Pandora's Box, page 37
7. “I felt I was out of step”: David Chase, in discussion with the author, 2006.
8. “David was embedded in the belly of the beast”: Allen Coulter, in discussion with the author, February 22, 2019.
9. “I didn’t really watch much television”: David Chase, in discussion with the author, 2006.
10. “You know, we believe you have a great television series”: Ibid.
11. “Network dramas have not been personal”: Ibid.
12. An only child, he had a lot of “issues”: Ibid.
13. “belittled David”: Denise Kelly, in discussion with the author, January 16, 2007.
14. “a nervous woman who dominated”: David Chase, in discussion with the author, 2006.
15. “She is his emotional rock”: Larry Konner, in discussion with the author, December 20, 2006.
16. “It’s not that she is Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm”: Emma Brockes, “David Chase on Why He Wrote The Sopranos: ‘I Needed Help. I Needed Therapy,’” Guardian, September 16, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/sep/16/david-chase-the-sopranos-best-tv-21st-century.
17. “When Denise’s younger sister died”: Ibid.
18. “Instead of focusing on Denise”: David Chase, in discussion with the author, 2006.
19. “I slept eighteen hours a day”: Ibid.
20. “‘Who’s the old guy that’s writing this script’”: Kevin Reilly, in discussion with the author, July 28, 2021.
21. “On network, everybody says exactly”: David Chase, in discussion with the author, 2006.
22. “talked about cancer, cancer, cancer”: Ibid.
23. “Because of The Larry Sanders Show”: Confidential source, in discussion with the author.
24. “to see if we could put the bad guy”: Bob Greenblatt, in discussion with the author, June 22, 2020.
25. “has an unerring system for detecting”: David Chase, in discussion with the author, 2006.
26. “I said to myself, This show is about a guy”: Chris Albrecht, in discussion with the author, December 13, 2006.
27. “But,” he says, “I knew I could do it”: James Gandolfini, in discussion with the author, January 5, 2007.
28. “What happens every time is that people come in and read”: David Chase, in discussion with the author, January 16, 2007.
29. “where doing TV was a no-no”: Edie Falco, in discussion with the author, January 13, 2006.
30. “I’m not a Hollywood guy”: Steven Van Zandt, in discussion with the author, November 29, 2006.
31. “It wasn’t four pretty women in Manhattan”: Brett Martin, Difficult Men (New York: Penguin Press, 2013), 68.
32. “Chris had his head in his hands”: Kevin Reilly, in discussion with the author, August 5, 2021.
33. “Oz was different”: Chris Albrecht, in discussion with the author, December 13, 2006.
34. “For us, it was a real stretch”: Jeff Bewkes, in discussion with the author, December 20, 2006.
35. “It was, If we’re gonna get into the series business”: Chris Albrecht, in discussion with the author, December 13, 2006.
36. “I saw this sourpuss coming towards me”: Robin Green, in discussion with the author, December 19, 2006.
37. “Party of Five didn’t care if we left”: Robin Green, in discussion with the author, December 18, 2006.
38. “They were real humans”: Ibid.
39. “She sat there stone-faced”: Allen Coulter, in discussion with the author, August 17, 2019.
40. “‘Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh’”: Confidential source, in discussion with the author.
41. “People would get very anxious”: Carolyn Strauss, in discussion with the author, February 1, 2022.
42. “She didn’t like meeting new people”: Confidential source, in discussion with the author.
43. “The percentage of shows that make it from pitch to screen”: Carolyn Strauss, in discussion with the author, February 1, 2022.
44. “She was one of the smartest people in the building”: Confidential source, in discussion with the author.
45. “Carolyn would go”: Kevin Reilly, in discussion with the author, August 5, 2021.
46. “We were thinking, Oh, here’s another television writer”: Bob Greenblatt, in discussion with the author, June 22, 2021.
47. “I had just discovered The Sopranos”: Jennifer Wood, “‘Six Feet Under’: The Oral History of HBO’s Beloved Landmark Series,” Rolling Stone, August 20, 2015, https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/six-feet-under-hbo-oral-history-160927.
48. “She said, ‘Could you just make it just a little more fucked-up?’”: “Six Feet Under: In Memoriam,” directed by Jesse Gordon, Six Feet Under: The Complete Series (2005; United States: HBO Home Video), DVD.
49. “The version of Carolyn that we got”: Bob Greenblatt, in discussion with the author, June 22, 2021.
50. “everybody felt like they had to give notes”: Thomas Fahy, Alan Ball: Conversations (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2013), 49.
51. “HBO was just completely open to this”: Bob Greenblatt, in discussion with the author, June 22, 2020.
52. “There was a lot of my own story in Six Feet Under”: Alan Ball, in discussion with the author, August 21, 2011.
53. “Oh, God has dealt me some blows”: Sharon Waxman, “Alan Ball’s Life After Death,” Washington Post, May 26, 2002, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/2002/05/26/alan-balls-life-after-death/47492a0b-169b-4e13-8663-6d8747fc6a20/.
