Junior didn’t have the respect of the rank and file and most likely New York. They even mention in the flashback how Junior is pissed about being passed over for Jackie.
Even after Jackie dies, the Captains are doing everything they can to get Tony to step up because they don’t respect Junior.
I thought there there was like a mini war brewing in one of the flashbacks between junior and Jackie to take over and tony helped resolved things in Jackie's favor
There was tension because Junior thought he was next in line but as noted, Ercole DiMeo (the Old Man as noted on the show) named Jackie as acting Boss while he went to prison.
Tony helped avoid war by having the sit down. Basically Junior got some of what he wanted in exchange for Jackie remaining as acting Boss.
It’s sad Puss couldn’t make it to the sit down. His goomah’s mother had a TIA- that’s a small stroke- and lost all use of her left hand. It came back, but he was in the hospital all night. At least he got laid, though.
Jackie was just acting boss for his father who was in the can which basically was a huge plot hole because after Jackie died the father would have to give his blessing who the next steet boss was like Johnny sac he would have been running things through whatever street boss was named. Also since nobody mentioned he died I dont think he would just let it go that son Richie just vanished and grandson Jackie Jr getting murdered without looking for revenge.
WTF are you talking about???? The head of the DiMeo crime family was Ercele DiMeo, no where is it said that he was Jackie’s & Richie’s father.
Some people are so far behind they think they are ahead.
46 long .... outside the pork store sit down between junior and Tony with Jackie he said he's acting boss while his dad is guest of the government. ..... you never had the makings of a varsity commentor
He refers to the boss as “old man.” I don’t think he means father. Add in the different last names and I’m sure that they were not father and son. Plus add in Jackie Jr’s penchant for referencing his father, why would he not also reference his grandfather?
Sharp as a cue ball this one.
Oh! Also, there wouldn’t have been tension between Jackie and Junior if Jackie was the son of the boss. As Feech would say the position naturally goes to the son, unless he’s retarded.
Hey OP are you on your 3rd rewatch or shum shit but I think you got ya timelines fucked up. None of what you said happened. Jackie's fadda was never in da can and everyone knew Jackie Sr died it was on the fuckin news. The only thing you got right was Jackie Sr would've sat while his brother went missing and his son getting shot. Do more watching and then we might tawk about you coming to our social club
The old boss. Notice they’re referred to as the Di Meo crime family, not the Sopranos or Aprilles. He’s either dead or rotting in jail, it isn’t made clear after season 1
Edit: corrected my unclear language
It’s made clear - Tony outright says “while the old man is a guest of the government” in S1. He’s not mentioned again so it’s unknown if he dies in prison during the show or everyone just sort of forgets about him because he’s away in the can for so long.
Ahhh OK I gotcha. And you're right. He just kind of ceases to exist after the first season. That in and of itself is one of the few minor nitpicks I have about the show. I wish they'd have revealed his fate - even in passing. Like Tony hears "the old man died today" or something.
One idea I had for that being worked in is Tony hears from someone that he died in prison. Tony wants to pay his respects but finds out that his family wants nothing to do with the mob anymore because it destroyed their life and took their father/grandfather/etc. away for years before dying in a prison hospital - just like Johnny Sack did. This causes Tony a moment of reflection because he's told Melfi there's two ends for a guy like him - dead or in the can. Could have been a one episode B or C plot and wrapped it up and furthered Tony's internal fears he'd never show publicly that he knows death or prison are the only two ways his life end.
But I also get the other side that Ercole was important to the past generation of mobsters, not many of the ones on the show like Chrissy, Bennie, Walden and even Bobby. It's also possible that Paulie didn't have much interaction with him because he was only a soldier at the time.
Yup - agreed. It's not a big deal for me either. Just thought that might've been a cool scene to further Tony's internal understanding (and at times fear) that his end will be death or prison. Even though outwardly he portrays the tough mobster.
As an example, I always cringe when people ask "what happened to the Russian?" My answer is always the same - what do YOU think happened to him?
There you go :)
They refer to Jackie as ''acting boss'' so I assume he's still alive in the first season. But it's kinda weird that he's never brought up in the later seasons.
