Sopranos Swan Song

Odd but true: Bobby "Bacala" Baccalieri wasn't around when Tony Soprano whacked his first guy (a snitch, in "College," the first season's fifth episode).

Bobby didn't enter the universe of "The Sopranos" until the show's second season. But it's a testament to Steven R. Schirripa, the former Las Vegas resident who gave Bobby life, that it's difficult to recall northern Jersey before the loyal, comparatively lovable, family-man thug ambled into Tony's back room office at the Bada Bing.

Tonight, the acclaimed HBO series ends its six-season run. And, when it's over, Schirripa will say goodbye to the series that changed his life.

Of course, viewers already have said goodbye to Bobby. Last week, in the series' penultimate episode, Bobby was killed -- brutally, shockingly, depressingly -- in a hobby store while shopping for toy trains.

"I think everybody was surprised," Schirripa says during a recent phone interview from his New York City home. "I think people felt really bad because he was a good guy, a good mobster, as far as mobsters go."

"I'm a fan and I watch like everyone else, and I think it was just a terrific, terrific hour of TV. As good as it gets. I knew what was going to happen and I was on the edge of my seat," he adds.

Before being cast in "The Sopranos," Schirripa was working as entertainment director at the Riviera and trying to break into acting a line, and a bit part, at a time.

During a trip back home for a wedding, the Brooklyn, N.Y., native asked his agent to land him an audition for "The Sopranos." Schirripa was called in to read for the part of an FBI agent.

He didn't get it. And, considering the life span of minor characters on "The Sopranos," he notes, that was a stroke of luck.

Instead, Schirripa was cast in the part -- a recurring role at the time -- of Bobby, Tony's Uncle Junior's right-hand man, driver and sometime baby sitter.

Becoming part of the already established, heavy-duty cast turned out to be easy.

"My first day on the set, I had a scene with four or five of the main characters," Schirripa says. "After that, I was just kind of one of the guys."

The part was a minor one at first. But, as the nearly epic saga of Tony Soprano progressed, Bobby's importance, and Schirripa's part, grew. The clincher came when, following the death of Bobby's beloved wife in a car crash, the writers had Bobby marry Janice, Tony's short-tempered, calculating sister.

That made Bobby "a big part of the family," Schirripa says. "Once (Bobby) married Janice, I guess he got inside."

Eventually, Bobby matured from a good-natured, not very quick henchman into a key part of the Soprano story. This season, in the most vicious Monopoly game ever and one of the series' most intense scenes, Bobby, defending Janice's honor against Tony's taunts, attacked his boss.

And, to Tony's embarrassment, won the scuffle.

"That was good stuff," Schirripa says.

"I think it was a good fight scene. I'd have to say it was very real. We're good friends, and (James Gandolfini, the actor who plays Tony) said, 'Let's just kind of go for it.' We didn't use any stuntmen. They choreographed it for us, but (Gandolfini said), 'Let's try to make it as real as we can.' "

"It was disturbing when I saw it," he says. "It was a sloppy fight. It wasn't a Hollywood fight. It was two out-of-shape fat guys."

After the fight, Tony, attempting to shore up his battered ego, orders Bobby to make a hit, turning Bobby into something he'd never been before: A cold-blooded killer and reluctant hit man.

"Reluctant for sure," Schirripa agrees. "When Bobby finally whacked somebody, he became a changed man. It was against everything he ever did. It was everything against his judgment. He (was) never going to be the same."

Tonight's final episode kicks off with Tony in hiding with a contract from a rival mob on his head. His No. 3 man and brother-in-law Bobby is dead, and his No. 2 man, Silvio Dante (played by Steven Van Zandt) is near death after an ambush.

Filming the final episodes was "very, very bittersweet," Schirripa says. As filming progressed, cast members came "to realize this is it, and I think we were in denial for a while. After the first of the year, it kind of sunk in."

Now that the end is here, "it's very sad, to be honest with you," he says. "We've all become very close friends and a family."

"It's such an incredible show," Schirripa says. "I mean, just being lucky enough to get on a TV show, period, is one thing. Then, to get on perhaps the greatest show in TV history is a whole other thing. If there's one show any actor wants to be on, it's 'The Sopranos' because the material is so good and smart and funny and dramatic."

Schirripa knows how "The Sopranos" ends. "I think it's going to be as wonderful as everyone expects," he says.

"I think the show went out with a bang. No pun intended."