WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: The HBO Story: Part Three 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:14.720 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:17.639 Johan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:21.439 and love all Things Tech. And we are in another 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:25.040 classic episode, folks. This episode originally published May twelve, two 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:29.000 thousand fourteen. It is the third part of our HBO story, 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:34.120 the conclusion at that point of the HBO Story. Obviously, again, 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:36.839 a lot of stuff has happened since then, so at 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:39.320 some point I will need to do a big update. 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:41.560 In fact, if you think that that's a good idea, 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:44.600 let me know on Twitter. I usually save this for 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:47.000 the end, but on Twitter we use the handle tech 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:49.919 Stuff hs W, So if you ever have a suggestion, 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:53.599 send it my way through there. But now let's go 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:57.440 back and listen to this classic episode the HBO Story, 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:02.840 Part three. So July to nine, Time Incorporated acquires a 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:06.639 fifty nine point three percent steak and a little company 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:12.959 called Warner Communications Incorporated's creating Time Warner Incorporated the largest 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:17.880 media and entertainment company in the world, and the following year, 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:21.720 Time Incorporate would acquire the remainder of Warner Communications, making 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:26.679 it a fully integrated company, So now it's even larger 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:29.800 media giant. HBO is still a big player in that 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:36.440 enormous corporation, And that same year HBO would launch HBOS 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:41.160 lesion Is and Espanol, later renamed HBO Espanol and then 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:45.160 later renamed HBO Latino. So you may have guessed. This 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:47.920 is a channel that offered in parallel with HBO for 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:52.360 certain Spanish speaking markets about twenty initially, and took advantage 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:56.000 of something called the secondary Audio program or s a 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.840 P to replace the English speaking track with a span 0:01:59.880 --> 0:02:02.480 of speaking one. And it was a big success, so 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:05.280 much so that other markets began to add this to 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:08.040 their service, and so much so that eventually they would 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:11.040 start producing their own original content for those markets. Right, 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:14.520 so instead of just say, taking an HBO original that 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:17.640 was done in English and redubbing it, they actually made 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:22.079 their own award winning HBO originals. So you could, if 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:24.720 you were a Spanish speaking person, watch these and and 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.280 really appreciate that same sort of approach HBO had to 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:32.200 making entertainment in English speaking countries or Spanish speaking ones. 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:35.480 Now this was still in the United States. HBO has 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:37.840 not branched out into other countries as of yet so 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.160 this was for Spanish speaking populations within the US, which 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:44.560 you know, stirred up some cultural issues in certain markets 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:48.520 with people who might not be as um progressive in 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:52.880 some ways. Let's to be really diplomatic about it, but 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:55.600 at any rate, it was a bold move and it 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:59.760 paid off. And then HBO helped roll out another channel. 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:04.400 They were behind the development of the Comedy Channel. So 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:09.440 their idea was to create a special channel specifically catering 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:13.200 to comedy. They had seen successes in other fields, right, 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:16.040 and their and their comedy specials for doing so well. Yeah, 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:18.800 so they're thinking, wait, we know comedy, we know comedy. 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.800 We we are the people who give comedians that that 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:27.080 that cashe of. I've got an HBO special, I've made 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:30.480 it in the business. So so let's let's let's capitalize 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:32.760 on that. Let's take clips from the specials and for 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:35.400 movies and just toss them up on the air, and 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:39.440 and let's not provide context for them, because that would 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:42.440 be too complicated. Let's just let's just like clip the 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.760 jokes out of their context and they're going to be 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:47.920 just as funny standing on their own as they would 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:51.880 be within the UH. Incorporation of whatever set up there 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:54.800 was around that joke, right. You know, actually this sounds 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:57.040 a lot like YouTube. This was forward thinking, this was 0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:59.320 ahead of its time. Yeah. See that they were trying 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.480 to follow the model of MTV. You know, they wanted 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:04.920 to do what MTV did with music videos, they wanted 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:08.080 to do with comedy clips. But it failed pretty wildly. 