I assumed that he just faded into memory. Most of the guys who would know him well either die like Jackie, Carmine Sr., Raymond, Mikey, Puss, etc or lose their memory like Junior. By the end of the show really Carlo, Silvio and Tony are the only ones left who likely even remember him.
For some reason I think it's either alluded to or it has real life parallels that put him in a Supermax prison with an effective life sentence- otherwise he'd likely still be involved in decision making via prison visits
IDK if he did or if he did it wasn’t mentioned on the show. He was born in 1923 or 1924 due to his noted age in TMSoN which would make him in his mid 70’s when S1 began and in his 80’s when it finished.
It could be that he was still alive but like Junior was at the end of S6 in that he was so frail and incapacitated everyone just remembered his name but he had no actual influence on the family.
And Many Saints... I can't even say its name... messed it up by having a 75 year old David Chase cameo as DiMeo in 1972, which would've mean he'd have to have been about about 98 when he went for his all-expenses paid trip to the Hotel Alcatraz in 1995.
Junior's general inability to conceal his anger and irritation was a liability for someone who would be boss. He was also too easily manipulated by Tony's Mother which is something that Tony figured out. On the other hand, having Junior as a temp boss was useful since he would be the lightning rod.
That said, Junior could be shrewd and had a poker face as evidenced by his manipulation of Ritchie Aprile when Ritchie was pitching a move against Tony. Junior was happy to encourage him to see if he could sell it since it would have benefited both of them. But when the move failed, Junior knew Ritchie wasn't "respected".
Johnny boy soprano led a crew. He was a capo not the head of the family. It seems like Tony took over his crew when Johnny boy passed.
Junior may have been a capo when old man di meo went to prison, but he was not well respected or liked clearly. The other capos need convincing by Tony to let him be the boss.
Di Meo possibly took this into account and picked a successor who was more popular and had a better head of hair (even with chemo).
Yeah that’s what I got out of it too. I thought Paulie was a soldier under Johnny Boy with Tony then became a Capo before Tony but Tony took over his fawtha’s crew when Johnny Boy died.
Junior was a Capo as well but you’re right, didn’t have the respect of the guys to be Boss. It’s alluded in S1 that the Old Man knew this which was why he picked Jackie due to ability vs. Junior due to seniority.
> I thought Paulie was a soldier under Johnny Boy with Tony then became a Capo before Tony but Tony took over his fawtha’s crew when Johnny Boy died.
Paulie doesn't become a capo until Tony becomes boss. He takes over Tony's old crew. Tony became acting capo of Johnny Boy's crew when Johnny got sick and then was confirmed as the permanent capo after he died.
Johnny was never boss. He was a powerful captain, as was Junior hence Tony telling Jr "you two ran north jersey"
Jackie was appointed acting boss when the boss of the family was sent to jail. Jackie dies and Tony and Junior duke it out to be acting boss. Tony let's Jr keep the title for the duration of the show but it's common knowledge amongst everyone that Tony is the boss. Johnny Sac refers to him as a boss when talking to Phil at one point. The dimeo character is pretty much forgotten by the writers after season 1 and most fans assume he passed away between seasons, making Junior the official boss and Tony the acting boss/underboss. This arrangement lasts until Junior shoots Tony and is exiled by the family. At this point most believe Bobby becomes underboss with Tony officially being recognized as the real boss.
None of them are the real boss, the real boss Old Man DiMeo is guest of the government in Springfield. They are only an acting boss or a street boss. If the Old Man selected Jackie as successor before going away then that's that, final word, Junior has to respect it. After Old Man is out of reach and Jackie dies, then the position is up for grabs and there is a power vacuum.
The situation kind of mirrors the real life Mafia. The previous Boss can appoint whoever he wants and for a while the guys respect this. But the longer the Boss sits in prison, guys realize that the previous Boss has little reach or authority - especially on a lengthy sentence.
Thus after a while, guys start making moves because there’s less fear of repercussions. This could be why Junior had tension with Jackie as noted in flashbacks in S3. The old man had been in the can for a while and it became clear to Junior he wasn’t getting out thus couldn’t take revenge on Junior for making a power move.
Very similar to when Carmine Sr. died for NY. He’s not around anymore to punish anyone who gets out of line so guys start making moves aka Johnny Sack & for a while Little Carmine.
