WEBVTT - The HBO Story: Part Three 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:06.480 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from house 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:13.560 stuff works dot com. Hey there, everyone, and welcome to 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:16.759 tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren Poke Obama. 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:21.280 We are ready to conclude the epic series on HBO. 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:26.200 Our special presentation yet Yeah it's um. We set in 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:30.760 a in a warm studio and recorded two amazing episodes 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:33.000 in HBO, and we still have a third one that 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:35.280 has to be just as amazing at least as the 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:38.319 first two. It takes a lot of these people, it does, 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:40.720 it does, But I'm excited this. This is going to 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:44.560 be the start of the Internet and streaming age, and uh, 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:47.680 you know with that, as with many things, HBO has 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:50.760 been a pioneer. So we've got lots of interesting stuff 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:53.720 to cover. We're picking up in nineteen nine. Oh yeah, 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:58.320 I remember that year. So July nine, Time Incorporated acquires 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:01.920 a fifty nine point three percent steak and a little 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:07.960 company called Warner Communications Incorporated, creating Time Warner Incorporated, the 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:12.880 largest media and entertainment company in the world. And the 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:16.760 following year, Time Incorporate would acquire the remainder of Warner Communications, 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:21.880 making it a fully integrated company. So now it's even 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:25.200 larger media giant HBO is still a big player in 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:31.120 that enormous corporation. In that same year, HBO would launch 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:36.600 HBOS lesion Is and Espanol, later renamed HBO Espaniol and 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:40.679 then later renamed HBO Latino. So you may have guessed. 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:43.440 This is a channel that offered in parallel with HBO 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:47.480 for certain Spanish speaking markets about twenty initially, and took 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:51.480 advantage of something called the secondary Audio program or s 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:55.160 a P to replace the English speaking track with a 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:58.120 Spanish speaking one, and it was a big success, so 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:00.920 much so that other markets began to add this to 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:03.680 their service, and so much so that eventually they would 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:06.680 start producing their own original content for those markets. Right, 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:10.160 so instead of just say, taking an HBO original that 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:13.239 was done in English and redubbing it, they actually made 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:17.720 their own award winning HBO originals. So you could, if 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.360 you were a Spanish speaking person, watch these and and 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:23.920 really appreciate that same sort of approach HBO had to 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:28.359 making entertainment in English speaking countries for Spanish speaking ones. Now, 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.240 this was still in the United States. HBO has not 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:33.600 branched out into other countries as of yet, so this 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:37.520 was for Spanish speaking populations within the US, which you know, 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:40.800 stirred up some cultural issues in certain markets with people 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:44.800 who might not be as um progressive in some ways. 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:49.320 Let's to be really diplomatic about it, but at any rate, 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.320 it was a bold move and it paid off. And 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:57.000 then HBO helped roll out another channel. They were behind 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:01.800 the development of the Comedy Channel. So their idea was 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:05.880 to create a special channel specifically catering to comedy. They 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.480 had seen successes in other fields, right, and their and 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:12.679 their comedy specials were doing so well. Yeah, so they're thinking, wait, 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:15.639 we know comedy. We know comedy. We we are the 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:20.639 people who give comedians that that that cache of I've 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:23.639 got an HBO special, I've made it in the business. 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:26.840 So so let's let's let's capitalize on that. Let's take 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:29.880 clips from their specials and for movies and just toss 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:33.000 them up on the air, and and let's not provide 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:36.320 context for them, because that would be too complicated. Let's 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:40.040 just let's just like clip the jokes out of their context, 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:42.520 and they're going to be just as funny standing on 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:45.960 their own as they would be within the UH incorporation 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:49.119 of whatever set up there was around that joke, right. 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:51.480 You know, actually this sounds a lot like YouTube. This 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:53.720 was forward thinking, this was ahead of its time. Yeah. 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.800 See that they were trying to follow the model of MTV. 0:03:57.560 --> 0:03:59.360 You know, they wanted to do what MTV did with 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:01.760 music video as they wanted to do with comedy clips. 