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Behind the Scenes
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| The Pacific | Bill Brioux
Movie Entertainment
January 2010
Fact: in the last three years, the amount of scripted programming on network television has been cut in half.
Broadcasters struggling with “broken business models” have embraced cheaper reality fare while they grapple with TV’s new economic order. NBC’s answer to dwindling revenues was Jay Leno at 10 o’clock, five nights a week. Even CBC is ordering more Battle of the Blades and Dragon’s Den and less Being Erica.
HBO co-president Richard Plepler wants you to know that’s not the deal at his outfit. As they say in the slogan, “It’s not TV. It’s HBO.”
The U.S. cable giant, which finally crossed the border in October of 2008 as HBO Canada, is bursting with new scripted dramas and comedies.
After weathering a creative dry spell after The Sopranos faded to black in 2007, HBO – led by Plepler and co-president Eric Kessler – is back. Originals like True Blood, Hung, Bored to Death and Entourage are generating buzz. The premium cable company has more pilots on order today than it did a decade ago when The Sopranos and Sex and the City drove its schedule.
“I think the defining characteristic of what we are always thinking about is quality of storytelling,” says Plepler, who was in Toronto in October to help celebrate HBO Canada’s first anniversary and sat down with Movie Entertainment. “If you tell people a great story – whether comedic genre, dramatic genre, miniseries or movie – and do it in a way that differentiates from the common denominator – that’s our brand.”
The way to maintain that brand, Plepler says, is to surround yourself with the “smartest, most original voices around” and make them feel at home at your network. While others bail on big-budget dramas (as NBC did last fall by shutting down the John Wells series Southland), HBO rolls out the red carpet, embracing writers, producers and show runners like Alan Ball (True Blood) and Dmitry Lipkin (Hung).
Plepler says the other networks are in a very different game. “They’re about selling eyeballs to advertisers,” he says. He points out the lengths NBC has had to go to keep a quality drama like Friday Night Lights in production, limiting episodes and teaming with DirecTV in the States. “What we’re doing is selling a brand. The brand, if we’re doing our job right, is about a unique point of view.”
Sticking with quality and originality has been good business for HBO. No media company is recession-proof, Plepler told TV critics last summer in Los Angeles, but HBO’s revenues were up and subscriptions were steady in 2009. A lot of that was driven by True Blood and Hung, two shows that opened to cumulative U.S. audiences last season of more than 10 million. True Blood and the acclaimed historical miniseries John Adams also enjoyed robust DVD sales. HBO’s brand extension into Canada and other countries also has boosted the bottom line.
The recession, in fact, may even have helped HBO, with more people staying home and “cocooning” as family budgets
for other forms of entertainment shrink.
Plepler expects to extend HBO’s “quality halo” with several highly anticipated originals throughout 2010. He’s reluctant to single out any shows – saying it’s like choosing between children – but provides a few examples:
Boardwalk Empire is set in Atlantic City during Prohibition. You want big names? Martin Scorsese directed the pilot. The creator, Terence Winter, worked on another HBO crime drama set in New Jersey: The Sopranos. Steve Buscemi heads a large ensemble cast. “It’s brilliant,” says Plepler.
Treme, from David Simon and Eric Overmyer (The Wire), follows a group of New Orleans musicians in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Wire alumni Wendell Pierce and Clarke Peters star, as does Khandi Alexander. “It’s poignant and sexy, the music is stunning, we’re thrilled by it,” Plepler says.
The Pacific reunites the Hollywood power brokers behind Band of Brothers – Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks – for another Second World War miniseries, this time focusing on the war in the Pacific. The 10-part, big-budget battle epic was shot in Australia with Canadians Graham Yost and Jeremy Podeswa among the directors. As it was with Brothers, Plepler calls the brutally realistic war scenes “as riveting as anything I have ever seen.”
The HBO executive also had high praise for Entourage producer Mark Wahlberg’s upcoming comedy How To Make It In America, as well as You Don’t Know Jack, a new movie starring Al Pacino as euthanasia advocate Dr. Jack Kervorkian. HBO also recently announced a deal with Canadian movie sweetheart Ellen Page (Juno), who will help write and create the new comedy Stitch N’ Bitch.
“We’re fully loaded and very excited,” says Plepler, who intends to stick with what he calls the “full court press” at HBO. “That’s the only way to assure that the best talentkeeps coming through the door.”
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