We've felt the effect of HBO
By: Jonathan Barnes
Dr McKahan
History of TV
Shepherd University
When the television was invented there was probably a small percentage of people who
thought it would turn into what it did. TV has had an impact on almost every household all over
to world. To think about how far television programs have come within the short amount of time
TV has been around is remarkable. When the television was released there were not very many
channels to choose from. Now we have options of different cable packages that supply over 800
channels. One of those channels that has changed the way many of us view TV is HBO. Home
Box Office (HBO) has broken the mold of regular network TV since it was created. From the
regular scheduled movies they play, to the groundbreaking series' they create. All of HBO's
programs offer the viewer something they would never see on network television, hence their
slogan “It's not TV, it's HBO”. Not only was it the first pay channel created, but it has become a
household name to people even if they do not subscribe to their service. It has truly given us a
new outlook on how we view television.
HBO was first created when “cable entrepreneur Charles Dolan conceived the network in
1971.” (Edgerton , 2008) It was obvious that they were not out to copy any of the major networks.
They wanted to be unique from the start. “HBO was based entirely on a different economic
model than the one followed by the three major networks ABC, NBC, CBS, their affiliates, and
the countries independent stations, which all sold specific audiences to sponsors.” (Edgerton,
2008). Even though the network has most likely had changes through the 30+ years, it has still
been able to stick to the plan they originally started with by giving the viewers something they
will thoroughly enjoy. It has done this with their sports coverage, original programming, and
movie selction. All of the options HBO gives the viewer have a unique way they present material
to the audience. They are not held back by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) so
they are free to explore the topics other channels shy away from.
When you turn on one of the many different HBO channels you will most likely find a
movie. This is what the channel was started for so executives aren't going to get away from what
would eventually make them popular. The movies they play range from old classic movies, to the
Saturday night premiere which is usually a popular movie that had good box office sales. In
Marc Leverette book It's not TV: watching HBO in the post-television era she goes on to say that
“the network operates like a model for cable stations: very old fashion top-40 radio with high
rotation of a tiny amount of programing.” (Leverette , 2008) While offering movies does not seem
like much since many of the networks play movies on a regular basis now, you have to think
about what kind of limited options people had when HBO was first offered. You were not going
to find very many popular movies playing regularly on network television. Even if you were to
watch a movie on TV there are commercials that you have to deal with. One of HBO's major
drawing points is the fact that you do not have to deal with commercials during programs. Their
movie selection during the day time hours is more on the conservative side because of the
audiences they may have during that time period. After 9:00 P.M. their movies are directed for
the young-adult audience. The movies include violence, sexual content, and foul language, which
is obviously not suitable for a younger audience to see. Their late night lineup is another draw for
the adult audience. These movies are played after midnight, and contain a lot of nudity, sexual
content, and language. There are no other channels on cable television other than pay-channels
that show nudity on a regular basis. Even though it too is a pay-channel having nudity on
television was unheard of to many people who were used to wholesome family TV.
While there are tons of movies being show daily on HBO, people forget that they do a ton
of work in sports broadcasting, and sport documentaries. According to Gary Edgerton “HBO
had been struggling in the beginning, but when Gerald Levin took over it started the network that
we all know and love today. HBO inaugurated its satellite-cable service with the muchballyhooed “Thrilla in Manila” boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.”
(Edgerton , 2008) Boxing has been their number one money maker since the network began.
“During Seth Abraham's tenure as President of Sports boxing was the unquestioned centerpiece
of HBO sports.” (Hauser, 2009). It started with Muhammad Ali and has keep up their standards
of showing prize fights that they know people will want to watch. “HBO wants stars. It focuses
its efforts of building starts. It gives a handful of fighters exposure; gets them wins; hopes they'll
look good; and then put them on pay-per-view.” (Hauser, 2009). With more and more channels
being created the network knew they would have to broaden their horizons with their sports
coverage. “In 1995, HBO Sports launched its successful Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.”
(Raney, 2006) The show takes viewers beyond just the sport and lets you into what these athletes
go through. HBO has followed this theme after the success of Real Sports with the creation of
Hard Knocks, which follows a National Football League team through their training camp. There
have also been many more stories that have spawned specials whenever there is a sports
controversy or big event. Even thought HBO is not known for broadcasting regular sporting
events, they show you certain aspects of sports that ESPN or any other sports networks do not.
They were groundbreaking in bringing the athletes closer to you than anyone had before, and by
making them seem human. ESPN has just now started to follow HBO's trend of broadcasting
documentary style shows about different athletes. It took them 15 years to catch onto the
successful side of sports.
