For the six seasons it aired Sunday nights on HBO, “The Sopranos” was must-watch TV.

Seventeen years after the series ended in 2007, fans are still debating the meaning of the show’s abrupt blackout ending. Was family patriarch Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini, whacked? Was it all a dream?

The show’s ending is sure to come up when “Sopranos” stars Michael Imperioli, Steve Schirripa and Vincent Pastore come to the Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts for “In Conversation with the Sopranos,” on Jan. 11.

The Long Island Advance got to speak by phone with Imperioli, who played Tony’s hotheaded nephew, and whose later work includes the 2021 “Sopranos” prequel, “The Many Saints of Newark,” and Season 2 of HBO’s “The White Lotus.”

Imperioli was 31 and well into his career as a stage and film actor when he auditioned for the part of Christopher Moltisanti in “The Sopranos.”

Imperioli was no stranger to the people putting the show together.

“Sopranos” showrunner and director David Chase had seen Imperioli’s work in “Goodfellas.” And casting directors Sheila Jaffe and Georgianne Walken remembered Imperioli from his role in the 1996 film “Trees Lounge,” which they’d also cast.

“I thought I was right for it,” Imperioli said of the Moltisanti character.

Imperioli landed the part, for which he’d win a Best Supporting Actor Emmy Award in 2004.

Imperioli’s character evolved over the course of the show, including Christopher wanting to pursue a career as a screenwriter. That tracked with Imperioli’s own experience.

Imperioli co-wrote the script for the 1999 film “Summer of Sam,” with director Spike Lee, and wrote five episodes of “The Sopranos.”

“I wanted to write for the show because I fell in love with it,” he said.

Imperioli was part of a tight-knit “Sopranos” cast of New York/New Jersey actors, including at least two with Long Island roots: Northport’s Edie Falco and “Trees Lounge” star Steve Buscemi, who grew up in Valley Stream.

Imperioli didn’t know Gandolfini prior to the show, but “right from the beginning there was an immediate friendship.”

Imperioli, Gandolfini, and other cast members would hang out after work. That bond showed up in their work onscreen.

“James was like the captain of the team,” Imperioli said. “He wanted everyone in the cast and crew to feel respected.”

As for the question about the ending of the “Sopranos”? Imperioli has his take.

“I always thought he [Tony] died and that was the last thing he saw before he died.”