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:09.840 Yeah see, it just just was one of those things 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:13.520 where unless you had that extra context, you couldn't truly 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:16.400 appreciate the joke for what it was. You might find 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:20.719 it amusing, but you wouldn't necessarily find it hilarious. Right. Um. Meanwhile, 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:24.600 Viacom launched a rival channel named HA with an exclamation 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:27.760 point to nontheless, which was even worse than than the 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:31.240 Comedy Channel. However, they merged these two terrible things together 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.520 to create the Comedy Network, which eventually became Comedy Central. 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:38.360 As we all know, I love right and so h 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:41.960 It's interesting to me because one of the things that 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:45.640 did happen that helped differentiate the Comedy Channel from HAW. 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.040 I didn't put this in our notes, but the Comedy 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.600 Channel was the channel that started carrying a certain mystery 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:55.240 science theater three thousand uh and in fact, I remember that. 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:58.040 If you've ever read any of the MST three K histories, 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:00.520 they talk about how whenever they told people were on 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.440 the comedy channel, the response was, oh, you mean ha 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:08.719 oh no, no, no, the other the other comedy that's 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:12.040 called Yeah. So there was some confusion in the marketplace 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.200 until those two finally kind of merged into its own unit. 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:20.240 But was also when a certain HBO original series premiered, 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:24.800 one that had a lasting impression on my childhood me 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:27.599 as well, Tales from the Crypt YEP with the crypt Keeper. 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.560 So this was HBO's second attempt at making a horror 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:34.119 anthology series. Yeah. The first one was The Hitchhiker, which 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.000 nobody cares about. Yeah, I mean I watched it that 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:38.880 as a kid too. I mean I grew up during 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:41.400 this era, So I watched The Hitchhiker. But Tales from 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:42.760 the Crypt was I mean, I just I just want 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:44.600 to give the crypt Keeper a hug. The only thing 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:48.080 I have to say about Tells from the Crypt is, uh. 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:51.280 It really is unfortunate that their very best episode was 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:54.440 also the first episode. It was all downhill after that. 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:59.160 The Man Who Was Death phenomenal episode about a crazy 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:03.880 uh executioner who really loses his marbles when the state 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:09.359 he's working in outlaws Capital punishment. Great episode, great music 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:12.799 for that episode. Not particularly scary, but really well done. 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:16.560 Um and sadly, I do not believe any of the 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:19.440 subsequent episodes quite lived up to it, even the one 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:22.560 that had Tim Curry starring as like four different characters 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:27.960 in the single episode. I watched this a lot. Also 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:32.280 saw the premiere of the series dream On, which was, 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:36.720 you know, a comedy series following a a a divorced 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.120 guy who was trying to kind of find his place 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:43.960 and find love, and interesting that the show itself was 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:47.760 was pretty amusing. Often it had raunchy situations, a lot 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.520 of gratuitous nudity, both in Tales from the Crypt and 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:53.440 dream On, partially because they could get away with it, 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:55.920 like this is HBO, so they're not they're not the 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.000 same standards as over the air TV SO and especially 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:01.400 the air later on at night. They're not going to 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.200 get that many complaints from parent groups, right, So this 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:07.320 was one of those things where because they were able 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:09.600 to do it, they were encouraged to do it, even 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:11.920 if that wasn't in their plan when they were making 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:15.760 next at a show pitch that ended up being kind 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:19.840 of a directive handed down saying, look, guys, throw in 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:23.720 some nudity and some violence in there, because because why not. Well, 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:25.120 I mean, that's also part of the point of Tales 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:26.520 from the Crypt I think from the beginning is that 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:28.960 it was very much one of those old schlock h 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:32.160 B movie kind of throwbacks. Well yeah, and very much 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:34.200 like The Twilight Zone, the sort of idea of the 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:36.440 karma coming back and haunting you, because it was usually 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:39.400 about really awful people doing really awful things and then 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:42.240 having really awful things happened to them as a consequence. 