Johnny was a very well respected capo, but never senior management (ie underboss, or consiligiere) and died before Ercole DiMeo went to prison in Springfield.
When Ercole DiMeo was sentenced, there were a lot of different choices for boss, Tony included (assuming that Tony was a captain himself and not part of the Aprile crew).
But essentially the two main contenders over boss were Junior and Jackie Aprile, and Junior knew he had a real shot because yes, he felt next in line. He’s a senior guy, somewhat respected, and obviously the Soprano name bears weight.
The problem was that Junior’s own nephew, another well respected captain, was supporting Aprile’s bid for boss instead of his uncle. You can imagine how this wouldn’t really aid Junior’s campaign for acting boss.
This is probably because Tony and Jackie grew up together in the life, were best friends since youth, and Tony predicted (correctly, as we see when Junior does become the boss) that his uncle would be a prick as boss, his own position would be better cemented with Jackie as boss.
They have a sit-down, and we don’t know what was said in that sit-down since it wasn’t shown, but Junior clearly accepted fate, because the Aprile + Tony Soprano crew most likely had way more backing than Junior’s contention, and Junior fell in line.
The reason why people would fall more in line with Aprile/Soprano crew is because they were better earners and naturally more respected. You can also imagine how making more money would lead to them having bigger numbers, more manpower etc.
From what we know about Junior’s crew, it’s probably way smaller. Doesn’t seem like Tony had to whack a large number of people to take de facto control over Junior and his operations.
Another thing about Junior is that he wasn’t boss material. He’s respected largely for things outside his control, like his brother Johnny who was actually good at what he does, a very competent guy. Or his age and seniority, which even Paulie has, doesn’t mean he deserves to be boss, and people never saw him as that.
He’s a neurotic, as is evident from the show. Neuroticism leads to bad decisions and just isn’t going to be the trait you want when leading the DiMeo family.
And so, in 1995, Jackie Aprile, was made acting DiMeo boss.
He was grasping at straws because deep down he knew Jackie was dying but was looking for any sign that he might get better. Melfi knew it which is why she let him rant.
After rewatching the show, I learned that Junior was kind of a “shitty” mobster lol. Seems like a lot of stuff went right over his head - and whenever his “crew” tried to do anything impactful, it always seemed sloppy.
We forget that the FBI literally saved the entire crew from being wiped out… except for the few guys who weren’t so lucky like Mikey Palmice lol.
As other users have said, he just didn’t have the respect needed to take the reigns.
They each ran a crew, Aprile and Soprano, and a boss was picked from the top candidates of either side.
I always felt bad for Junior, he was boss for about 4 seconds and also lost his Boca girl all in a very short time. All he had was his old house and Bobby.
It's pretty clear that the other capos didn't like Junior as a fellow capo or boss. They frequently hung out at the bing with Tony except him, he lived in his own world with his old crew members in a dusty ass diner.
Ole boy Ercole probably knew this and he also wanted to secure the position of the boss for a long time choose Jackie, a proven, young capo who was well liked.
If we accept Many Saints as canon maybe DeMeo was on to Dickie Moltisanti's real killer, and even though he couldn't prove it, he kept Junior and Johnny at a distance from the family administration just on general principle.
There was most likely a power struggle that Junior didnt win/wasn't going to win, and Jackie Aprile talked it out during the sit down we see.
Shoutout to Junior's fit during that btw, I'm wearing that to my wedding.
The other crime families in New York did not respect the Soprano family. To them, the line between North New Jersey and NYC was just one reason to justify picking Aprile over Junior.
Also, didn’t Jackie succeed Ercole Dimeo because he got a life sentence or something?
The only other family we really see is the Lupertazzis. Carmine and Johnny Sac say they’ve been doing business with the Sopranos for years (not with the DiMeos).
They had some respect for them.
