‘Oz’ was cable’s first hour-long drama

Breaking down what makes HBO different

The network took an early gamble on longer episodes and more complicated narratives than a standard television drama. That paid off and, in the process, created what we now consider "prestige TV."

HBO is known for its adventurous original series

The premium network is known for groundbreaking shows like “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City,” “The Wire,” “Game of Thrones,” Succession,” and more. Unlike traditional broadcast television, HBO shows were not bound by strict time limits, advertising, or FCC regulations, allowing for more creative freedom.

HBO is credited for the rise of ‘prestige television’

“Prestige television,” sometimes referred to as “the golden age of TV,” is a critical term for serious, darker, auteur-driven television from the late 1990s through the 2020s. HBO shows are often cited as examples of this style, with “The Sopranos” evolving the style and developing a model for the form.

HBO's success inspired Showtime, AMC, Netflix, and more

HBO’s success in the early 21st century bred plenty of imitators, who were now more willing to embrace darker, more challenging series like “Weeds,” “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad,” and “House of Cards.”

The OJ Simpson case interrupted soaps’ daytime dominance, changing the genre

OJ Simpson's 1995 murder trial was broadcast for months, bumping soap operas from the airwaves. Fittingly, the trial provided the same salacious story lines, compelling characters, and open-ended narratives that soaps offered viewers. The key difference, of course, was that the Simpson trial was real life.

'The Sopranos' is often seen as the start of 'prestige television'

HBO’s The Sopranos followed New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano as he struggled to balance his violent criminal life with his personal and family issues. Its blend of crime drama, pitch-perfect comedy, and intergenerational family dynamics made for a complex show not easily reduced to typical genre tags.

'The Wire' was written by TV outsiders

The landmark HBO crime drama was created and written largely by former Baltimore police reporter David Simon and his creative partner, Ed Burns, a Baltimore police officer and school teacher. Those experiences—and the writers’ relative inexperience with television—led to a show uniquely informed by reality.

HBO Max's 'The Pitt' has found success with an old-school, broadcast-TV production model that harkens back to weekly dramas that mostly disappeared during the streaming era.

HBO's business model is based on driving the cultural conversation

HBO CEO Casey Bloys steered the network’s programming to critical acclaim and cultural relevance with hits like “Succession” and “The White Lotus.” Bloys discusses how the network’s programming evolved as it shifted toward streaming—and how the success of shows like “House of the Dragon” informs HBO’s future.

Before it became the home of 24-hour prestige TV, HBO used to sign off each night.

The most critically acclaimed HBO shows

HBO has released a long list of classic TV shows which have come to define the medium. This Rotten Tomatoes chart ranks HBO’s best series based on their aggregated critics’ scores, with classics like “The Sopranos” and “The Wire” joining newer hits like “Succession” and “Barry.” Check it out here.

David Simon on writing for TV

Few people have done more to define HBO—and American television—than David Simon, creator and writer for “The Wire,” “Treme,” “Show Me a Hero,” and other shows. In this interview, Simon explains how he approaches a script and what he believes TV writers should aim to do beyond entertainment.

'The Wizard of Oz' flopped in theaters but exploded on TV

The film cost $2.7M to make—$1M more than the average production in 1939, but didn’t recoup it for almost two decades. Its success is mainly due to television. It aired annually from 1956 to 1965 and was watched by more than 49% of all television viewers.

The network’s early days were focused on movies and sports

HBO launched in 1972, with an initial focus on commercial-free movies and sports events. The network’s first-ever broadcast was an NHL game between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks, signaling its commitment to premium, live content.

How HBO pioneered the hourlong stand-up comedy special

Stand-up comedy was already on television in the 1970s thanks to Johnny Carson, but comics were limited to clean sets that typically lasted five minutes. HBO, on the other hand, offered stand-ups the opportunity to air their unadulterated material like they would at a club.

HBO’s biggest flops

Although HBO is known for its high-quality programming, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t missed the mark from time to time. Shows like “The Mind of the Married Man” and “John From Cincinnati” missed the mark in numerous ways, with both critics and audiences.

‘Twin Peaks’ was David Lynch’s ode to the soap opera

In the 1980s, David Lynch was primarily known as the director of art films like “Eraserhead” and “Blue Velvet.” But “Twin Peaks,” his primetime ABC show with writer Mark Frost, was a take on the soap opera, leaning into the genre’s tropes: stilted dialogue, affairs, missing person, and melodrama.

