Sopranos mob ready to return: “…Sopranos devotees are probably … miserable considering the nearly 16-month wait they will have had to endure for new episodes of their favorite show. The down time between Sopranos seasons typically has been lengthier than the TV norm, but this one was extended even longer by HBO bigwigs who sought to avoid summer scheduling conflicts with its other popular Sunday-night series, Sex and the City. The show is scheduled to resume Sept. 15.” Offering only the most meager of hints about the direction the show will take, they’ve wrapped up shooting the season, the show’s fifth and, quite possibly its last. David Chase, Sopranos creator, is calling it quits, although he cautions that HBO owns the show and can continue it without him, a prospect none of the cast find palatable however. Contra Costa Times [via randomWalks] [Oh darn; after five years of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, Dr Melfi would just be beginning to get somewhere with Tony Soprano! — FmH]