A&E looks back on ‘Gotti,’ 10 years later

By Frazier Moore

AP Television Writer

NEW YORK

It seems like only yesterday, or could it be a decade, since “Growing Up Gotti” was lending an ear to the fortissimo life of mobster daughter Victoria Gotti and her three boisterous lads.

Now A&E is bringing back the family for a one-hour retrospective, “Growing Up Gotti: 10 Years Later,” inviting viewers to revisit the Gottis’ Long Island manse for reminiscing and vintage clips from the series (which aired in 2004-05). The special airs today at 9 p.m.

Mom, now 51, is still the dolled-up matriarch while sons John and Carmine are all grown up and no longer so reliant on hair gel and swagger. (But domestic drama remains: Youngest son Frank, 24, blew off the retrospective taping, claiming illness, according to the network.)

“We laughed! Boy, did we laugh,” Gotti tells The Associated Press, describing their collective reaction to those clips.

She still considers herself a writer by trade — she is a best-selling author and was a columnist for the New York Post — but her wayward career has also found her competing on “Celebrity Apprentice” and starring in an off-Broadway musical.

Nonetheless, she spent life before “Growing Up Gotti” chiefly known as a daughter of John Gotti, the late “Dapper Don.” So, a decade ago, she allowed cameras into her home in an effort to recast her identity.

But once the first round of filming was complete and the premiere date loomed, “I became physically ill,” she recalls. “The apprehension, the anxiety! I remember thinking, ‘Just let it come out. One, maybe three episodes will air. It’ll be a complete flop. Three people will tune in. Then we’ll be done!”’

It didn’t turn out that way, of course, and when instead the series was an overnight hit, she asked herself, “NOW what?”

What happened was, she sums up, “a blast! I think it’s one of the better decisions I’ve made, and I got to work with my kids. What better job for a working single mom?”

The series also fulfilled Gotti’s goal of presenting herself not as the daughter of a legendary wiseguy, but as a liberated woman who was raised by a devoted dad: “He and my mother, they were great.”

Victoria Gotti is a personality who doesn’t hold back, as reflected by her frequent reminder: “What you see is what you get.”

Not that she’s complaining. More than once she says she wouldn’t change a thing, and least of all her decision to face the world on “Growing Up Gotti.”

“Regrets? None. Surprises? Lots,” she says, then muses, “I was MOST surprised that this thing caught on!”