54. “I had written a comedic piece”: Joey Soloway, in discussion with the author, October 28, 2020.
55. “‘Can I direct an episode?’”: Ibid.
56. “Nobody had ever paid attention to us before”: Chris Albrecht, in discussion with the author, December 13, 2006.
57. “David was a guy who, for twenty-five years”: Larry Konner, in discussion with the author, December 20, 2006.
58. “‘You’re equating Six Feet Under’”: Robin Green, in discussion with the author.
59. “I walked in, there was a stampede”: James Gandolfini, in discussion with the author, January 15, 2007.
60. “We were like the Beatles”: Ilene Landress, in discussion with the author, December 26, 2006.
61. “I was living in the meat market district”: James Gandolfini, in discussion with the author, January 5, 2007.
62. “When you threw that steak at Tony”: Annabella Sciorra, in discussion with the author, January 13, 2007.
63. “I was getting stopped on Fifth Avenue”: Joey Pantoliano, in discussion with the author, January 1, 2007.
64. “less yakking, more whacking”: Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall, The Sopranos Sessions (New York: Abrams Press, 2019), ebook, 1,129.
65. “You know, you’ve created one of the best characters”: David Chase, in discussion with the author, 2006.
66. “I’ve got a picture of William Holden”: Graham Yost, in discussion with the author, September 9, 2020.
67. “Matt Groening said to me”: Robin Green, in discussion with the author, December 18, 2006.
68. “Materialism and capitalism and the failure of America”: James Gandolfini, in discussion with the author, January 5, 2007.
69. “The assumption in broadcast”: David Nevins, in discussion with the author, August 9, 2021.
70. “In one scene, he had nothing more to do”: Allen Coulter, in discussion with the author, February 22, 2019.
71. “What’s the difference if I call him”: Terry Winter, in discussion with the author, November 14, 2006.
72. The actors formed a close-knit group: Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa with Philip Lerman, Woke Up This Morning (New York: William Morrow, 2021), 45.
73. Among the new subscribers the show attracted: Ibid., 287.
74. “got a phone call, and came back”: Allen Coulter, in discussion with the author, February 22, 2019.
75. As Chase puts it, “He didn’t like”: Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa with Philip Lerman, Woke Up This Morning (New York: William Morrow, 2021), 111.
76. “Unlike some actors who are just plain aggressive”: Allen Coulter, in discussion with the author, February 22, 2019.
77. “perhaps the only storytelling on television”: Margaret Talbot, “Stealing Life,” New Yorker, October 14, 2007, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/10/22/stealing-life.
78. “So much of what comes out of Hollywood”: Ibid.
79. “brilliant, brilliant writer”: Dan Attias, in discussion with the author, June 24, 2022.
80. “I’m a character actor”: Joel Murphy, “One on One with Michael K. Williams,” HoboTrashcan, August 23, 2005, https://www.hobotrashcan.com/2005/08/23/one-on-one-with-michael-k-williams.
81. “I went into The Wire like any newly budding actor”: Aisha Harris, “The 20 Best TV Dramas Since The Sopranos,” New York Times, January 10, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/arts/television/best-drama-series.html.
82. “I have these same tendencies as he does”: David Chase, in discussion with the author, 2006.
83. “We’re not allowed to have a temper anymore?”: James Gandolfini, in discussion with the author, January 5, 2007.
84. “What was driving the show”: Larry Konner, in discussion with the author, December 20, 2006.
85. “He has a flame of anger”: Allen Coulter, in discussion with the author August 17, 2019.
86. “If he finds your Achilles’ heel”: Tim Van Patten, in discussion with the author, January 7, 2007.
87. “I’m not running a writing school”: Terry Winter, in discussion with the author November 14, 2006.
88. “Every time David said something”: Robin Green, in discussion with the author, December 19, 2006.
89. “Until I saw Taxi Driver, I was a fan”: Terry Winter, in discussion with the author, May 20, 2022.
90. “I don’t think I hung any pictures”: Ibid.
91. “Don’t fuck with the boss”: Robin Green, in discussion with the author, December 19, 2006.
92. “We do not accept the use of the word”: Todd A. Kessler, in discussion with the author, July 13, 2022.
93. “I could learn a lot from David”: Ibid.
94. “It was time to end our relationship”: Ibid.
95. “I just burst into tears”: Ibid.
96. “He guarded the keys to the kingdom assiduously”: Allen Coulter, in discussion with the author, February 22, 2019.
97. “Once in the third year”: Terry Winter, in discussion with the author, November 14, 2006.
98. “He told us about fucking those girls”: Robin Green, in discussion with the author, January 18, 2006.
99. “There was one episode where Tony needed to get something”: Mitch Burgess, in discussion with the author, December 19, 2006.
100. “David is a person with a lot of rules”: Confidential source, in discussion with the author.
101. “Nobody forgets where they buried”: Robin Green, The Only Girl (New York: Little, Brown, 2018), 251.
