Sopranos Cast Bickering Over James Gandolfini

I come from an Italian family where my father’s parents gave birth to 15 children. Those children also had children and you can only imagine how many cousins I have. You actually will need to imagine because I simply can’t keep track.

One thing that’s a given in large Italian families is that at some point, some members will not be speaking to others based on things that happened years ago. Some of those things may have happened before many of us were born, but it doesn’t matter it happened and that’s that. You had to see the seating chart at my wedding as we were trying to figure out not only who was comfortable sitting with who but who was actually talking to who, or is that whom?

I bring this up because one of televisions favorite Italian families, "The Sopranos" are not all on the same page regarding who’s is discussing the death of James Gandolfini.

The cast of “The Sopranos” is furious at Joe Gannascoli, who played gay gangster Vito Spatafore, for doing a series of glowing interviews about James Gandolfini — when in fact they were not close friends and hadn’t talked in years.

I had Gannascoli on my show and he was completely forthcoming about his relationship with Gandolfini and also provided some insight into what it was like to have worked with him and I also want to say that it was me who reached out to him to get him on the show.

Where I really want to go with this though is who do you think is the most dysfunctional family on television? In many cases, it was that dysfunction that made the show so great. If you don't believe me, see Married with Children and the Bundy’s.

One family that turned out to be totally dysfunctional if you followed it through were The Bradys. They started out so squeaky clean then they came back as a drama and all hell broke loose.  Family patriarch Mike begins a political career.

Bobby's budding car-racing career ends abruptly in the first episode after an accident leaves him a paraplegic. As he recovers, he marries his college girlfriend. Peter breaks up with his fiancée, to whom he became engaged in A Very Brady Christmas and was dating the abusive daughter of Mike's political rival. Jan and Phillip, unable to conceive children of their own, adopt a Korean girl. Stay-at-home mother Marcia battles alcoholism while Wally loses yet another in a series of jobs, the latest being Mike's campaign manager. Wally and Marcia, who along with their two children have been forced to move in with Mike and Carol, eventually decide to open their own catering business to support their family. Radio host Cindy begins a romantic interest with her boss, a widower more than 10 years her senior who has two children.

Who is your favorite television family?