These days some people know HBO more for their original programing than their
movies. They have had countless shows that are popular among a wide range of people all over
the country. It all started with the show OZ. It was a groundbreaking show because of the issues
it dealt with, along with the graphic images that were being shown on TV for the first time in a
serial. “HBO quickly established itself as pushing the boundaries of serial television” (Edgerton ,
2008). It would only escalate from that point into many different serials that catered to certain
demographics while still keeping the integrity of the HBO standard. A fair amount of the shows
are critically acclaimed, and have won major awards for respective categories.
The Soprano family changed HBO forever. “After starting with OZ in 1997 it was
obvious that HBO had matured with the introduction of The Sopranos in 1999, it's stable of highperformance originals renewed the channel and sealed its reputation as a groundbreaking leader
in programming.” (Leverette , 2008) The Soprano family was known in households all over the
country even if you did not subscribe to HBO. It was all many people could talk about for the
seven years it was on, and is still talked about to this day. The plot of the show concentrated on a
wealthy family that was knowingly associated with the mob. The week to week suspense of, who
will get killed this week?, helped draw fans in for every episode. Many movies like Scarface,
Public Enemy, and The Godfather were all very popular movies so it was not a surprise that
people were fascinated with this family for so many years. There were not any shows on
television at the time that directly dealt with organized crime, so HBO took a risk by dealing
with a topic like the mafia. The show went on to win many awards, and even though the season
finale was widely debated “The Soprano's has secured its landmark status in American culture
history.” (Edgerton, 2008)
The network knew they were onto something after two of their original programs had
become widely popular. The network decided to keep the train rolling and created the show Six
Feet Under. “Six Feet Under debuted in 2001 and HBO anticipated success, commissioning a
second season before the first had even aired.” (Edgerton , 2008) HBO was right about their
prediction of the shows success. “It received the highest ratings among any HBO series its first
season” (Edgerton , 2008) By this point the network must of realized that the formula for
producing groundbreaking serials was working. Six Feet Under dealt with a family working in a
funeral parlor where death was not an uncommon topic of conversation. There were also family
issues being dealt with in every episode but Edgartin goes on to say that “never in the history of
American television contemplated the frailty of our lives in such a quirky yet deeply
introspective way” (Edgerton , 2008)
Like the Soprano's HBO created another drama series in The Wire. It was unlike HBO to
follow trends of network TV, but The Wire was a show that did exactly that. The trend at the time
was cop shows that were airing on the major networks. They were very popular and “The Wire
was a direct result against that most venerable of TV genres, the cop show” (Edgerton , 2008). The
series takes place in Baltimore, Maryland who's crime rate is very high, and drug trafficking is
very common. In The Wire: Truth be told author Rafael Alvarez along with one of the shows
creators David Simon go on to say that “The Wire is not about its main characters. Or crime. Or
punishment. Or drugs. Or violence. Or even race. It is about the City.” ( Alvarez, 2008). The
writers of the show worked in Baltimore their whole lives and have tried to make it as realistic as
possible. They have taken from their own encounters with people they have met along the way to
create the mini-series The Corner, which later spawned the idea for The Wire. The show does not
shy away from the fact that Baltimore is not one of the best cities to live in. The Wire had
Baltimore natives who acted in the show to make it as realistic as possible. Although HBO
followed the trend of creating a cop drama, they did it in a way that none of the major networks
doing. They did not have to sugar coat anything from the viewer so they could show the true
nature of the how the city operated through their police department, media, government, and
school system. The show gives viewers a glimpse at what life has been like in the small city of
Baltimore. Even though it was “Widely regarded as one of the greatest television shows ever
made,” (Alvarez, 2008) The Wire's ratings were not as high as The Soprano's or Six Feet Under.
Since HBO releases DVD's of their shows people have heard about it through word of mouth and
have been able see what the critics have been talking about.
HBO was not only putting out hit drama series, they were also very successful in the
comedy genre. Sex and The City was, and still is a world wide hit. As simple as a show about
four single women in New York City sounded, it gained cult followings. “Like its network,
which promised something more than TV, Sex and The City evolved into a weekly forum on
American dating rituals and sexual semiotics, energizing the networks upscale demographic into
heated conversations at the water-cooler and the bedroom.” (Edgerton , 2008) Sex and the City
influenced many women to act a certain way. They would live vicariously through their favorite
character; dressing like them, acting like them, and their lingo. In the book It's not TV:watching
HBO in the post-television era goes on to sat that “by the end of Sex and The City we are no so
much interested in what Carrie (The Main Character) “means,” as in demonstrating how Carrie,
in fashioning her own identity, affords viewers the the symbolic resources to (re)fashion theirs.”
(Leverette , 2008) When Sex and the City debuted in the late 90's none of the network channels
were producing anything as adult related as Sex and The City was. The shows creator Darren
Star “took the show to ABC, but the commercial network was troubled by the adult sexuality of
Star's idea.” (Edgerton , 2008) The major networks had shows more geared towards family life at
that time. ABC most likely regrets the fact that they had a chance to score this hit TV show, and
it is obvious that they tried to copy off the success of the show with Desperate Housewife's.