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:04.760 But it failed pretty wildly. Yeah see, it just just 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:06.840 was one of those things where unless you had that 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:10.440 extra context, you couldn't truly appreciate the joke for what 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.520 it was. You might find it amusing, but you wouldn't 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:17.320 necessarily find it hilarious. Right. Um. Meanwhile, Viacom launched a 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:21.200 rival channel named HA with an exclamation point to nonetheless, 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:24.680 which was even worse than than the Comedy Channel. However, 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:28.359 they merged these two terrible things together to create the 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:32.200 Comedy Network, which eventually became Comedy Central. As we all know, 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.920 I love right, And so it's interesting to me because 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:40.000 one of the things that did happen that helped differentiate 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:42.080 the Comedy Channel from HAW. I didn't put this in 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:45.120 our notes, but the Comedy Channel was the channel that 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:49.440 started carrying a certain mystery science theater three thousand uh 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:51.880 and in fact, I remember that if you've ever read 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.520 any of the MST three K histories. They talk about 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:57.000 how whenever they told people were on the comedy channel, 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:01.640 the response was, oh you mean ha oh no, no, no, 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:06.200 the other the other college that's called Yeah. So there 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:09.120 was some confusion in the marketplace until those two finally 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.720 kind of merged into its own unit. But was also 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:17.479 when a certain HBO original series premiered, one that had 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:21.279 a lasting impression on my childhood me as well, Tales 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:24.120 from the Crypt YEP with the crypt Keeper. So this 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:27.680 was HBO's second attempt at making a horror anthology series. Yeah. 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:31.159 The first one was The Hitchhiker, which nobody cares about. Yeah, 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:33.480 I mean I watched it that as a kid too. 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:35.200 I mean I grew up during this era. So I 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:37.760 watched The Hitchhiker. But Tales from the Crypt was I mean, 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:39.200 I just I just want to give the crypt Keeper 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:40.960 a hug. The only thing I have to say about 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:45.240 Tells from the Crypt is, uh. It really is unfortunate 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:48.080 that their very best episode was also the first episode. 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:50.839 It was all downhill after that. The Man Who Was 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:58.080 Death phenomenal episode about a crazy executioner who really loses 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:01.000 his marbles when the state he's worked ing in Outlaws 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:05.640 Capital Punishment. Great episode, great music for that episode. Not 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:10.800 particularly scary, but really well done. Um and sadly, I 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:14.120 do not believe any of the subsequent episodes quite lived 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.040 up to it, even the one that had Tim Curry 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:19.320 starring as like four different characters in the single episode. 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:25.719 I watched this a lot. Also saw the premiere of 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:29.240 the series dream On, which was, you know, a comedy 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:33.400 series following a a a divorced guy who was trying 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:36.200 to kind of find his place and find love, and 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:41.320 interesting that the show itself was was pretty amusing. Often 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:44.920 it had raunchy situations, a lot of gratuitous nudity, both 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:47.640 in Tales from the Crypt and dream On, partially because 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:50.280 they could get away with it, Like this is HBO, 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:53.640 so they're not they're not into the same standards as 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:55.960 over the air TV, so and especially if the air 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:57.280 later on at night, they're not going to get that 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:00.200 many complaints from parent groups, right. So this was one 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:03.440 of those things where because they were able to do it, 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:05.880 they were encouraged to do it, even if that wasn't 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:09.080 in their plan. When they were making next at a 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:12.120 show pitch that ended up being kind of a directive 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:16.280 handed down saying, look, guys, throw in some nudity and 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:19.560 some violence in there, because because why not. Well, I mean, 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:20.920 that's also part of the point to Tales from the 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:22.400 Crypt I think from the beginning is that it was 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.440 very much one of those old schlock h B movie 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:28.000 kind of throwbacks. Well yeah, and very much like The 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:30.640 Twilight Zone, the sort of idea of the karma coming 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:32.760 back and haunting you, because it was usually about really 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:35.520 awful people doing really awful things and then having really 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:39.280 awful things happened to them as a consequence. Sometimes it 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:41.720 was not such an awful person and really awful things 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.600 would happen to them, but it was a general general rule, 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:48.520 whereas with dream On it was like lots of cringe 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.080 humor and and some other stuff. There's some great moments 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:53.000 and that I remember when David Bowie showed up and 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:56.440 he was phenomenal on dream On. Yeah. See, I watched 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.000 a lot of HBO when I was a kid. HBO 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:04.080 rolls out HBO two, which was later named HBO Plus. 