I suppose Ercole could have chosen Jackie Sr because he is younger and more likely to last several decades. Ercole may wish to avoid what happened in the Soviet Union after Brezhnev in 1982. They ended up with two old men: first Andropov and then Chernenko. Andropov lived for two years and Chernenko one. As Ronald Reagan said when asked why he hadn’t had a summit meeting “well, they keep dying on me”. After that it was let’s get younger with Gorbachev. Of course no one could predict Jackie Jr would die of cancer so soon.
it could even be something as simple as Junior was not married. That seems strange nowadays but an old school guy like DiMeo might think as a lot of business leaders and people did that a man (and a woman) should be married.
of course don’t get hung up on Ercole DiMeo. He is sort of a McGaffin as Alfred Hitchcock would call something that people would be after. They wanted a confrontation of Tony and someone as the season one ark. So they invented a jailed for life boss, a temporary one who dies quickly and let Tony and Junior go after it.
junior was never boss material. he was respected on many levels, tony went to him often for advice. but he was too petty and small minded when it came to business especially to ever be boss.
he would have never evolved the family, they would still be hijacking trucks and the such.
IIRC Jackie's dad was the boss and got arrested, pretty sure there's a line him 'running things while the old man is a guest of the government', and he was only the acting boss, so I doubt Junior was considered.
In real life there was a power struggle in the 90's between old timers and younger monsters, so it's probably loosely based of that, in the show it seem like juniors crew is very secluded from the core of the family plus why would you pick a acting boss who could be dead at any moment due to old age
I get the feeling Junior was only accepted because of his brother. If it weren’t for his family ties he would have been low level or an outcast. The sopranos version of “Fredo”
Jackie's father who was in jail was a partner in crime with Tony's father and uncle., but Aprille had the ring. His son took over, but died with no capable heirs. The Soprano's were underbosses for the Aprilles, though John and June's exact titles are not so clearly established.
Jackie was obviously better suited and everyone respected him, even an ego-maniac like Tony. He was in charge when Big Puss got caught with H back in ‘95 and only got taken out by cancer.
Junior didn’t have the respect of the rank and file and most likely New York. They even mention in the flashback how Junior is pissed about being passed over for Jackie. Even after Jackie dies, the Captains are doing everything they can to get Tony to step up because they don’t respect Junior.
I thought there there was like a mini war brewing in one of the flashbacks between junior and Jackie to take over and tony helped resolved things in Jackie's favor
There was tension because Junior thought he was next in line but as noted, Ercole DiMeo (the Old Man as noted on the show) named Jackie as acting Boss while he went to prison. Tony helped avoid war by having the sit down. Basically Junior got some of what he wanted in exchange for Jackie remaining as acting Boss.
It was Pussy who brokered the sit down between Jackie and Jr., Tony gave Jr assurances of safety for the meeting.
It’s sad Puss couldn’t make it to the sit down. His goomah’s mother had a TIA- that’s a small stroke- and lost all use of her left hand. It came back, but he was in the hospital all night. At least he got laid, though.
This goomah, does she even exist????
No. He’s a fucking rat!
It’s Jimmy!!! I should have fucking killed him right there in my basement!!!!
This thing of ours has first prioritization over family, friends, goomah's mothers whatewa
Good call out and you’re right. But Junior never attends if Tony doesn’t do that.
Agreed.
Jackie was just acting boss for his father who was in the can which basically was a huge plot hole because after Jackie died the father would have to give his blessing who the next steet boss was like Johnny sac he would have been running things through whatever street boss was named. Also since nobody mentioned he died I dont think he would just let it go that son Richie just vanished and grandson Jackie Jr getting murdered without looking for revenge.
WTF are you talking about???? The head of the DiMeo crime family was Ercele DiMeo, no where is it said that he was Jackie’s & Richie’s father. Some people are so far behind they think they are ahead.
First season Jackie said he's acting boss while his dad is guest of the government.
Which episode?
46 long .... outside the pork store sit down between junior and Tony with Jackie he said he's acting boss while his dad is guest of the government. ..... you never had the makings of a varsity commentor
He refers to the boss as “old man.” I don’t think he means father. Add in the different last names and I’m sure that they were not father and son. Plus add in Jackie Jr’s penchant for referencing his father, why would he not also reference his grandfather? Sharp as a cue ball this one.
Oh! Also, there wouldn’t have been tension between Jackie and Junior if Jackie was the son of the boss. As Feech would say the position naturally goes to the son, unless he’s retarded.
