HBO: The New Tiffany Network

CBS, in its heyday from the 1950s to the 1970s, used to be called the Tiffany Network because of the quality of its programming. This was a time when the networks dominated television and there was no competition from cable networks or video rentals. People used to stay home on Saturday evenings to watch the prime-time lineup of M*A*S*H*, All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, and Carol Burnett, probably the greatest lineup of sitcoms and variety shows in the history of television.

Sadly, no one would call CBS, or any other broadcast network, a Tiffany network today. However, in my opinion, there is a new Tiffany network, namely Home Box Office, or HBO.

Historically, once or twice a year HBO has come up with a program or series that has made having a cable service and paying a premium to subscribe to HBO worthwhile. In the past, HBO has givn us such gems as the following:

From Earth to the Moon, the story of how the United States put a man on the moon in the 1960s. The theatrical film The Right Stuff also told this story very well, but in my opinion the HBO series, because it could take the time to tell the story in great detail, was even better. The series was executive-produced by Tom Hanks, who has had a hand in several other high-profile HBO projects.

Band of Brothers, the true story of a company of paratroopers in World War II, co-executive-produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

The Wire, David Simon's gritty series on various types of crime in Baltimore, where he had been a newspaper reporter. This excellent series went on for five seasons.

The Gathering Storm, an adaptation of the first volume of Winston Churchill's World War II memoirs, starring Albert Finney as Churchill. Finney was incredible in the role. I'm old enough to remember seeing news clips of Churchill. In his first scene, Finney steps out of a car to view the countryside. My first reaction was, "My God--he is Churchill."

This was followed by an adaptation of the second volume of Churchill's memoirs, the name of which escapes me, starring Brendan Fraser. This was also an excellent program, although perhaps not quite as good as the earlier one.

The list goes on:

Wit, starring Emma Thompson
Angels in America, starring Emma Thompson and Al Pacino

Last year, HBO gave us Taking Chance, starring Kevin Bacon in a true story about a Marine who accompanies the remains of another Marine from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to the home of the deceased Marine's parents. The real story is in the people he meets along the way and the lengths that they went to to show respect to the dead Marine. If you despair of the ugliness that seems to characterize some American citizens today, this film will help to restore your faith in this country.

This year, however, HBO has outdone itself.

First came The Pacific, an outstanding series that followed several Marines as they fought in the South Pacific during World War II. Also co-executive-produced by Hanks and Spielberg, the series spared no expense in showing the horrors of the battles in the Pacific and what these men had to go through.

This was followed by Treme, David Simon's series on the difficulties faced by the African-American residents of the Treme district in New Orleans, one year after Hurricane Katrina. Although not as good as Simon's The Wire, in my opinion, it was rich with performances by today's best New Orleans musicians. I'm hoping that it returns for a second season.

Treme was followed by the biopic about Jack Kevorkian, starring Al Pacino. I haven't seen it so I can't comment on it.

Now we have Boardwalk Empire, a fictionalized account of the corruption in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition era. It was executive-produced by Martin Scorsese, who directed the first episode. That episode wasn't exactly vintage Scorsese, in my opinion, but to my knowledge it is the only television program that Scorsese has ever directed, unless he did some TV work in his early days that I don't know about. Nevertheless, the series is well worth watching.

HBO quality doesn't stop with its big productions. It has many highly-regarded regular series, which I won't comment on because I haven't seen them, and gives regular exposure to many documentaries. For years, it's been home to the country's best stand-up comedians, and its boxing coverage is excellent. Finally, many good movies wind up on HBO after the pay-per-view stage.

It's easy to lament the quality of television programming today, especially at the broadcast network level. But it's also nice to know that there is still a network that cares about quality and is willing to take risks and give its projects decent budgets, production values, and support.

Leonard Maltin's annual movie guide has many listings labelled "Made for cable." That label generally implies a film that isn't as good as a theatrical release and is just above "Made for television" in quality. In the case of HBO, however, this is simply not the case. In my opinion, there's nothing shameful about making a film for HBO. Its best efforts can hold their own with any theatrical film. I think that Leonard Maltin needs a new label, "Made for HBO."

My hat is off to HBO.