I recall talking about the two funniest lines in the Sopranos and a line about an interior decorator came up, but I can’t remember the specifics or who even said it. The other funniest line if your interested was the “both of them?” comment from Christopher regarding Adrienne’s revelation that her uterus was punctured.
I know what line you mean, but probably can’t remember all the details. It was when Pauly and Christopher were taking the Czech guy out to the woods to bury him. On the way, they were trying to talk to Tony by cell phone but didn’t have a good signal. Tony was trying to tell them to be careful because the guy was a highly decorated officer in some militia, Pauly tells Christopher that the guy was a decorator or something, and Christopher says, well, his apartment didn’t look all that great. It was very funny.
Anyway, they thought the guy was dead in the trunk, but he wasn’t and he got away from them. That story line was never continued, to my huge distress! The guy disappeared, Pauly’s car disappeared, what’s the deal?
Something like:
Tony: Be careful with this guy. He was in the ministry of the interior. Killed 16 Chechnyans. (hangs up)
Christopher: What’d he say?
Paulie: Guy’s a fuckin’ interior decorator. Killed 16 Czechoslovakians.
Christopher: Interior decorator? His apartment looked like shit!
Found it on IMDB. Here it is exactly, for the nitpickers among us:
Well, my favorite Christopher line is:
“He was gay? Gary Cooper?”
That’s it, thanks. BTW, the storyline of the escaped Russian gangster is on the short list of annoyingly unresolved storylines in HBO dramas.
Evidently said drama is back in March. Will they deal with that storyline and the Adrianna issue? Who knows, I just want it back on the air!
One of the great lines of the show, right up there with:
“Quasimodo predicted all of that shit with the twin towers” and the whole “back thing with Notre-Dame”
and when Chris sits on Ade’s dog: “She must have been looking for heat”
AJ: What, no fuckin’ ziti now?
If the Russian storyline does get resolved it will be because of fan pressure. If you listen to Steve Buscemi’s (he directed that episode) commentary track on the DVD he explains that the show was supposed to be basically self-contained and they had no desire to resolve the storyline. They were very surprised when the episode grew such legs when it aired.
While it has been mentioned a few times (like during Christopher’s intervention), don’t be waiting for the Russian to come walking out of the woods next season. 
Is anyone else surprised that the writers were surprised? Can’t say I’m an expert on dramatic theory but that’s a pretty big meatball of a crisis/complication without a corresponding denoument.
Anton Checkov was an expert on dramatic theory. He said if you introduce a gun in one act, the audience will expect to see it fired before the final act. And that interior designer is a big ass gun. He’s a hand cannon. He’s the Guns of Navarone.
That commentary is depressing. My unfortunate prediction is that it will be settled with an off the cuff remark rather than through a dramatic battle:
Christopher: I picked up the cannolis you wanted, T. Oh by the way, I heard that Jersey troopers found that Czechoslovakian’s body in the Pine Barrens last night. I guess we did kill him, after all.
Tony: Good. Pass me a cannoli.
Bleh.
No, because to me that particular episode was more about Christopher becoming a man and revealing Paulie to be the pus that he is. The Russian was a plot device. I never thought anyone would care what happened to him.
I was wrong, of course.
It would seem that one of them would be keeping an eye out. Wouldn’t Tony’s Russian money laundering friend maybe mention it once or twice? He did know that he owed Silvio money…very odd. How will they handle the Adrianna issue? My bet is tha they will have Christopher kill her or something to that effect.
Ahh theory shmeery. I think it’s nifty that they left the escape of the Russian open-ended. Now they can go back to it whenever the ratings start to dip.
“Remember that Russian you two cetriolos let run off into the Pine Barrens? Well…”
The best thing about the Sopranos is that its realistic and not predictable. Not everything needs to have a made-for-TV resolution. If the guy isn’t brought up again, then apparently he died in the woods.
Speaking of Paulie and his ineptitude, does anyone else think he’s gonna get clipped next season? He’s definately been on a downward spiral since and seson 3 and is definately not leadership material. Hell, I know the whole idea of Paulie getting promoted in Season 2 was because Tony supposedly subconciously knew Pussy was a rat, but hell even with a wire Pussy would’ve been a better Capo than Paulie.
Overall, I think Season 3 was easily the best seasn in the series, despite its lack of Livia. It was the darkest and most depressing too, but overall I think it reached heights no other television show has reached.
Nah, The Sopranos isn’t filmed in a timeframe where they could react to ratings. Each season is filmed and completed before it begins to air on HBO.
Not that the creators and producers would react to any measurable ratings drop-off by bringing back popular characters or plotlines. They just don’t work that way, plus, being a smash hit ground-breaking show entering its final year on the network it helped transform into a TV powerhouse, I don’t think they’re all that concerned about ratings.