Wendell Pierce and Michael K. Williams, The Wire
Question: I saw a promo on HBO last night, and it looks like they're planning to move their movie night to Sunday. Any idea why? What about those great original shows? What will happen to them?
Answer: There are couple of reasons for this temporary shift — which HBO says will only continue through the end of the year, when movie premieres will return to Saturdays, and multiple series, including Rome, will begin on Sundays starting Jan. 7. First off, though HBO would never admit it, the pay giant has lost the Sunday-night watercooler battle to ABC. (We’ll have to see if Desperate Housewives can truly rebound in the fall, and Brothers & Sisters is still a sight-unseen question mark.) Plus, NBC is going all out with prime-time Sunday-night NFL games. Second, HBO’s marquee drama on Sundays this fall is the ratings-challenged, but powerfully good, The Wire, and HBO figures that the best way to make some noise during the fall will be to turn the night over to high-profile first-run
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Question: Is this the end of the HBO dynasty? I mean, HBO really set the standard for cable programming by having a small lineup of great shows and showcasing them one or two at a time (a formula that FX is using quite successfully). Now I'm wondering if it has fallen asleep at the wheel. While Showtime and FX are preparing shows such as Rescue Me, The Shield, Weeds and Sleeper Cell, HBO seems to be canceling a show every other month. Am I paranoid, or does the channel have some sort of master plan that no one knows about? Because if my math is correct, by the year 2008 The Sopranos, Deadwood, Rome and The Wire will all be gone.
Answer: I think it's fair to say that HBO is in a slump, and with more franchises nearing the ends of their runs, the network does need to step up and create another breakout show or two. I love Entourage, but it seems to lack the cultural oomph of Sex and the City — and I'm sorry, but Big Love is not the sort of show to build a network night around. Even wit ...
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Kirk "Sticky Fingaz" Jones is TV's Blade.
Producer/writer David S. Goyer is hotter than a solar flash on the big screen these days. While the veteran comic-book (Justice Society of America) and sci-fi/horror-film scribe (Batman Begins, Dark City) is currently working on, among other projects, big-screen takes on The Flash and Ghost Rider, it'
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Kevin Dillon, Entourage
Real life has been just as exciting as reel life for Kevin Dillon, who over the past six weeks has tied the knot with model-actress Jane Stuart as well as welcomed the arrival of their first child, a daughter named Ava. Now the proud pop has a third season of HBO's Entourage (premiering this Sunday at 10 pm/ET) to deliver. TVGuide.com chatted with the veteran actor the day after the show's Wednesday-night premiere screening in NYC.
TVGuide.com: First off, congratulations on the wedding and the child!
Dillon: Oh, thank you! It really is amazing.
TVGuide.com: How is little Ava doing?
Dillon: She's doing great. She's an amazing little girl.
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Question: I have to say that I share Jason's fears that Lost will decline in quality next season with the continued absence of J.J. Abrams and the reduced involvement of the current show-runners. Not only will it be difficult to keep up the intricate mythology and character development that have been critical to Lost's success, but I have noticed a trend where dramas often suffer creative declines in their third seasons. I've noticed this in some of the best shows of our times, including The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Alias, West Wing, 24, Nip/Tuck and The Shield. All of those shows suffered huge drop-offs in quality after two amazing seasons. The Wire has been one show that seemed to buck this trend, and hopefully Rescue Me, Deadwood, Battlestar Galactica and Veronica Mars (if it gets renew
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Question: When I was posted overseas, I found myself an avid watcher of a Brazilian telenovela called Terra Nostra. Luckily, I know some Spanish and was able to get the gist of the dialogue using Spanish and English cognates. It was a great story and made me realize that I'd like to see a series that had a beginning and an end. My question: Don't you think the telenovela format would be a welcome change from TV shows that you start to get invested in, such as Threshold or Love Monkey, just as they're prematurely canceled? Or do you think it would be more like a longer miniseries, such as Roots or North and South? Of course, Centennial doesn't count because they switched that around so much I lost track of when it was on. Maybe it was too long?
Answer: If the networks' experiments with the telenovela format means a sideways return to the old-style miniseries, I'm all for it. (Actually, I've been saying for a long time that many of HBO's acclaimed dramas, most notably The Wire and Rome,
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Patrick Cranshaw — the 86-year-old whose performance as Blue in Old School made him a hero to frat boys who hope never to outgrow keggers — passed away of natural causes Wednesday at his home in Fort Worth. That same day, The Wire's Richard DeAngelis died of congestive heart failure. The 73-year-old actor, who played police colonel Raymond Foerster on the HBO drama, was also suffering from complications from prostate cancer.
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Question: Since Prison Break is on hiatus for a few months and 24 is still a month away, I decided to get my serialized thriller fix from this new miniseries on Showtime called Sleeper Cell. From your Dispatch, you made it seem as though it is an intense thrill ride similar to that of 24 or Prison Break. And while Sleeper Cell has elements of those shows, it seems more closely related to that of The Wire: the very methodical pacing, the interconnecting storylines, and the very feel of the show itself. As I have watched the first five episodes, I am very impressed, and I am also very glad that Showtime shows new episodes every night instead of once a week so you know exactly what is going on. I feel that this show is definitely suitable as appetizer until the main course of 24 comes along in mid-January. What do you think?
Answer: You make a good point, though I'm wary of making direct comparisons to anything as distinguished as The Wire. My own positive thoughts regarding Sleeper Cell
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Question: I haven't seen any questions to you about Rome, and I don't see much chatter about it on the TV Guide website. I know it's on opposite the mighty Desperate Housewives, but in my opinion, it is one of the best shows on TV these days. It is certainly better than the creatively uneven and highly overrated Housewives. Although most people know the rough outline of Caesar, Brutus, Mark Antony and Cleopatra, it has been fascinating to see their lives play out with the rich production values of this series (except for the nonexistent combat scenes). I think Rome ably continues HBO's rich Sunday-night drama history, and I would rank it only slightly behind Deadwood and well ahead of the awful Carnivale and Six Feet Under. What do you think?
Answer: Thanks for asking. Week by week, Rome has become more gloriously addictive, as the historical intrigues and betrayals come into sharper focus along with the reversals of fortune involving the two fictional soldiers at the core of the story
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Question: When will The Wire return?
Answer: I'm hearing mid-2006 at the earliest. Production got under way at the end of September, right around the time I received an anonymous tip from a reader that "Dominic West is off The Wire." An HBO rep, however, insists he'll be back in some capacity, so I guess we'll find out in mid-2006 who the lyin' dog is.
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