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:07.520 So HBO two is a complementary platform essentially has the 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:09.920 same sort of stuff that HBO has, but a different 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:14.400 schedule made possible by this signal compression, which allows you 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:18.080 to put multiple channels on a single transmission line. This 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:20.600 was a big deal because cable operators didn't want to 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:24.040 yield up channels, multiple channels to one provider, all right, 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:27.040 They only had so much bandwidth to to to provide 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:30.040 and so therefore if you only, for example, have have 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.920 forty spots to put stuff in, uh, you know, having 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:36.440 giving one channel two spots is a big deal, right, 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.720 exactly when you could be increasing the variety that you're 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:43.079 offering your potential customers. Right, sure, and especially at the time, 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:47.719 I want to mention, everyone did not have like seven channels, right, 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:50.840 That's what signal compression made possible, because you could actually 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:54.640 put multiple channels across one transmission line by compressing the 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:58.440 signal of each one and multiplexing them. So with HBO, 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:02.239 that meant that they could eventually start creating uh, targeted 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:06.640 hbos that would be marketed more towards a specific audience. 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:09.160 So you might have one that has more action movies, 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:12.520 for example, and one with more comedy content, or one 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:15.680 with more kid friendly stuff. I mean once again, like 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:18.560 this gave them the option of doing that without having 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:21.400 to put in as big an investment as something like 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.640 Festival or Take two was. Back in the other episodes 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:28.640 you heard us talk about those failed attempts at making 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:31.160 this kind of approach, but now the technology existed for 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:36.600 them to do it. Also in HBO finally broke into Europe. 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.640 Not physically, not like you know, illegally, they actually made 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:44.239 a foothold in Europe in Hungary. They had the Hungarian 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:48.319 cable system called Cable Calm. That's with Kay's for both 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:51.559 the cable and the calm, and that was partly backed 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:55.120 by Time Warner. So this system again did not use 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:58.320 the satellite system that was common in the United States. 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:02.000 They didn't worry about getting a geostationary satellite in orbit 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:08.080 above Hungary. They instead made microwave transmission towers to get 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:11.240 the signal out to Cable Upper. Returning to that older technology, 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:13.959 which I mean was was less expensive. Overall, it was 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.800 considered too expensive to to put up a satellite for 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:18.880 all of Europe when you've got so many languages in 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:21.520 such a small area to work with, right, it was 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:25.040 not a practical approach in the case of Europe. I mean, 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.560 if if everyone in Europe spoke the same language, then 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:30.480 it would be a different story. But with all the 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:33.200 different languages and cultures, it meant that HBO had very 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:36.720 different products for each country that it started to get into. 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:39.960 In fact, that's a story that happens over and over, 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.679 it's repeated over and over in HBO's history, where they 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:47.000 would tailor make the experience for whatever market they were 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:50.520 going into. But that meant the microwave transmission approach made 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:54.040 way more sense than satellite. So they start over there, 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:57.840 over in Europe, and then they start creeping into some 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:02.080 other markets, about fifteen more European markets eventually. Meanwhile, that 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:04.600 year they also launched in Central and South America. YEP. 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:08.160 Much easier to do, as it turns out, because Central 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:11.920 and South America, with the exception of Brazil, share a 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.560 common language for the most part, So they had Spanish 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:20.880 speaking language channels that just broadcast by satellite over South 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:23.640 America and Central America. How the new channel was called 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:30.040 HBO ol A. I'm surprised they didn't go with HBoL A. Honestly, 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:33.080 don't look at me. I'm not the one who named it. 