Chapter 3: Deadwood and Its Discontents
1. According to The Hollywood Reporter: Stephen Galloway and Scott Johnson, “How the $100 Million NYPD Blue Creator Gambled Away His Fortune,” Daily News, February 17, 2016, https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/nypd-blue-creator-gambled-fortune-article-1.2535250.
2. “We are all literally part of the mind of God”: Mark Singer, “The Misfit,” New Yorker, February 6, 2005, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/02/14/the-misfit-2.
3. “Quite honestly, I don’t think I understand”: Jeffrey MacIntyre, “The Professor and the Madman,” Slate, August 31, 2016, https://slate.com/culture/2006/08/the-genius-behind-hbo-s-deadwood.html.
4. “David Genius”: Carolyn Strauss, in discussion with the author, January 21, 2022.
5. “impersonating a human being”: Mark Singer, “The Misfit,” New Yorker, February 6, 2005, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/02/14/the-misfit-2.
6. “At least one time I pissed”: David Milch, Life’s Work: A Memoir (New York: Random House, 2022), 61.
7. “he would never expect me to act”: Ibid., 66.
8. “The guys at the network loved”: Robin Green, in discussion with the author, September 17, 2019.
9. “That’s terrific, but we got one”: “David Milch Interview,” interviewed by Stephen J. Abramson, Television Academy Foundation: The Interviews, December 27, 2012, video, https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/david-milch.
10. “Don’t go anywhere”: Ibid.
11. “a degenerate gambler”: Lance Pugmire, “Q&A: David Milch on Horse Racing and Iconic TV Series,” Los Angeles Times, December 25, 2011, https://www.latimes.com/sports/la-xpm-2011-dec-25-la-sp-pugmire-qa-20111226-story.html.
12. “Success breeds fear as much as failure”: Tom Fontana, in discussion with the author, July 25, 2017.
13. “I am very lucky that I have had any kind”: David Milch, Life’s Work: A Memoir (New York: Random House, 2022), 215.
14. “criminal enterprise”: Ibid., 156.
15. “how people improvised the structures”: Mark Singer, “The Misfit,” New Yorker, February 6, 2005, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/02/14/the-misfit-2.
16. “so soaked with obscenity”: David Milch, Life’s Work: A Memoir (New York: Random House, 2022), 163.
17. “I wanted to show”: Ibid.
18. “Put one fuck in the wrong place”: Stephen Phelan, “Put a ‘Fuck’ in the Wrong Place . . . ,” first published in The Sunday Herald, July 2005, Stephen Phelan (website), https://www.stephenphelan.co.uk/articles/mcshanedeadwood.
19. “You would read something”: Terry Gross, “Revisiting Deadwood with Star Timothy Olyphant and Creator David Milch,” NPR, May 31, 2019, in Fresh Air, podcast, https://www.npr.org/2019/05/31/728624943/revisiting-deadwood-with-star-timothy-olyphant-and-creator-david-milch.
20. “The first time I saw Ian giving a speech”: Paula Malcomson, in discussion with the author, July 31, 2020.
21. “Of course, you couldn’t say that now”: Ian McShane, in discussion with the author, July 31, 2020.
22. “Maybe some other actors might”: Paula Malcomson, in discussion with the author, July 31, 2020.
23. “You couldn’t keep killing people”: Ian McShane, in discussion with the author, July 31, 2020.
24. “The thing about Al”: Brian Cox, in discussion with the author, June 24, 2020.
25. “So even against his will”: “David Milch Interview,” interviewed by Stephen J. Abramson, Television Academy Foundation: The Interviews, December 27, 2012, video, https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/david-milch.
26. “venture capitalist catnip”: Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work (New York: Little, Brown, 2019), 158.
27. “I really loved software”: Ken Auletta, “Outside the Box,” New Yorker, January 26, 2014, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/03/outside-the-box-2.
28. the mind of a “supercomputer”: Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work (New York: Little, Brown, 2019), 6.
29. “unencumbered by emotion”: Shalini Ramachandran and Joe Flint, “At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks,” Wall Street Journal, October 25, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-netflix-radical-transparency-and-blunt-firings-unsettle-the-ranks-1540497174.
30. “Videotapes,” and Hastings responded: Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work (New York: Little, Brown, 2019), chap. 2, iBooks.
31. “Our hard drive knows”: Ibid., chap. 9.
32. “It’s like a taxi”: Ibid.
33. a “shit sandwich”: Ibid., chap. 12.
34. “What the fuck, Reed”: Ibid.
35. think of a “turtle”: Ibid., chap. 10.
36. “lie on the floor”: Kim Masters, “Michael Mann, David Milch Split Duties to Settle Power Struggle on HBO’s Luck,” Hollywood Reporter, April 21, 2011, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/michael-mann-david-milch-split-181092.
37. “I can’t stress enough”: Paula Malcomson, in discussion with the author, July 31, 2020.
38. “They were poetic and profane”: Robin Weigert, in discussion with the author, July 19, 2020.
39. “He allowed us to have co-authorship”: Paula Malcomson, in discussion with the author, July 31, 2020.