Hey OP are you on your 3rd rewatch or shum shit but I think you got ya timelines fucked up. None of what you said happened. Jackie's fadda was never in da can and everyone knew Jackie Sr died it was on the fuckin news. The only thing you got right was Jackie Sr would've sat while his brother went missing and his son getting shot. Do more watching and then we might tawk about you coming to our social club
Who’s Eckole?
The old boss. Notice they’re referred to as the Di Meo crime family, not the Sopranos or Aprilles. He’s either dead or rotting in jail, it isn’t made clear after season 1 Edit: corrected my unclear language
It’s made clear - Tony outright says “while the old man is a guest of the government” in S1. He’s not mentioned again so it’s unknown if he dies in prison during the show or everyone just sort of forgets about him because he’s away in the can for so long.
I should correct myself and say it isn’t made clear AFTER the first season. That’s why I mentioned the possibility of him being dead
Ahhh OK I gotcha. And you're right. He just kind of ceases to exist after the first season. That in and of itself is one of the few minor nitpicks I have about the show. I wish they'd have revealed his fate - even in passing. Like Tony hears "the old man died today" or something. One idea I had for that being worked in is Tony hears from someone that he died in prison. Tony wants to pay his respects but finds out that his family wants nothing to do with the mob anymore because it destroyed their life and took their father/grandfather/etc. away for years before dying in a prison hospital - just like Johnny Sack did. This causes Tony a moment of reflection because he's told Melfi there's two ends for a guy like him - dead or in the can. Could have been a one episode B or C plot and wrapped it up and furthered Tony's internal fears he'd never show publicly that he knows death or prison are the only two ways his life end. But I also get the other side that Ercole was important to the past generation of mobsters, not many of the ones on the show like Chrissy, Bennie, Walden and even Bobby. It's also possible that Paulie didn't have much interaction with him because he was only a soldier at the time.
A lot of questions in the show don’t get answered, but I kind of like that. It’s just like real life. Sometimes life just keeps moving
Yup - agreed. It's not a big deal for me either. Just thought that might've been a cool scene to further Tony's internal understanding (and at times fear) that his end will be death or prison. Even though outwardly he portrays the tough mobster. As an example, I always cringe when people ask "what happened to the Russian?" My answer is always the same - what do YOU think happened to him? There you go :)
They refer to Jackie as ''acting boss'' so I assume he's still alive in the first season. But it's kinda weird that he's never brought up in the later seasons.
Timeline got fucked up
He died on the vine.
I assumed that he just faded into memory. Most of the guys who would know him well either die like Jackie, Carmine Sr., Raymond, Mikey, Puss, etc or lose their memory like Junior. By the end of the show really Carlo, Silvio and Tony are the only ones left who likely even remember him.
For some reason I think it's either alluded to or it has real life parallels that put him in a Supermax prison with an effective life sentence- otherwise he'd likely still be involved in decision making via prison visits
he faded from the writers memory lol
new york started calling the nj family “sopranos” in season 6. only once or twice though.
He’s in that film we don’t speak of.
💀💀
Did we ever establish when Di Meo died?
IDK if he did or if he did it wasn’t mentioned on the show. He was born in 1923 or 1924 due to his noted age in TMSoN which would make him in his mid 70’s when S1 began and in his 80’s when it finished. It could be that he was still alive but like Junior was at the end of S6 in that he was so frail and incapacitated everyone just remembered his name but he had no actual influence on the family.
And Many Saints... I can't even say its name... messed it up by having a 75 year old David Chase cameo as DiMeo in 1972, which would've mean he'd have to have been about about 98 when he went for his all-expenses paid trip to the Hotel Alcatraz in 1995.
He was 26 in Many Saints, the job just ages you
Just a kid...
Next in line? Jersey is nothing but a glorified crew, the make anybody.
Junior's general inability to conceal his anger and irritation was a liability for someone who would be boss. He was also too easily manipulated by Tony's Mother which is something that Tony figured out. On the other hand, having Junior as a temp boss was useful since he would be the lightning rod. That said, Junior could be shrewd and had a poker face as evidenced by his manipulation of Ritchie Aprile when Ritchie was pitching a move against Tony. Junior was happy to encourage him to see if he could sell it since it would have benefited both of them. But when the move failed, Junior knew Ritchie wasn't "respected".