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:45.640 Sometimes it was not such an awful person and really 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:47.600 awful things would happen to them, but it was a 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:50.800 general general rule, whereas with dream On it was like 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.800 lots of cringe humor and and some other stuff. There's 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:56.640 some great moments and that I remember when David Bowie 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:00.360 showed up and he was phenomenal on dream On. See. 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:02.120 I watched a lot of HBO when I was a kid. 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:08.440 HBO rolls out HBO two, which was later named HBO Plus. 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.880 So HBO two is a complementary platform essentially has the 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:14.280 same sort of stuff that HBO has, but a different 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:18.760 schedule made possible by this signal compression, which allows you 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:22.440 to put multiple channels on a single transmission line. This 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:24.960 was a big deal because cable operators didn't want to 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:28.400 yield up channels multiple channels to one provider, all right, 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:31.400 They only had so much bandwidth to to to provide 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:34.400 and so therefore if you only, for example, have have 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:38.280 forty spots to put stuff in, uh, you know, having 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:40.800 giving one channel two spots is a big deal, right, 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:44.080 exactly when you could be increasing the variety that you're 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:47.439 offering your potential customers, right, sure, and especially at the time, 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:52.120 I want to mention, everyone did not have like seven channels, right, 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:55.240 That's what signal compression made possible, because you could actually 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:59.040 put multiple channels across one transmission line by compressing the 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.840 signal of each one in multiplexing them. So with HBO, 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:06.560 that meant that they could eventually start creating uh, targeted 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:11.040 hbos that would be marketed more towards a specific audience. 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:13.520 So you might have one that has more action movies, 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.880 for example, and one with more comedy content or one 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:20.080 with more kid friendly stuff. I mean once again, like 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:22.920 this gave them the option of doing that without having 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:25.800 to put in as big an investment as something like 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:29.040 Festival or Take two was. Back in the other episodes 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:33.040 you heard us talk about those failed attempts at making 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:35.520 this kind of approach, but now the technology existed for 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:40.959 them to do it. Also in HBO finally broke into Europe. 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:45.040 Not physically, not like you know, illegally, they actually made 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:48.599 a foothold in Europe in Hungary. They had the Hungarian 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:52.720 cable system called Cable Calm. That's with Kay's for both 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:55.920 the cable and the calm, and that was partly backed 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:59.480 by Time Warner. So this system again did not use 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.080 satellite system that was common in the United States. They 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:07.360 didn't worry about getting a geostationary satellite in orbit above Hungary. 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:12.960 They instead made microwave transmission towers to get the signal 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:16.160 out to cable uper returning to that older technology, which 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:18.760 I mean was was less expensive. Overall, it was considered 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:21.360 too expensive to to put up a satellite for all 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:23.520 of Europe when you've got so many languages in such 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.200 a small area to work with, right, it was not 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:29.440 a practical approach in the case of Europe. I mean, 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:32.920 if if everyone in Europe spoke the same language, then 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:34.840 it would be a different story. But with all the 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:37.560 different languages and cultures, it meant that HBO had very 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:41.079 different products for each country that it started to get into. 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:44.319 In fact, that's a story that happens over and over. 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:47.040 It's repeated over and over in HBO's history, where they 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:51.360 would tailor make the experience for whatever market they were 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:54.880 going into. But that meant the microwave transmission approach made 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:58.440 way more sense than satellite. So they start over there, 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:02.200 over in Europe, and then they start creeping into some 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:06.440 other markets, about fifteen more European markets eventually. Meanwhile, that 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:08.959 year they also launched in Central and South America. YEP. 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:12.520 Much easier to do, as it turns out, because Central 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:16.320 and South America, with the exception of Brazil, share a 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:19.960 common language for the most part, so they had Spanish 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:25.280 speaking language channels that just broadcast by satellite over South 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:28.000 America and Central America. How the new channel was called 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:34.400 HBO ol A. I'm surprised they didn't go with HBoL A. Honestly, 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:37.440 don't look at me. I'm not the one who named it. 