When “Mob Wives” first premiered on VH1 back in 2011, Angela “Big Ang” Raiola wasn’t even a main cast member. But it wasn’t long before the Staten Island broad became the reality show’s breakout star with her raspy voice, party-hardy lifestyle and flamboyant looks.
With the reality star losing her battle with stage 4 brain and lung cancer on Thursday, here’s a look back at some of the best moments from her “Mob Wives” career.
“He’s buying me a puppy”
In Season 2, Ang tells her son, AJ, over lunch that her new boyfriend is getting out of prison after serving 28 years — for murder. But all she cares about is that he’s buying her a puppy (a Pomeranian, to be exact).
Big Ang and Wendy play dress-up
Ang was a frequent guest on “The Wendy Williams Show,” and in her first appearance in February 2012, she charmed the host by answering questions like, “What is different between dating a sanitation worker and a wiseguy?” (Answer: “A paycheck.”) But the cutest moment comes later in the show, when the two ladies re-create the final scene of “Thelma & Louise.”
Big Ang loves to party
It only took two seasons on “Mob Wives” for VH1 to give Ang her own self-titled spinoff show in summer 2012 — and this three-minute trailer makes it clear that she was a reality-TV producer’s dream. In the now-prescient montage, Ang says, “My philosophy is party every day, live day for day, because you never know when you’re gonna go.”
Big Ang meets Snooki
Before her spinoff show premiered, Big Ang did a series of promos with Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi — who was also getting her own VH1 show “Snooki & JWoww” — where they riff in the back of a limo, eating fast food and discussing topics like breast-feeding. Ang’s take? “I don’t like breast-feeding. I feel like that’s for animals — not for me. I just don’t want to hang a kid on my tit everywhere I go.”
Meeting Victoria Gotti
It wouldn’t be “Mob Wives” without an appearance by a relative of the legendary Gambino crime family. Big Ang goes to visit the daughter of deceased mob boss John Gotti for advice on how to control the drama among the show’s women — a problem the imposing Gotti apparently doesn’t have.
“I find that people act the way I allow them to act,” although she advises Ang, “You’re smart — diffuse it.”