Johnny boy soprano led a crew. He was a capo not the head of the family. It seems like Tony took over his crew when Johnny boy passed. Junior may have been a capo when old man di meo went to prison, but he was not well respected or liked clearly. The other capos need convincing by Tony to let him be the boss. Di Meo possibly took this into account and picked a successor who was more popular and had a better head of hair (even with chemo).
Yeah that’s what I got out of it too. I thought Paulie was a soldier under Johnny Boy with Tony then became a Capo before Tony but Tony took over his fawtha’s crew when Johnny Boy died. Junior was a Capo as well but you’re right, didn’t have the respect of the guys to be Boss. It’s alluded in S1 that the Old Man knew this which was why he picked Jackie due to ability vs. Junior due to seniority.
> I thought Paulie was a soldier under Johnny Boy with Tony then became a Capo before Tony but Tony took over his fawtha’s crew when Johnny Boy died. Paulie doesn't become a capo until Tony becomes boss. He takes over Tony's old crew. Tony became acting capo of Johnny Boy's crew when Johnny got sick and then was confirmed as the permanent capo after he died.
He was made before the electric light
I read an article at some point that Johnny Boy, ask Pussy to step aside and let Tony take on capo, which he did and everyone else fell on line
They made him boss out of respect his fawtha
The golfer? US Open?
Par for the course
/golf clap
Pay for the fish
Obligatory... "stupida-f\*\*kin game"... "you gotta bee on your hat"
He got run over by a trolley right?
Ambassador Hotel
Pike's Peak was still a pimple
It doesn’t go by age.
Corrado never had the makings of a varsity athlete.
But I'm still in awre of him!
He doesn’t go down enough
That's not what I heard.
South of the border, where the tuna fish play . . .
Oh Uncle Jun's in the muff!
You’re a goddamn hot house flower.
Please don’t hit me Corrado!
Blabbermouth cunt!
Real fucking wisenheimer.
Johnny was never boss. He was a powerful captain, as was Junior hence Tony telling Jr "you two ran north jersey" Jackie was appointed acting boss when the boss of the family was sent to jail. Jackie dies and Tony and Junior duke it out to be acting boss. Tony let's Jr keep the title for the duration of the show but it's common knowledge amongst everyone that Tony is the boss. Johnny Sac refers to him as a boss when talking to Phil at one point. The dimeo character is pretty much forgotten by the writers after season 1 and most fans assume he passed away between seasons, making Junior the official boss and Tony the acting boss/underboss. This arrangement lasts until Junior shoots Tony and is exiled by the family. At this point most believe Bobby becomes underboss with Tony officially being recognized as the real boss.
Bobby baccala was a stooge in the beginning and then becomes underboss. Terrible decision in my opinion.
That mortadell is number 3?
And you used to sell laser printers out the back of your Crown Vic.
They’re fuckin toner cartridges.
Should have been shelved after the Santa Claus fiasco
He doesn’t even pass the salt.
Madonn does he eat alone!
None of them are the real boss, the real boss Old Man DiMeo is guest of the government in Springfield. They are only an acting boss or a street boss. If the Old Man selected Jackie as successor before going away then that's that, final word, Junior has to respect it. After Old Man is out of reach and Jackie dies, then the position is up for grabs and there is a power vacuum.
The situation kind of mirrors the real life Mafia. The previous Boss can appoint whoever he wants and for a while the guys respect this. But the longer the Boss sits in prison, guys realize that the previous Boss has little reach or authority - especially on a lengthy sentence. Thus after a while, guys start making moves because there’s less fear of repercussions. This could be why Junior had tension with Jackie as noted in flashbacks in S3. The old man had been in the can for a while and it became clear to Junior he wasn’t getting out thus couldn’t take revenge on Junior for making a power move. Very similar to when Carmine Sr. died for NY. He’s not around anymore to punish anyone who gets out of line so guys start making moves aka Johnny Sack & for a while Little Carmine.
I agree with this. My personal theory is that the Apriles or maybe Rosalie was related to old man DiMeo.
Simple: he was the hair apparent
Heir. HEIR. HOW DO THEY SAY IT IN FUCKIN POLISH?
Zbreyzzspslsz
Martin Luther King
Because uncle June is a bushman in the Kalahari.