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:39.800 I'm just saying I'm surprised they didn't. They didn't do 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:42.480 it that way. Um. Yeah, it was available in countries 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:46.720 in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. I I 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:48.880 don't know how I feel about this HBO ol a thing. 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:52.920 I guess probably other folks aren't upset by it. It 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:58.439 just seems a little culturally insensible to me. But anyway, 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.000 HBO gets a coup with The Larry Sanders Show starring 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:04.000 Gary Schandling, and you might say, well, how is that 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:08.360 a coup? Well, Gary Schandling had really made a big 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:11.439 success in the eighties and early nineties with another show 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:15.079 called It's Gary Shandling Show, which was a send up 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.920 of sitcoms, and that aired on a different station, on Showtime, 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:22.880 so direct competitor to HBO. Yeah, so Gary Schandling gets 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:27.800 gets uh notoriety through Showtime and the It's Gary Shandling Show, 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:30.880 which by the way, I thought was hilarious, and then 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:34.960 moves over to HBO for what you could argue was 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:37.960 an even better show. The Larry Sanders Show was more 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:42.079 of a send up of late night television talk shows 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:46.120 like things like The Tonight Show or uh late night 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:49.520 type shows, those kind of things, with the character of 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:52.880 Larry Sanders played by Gary Schandling as this very vain, 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:57.880 very petty host And it was supposed to show you 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:01.120 kind of the backstage stuff that happens on these shows 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:05.760 where on on camera everyone's really friendly and interested in 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.319 each other, you know, the host has to be engaged 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:11.280 with the guest, but then when the cameras go off, 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:14.800 they become nasty, petty, terrible people. Uh. And it was 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:17.439 a pretty amusing show. This is also the year when 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.640 HBO launched another series called Real Sex, which was a 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:25.000 magazine format show about sexual matters and had a very frank, 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:29.040 open minded approach. They it was a little bit documentary 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:32.120 and style and um, they covered some pretty like some 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:35.880 things that could have easily been sensationalized or trivialized or 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:38.720 or or portrayed in such a way as to say, 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.760 aren't these people unusual? But but for the most part 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:44.600 it was. It was pretty welcoming of the unusual, which 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:47.800 was which was really nice. Actually, I mean, and I'm 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:49.760 not saying that it wasn't. I mean, you know, they 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:52.520 were putting it on the air. I think largely because 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:56.480 sex exactly some reason why they had so many so 0:13:56.559 --> 0:13:59.720 much gratuitous nudity on dream on you know. But but 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:02.840 at the same time, the uh Michael folks, you know, 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:07.480 the CEO of of HBO said, look, this series is 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:11.400 what's giving us the money to fund all the documentaries 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:14.400 that you guys love, and we're trying to deal with 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.559 this frank subject matter in a way that's respectful, which 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:21.120 could have easily gone a different way. So yeah, Also, uh, 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:25.840 the HBO expands yet again. See now they're entering into 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:28.680 a new era of expansion where they're getting new customers. 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:32.440 They're not able to invent new customers in the United States. Uh, 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:34.400 you know, people do that on their own, but they're 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:36.880 not able to create a new market. So what they 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:38.560 did was they started to expand in other parts of 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:42.760 the world. So in the launched HBO Asia, which initially 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:48.040 service the Philippines and Thailand, but eventually through multiplexing, the 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:51.480 service would be available in uh several Asian languages and 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:55.680 spread to twenty three nations. I think Mandarin Chinese was 0:14:55.720 --> 0:15:00.000 probably their biggest uh bet on that one. I would 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:04.080 imagine enormous population in China. Oh yes. Uh. Then in 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:08.720 HBO l A yeah, God, that's cringe. Where they know 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:12.640 they launched a second channel in Center in South America 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:17.240 as well as a Portuguese language channel in Brazil, so 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:22.360 once again expanding in other markets, and Michael Folks gets 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:26.160 