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:35.400 I'm just saying I'm surprised they didn't. They didn't do 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:38.080 it that way. Um, yeah, it was available in countries 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:42.319 in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. I I 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:44.480 don't know how I feel about this HBoL a thing. 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:48.520 I guess probably other folks aren't upset by it. It 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:54.079 just seems a little culturally insensible to seem But anyway, 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:57.640 HBO gets a coup with The Larry Sanders Show starring 0:11:57.679 --> 0:11:59.640 Gary Shandling, and you might say, well, how is that 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:04.000 a coup? Well, Gary Schandling had really made a big 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:07.079 success in the eighties and early nineties with another show 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:10.719 called It's Gary Shandling Show, which was a send up 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:14.559 of sitcoms that aired on a different station on Showtime, 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:18.480 so direct competitor to HBO. Yeah, so Gary Schandling gets 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:23.439 gets uh notoriety through Showtime and the It's Gary Shandling Show, 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:26.480 which by the way, I thought was hilarious, and then 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:30.600 moves over to HBO for what you could argue was 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:33.600 an even better show. The Larry Sanders Show was more 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:37.720 of a send up of late night television talk shows 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:41.719 like things like The Tonight Show or uh late night 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:45.160 type shows, those kind of things, with the character of 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:48.520 Larry Sanders played by Gary Schandling. As this very vain, 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:53.520 very petty host and it was supposed to show you 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:56.760 kind of the backstage stuff that happens on the shows 0:12:56.800 --> 0:13:01.400 where on on camera everyone's really friendly and interested in 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:03.920 each other, you know, the host has to be engaged 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:06.720 with the guest, but then when the cameras go off, 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:10.439 they become nasty, petty, terrible people. Uh, And it was 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:13.079 a pretty amusing show. This is also the year when 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:16.280 HBO launched another series called Real Sex, which was a 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:20.640 magazine format show about sexual matters and had a very frank, 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:24.679 open minded approach. They it was a little bit documentary 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:27.720 in style, and um, they covered some pretty like some 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:31.520 things that could have easily been sensationalized or trivialized or 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:34.360 or or portrayed in such a way as to say, 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:37.360 aren't these people unusual? But but for the most part 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:40.240 it was. It was pretty welcoming of the unusual, which 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:43.439 was which was really nice. Actually, I mean, and I'm 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:45.319 not saying that it wasn't. I mean, you know, they 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:48.160 were putting it on the air, I think largely because 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:52.120 sex exactly some reason why they had so many so 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.360 much gratuitous nudity on dream On, you know. But but 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:58.480 at the same time, the uh Michael, folks, you know, 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:03.439 the CEO of HBO said, look, this series is what's 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:07.120 giving us the money to fund all the documentaries that 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:10.240 you guys love, and we're trying to deal with this 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:13.440 frank subject matter in a way that's respectful, which could 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:16.760 have easily gone a different way. So yeah, Also, uh 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:21.440 then HBO expands yet again. See now they're entering into 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:24.320 a new era of expansion where they're getting new customers. 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:28.040 They're not able to invent new customers in the United States. Uh, 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:30.000 you know, people do that on their own, but they're 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:32.480 not able to create a new market. So what they 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:34.240 did was they started to expand in other parts of 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:38.400 the world. So in the launched HBO Asia, which initially 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:43.680 service the Philippines and Thailand, but eventually, through multiplexing, the 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:47.520 service would be available in several Asian languages and spread 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:51.800 the twenty three nations. I think Mandarin Chinese was probably 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:56.040 their biggest. Uh bet on that one. I would imagine 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.680 this an enormous population in China. So h Then in 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:05.760 nine four HBO l A yeah, God, that's cringe worthy. 