Soap operas are long-form, serialized melodramas

The genre was historically aimed at housewives, and its storylines often involve romantic entanglements and family dynamics that transpired over many years. Media scholar Robert J. Thompson called the soap opera “arguably the most unique contribution that broadcasting has made to the art of storytelling.”

A former financial crime investigator says Hollywood has done a pretty good job depicting money laundering

A former financial crime investigator says "Narcos" and "Ozark" have pretty realistic scenes, but other well-known financial crime depictions like "The Wolf of Wall Street" are off base. Some of the main inconsistencies include overly dramatic gunfights and unrealistic cash amounts.

The best HBO shows of all time

In addition to establishing the blueprint for TV in the 21st century, HBO has also been responsible for excellent comedies ("Veep"), talk shows ("Last Week Tonight with John Oliver"), and historical dramas ("Chernobyl").

'House of Cards' was Netflix's first original prestige drama

When Netflix released the David Fincher-directed political drama series "House of Cards," it marked a watershed moment for both the company and the broader entertainment industry, dramatically shifting how audiences consumed televised entertainment.

HBO inspired Netflix and vice versa

Netflix's pivot towards original, prestige content would not have been possible if HBO had not blazed that trail decades earlier. Ironically, HBO later used Netflix as a business model when reinventing itself as a streaming app.

The greatest HBO performances, ranked

Carrie Bradshaw, Selina Meyer, Tony Soprano: The list of standout HBO characters is endless. The network is known for fantastic writing and even better acting from the likes of Michael K. Williams, Kieran Culkin, Edie Falco, and hundreds of other A-listers. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

The best cult TV shows

Before the streaming era, television shows lived and died by their weekly ratings. That led to early cancellations for several well-regarded shows, like "Freaks and Geeks," "Party Down," and "Veronica Mars." Thanks to DVD boxsets and streaming, the shows often became cult classics long after they were taken off the air.

Is streaming the new novel?

Ever since the rise of “prestige television” in the early 2000s, critics and viewers alike have argued that TV has replaced the novel by becoming the most significant storytelling medium, citing the cultural importance of shows like “The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” and “Succession.” This essay notes that streaming has strengthened that argument, turning episodes into chapters, and explains why this has been bad for storytelling in both forms.

‘Guiding Light’ was the longest-running scripted drama in broadcast history

The show ran for 72 years, starting as a radio program in 1937, and eventually transitioning to television in 1952. Along the way, it launched several Hollywood stars, like Kevin Bacon, James Earl Jones, and Christopher Walken. CBS canceled the show in 2009.

HBO premiered the modern stand-up special in 1975

When they appeared on TV, stand-ups were typically limited to five-minute spots on late-night talk shows, like "The Tonight Show." That changed with the fledgling HBO, which offered comics hourlong slots. The first was "An Evening with Robert Klein," a special that would define "the hour" for decades.

Soaps often rely on cliffhangers, along with many other tropes

The shows are written to encourage viewers to tune in for the next episode, so they often withhold resolutions for as long as possible. This has become a recognizable trait, or a trope, for the genre. Much like other narrative genres, soap operas intentionally embrace tropes rather than avoid them.

Soap operas were especially popular in the '70s and '80s

Shows like "As the World Turns" and "Love of Life" attracted tens of millions of viewers and had many high-profile fans, including Andy Warhol, Sammy Davis Jr. and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. This Time cover story from 1976 explores the pop culture phenomenon.

Baum wrote 14 'Oz' novels in total

Following the success of ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,’ Baum continued writing about the fictional world until his death, turning the world into a lucrative brand. One of the books, “The Patchwork Girl of Oz,” was turned into a silent film and released in 1914.

‘Horror hosts’ helped build the genre’s cult following

Horror is now considered high art, but much of its cult popularity is due to the B-movies that defined the genre. Starting in the 1950s, many of these low-grade films were licensed on the cheap by television networks to fill airtime, introduced by “horror hosts”—MCs with campy, over-the-top personas.

'Sex and the City' changed the way single women were portrayed on TV

After debuting in 1998, the comedy ran for six seasons on HBO, offering a frank take on the lives of well-to-do single women. Critics argue the show established a model for other shows to follow, including those that aired on HBO, like "Girls" and "Insecure." (Some users may experience a paywall.)

