'THE SOPRANOS' ARE IN TOWN.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

Michael Imperioli plays Christopher Moltisanti, the hotheaded young member of Tony Soprano's crew on HBO's celebrated hit series about the new, desiccated Mafia, ``The Sopranos.'' His character might not be a made man, but on one recent evening Imperioli was virtually christened a blessed member of the mob.

``Once in a restaurant, a guy said, ``I'll show you the real way to ----,' '' Imperioli began, making a gesture suggesting some throat somewhere has just ceased to be useful. ``Which meant some murderous thing. And he was apparently really connected. He was like 60, and his girlfriend was really young. And she was lingering too long at our table, and we got really, really nervous. But that guy offered suggestions, which during dinner, we didn't want to go into it, obviously.''

Indeed, ``The Sopranos'' numbers real mobsters as fans, as was discovered recently when a mob wiretap featured gangsters discussing the series and guessing which characters were based on them.

``It was bizarre, it's a strange compliment,'' said ``Sopranos'' creator and executive producer David Chase. ``It's interesting that they would think it was based on them, because it wasn't, of course. But we felt, 'Well, it feels real.' And our first principle is to make it seem real.''

Of course, the show has far more fans than just mobsters. In its second-season premiere on Sunday, ``The Sopranos'' - which stars James Gandolfini as a neurotic Jersey mobster with a psychiatrist (Lorraine Bracco) and a bloodlusting mother (Nancy Marchand) - was seen by 7.64 million viewers. That more than doubles its average viewership of last year; roughly a quarter of all homes that subscribe to HBO that were on at the time were tuned to Tony. The only higher rating HBO received was for its premiere of the movie ``Titanic.''

Principle cast members and creator/executive producer David Chase, in town for the Golden Globes - where the show is considered a runaway favorite - gathered Wednesday for a press conference during the semiannual TV Press Tour to bask in their accolades and success. Chase shrugged off the idea that the pressure was on to make the second season as acclaimed as the first.

The biggest pressure was the fact that, at the end of the season last year, there were some plot developments that changed the show, Chase explained. ``We look at it like this: You can always count on a Tony-Livia (Marchand) scene. We didn't have those scenes anymore because his mother tried to kill him; he's not going to be at her house anymore. Also, his shrink is not going to just embrace him. That's finished. So we had some work to do, and it was hard work.''

Gandolfini smarted from not having Bracco to confide in. ``I moaned about it to them constantly,'' he said. ``I felt out of sorts in the part, and I think it was because I couldn't go and talk to her (Bracco) about the stuff. That's really weird, but I didn't have someone to go over what I'm feeling in the episodes.''

Marchand - whose character has become a fan favorite - has lung cancer and spent some of her time on the set this past season on or near a respirator. Though her character is portrayed as dying, Chase said he hasn't worked out any contingency plans in the event of the unthinkable. ``It would just be too bizarre to do,'' he said. ``I mean, she comes to work, she does her work, she's great. Like any of us, she has her good days and her bad days. Her bad days can be worse than ours, but by and large she just does it. So to think ahead would just be too strange.''

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the success of ``The Sopranos'' is that its characters aren't instantly likable - in fact, some are downright venal. ``I just personally react negatively to characters that lick your face like a dog,'' Chase says. ``I can't stand it, so I'm always on a vigil against that - and maybe go too far in the other direction, but it's not a problem for me. I think these characters are likable. In some cases, the ones who are killers, strangely enough, they're likable.''

Chase made it clear he didn't want to discuss the complaints the show has received from Italian-American anti-defamation organizations. He declared, ``We have received three psychiatry awards from three different organizations. This Italian-American young woman (Bracco) portrays an Italian-American psychiatrist - nobody talks about that. They just talk about this gangster (stuff), and it's just really tiresome.''

Now that ``The Sopranos'' has become a TV phenomenon - the thinking viewer's ``Who Wants to be a Millionaire'' - the time has already come to start a pool on when its popularity wanes. Cast members admitted, incredibly enough, that just as season two is hitting the air, they're wondering how long the ride can last.

Gandolfini said his fear for the show falls in the ``Twin Peaks'' template. ``Everyone went nuts for a year, and then it was like, 'Whooh,' '' he says, his hand dive-bombing for effect. ``But we have the boss (Chase), and I don't think he's going to let any of us down.''

But Chase has his own fears. ``There's a danger in America of things being over-hyped,'' he said. ``When an American audience turns, boy, it turns, and I can't help the feeling that that'll be our ultimate fate.''

The show, along with other mob satires such as ``Analyze This'' comes at a time when the East Coast Mafia's power is on the decline. Would a show like this be possible were the mob still a force to be reckoned with?

``That's a really good question,'' Chase said. ``But I also know - and we say it in the show - to count the mob out would be really premature. In the Eastern part of this country, they are still a group of people to contend with. They have a lot of influence on what happens and what doesn't happen.''

--ROAD TO RECOVERY: While David Letterman eases up on the wise-guy remarks as he recuperates from quintuple-bypass heart surgery, CBS will air a week of shows in which Dave hit the road. Tonight's ``Late Show With David Letterman'' repeats an episode in which the show visited San Francisco in 1996. Tuesday's episode, also from 1996, features Salman Rushdie in a rare appearance when Letterman trekked to London. On Wednesday, Dave's 1995 trip to Los Angeles features Danny De Vito and Brett Butler, while Thursday's show originated from Miami in 1996 and features Will Smith.

On Friday, the show returns to New York but boasts an Indianapolis theme dating back to 1997. The entire studio audience was brought in from Dave's hometown, Letterman sits before a backdrop of the Indianapolis skyline, and fellow Hoosier John Hiatt is among the guests. ``The Late Show with David Letterman'' airs at 11:30 weeknights.

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Photo: Michael Imperioli, left, James Gandolfini, Tony Sirico and Steven Van Zandt are members of a modern, declining Mafia in HBO's hit series, ``The Sopranos.''