promoted to overseeing all of Warner Music, and Jeff Bukes, 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:29.040 who we mentioned in the previous episode, steps up as 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:32.960 the new head of HBO, and in we get the 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:37.000 premiere of one of I would say a predecessor to 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:40.800 the really big breakout hits of HBO original program. It 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:44.400 was the first hour long drama series produced for HBO, 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:46.680 and that was Oz Yes, which of course was the 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:52.160 drama series about a maximum security prison and the shenanigans 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:56.200 they go on inside. Shenanigans is maybe a shanking, let's 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:59.920 let's have uh Yeah, And I never watched the series myself, 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.040 but but I've heard many colorful things about it. Yeah, 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.120 it was um, it was rough. It was a rough series. 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:08.560 But again, it was one of those things that HBO 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:10.800 did because one they knew there was going to be 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:12.640 a market for it, and to no one else could 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:15.120 really do it. They didn't have the money for it, 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:18.200 and they couldn't do it on broadcast television, basic cable. 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:22.440 So uh, that ended up getting some notice, but it 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:27.120 wasn't a breakaway hit. Yet HBO produces a mini series 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:29.960 called From From the Earth to the Moon, which was 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:32.600 a big budget mini series. It was produced by Tom 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.360 Hanks and Ron Howard. Tom Hanks did not star in it, 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:39.160 he was just a producer behind the camera. Mostly starred 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:42.600 actors who were not recognizable to most of the audience, 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:45.040 and that was on purpose. It was to be able 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:47.320 to put the focus on the drama of the story 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:50.680 and to recreate the time of the story without distracting 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:53.240 by saying, Oh, it's such and such from so and so. 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:55.920 Also to lower the costs a little bit, I imagine 0:16:56.040 --> 0:17:00.280 probably also a factor. So this particular model would up 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:04.119 serving as an example for future mini series that HBO 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:07.560 would produce, including things like Band of Brothers or John Adams. 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:10.359 There was another one called Generation Kill, which probably is 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:12.800 not as well known as those two, but other ones 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:16.600 as well. So this was an approach to producing mini 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:19.359 series which HBO had not really done. It tried a 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.000 couple in the early eighties, but in general had stayed 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:25.160 away from mini series and had only been producing open 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:28.359 ended series where run it season after season until you 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:31.360 get tired and you stopped doing it. UH one one 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:34.679 of those that that happened that began with Sex in 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:37.080 the City at debut that year, and and as we 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:40.560 all know, became a pretty wildly successful spawned two films. 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:43.280 I mean, it was a big, big hit. Lots of 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:46.199 people either loved it or hated it, or loved to 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:51.240 hate it that love to hate it. I never ever 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:54.800 watched it. My knowledge of sex Sex in the City 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:59.919 was based solely upon other people's conversations, and just like 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.720 was aware of it culturally, but I never watched the show. 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:05.399 And uh, I got the feeling that I probably it's 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:09.119 probably I'm not the right audience for that particular. I'm 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:12.200 not sure either. I a fellow that I dated loved 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:15.760 it and and maybe watch the entire thing, so I 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:22.359 hear past tense, delightful fellow, Okay, alright, fair, fair enough, 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:25.080 all right. Well, anyway, Sex in the City, uh, Sex 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:27.720 and the City, I should say, ends up being one 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:32.439 the first of the big three uh breakaway hits of 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:35.840 HBO originals. We've got a lot more to say about HBO, 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:38.639 but before we can do that, let's take a quick break. 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:50.159 All right. It's ninete, It's the year after Sex in 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:54.880 the City debuts and gives HBO it's first real incredible 0:18:55.040 --> 0:19:00.640 popular ship. Yebo ends up debuting another original series that 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:03.960 kind of sets the tone for what HBO original programming 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:07.000 is all about, at least for several series that followed 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:12.120 behind The Sopranos, obviously one of the most important series 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:15.119 in HBO history, not only that, but in cable history, 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:19.879 because The Sopranos was critically acclaimed. It was not just successful, 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:22.760 the critics loved it, and it would win Emmy's in 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:25.200 two thousand four and two thousand seven. It was nominated 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:28.199 for Emmy's every single year that it was eligible to 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:30.320 do so, because remember The Sopranos was one of those 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:32.160 shows that would go on a hiatus for more than 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:35.560 a year, but it would garner more than it would 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:38.639 garner a hundred and eleven nominations over the span of 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:41.400 its life. So this was a cable show winning an Emmy. 