In the opening credits, you see the ceiling tiles of the Lincoln Tunnel before Tony emerges on the Jersey side, drives around the helix past our old apartment in Weehawken, and takes his ticket at the Turnpike South entrance of Exit 16E. Then he drives south past the Goethels Bridge and the refinery area around Exit 13, somehow magically transporting himself to the Turnpike Extension around Exit 14B for the quick shot of the Statue of Liberty among other faux paus. I don't know why he takes the Turnpike South to get to his house in North Caldwell. I also don't understand how, from the Turnpike, he suddenly passes the Pulaski Skyway and the giant figure at Wilson's House of Carpets in Jersey City, goes by Pizzaland on the Belleville Pike, and then passes Sacred Heart Cathedral in Newark. But I guess that some poetic license is allowable!

On our Easter 2001 trip back East, we decided to visit several of these locations to see what they look like today in real (as opposed to "reel") life. Click on the photos to bring up a large, detailed view in a separate window!

Though the sign says "Open for Lunch", I stopped by Pizzaland around 3pm on a Friday afternoon, only to find it closed. Hmmmm. It's basically a take-out place, with only a couple of tables, so I guess they must have been taking a siesta. I've never eaten there, but relatives who have say they make excellent thin-crust pies and advantageously stay open quite late at night.

Filming for the third season had long been completed when we arrived in April, and the casual observer would not know that this is Satriale's. The windows were covered with criss-crossed steel grating, and all signage was removed from the storefront after two attempts to steal the pig that's seen over the front door on the show. However, HBO rents the storefront year-round, and upon closer inspection all the window signs are in place behind the grating so that filming could commence quickly ones they are removed.

We visited around 3:30pm on a Friday afternoon, taking photos from a number of different angles. Seeing us, one of the locals, a Vietnam vet of apparent Irish background named Mike, came over to chat with us for awhile. Clad in a Yankees 2000 championship T-shirt, and as real a Hudson County guy as they come, he lives in the green three-story house to the right of Satriale's parking lot. He has gotten to know the cast and the crew quite well over the three seasons of filming, he says, often kibitzing with them and often running errands for them or doing odd jobs for the show. He says that the actors, who often cut through the back of his property to avoid the crowds when entering or exiting Satriale's, are a friendly and appreciative group with whom he is much happier sharing a beer than getting autographs! In return he gets to come and go freely around the set during filming.

The Kearny Avenue neighborhood seemed well past its prime, but it may just be me, for after living here in Southern California for a couple of years now I find I am more sensitive to the age and grime of East Coast cities. The grey overcast weather didn't do a thing to dispel the perception, unfortunately, but somehow it did seem an appropriate environmental backdrop for our photos. Kearny Ave. seemed to still be a reasonably nice, lower-middle income, blue collar neighborhood, as much of Hudson County is, but perhaps even somewhat more ethnic than usual even by local standards. I think that I would personally draw the line at patronizing a place named "Stosh's Pizza", however!