Some of it is entertaining, to be sure, but none of it is very intellectual.

And, no, James Gandolfini wasn't a "titan." He was a decent character actor who had one memorable role in a show that a whole lot of us never watched.

 

"[T]he greatest television character of all time."

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/06/james_gandolfini_dead_at_51_as_tony_soprano_he_was_part_of_the_family_and.html

Obviously Jessica Winter's opinion isn't definitive, but she's a professional arts writer - at Time as her full-time gig, if it's the same person - and at least this shows that I'm not out on some limb.

This thread seems to have become somewhat ratings obsessed, perhaps because I used the word "influential." But if we confined it merely to quality of character instead, is Tony Soprano on the short list for greatest of all time? I think he certainly is. Hence: "Titan."