Freudian Ruffs

Dear Dog Lady,

Whatcha think of "The Sopranos?" Is it going to the dogs or what?

Toby, Brooklyn, NY

Toby, Dog Lady is as hooked as ever. Speaking of dogs, leave it to "The Sopranos," that rich TV stew of dark impulses, desires, and dreams, to explore the theme. In a recent episode, canines are on the couch with Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) after he learns the fate of his pet, Tippy.

The drama's dense dialogue -- layered with gutter lyricism, inside jokes, and rapier insights -- is the acclaimed HBO show's glory. Let's pick up with Tony asking his sister Janice (Aida Turturro) about their dog:

"We had a dog, remember? Tippy?" Tony smiles over a sibling ceasefire hamburger. "He got worms though, had to move to the country."

"Tippy was gassed, Tony," says Janice with customary exasperated bluntness. "Daddy took him to the pound. He used to drag his ass on the carpet to scratch himself." She turns to husband Bobby (Steven Schrippa): "My mother went crazy."

"Gassed?" Tony is aghast.

"And he's so cynical about everything else." Janice zings an aside, but Tony is lost in rover reverie: "My faddah told me he took him to live on a farm."

"That's what they always say," offers Bobby, the sweet guy who knows everything about nothing. "That same farm must have 17 billion dogs on it. Dog shit up to the rafters."

If the gassing of Tippy is a shock, the true fate of the dog is even more unsettling. Tony learns his father really gave Tippy away as a gift. He sees a picture of a boy and a dog displayed on the coffee table of his late father's mistress, Fran Felstein (played by Polly Bergen in a fabulous role as a retired Mob moll with designer shoe standards). The boy is Fran's son. The dog turns out to be Tony's Tippy, renamed Freckles.

Other dog images bedevil Soprano during the episode, which was directed by cast member Steve Buscemi. In bed with his own mistress and reaching climax, Tony glances up at the wall to a William Wegman print. The camera zooms in on the Wegman dog's opaque eyes reflecting, perhaps, Tony's empty soul. Our hero is godless -- and dogless.

Dog Lady has written of Tony Soprano's need for a pet. The guy, who betrays people without a glimmer of conscience, has this love thing for animals. He has fallen for ducks, a goat and a horse in past seasons. The loss of Tippy obviously marked him. "You don't know what it's like to lose a pet," he once screamed at his nephew after Christopher sat on girlfriend Adriana's Maltese and crushed the dog.

In this episode, we learn the source of Tony's animal instincts -- his brutal mother. "She made my father give my dog away," he heatedly tells his shrink, Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco). "If it was up to her, she would have had it killed."

Dog Lady is not a psychiatrist, nor does she play one on the Internet, but, surely, Tony Soprano can take a step toward reconciliation with his muddah, faddah, and his past by getting a dog, Tippy Two -- an innocent creature living always in the present.

Check out "Tony Soprano Needs A Dog?" in "Best of Show."

For more on William Wegman, read "Artistic Differences" ("Sniffing Around" in the Bones archive).

Posted by Dog Lady at April 19, 2004 10:02 PM