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:08.280 They launched a second channel in Center in South America 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:12.120 UM as well as a Portuguese language channel in Brazil, 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:17.640 so once again expanding in other markets, and Michael Folks 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:21.880 gets promoted to overseeing all of Warner Music, and Jeff Bukes, 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:24.680 who we mentioned in the previous episode, steps up as 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:28.600 the new head of HBO, and in we get the 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:32.640 premiere of one of I would say a predecessor to 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:36.440 the really big breakout hits of HBO original program. It 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:40.000 was the first hour long drama series produced for HBO, 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:42.280 and that was Oz Yes, which of course was the 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:47.800 drama series about a maximum security prison and the shenanigans 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:51.840 they go on inside. Shenanigans is maybe a shanking, let's 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:55.560 let's of Uh. Yeah, And i never watched the series myself, 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:58.600 but but I've heard many colorful things about it. Yeah, 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:01.760 it was. It was rough. It was a rough series. 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:04.200 But again, it was one of those things that HBO 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:06.440 did because one they knew there was going to be 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:08.280 a market for it, and to no one else could 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:10.760 really do it. They didn't have the money for it, 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:13.840 and they couldn't do it on broadcast television, basic cable. 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:18.080 So uh, that ended up getting some notice, but it 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:22.720 wasn't a breakaway hit yet. HBO produces a mini series 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.600 called From From the Earth to the Moon, which was 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.240 a big budget mini series. It was produced by Tom 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:31.000 Hanks and Ron Howard. Tom Hanks did not star in it, 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:34.880 he was just a producer behind the camera. Mostly starred 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:38.360 actors who were not recognizable to most the audience, and 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:40.760 that was on purpose. It was to be able to 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:43.640 put the focus on the drama of the story and 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:47.000 to recreate the time of the story without distracting by saying, Oh, 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:49.720 it's such and such from so and so. Also to 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:52.400 lower the costs a little bit, I imagine probably also 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:56.400 a factor. So this particular model would end up serving 0:16:56.640 --> 0:17:00.280 as an example for future mini series that HBO would deduced, 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.680 including things like Band of Brothers or John Adams. There 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:06.080 was another one called Generation Kill, which probably is not 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:08.800 as well known as those two, but other ones as well. 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:12.760 So this was an approach to producing mini series which 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:15.359 HBO had not really done. It tried a couple in 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:18.000 the early eighties, but in general had stayed away from 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:21.520 mini series and had only been producing open ended series 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:24.440 where run it season after season until you get tired 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:27.560 and you stopped doing it. Uh one one of those 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:30.840 that that happened that began Sex in the City at 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:33.440 debut that year, and and as we all know, became 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:36.600 a pretty wildly successful spawned two films. I mean, it 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:40.080 was a big, big hit. Lots of people either loved 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:45.040 it or hated it, or loved to hate it, love 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.840 to hate it. I never ever watched it. My knowledge 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:52.480 of sex Sex in the City was based solely upon 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:56.159 other people's conversations, and just like I was aware of 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:59.159 it culturally, but I never watched the show. And uh, 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:02.040 I got the feeling that I probably it. Probably I'm 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:05.560 not the right audience for that particular. I'm not sure either. 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:09.040 I a fellow that I dated loved it and and 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.520 maybe watch the entire thing, so I hear past tense, 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:19.160 delightful fellow, Okay, alright, fair, fair enough, all right. Well, anyway, 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:21.280 Sex in the City, uh, Sex and the City, I 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:24.400 should say, ends up being one the first of the 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:29.800 big three uh breakaway hits of HBO originals. We've got 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:32.480 two more to talk about that that round this out. 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:35.000 But before we get to that, let's take a quick 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:40.120 break to thank our sponsor. All Right, it's nine, It's 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:43.399 the year after Sex in the City debuts and gives HBO. 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:50.240 It's first real incredible popular SHIPBO ends up debuting another 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:53.760 original series that kind of sets the tone for what 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:57.440 HBO original programming is all about, at least for several 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:01.800 series that follow behind. The Sopranos, obviously one of the 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:05.040 most important series in HBO history, not only that, but 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:09.840 in cable history, because The Sopranos was critically acclaimed. It 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:12.600 was not just successful, the critics loved it, and it 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:15.640 would win Emmy's in two thousand four and two thousand seven. 