Other networks also followed the trend of mixing adult sexuality into their serials after the
success of the show. Although Sex and The City has not been of for a couple years, they are still
keeping their audience drawn to the show with the release of two movies.
While HBO was finding success in many different areas, they found even more when
they took on the project Band of Brothers. Keeping with HBO's theme of realism and originality
the network decided to make a thrilling war mini-series. Like Sex and the City, Band of Brothers
was started as a book about the 101'st airborne in WWII. “The recent cycle of WWII movies was
cresting, thanks to hit films like Saving Private Ryan, and The Thin Red Line. HBO's Band of
Brothers marked the culmination of that cycle in two very different ways.” (Edgerton , 2008) Even
though they were following a popular trend of war movies, the network brought in big time
producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks to keep their up their standards of producing high
quality work. Band of Brother was “budgeted at over 120 million dollars, and was the most
ambitious project ever produced for TV. (Edgerton , 2008) The mini-series was unique in that it
was kind of a mixture between a movie, and series. It started out as a very popular series, but
“one could only speculate how Band of Brothers might have fared with viewers and critics under
different circumstances.” (Edgerton , 2008). It's release date was September 9, 2001 and just two
days after America was stunned by the terrorist attack that took place in New York and
Washington, DC. People were not ready to watch or even think about war after the terrible
attack that happened that day. Although it did not get the ratings it hoped for how much work
they put into it. The show was eventually spread through word of mouth so it was seen on DVD
by many people. It was also syndicated on networks to help let people view it who do not own
the DVD or subscribe to HBO. Their new series The Pacific is trying to mimic the success of the
hit show Band of Brothers. It too is based on books written by people who fought during WWII.
It is also produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks who came back after the success of Band
of Brothers. The network is keeping with the trend of telling true stories that gain peoples
attention and make them more interested in the subject. Band of Brother did just that in helping
people learn things about WWII that they not ordinarily known before. The network made it
realistic enough for people to actually picture what many of theses soldiers and citizens went
through during one of the worst wars in history.
One of the main advantages as to why HBO has been so popular is the fact that they can
run programs without having advertisements. Without having advertisements HBO is able to
show programs that run longer than most network. They are able to do this because you must
subscribe to the HBO service. “Television is hands-down the most influential way to advertise
products” ( Cappo, 2003). Advertising agencies know they are missing out on being able to
advertise for many of these programs, but there is nothing they will ever be able to do about it
unless HBO becomes a non-pay channel. There is practically no chance that will ever happen so
HBO will continue to produce commercial free programming. HBO does not lose money off of
not having advertising because “the subscription fees totally support advertising-free channels
like HBO.” (Cappo, 2003) Some channels will be able to offer you programs presented to you
with limited commercial interruption, but none of them will be able to offer you commercial free
programs like HBO.
HBO started something that other networks knew worked. Different pay-channels have
been popping up ever since the network became successful. It has spawned networks like
Showtime, and Starz. Both of those networks have also followed in HBO's footsteps by creating
original programming. Showtime has had a lot of success with their hit TV shows Dexter, and
Weeds. You could make an argument that without the originality that HBO first showed by
introducing it raw and edgy original programing, neither of these networks would be as popular
as they are.
It would've been hard to predict that HBO would turn into what it did. For the 30+ years
it has been around, HBO has been able to take the television standard to a new level. They were
historic in becoming the first-pay channel, but if you were to ask many of the people who
subscribe, they would say that it is well worth the money. The viewers pay for this channel with
their hard earned money and expects to be rewarded with great movies, shows, and sports. They
are in fact rewarded with critically acclaimed and award winning shows like The Soprano's, Six
Feet Under, and Sex and The City. Then there are raw shows that hold nothing back like; The
Wire, and Oz. HBO has serials that cater to certain demographics, but that does not mean that
they are not like by all people. Their money also pays for very popular movies. These movies
were typically box office hits, and if they are not new movies there were at one time popular.
Like their Original series' they have movies movies that fall into many different categories. HBO
also gave their viewers a different view into sports that no other network had attempted to do.
Their sports documentaries were one of a kind, and the boxing matches were prized fights. Most
major networks have a certain aspect in which they try to strive at. HBO has not one but many
different aspect the strive at. They were and still are a groundbreaking network that will continue
to change how many of us view television for the rest of our lives.
Raney, Aurthur. “Handbook of Sports Media.” Ed. Bryant, Jennings. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Inc., 2006. Print
Edgerton, Richard. “The Essential HBO Reader” Ed. Jones, Jeffery. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of
Kentucky, 2008. Print