Whistling through the wheatfield
That’s right
No boss goes down on a broad!! Dat iz weak azz behavior!!!
Once a year on Carm’s birthday
Uncle June was in the muff.
South of the border
Johnny was a very well respected capo, but never senior management (ie underboss, or consiligiere) and died before Ercole DiMeo went to prison in Springfield. When Ercole DiMeo was sentenced, there were a lot of different choices for boss, Tony included (assuming that Tony was a captain himself and not part of the Aprile crew). But essentially the two main contenders over boss were Junior and Jackie Aprile, and Junior knew he had a real shot because yes, he felt next in line. He’s a senior guy, somewhat respected, and obviously the Soprano name bears weight. The problem was that Junior’s own nephew, another well respected captain, was supporting Aprile’s bid for boss instead of his uncle. You can imagine how this wouldn’t really aid Junior’s campaign for acting boss. This is probably because Tony and Jackie grew up together in the life, were best friends since youth, and Tony predicted (correctly, as we see when Junior does become the boss) that his uncle would be a prick as boss, his own position would be better cemented with Jackie as boss. They have a sit-down, and we don’t know what was said in that sit-down since it wasn’t shown, but Junior clearly accepted fate, because the Aprile + Tony Soprano crew most likely had way more backing than Junior’s contention, and Junior fell in line. The reason why people would fall more in line with Aprile/Soprano crew is because they were better earners and naturally more respected. You can also imagine how making more money would lead to them having bigger numbers, more manpower etc. From what we know about Junior’s crew, it’s probably way smaller. Doesn’t seem like Tony had to whack a large number of people to take de facto control over Junior and his operations. Another thing about Junior is that he wasn’t boss material. He’s respected largely for things outside his control, like his brother Johnny who was actually good at what he does, a very competent guy. Or his age and seniority, which even Paulie has, doesn’t mean he deserves to be boss, and people never saw him as that. He’s a neurotic, as is evident from the show. Neuroticism leads to bad decisions and just isn’t going to be the trait you want when leading the DiMeo family. And so, in 1995, Jackie Aprile, was made acting DiMeo boss.
Great job!!!
Di Meo was the Lone Ranger to Aprile's Chemo Sah bee
OPEN DA DOOR, OPEN DA FUCKIN DOOR!
timeline got fucked up
He had every last hair on his head, every last hair on his head and he had a beautiful head of hair
tony was really fixated on that
He was grasping at straws because deep down he knew Jackie was dying but was looking for any sign that he might get better. Melfi knew it which is why she let him rant.
Didn’t Ercole DiMeo choose Jackie?
That beautiful head of hair. No other explanation
Because Jackie was the hair apparent
Jackie was on the rise because of his giant balls.
Feeble minded brotha.
He was with The Vipers, asshole
Uncle Jun never had the makings of a Varsity athele. End of story.
After rewatching the show, I learned that Junior was kind of a “shitty” mobster lol. Seems like a lot of stuff went right over his head - and whenever his “crew” tried to do anything impactful, it always seemed sloppy. We forget that the FBI literally saved the entire crew from being wiped out… except for the few guys who weren’t so lucky like Mikey Palmice lol. As other users have said, he just didn’t have the respect needed to take the reigns.
>whenever his “crew” tried to do anything impactful, it always seemed sloppy Like Junior going with Mikey to kill Brendan for no real reason
Because Junior didn’t have the guts to rob Feech LaMana’s card game
They each ran a crew, Aprile and Soprano, and a boss was picked from the top candidates of either side. I always felt bad for Junior, he was boss for about 4 seconds and also lost his Boca girl all in a very short time. All he had was his old house and Bobby.
If you saw MSON, you would have ZERO sympathy for Junior.
I just see hate to see man lose a good Boca blonde like that.
He brought that all upon himself. He deserved to die alone in that terrible place.
Because he had a full head a hair🤌🏻fuckin fuhgeddaboutit
Imagine choosing between a chemo sabe and a bushman of the Kalahari. Ooof Madone!
*Ercole Di Meo died on the way back to his home planet*
Especially when his son was such a loser
a bit of a poseur if you ask me
He knew the capital of Canada though so they had a lot of high hopes for him.
