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Memo To HBO Executives
In case the reason you want to cancel The Wire is that it's demographic appeal is limited to young men, see below the shocking true tale of a conversation from last night:
YOUNG WOMAN: I just moved down from Baltimore.So there you have it. Everybody loves The Wire. I mean, y'all renewed freaking Carnivale, surely you can spare room in the schedule for the best show on television. Also: I think there may be promise in this online drug sales concept. You could base the site offshore. . . .
MATT: You were in school there?
YW: No, I was working for a web design company?
MATT: Huh.
YM: You seem surprised.
MATT: It's just that I'm a big fan of this show called The Wire and I guess it gave me the idea that everyone in Baltimore was a heroin dealer.
YW: I love The Wire! But no, no heroin.
MATT: Maybe design a heroin-dealing website?
YW: Much more boring than that. Do you think they're really going to cancel the show? . . .
January 9, 2005 | Permalink
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Comments
was the young woman cute Matt.....?
Posted by: alkaline trio | Jan 9, 2005 3:23:56 PM
Is the "?" after "web design company" a typo or a sarcastic lilt? Anyway, I like it; it fits. If it's intentional, I apologize for suggesting otherwise.
Snarky comment 2: Did MY think YW was going to school for heroin dealers?
Having lived in Baltimore six years as a grad student, I find it annoying that its most famous export is TV crime (Homicide is another example). Surely a city of that size can do better. I used to try to come up with things that made Baltimore kind of cool--other than the obvious (if you like John Waters that is). I liked the media commentary of Mark Crispin Miller, then a Johns Hopkins professor, on WJHU. He eventually moved to NYU. Baltimore has a potential to be a lot better than it is, but I am not holding my breath for it to happen.
Posted by: Paul Callahan | Jan 9, 2005 3:43:54 PM
So there you have it. Everybody loves The Wire. I mean, y'all renewed freaking Carnivale, surely you can spare room in the schedule for the best show on television...
I'm still bitter over the cancellation of K Street (and yes, as a matter of fact I am aware I'm the only soul in the Western Hemisphere who feels this way). As far as I'm concerned, since they couldn't even give me a second season of this excellent show, greedy fans of The Wire can all go to Hell.
And Carnivale is superb, by the way.
Posted by: P.B. Almeida | Jan 9, 2005 4:03:56 PM
Well, LeBron never appeared on an underground DVD that threatened police informants, so maybe the rep is deserved?
Posted by: SamAm | Jan 9, 2005 4:05:44 PM
Eff'ing MY and commenters' Wire-love made me rent the DVDs for the first season. Now I'm eff'ing hooked (must rent second season), and HBO's cancelling the show?
Eff'ing MY.
Posted by: SomeCallMeTim | Jan 9, 2005 4:35:10 PM
Young men are the most valuable demographic to advertisers by far, because they are the most difficult to reach and because the are the most brand-loyal.
Why do demographics matter to HBO anyways?
Posted by: bob mcmanus | Jan 9, 2005 4:44:23 PM
So is it official? The Wire won't be exteded for another season?
Posted by: WillieStyle | Jan 9, 2005 5:01:56 PM
So is it official? The Wire won't be exteded for another season?
No. We don't know. And we can't lose hope. But just to make it clear, I fully intend to cancel my subscription if HBO cancels The Wire, and I pledge to convince 10 others to do the same. HBO exects, I hope you've considered the potential snowball ramifications of your decision. . . .
Posted by: Kriston Capps | Jan 9, 2005 5:29:58 PM
We don't know, but that recent HBO promo summing up 2004, which omits the Wire except for a blink and you'll miss it clip at the end isn't encouraging.
Posted by: davey | Jan 9, 2005 5:50:08 PM
Why do demographics matter to HBO anyways?
Well, presumably they matter in the general sense as they relate to subscription revenue (and, eventually to DVDs and other revenue streams). My guess is young males devote more bucks to entertainment than gray beards, so, producing entertainment for youngish people, especially males, means you'll have more subscribers.
There's also the growing lucre to be had in product placement. I betcha TiVo and Apple shelled out bigtime for their prominence in Sex and the City.
Posted by: P.B. Almeida | Jan 9, 2005 6:20:16 PM
Apple never pays for product placement. They show up so often because a disproportionate number of Hollywood writers are Mac fanatics.
Posted by: Hank Scorpio | Jan 9, 2005 6:50:38 PM
What makes all y'all think The Wire is going to get cancelled? That seems an unlikely outcome to me. The show has buzz, and that's what HBO cares about.
And why doesn't anyone around here seem to give a shit about the Sopranos? Is it backlash because the Sopranos has been the ultra-hyped show for so long? If so, you're missing out. The hype is deserved.
"I'm still bitter over the cancellation of K Street (and yes, as a matter of fact I am aware I'm the only soul in the Western Hemisphere who feels this way)."
You're not alone. How could any reader of this site not love that show?
It was about K Street inside baseball. It was directed by Soderbergh in full-on Schizopolis mode. And Roger Guenveur Smith was in it. What more could you ask for?