The 'Wicked' movie is based on several previous ‘Oz’ adaptations

Gregory Maguire's novel "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West," published in 1995, is based on"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." It offers an adult-oriented retelling of the Oz story, focusing on Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. The book was then adapted for the stage, which premiered on Broadway in 2003. The Broadway musical was then adapted for the screen—the first film in the series debuted in 2024.

A comprehensive history of 'The Simpsons'

This documentary explores the wild trajectory of the show, from Matt Groening's early underground cartoons to its status as a groundbreaking pop culture phenomenon.

'Twenty-One' producers presented fabricated narratives as reality

Producers of “Twenty-One,” which featured two contestants competing from separate isolation booths, knew the quiz show format could use storytelling in the same way that any fictional program could. They found a perfect narrative in the matchup between Charles Van Doren, an all-American Columbia University instructor, and Herb Stempel, an arrogant Queens native. Stempel intentionally lost the game, pretending not to know the answer to a question about his favorite movie, “Marty.”

L. Frank Baum aimed to make 'Oz' a modern fairy tale

Baum began writing stories for children while working as a traveling salesman and found success with 1899’s “Father Goose, His Book,” a book of nursery rhymes. Its popularity made him realize children did not want moral education; they wanted escapism.

Netflix's 'Kaleidoscope' experimented with non-linear storytelling

Netflix has regularly experimented with how it releases episodes, but its miniseries "Kaleidoscope" experimented with linear storytelling by crafting a show that supposedly allowed viewers to enjoy the show in any order they pleased.

Soaps often air every day, leading to frantic production schedules

Unlike more typical primetime or streaming shows, soap operas often air every weekday. That means writers and actors often work every day to complete a new episode, making for a grueling schedule. It also explains why some of the dialogue and performances might seem a bit off-the-cuff.

'RedZone' intentionally appealed to fantasy fans

This short documentary explains how the NFL Network show quickly became a hit for football fans, especially those looking to monitor the stats for their fantasy teams.

Over the years, Baum’s story has had several adaptations and reinterpretations

The original 1900 book, ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,’ has been adapted in various forms for various audiences. There’s been a Muppet-centric Oz, a 3D-generated Dorothy, and one that imagines an adult Dorothy living as a children’s author in New York, just to name a few.

'Dr. Death' (4 Seasons)

Taking a unique angle on the true crime genre, this series explores medical professionals whose lust for fame and success stops at nothing—even others’ lives. Each season explores a different doctor and the systems that enabled them. Begin with the season one and the story of Christopher Duntsch, accused of maiming or killing several patients, including leaving one quadriplegic and another brain-dead.

Francis Ford Coppola began working on 'The Godfather' to bail his production company out of dire financial straits.

A 1980s soap opera helped popularize Napa Valley, broadcasting the idyllic wine country to millions of American viewers every week.

'Love on the Spectrum,' a popular Netflix reality show, is following people on the autism spectrum as they navigate romantic relationships

This is one of Netflix's biggest shows, something this podcast says is due partly to the fact that the series both scratches the itch for people who enjoy reality dating viewing and the program is conducted in a nonexploitative, sensitive way that makes viewers truly want the best for the people navigating these situations.

Netflix's original movies are designed to play in the background, appealing to audiences who watch them passively, often while doing chores or looking at their phones.

The 2022 best picture winner, 'CODA,' was an Apple+ original

Streaming has changed more than how we watch movies—it's changed the way we recognize them during awards season. When movie theaters shut down during the early days of the pandemic, studios had no choice but to release their films on streaming. Once the shift occurred, there was no going back.

The 1979 murder trial of Ted Bundy was the first nationally televised trial, offering a preview of the national obsession with true crime.

Soap operas are significantly less popular now than in past decades, though that might be due to a genre classification problem rather than declining viewership.

Although it's now considered a pivotal film in the history of American cinema, 'The Wizard of Oz' was initially panned by some of its contemporary critics.

'These Are My Children' was TV's first soap

The Irna Phillips production featured many of the same themes as radio soaps. The key difference was that the low-paid actors now no longer had scripts in front of them, leading to some wooden performances and flubbed lines. Reviews at the time were rather negative, highlighting the melodramatic plots and overly expository dialogue. The show ran for less than two months.