On January 10, 1999, TV audiences enjoyed their inaugural ride-along with Tony Soprano, as the now-iconic character, played by the late James Gandolfini, made his way out of the Lincoln Tunnel for the very first time. Offering momentary glimpses of the World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, and the dilapidated remnants of heavy industry, the opening credits of HBO’s landmark series The Sopranos roll their way through Newark and into the suburbs, before finally settling in the McMansion-dotted borough of North Caldwell, New Jersey.

In the show’s first scene, Tony meets Dr Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), seeking treatment related to a recent panic attack. “The morning of the day I got sick, I’d been thinking,” he explains, “It’s good to be in something from the ground floor. I came too late for that, I know. But lately, I’m getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over.”

“Many Americans, I think, feel that way,” Melfi replies, before Tony continues: “I think about my father. He never reached the heights like me, but in a lot of ways, he had it better. He had his people, they had their standards, they had their pride. Today, what do we got?”