"In case the reason you want to cancel The Wire is that it's demographic appeal is limited to young men..."
Unlike advertisers or broadcasters, HBO and the other pay-cablers don't care about demographic appeal. They only care about making people subscribe.
Posted by: Petey | Jan 9, 2005 7:24:50 PM
I would think demographic appeal would still matter with regard to syndication. The show may not have advertising now, but it will if it is syndicated to other channels as was done with Sex and the City.
Posted by: gswift | Jan 9, 2005 8:55:35 PM
"I would think demographic appeal would still matter with regard to syndication."
I'm guessing here, but since only runaway successes like SITC make syndie, I'd say DVD sales are a far more important secondary market consideration.
And in DVD sales, much as in original pay-cable programming, audience size and intensity are much more important than any demographic concerns.
Posted by: Petey | Jan 9, 2005 8:59:35 PM
Re the comment that apple products appear in shows and movies because Hollywood writers are mac fanatics...
Well, as one of those writers, I have to say this: (1) The idea that anybody listens to what any WRITER thinks should be in any shot, in any show or movie, is laughable. (2) what's in any given scene or shot within a scene is put there by the production designer under the supervision of the director and producers, after having been specified (usually implicitly) by the writer. BUT any writer mentioning brand names in his or her script would be widely mocked (unless it's the brand of gun or car). (3) any identifiable brand name product that's visible in any shot has to be pre-approved by legal at the network or studio. You would NEVER allow a brand name product to appear in your movie or show without clearance, and there are plenty of instances of things like this slipping through the cracks and resulting in deleted shots or scenes, stuff edited out of videos, things digitally altered, and so on. (4) It would be very strange indeed for a studio or network to take it upon itself to put macs in its shows or movies, when there are plenty of competing companies who will happily pay for placement and, p.s. there are entire departments of studios devoted just to finding product placement in order to, obviously, bring down the movie's bottom line. (5) I've been doing this for fifteen years, and I know a lot of writers, and, just like everyone else, they mostly use PCs. (I use a mac, by the way.)
Posted by: quisp | Jan 9, 2005 9:01:15 PM
quisp,
- Regarding the the ranking in the pecking order of the shmucks with Underwoods, you're quite on target.
- Apple does not pay for placement in films. Even the legendary Independence Day placement was unpaid.
The reasons for studios placing Apples for free are myriad.
Apple connotes a certain style and elegance. Apple does offer free use of machines for post-production, although they take the machines back afterwards. Apple did extensive outreach to the film community during the 90's, and even now, if you wander through Sundance, for example, you'll see a huge Apple presence. And finally, directors and art directors just seem to think Apple is cool.
Posted by: Petey | Jan 9, 2005 10:19:27 PM
Gee quisp, back in 2002 when I called out a character wearing an iPod in a feature script, not only did nobody laugh at me, the when the film was released the next year-- voila! -- the character was wearing an iPod. Go figure.
Posted by: Hank Scorpio | Jan 9, 2005 10:21:50 PM
When I was 23 I almost certainly said something similar to the "Baltimore-drug-dealer" remark to a Web-designer chick, and thought I was playing it cool. But now I'm pretty sure that is part of the reason she didn't return my phone call. That, and the fact that I still parted my hair on the side and wore white socks.
Posted by: superdude | Jan 9, 2005 10:38:31 PM
I guess addressing her as "Web Designer Chick" didn't score that many points either. Or when I called her alma mater, Reed College, a "hippy college." Or, or, or...
Yeah, I was playing it pretty cool alright, considering I wanted to see her again.
Posted by: superdude | Jan 9, 2005 10:41:51 PM
Shorter MY:
I'm a playa.
Posted by: Realish | Jan 9, 2005 11:25:51 PM
The 10:41 superdude post was an impostor. But then, I might be too. But I'm not, trust me.
Posted by: superdude | Jan 10, 2005 1:31:00 AM
Yeah I love that show! The Wire is the only thing good left on television. Well that and Curb your Enthusiasm.
Posted by: Bozzy | Jan 10, 2005 1:35:40 AM
OK, so, um. A lot of comments seem to have had their attribution switched. Might want to check that. Or get a better commenting system. I'm not complaining. Just saying.
--superdude
Posted by: impostor | Jan 10, 2005 3:03:55 AM
Oh. Wait. Those comments were correctly attributed after all, it just doesn't look that way on account of the crappy layout. My bad.
Posted by: superdude | Jan 10, 2005 3:06:25 AM
hank scorpio: i guess i should have allowed an additional exception for brand names that replace the generic term; ipod, kleenex, xerox, post-it, etc.. I would have if I didn't think it goes without saying.
Meanwhile, as to the Apple doesn't pay for placement thing: it seems to me that giving studios free stuff for post is payment. certainly the UPM would think so, and it's his budget. And even your (Hank's) iPod had to be covered by an agreement between Apple and the studio; if it weren't, it would have been replaced by something generic, or by the product of someone else who would pay for placement.
Posted by: quisp | Jan 10, 2005 3:32:13 AM
