Don't look for the final season of "The Sopranos" any earlier than 2006, HBO chairman Chris Albrecht warned yesterday.

A slightly testy Albrecht teed off on a reporter who'd apparently not heard that HBO doesn't like being bugged about the long breaks between seasons for the David Chase mob drama (which, to be honest, was only improved by its last 16-month break). No, he told her, he's not worried that people would forget about the show while it's gone or find other loves.

"It's like the Harry Potter book -- you'll wait for the sequel and be very happy to get it," he said.

But what works for David Chase might not for David Milch.

When I asked whether the "Deadwood" creator, who was notorious on "NYPD Blue" for getting so far behind that he was literally giving actors their lines moments before they had to recite them on camera, might not benefit from Chase's flex-time schedule, Albrecht said it was Milch who's insisting on a more conventional schedule.

"David Milch wants to be on every 12 months," he said. "He gets up in the morning to start writing. That's what he wants to do. We're happy to fulfill his need to be on every 12 months. He's coming back in March, God bless him."

Meanwhile, Albrecht's still holding out hope that Chase will deliver more than the 10 final episodes of "The Sopranos" he's already agreed to.

Describing it as "an inside chance," he said Chase "hasn't said no, and with David that's always a very good sign."