YouTube - The Wire Season 1 Opening & Intro
This classic never gets old.
Jason Kottke posted a link to several scripts from episodes of The Wire, along with a copy of the pitch document David Simon sent to HBO to create the show. The overview section is interesting because it demonstrates that the extreme depth of The Wire that was the main reason for its creation. The show’s analysis of each component of the American City was always intended to be broken down on a season by season basis: S1 = The Streets, S2 = The Working Class, et cetera.
This makes me wonder how much other serial story-driven productions are thought out beforehand and have a good grasp on their intent. I would be willing to bet that the Lost pitch didn’t get past episode 10 or 11 with any kind of explanation or direction.
(Pardon the crappy MediaFire hosting links for the scripts. I’ve reposted the pitch PDF to my own host so it’s easier…)
Pretty fantastic roundtable about The Wire, including David Simon, Wendell “The Bunk” Pierce, Clarke “Freamon” Peters, Clark Johnson, Seth “Carver” Gilliam, and Richard Price.
The Museum of the Moving Image has a ton of talks and interviews with fascinating people. Here are a few others: PT Anderson & Daniel Day-Lewis, Brad Bird, Kenneth Branagh & Michael Caine (‘cause I love me some Michael Caine).
“David Simon has said that, when working on the book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, Jay Landsman and he discussed the possibility that homicide detectives would be able to communicate solely through the word “fuck”. Years later, in this episode, he fulfilled this fantasy by having Bunk and McNulty successfully work a crime scene, communicating only through that word.” (link)
One of the classic scenes of American television (watch it here).
