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The lawn care industry received some dubious exposure this week on HBO’s acclaimed series The Sopranos.
The third episode of season five featured multiple scenes taking place in the front yards of suburban New Jersey homes where two competing lawn care companies are dueling over “territory.”
Soprano family associate and comic-relief catalyst, Paulie (Tony Sirico) goes to bat for a landscaper who’s had the unfortunate bad luck of stumbling into the “neighborhood” of another contractor, who just happens to be the nephew of Feech La Mana (Robert Loggia).
According to the television recap Web site Television Without Pity: “Feech is trying to move in on the local landscaping business, which just happens to be run by a friend of Paulie’s elderly aunt. That war starts with a broken arm, escalates to a 30-foot fall, and ends with Tony splitting the (territory) in half, and the poor, abused gardeners cutting Johnny Sack’s lawn for free.”
Though the episode didn’t exactly paint lawn care in a negative light, the association with The Sopranos’ standard explicit violence may not be the kind of exposure the industry is looking for. However, in comparison to the series’ portrayal of the waste management industry, lawn care can consider itself somewhat lucky. Of course, there’s still the better part of a season left.
The author is assistant editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at wnepper@lawnandlandscape.com.
