RAY KUGLER and STEPHANIE HOO
ASAP

So long, Tony Soprano. It was nice knowin' ya.

As HBO's mob drama "The Sopranos" gets ready to take its final bow after eight years, it's a pensive time for fans in Sopranoland, a.k.a. New Jersey.

The Garden State was as much a character on the show as Paulie Walnuts or "Big Pussy," with locations from Kearny to the Pinelands taking turns in the spotlight.

The show was in some ways testament to a New Jersey that is fast disappearing, as luxury condos replace the old tenement houses and Jamba Juice vies for space alongside the Italian bakeries. On "The Sopranos," people still buy capicola from local butchers and egg shops have live chickens. In the real New Jersey, only a dwindling few churches still offer Mass in Italian and you're more likely to buy your prime rib at Shop Rite.

Love for "The Sopranos" was not universal. Several civic groups bristled at the depiction of Italian Americans as murderous gangsters with bad grammar. In reality, most Italian Americans are learned and law-abiding. Two from New Jersey are even U.S. Supreme Court Justices -- Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia, both born in Trenton.

The mayor of Bloomfield, where the final scene of "The Sopranos" was shot, tried to bar from show from filming in town, saying he found it disparaging. But, the township attorney said that wasn't enough reason to block it -- and Broad Street was turned into a TV set, with Holsten's ice cream parlor taking center stage.

Take a drive with us to Bloomfield, in this asap video.

Stephanie Hoo is an asap reporter. Ray Kugler is asap's senior audiovisual reporter.