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MARRIED ... WITH HIT MEN | PAGE 1, 2 - - - - - - - - - - "The Sopranos" is HBO's best original series since "The Larry Sanders Show" and the only to-die-for new drama on any network this season. The dialogue is sharp and sly, the characters are richly drawn, the actors throw off sparks at every turn and the story takes two well-trod genres, the family drama and the Family drama, into unpredictable terrain. Creator-writer David Chase was a co-executive producer and writer for "Northern Exposure" and "I'll Fly Away," but "The Sopranos" reminds me of a lesser-known show of his called "Almost Grown." That audaciously structured -- and, of course, short-lived -- 1988 CBS drama followed a couple from courtship in the '60s to parenthood and divorce in the '80s, moving backwards and forwards in time on the cue of period pop songs. There's a similar Proustian feel to "The Sopranos," although its narrative is more straightforward. Tony and his buddies are besieged by a sense of dislocation, of time slipping away, of their own impending irrelevance, of the new rules eclipsing the old. There's an aching -- and achingly funny -- scene in the second episode where an old-timer named Pauly Walnuts goes into a Starbucks for the first time and is floored by the realization that somebody has made millions pimping Italian culture to the masses. "How did we miss out on this?" he cries. "Espresso, cappuccino -- we fucking invented this shit!" But "The Sopranos" gets most of its juice from the way Tony digs in and fights to regain control of his life by making the new rules work for him. Tony is at his wits' end trying to deal with his mother and Uncle Junior until Dr. Melfi gives him a self-help book on "strategies for coping with elder family." From the book, Tony hits upon the perfect way to both placate Uncle Junior and solidify his own claim to the vacancy at the top of the family. "I get a lot of good ideas here," Tony tells Dr. Melfi, with a twinkle in his eye. Even though Tony does some vicious things, he works so hard to do right by his families that you gotta love him. He's slowly managing to achieve the kind of balance between work and home, and between the old world and the new, that his hero, Michael Corleone, never could. Michael and the other Corleones are mentioned so often in "The Sopranos," they seem like cast members. And why not? Tony and his pals were as bewitched as the rest of us by "The Godfather" saga, with its fragrant red sauce tales of honor and loyalty and honest dishonesty (as opposed to the sneakier forms of murder and thievery preferred by legit businessmen and politicians). Chase mischievously embroiders "The Sopranos" with visual and verbal Coppola-isms. The series is shot in a dark, rich "Godfather" palette; characters speak of "going to the mattresses" and being shot through the eye in "a Moe Green special." One Soprano crew member (played by former E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt, in his acting debut) has even turned an extremely passing resemblance to Al Pacino into a personality; he's forever curling down the corners of his mouth and launching into the "They keep pulling me back in!" speech from "Godfather III." Tony and his pals measure themselves as men against these Mafia movie heroes, with one major difference: Nobody in "The Sopranos" is talking about getting out or going legit. As far as they're concerned, they are legit. Nowhere in the first few episodes does Tony utter any plans for Anthony Jr.'s future; unlike Don Vito and his regret over Michael being sucked into the fray, it probably wouldn't shame Tony at all if his kid goes into "waste management." And at the end of the fourth episode, when the kid finally realizes what his father does for a living, Anthony Jr.'s reaction is enigmatic. You get the sense that future father-son fights will not be over whether little Anthony goes into the family business, but whether he'll appreciate his birthright once he does. The biggest threat to Tony's family and his world comes not from the Justice Department, suggests Chase, but from within, from the next generation. And that's wittily conveyed in the younger Soprano crew members' ignorance of their own history. "Louis Brasi sleeps with the fishes!" declares Tony's hot-headed, pea-brained nephew Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) after impulsively sending a rival a message. "Luca! Luca Brasi!" an elder corrects him, with disgust. Jeez -- kids these days. But Christopher's funniest, most telling faux pas comes when he's waiting in line outside a trendy New York nightclub and Martin Scorsese steps out of a limo. Christopher pumps his fist in the air and shouts to the director of "Mean Streets" and "Good Fellas," "'Kundun'! I liked it!" and you don't have to be a wiseguy -- or even Italian -- to wince. Tony has every right to fear that his world is coming to an end. SALON | Jan. 11, 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Become a Salon member. Click here.