The final nine episodes of The Sopranos will start one-by-oneing the cablewaves Sunday. For Variety, I supervised a special section that celebrates The Sopranos: The Final Season with articles on almost every aspect of production.

Here's my lead story:

While the television world slept in the winter of 1999, "The Sopranos" woke up one morning and got itself a gun.

Creatively, "The Sopranos" shot to No. 1 with a bullet. Eight years later, as the series heads into its final nine episodes (beginning Sunday), its cold-blooded impact on the industry is still a marvel to those who remember life before Tony Soprano and his crew.

"The first season of 'The Sopranos' is one of the most essential, transformative moments in TV history," Newsweek television critic Devin Gordon says. "It's arguably the best season of television that's ever aired, but beyond that, it challenged every artist, every viewer and every fan of culture to reconsider some long-held notions about the medium of television: that it was cheap and disposable, that it could be quality at its best but never art." ...

The section hits newsstands Thursday and looks even better in print, so check it out.

In the meantime, talk about The Sopranos or any other entertainment topics today at Screen Jam.