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:18.600 It was nominated for Emmy's every single year that it 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:21.119 was eligible to do so, because remember The Sopranos was 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:22.800 one of those shows that would go on a hiatus 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:26.000 for more than a year, but it would garner more 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:29.160 than it would garner a hundred and eleven nominations over 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:31.520 the span of its life. So this was a cable 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:33.919 show winning an Emmy. Now that's a big deal because 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.679 for a while, cable television was looked down on, like 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:42.600 it was looked at something that was always pretending to 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:45.760 be as good as broadcast TV. And so the Emmys 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:48.800 were for broadcast television. That's where the quality programming was. 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:51.800 And and and furthermore, something that might be a CD or 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:55.080 or a little bit patronizing. Um but yeah, but with 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.120 with Something is as hard hitting and dramatic and beautiful 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:01.000 as the Sopranos. It was a hit. Yeah, So we 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:04.280 started to see cable shows being taken seriously. They no 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:09.160 longer needed to have their own little UH Awards ceremony. 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:12.080 The ACE Cable Awards were around back in the day 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:14.840 where because they weren't really eligible for the Emmys, they 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.480 were only eligible for for ACE Cable nominations. The Sopranos 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:22.840 definitely knocked that door wide open by consistently being one 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:25.440 of the most nominated shows while it was on the air. 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:28.640 So it really did change the entertainment industry. It's yet 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:33.560 another reason why we talked so much about HBO because again, 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:37.560 I had this huge effect on how things happened following. 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:40.199 You know, the stuff that HBO would try, whether it 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:42.800 was successful or not, it would end up impacting the 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:45.920 rest of the industry and other industries as well. So 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:48.040 then in two thousand we get the third of the 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:50.080 Big Three. We've already got Sex in the City, We've 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:54.240 already got the Sopranos, So what comes next? Under Yeah, 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:57.080 this was a show about two brothers who inherit their 0:20:57.119 --> 0:21:02.439 father's funeral service business after their father passes away. And 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:05.159 it was a weird series. It's one of those series 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:08.439 it's really difficult to describe to someone who's never seen it, 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:11.320 because there were episodes where there's stuff that happened that 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:13.600 was pretty funny, there was stuff that happened that was 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:15.840 really tragic. There was stuff that happened where you felt 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:19.000 like there would be no scenery left unchewed. I mean 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:23.040 it was you couldn't easily range. So it was one 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:26.119 of those that ended up again being wildly successful. So 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:29.080 that's why you've got the Big three, and Oz was 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:31.080 not part of the Big three because even though it 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:35.680 was fairly popular and fairly well critically acclaimed, it never 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:39.119 reached that same level of popularity as the other the 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:40.760 other three. I think it was a little bit less 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:45.080 palatable to a very large market. Yeah. Yeah, there's another 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:47.800 big show we'll be talking about briefly that had a 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:52.000 similar issue that it appealed to one particular market really 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:55.000 really well and other markets not so well. So two 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:57.840 thousand two, we have Jeff Bucks getting promoted to president 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:00.960 and chief operating officer of Time Warner. So now he 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:03.919 has left HBO and joined the you know that not 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:06.280 left it, but he's now the head of the parent company. 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:10.679 And so Chris Albrecht takes Bukes's place as head of HBO, 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:13.280 and all Breck would end up struggling a bit. He 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:16.879 was very big on taking chances, and he launched a 0:22:16.960 --> 0:22:20.560 lot of different programs on HBO, but he was really 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:23.520 trying to aim to to continue this momentum of the 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:26.720 Big Three, to make another series that was just as 0:22:27.440 --> 0:22:30.680 impactful and compelling as those, and as it turns out, 0:22:30.760 --> 0:22:34.399 that's really hard to do. Sometimes you're just lucky, you know, 0:22:34.480 --> 0:22:37.360 you just strike on the right formula that just happens 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:40.880 to resonate with the audience. Uh. And so even though 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:43.280 they produced a lot of different shows, and many of 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:46.639 them were really good ones, they didn't really hit the 0:22:46.680 --> 0:22:50.080 popularity of the Big Three, and so HBO was kind 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:53.200