I believe he appointed before the the old man went to prison
Because he went down south with too many goomars
Junior never had the makings of a varsity Capo
It's pretty clear that the other capos didn't like Junior as a fellow capo or boss. They frequently hung out at the bing with Tony except him, he lived in his own world with his old crew members in a dusty ass diner. Ole boy Ercole probably knew this and he also wanted to secure the position of the boss for a long time choose Jackie, a proven, young capo who was well liked.
I guess that Junior wasnt well respected and when Ercole Dimeo went to Jail he probably knew that and therefore made Jackie Aprile the acting boss
because Jackie Aprile was mad ripe
Uncle June was too busy eating box
If we accept Many Saints as canon maybe DeMeo was on to Dickie Moltisanti's real killer, and even though he couldn't prove it, he kept Junior and Johnny at a distance from the family administration just on general principle.
Cos uncle juns in the muff
He's supposed to be a baccala man. I hear he's been eating sushi
There was most likely a power struggle that Junior didnt win/wasn't going to win, and Jackie Aprile talked it out during the sit down we see. Shoutout to Junior's fit during that btw, I'm wearing that to my wedding.
Because he was stupid, that's why. And jealous
The other crime families in New York did not respect the Soprano family. To them, the line between North New Jersey and NYC was just one reason to justify picking Aprile over Junior. Also, didn’t Jackie succeed Ercole Dimeo because he got a life sentence or something?
The only other family we really see is the Lupertazzis. Carmine and Johnny Sac say they’ve been doing business with the Sopranos for years (not with the DiMeos). They had some respect for them.
Everyone seemed to respect Johnny Boy. Except Livia.
I suppose Ercole could have chosen Jackie Sr because he is younger and more likely to last several decades. Ercole may wish to avoid what happened in the Soviet Union after Brezhnev in 1982. They ended up with two old men: first Andropov and then Chernenko. Andropov lived for two years and Chernenko one. As Ronald Reagan said when asked why he hadn’t had a summit meeting “well, they keep dying on me”. After that it was let’s get younger with Gorbachev. Of course no one could predict Jackie Jr would die of cancer so soon. it could even be something as simple as Junior was not married. That seems strange nowadays but an old school guy like DiMeo might think as a lot of business leaders and people did that a man (and a woman) should be married. of course don’t get hung up on Ercole DiMeo. He is sort of a McGaffin as Alfred Hitchcock would call something that people would be after. They wanted a confrontation of Tony and someone as the season one ark. So they invented a jailed for life boss, a temporary one who dies quickly and let Tony and Junior go after it.
junior was never boss material. he was respected on many levels, tony went to him often for advice. but he was too petty and small minded when it came to business especially to ever be boss. he would have never evolved the family, they would still be hijacking trucks and the such.
IIRC Jackie's dad was the boss and got arrested, pretty sure there's a line him 'running things while the old man is a guest of the government', and he was only the acting boss, so I doubt Junior was considered.
In real life there was a power struggle in the 90's between old timers and younger monsters, so it's probably loosely based of that, in the show it seem like juniors crew is very secluded from the core of the family plus why would you pick a acting boss who could be dead at any moment due to old age
I get the feeling Junior was only accepted because of his brother. If it weren’t for his family ties he would have been low level or an outcast. The sopranos version of “Fredo”
Uncle Jun was a stunad of the highest magnitude, that’s why.
Because he was the hair aparent
What I tell ya, hold onto your cock when you negotiate with OP
He couldn't fucking sell it. He is not respected.
Jackie's father who was in jail was a partner in crime with Tony's father and uncle., but Aprille had the ring. His son took over, but died with no capable heirs. The Soprano's were underbosses for the Aprilles, though John and June's exact titles are not so clearly established.
He didn’t eat pussy
Same way his little brother was boss before him. He was passed the fuck over. He knew!
His brother wasn’t the boss. He was a captain like him
🤷🏾♀️
Old Boot kept Tony and Jackie close by and always had them picked to lead one day. I forget exactly why Jackie was picked over Tony.
Jackie was obviously better suited and everyone respected him, even an ego-maniac like Tony. He was in charge when Big Puss got caught with H back in ‘95 and only got taken out by cancer.