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:44.119 Now that's a big deal because for a while, cable 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:47.240 television was looked down on, like it was looked at 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:52.439 something that was always pretending to be as good as 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:55.960 broadcast TV. And so the Emmys were for broadcast television. 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:58.720 That's where the quality programming was and and Furthermore, something 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:01.160 that might be h c D or or a little 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:04.480 bit patronizing. Um, but yeah, but with with something is 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:07.800 as hard hitting and dramatic and beautiful as the Sopranos. 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:10.600 It was a hit. Yeah, So we started to see 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:14.359 cable shows being taken seriously. They no longer needed to 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:18.800 have their own little UH Awards ceremony. The ACE Cable 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:21.919 Awards were around back in the day where because they 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:24.560 weren't really eligible for the Emmys, they were only eligible 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:28.119 for for ACE Cable nominations. The Sopranos definitely knocked that 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:32.320 door wide open by consistently being one of the most 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:35.119 nominated shows while it was on the air. So it 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:38.159 really did change the entertainment industry. It's yet another reason 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:42.600 why we talked so much about HBO, because again, I 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:47.000 had this huge effect on how things happened following. You know, 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:49.639 the stuff that HBO would try, whether it was successful 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:51.919 or not, it would end up impacting the rest of 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:55.080 the industry and other industries as well. So then in 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:57.320 two thousand we get the third of the Big Three. 0:20:57.359 --> 0:20:59.320 We've already got Sex in the City, We've already got 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:03.159 the Sopranos, So what comes next? Six under Yeah, this 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:06.400 was a show about two brothers who inherit their father's 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:11.719 funeral service business after their father passes away. And it 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:14.359 was a weird series. It's one of those series that's 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:17.240 really difficult to describe to someone who's never seen it, 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:20.159 because there were episodes where there's stuff that happened that 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:22.399 was pretty funny, there was stuff that happened that was 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:24.600 really tragic. There was stuff that happened where you felt 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:27.840 like there would be no scenery left unchewed. I mean 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:31.400 it was you couldn't easily the whole range. Yeah, So 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:33.680 it was one of those that ended up again being 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:37.159 wildly successful. So that's why you've got the Big three. 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:39.200 And OZ was not part of the Big three because 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:43.880 even though it was fairly popular and fairly well critically acclaimed, 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:47.479 it never reached that same level of popularity as the 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:49.120 other the other three. I think it was a little 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:52.960 bit less palatable to a very large market. Yeah. Yeah, 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:56.199 there's another big show we'll be talking about briefly that 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:59.960 had a similar issue that it appealed to one particular 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:03.200 market really really well and other markets not so well. 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:06.040 So two thousand two we have Jeff Bukes getting promoted 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:09.399 to president and chief operating officer of Time Warner. So 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:12.040 now he has left HBO and joined the you know, 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:14.320 the not left it, but he's now the head of 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:18.280 the parent company. And so Chris Albrecht takes Bukes's place 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:21.280 as head of HBO, and all Breck would end up 0:22:21.280 --> 0:22:24.560 struggling a bit. He was very big on taking chances, 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:27.919 and he launched a lot of different programs on HBO, 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:31.280 but he was really trying to aim to to continue 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:34.400 this momentum of the Big Three, to make another series 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:38.719 that was just as impactful and compelling as those, and 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:41.360 as it turns out, that's really hard to do. Sometimes 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:44.199 you're just lucky, you know, you just strike on the 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:48.879 right formula that just happens to resonate with the audience. Uh. 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:51.560 And so even though they produced a lot of different shows, 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:54.399 and many of them were really good ones, they didn't 0:22:54.760 --> 0:22:57.840