CS Weekly Archive > The Big Picture > 03/30/07

Tapping The Wire:
David Simon and Friends at the
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences

By matthew reynolds

Creator David Simon reveals how to create a startlingly realistic yet dramatic show, despite the nagging fact that real life is "anti-drama."

The Wire creator David Simon (Homicide: Life on the Streets) took part in a retrospective of his HBO brainchild The Wire at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in February, sharing the stage with former Baltimore Detective Ed Burns, his co-creator; series director Ernest Dickerson (ER, Heroes) and HBO executive Carolyn Strauss, as well as several cast members. Simon reflected back on the show and its creative philosophy, and fielded questions from an audience of mostly Academy members and their guests.

Simon summed up his philosophy for the show, which is not what you would necessarily expect. "I'm less interested in good vs. evil. It's been done to death," he explained. "The star of the show is the city, how the powerful and the powerless route themselves through a modern American city."

Strauss described Simon's original proposal for the show, and HBO's initial reluctance. "Our biggest concern was, why do we want to be in this arena of cop shows, which the networks have down," she said. But then Simon wrote an impassioned letter to the network, articulating his vision for the show. That letter, reprinted in the Pocketbooks companion to the show, The Wire: Truth Be Told by series writer Rafael Alvarez, says in part, "It would, I would argue, be a more profound victory for HBO to take the essence of network fare and smartly turn it on its head, so that no one who sees HBO's take on the culture of crime and crime fighting can watch anything like CSI or NYPD Blue or Law & Order again without knowing that every punch was pulled on those shows."

During the panel, discussion inevitably turned to the realism of the show, specifically the dialogue. Actors were initially confused by both police terminology and the language on the street. Some were convinced they had read a misprint. Simon maintained that the dialogue was strictly authentic, straight from Baltimore.

"Every profession has its own vernacular," he said, and added that even when most other shows strive for realism, they undo their efforts by backtracking to explain the meaning behind terms. Or they make sure that characters have their first and last names mentioned in dialogue before the scene ends. "No conversation happens that way in real life," he insisted. Simon illustrated with an example of police jargon, the code "10-17," which translates to "out of service," used in reference to off-duty personnel. But in the real-life gallows humor of the police world, it is often used to refer to someone who is dead. "The cops will say about a victim, 'he's 10-17,'" Simon said. "There's a poetry to the cynicism. But if they pause to say, 'That means he's dead,' you've destroyed the scene."

Networks don't dare take the risk of throwing off its audience, Simon said, but he insisted that given compelling stories, they will have more patience than expected.

But, he explained, reality will only get you so far. A good writer knows how to link the mundane of everyday life with the dramatic needs of storytelling, even when they don't naturally mesh. "Life is anti-drama," Simon says. "A lot of days go by when nothing happens. Life is plotless. It's all very random." What's required, he says, is to truncate events, move things around. Working from his own reporting experience, real-life events were compressed or expanded to serve the dramatic needs of the show—but the events and the behaviors were all rooted in reality. In terms of the plotlines over the past four seasons, he explains, "Some of it did happen, some of it is rumored to have happened, and all of it could happen."

Another clear distinction between The Wire and even the best of series television is the long-term planning of the show. Often, even the best of shows have only a "bible" or rough outline of where writers hope to take the show. Two factors routinely forestall too much planning—the temptation to tweak and adjust a series according to audience feedback, and the inherent resistance to have a definite ending to a show that is otherwise successful.

Adjustments to a series as it went along go back to the days of classic television. From the decision on I Love Lucy to move Lucy and Ricky Ricardo from New York City to Hollywood to drum up more stories, to Family Ties and its shift in focus from mom Elyse Keaton to son Alex, when Michael J. Fox became a star, producers have often and famously adjusted the course of shows to meet new demands.

Simon acknowledged the temptation to make adjustments, but says he stuck to his guns. "If you plan on something well in advance," he says, "you're committed." Understanding the evolution of characters, Simon let his creative decisions influence casting, not the other way around. In filling the role of Det. Pryzbylewski, he knew all along that the cop was going to leave the force to try to make it as a teacher—even if actor Jim True-Frost didn't. "We knew that Prez was going to bottom out as a cop, to set up the education angle." Because the school system plotline was so integral to the show, there was no room for changes, Simon explained.

But Simon admits that most shows—especially if they are successful—feel enormous pressure to cave to audience expectations to keep ratings high; if the makers feel that a love triangle isn't working, they simply change it. But such gains can come at the expense of quality, he maintains, and he adds that The Wire is fortunate enough to have slipped under the radar, in some respects. "Had we been less popular, we wouldn't be here," he says. "Had we been more popular, there may have been forces out there that would have been all about sustaining the franchise. The whole concept of serial storytelling is that it'll give you more of what you like."

Having explored the worlds of police, city government, and the school system, Simon is set next to turn to his own alma mater—the press. Storylines in the fifth and final season will focus on the media, with the same emphasis on asking the big questions about how news coverage affects the city and its challenges. "Why do we tolerate this," he explains. "How do we look at ourselves?"

You can expect the same unflinching realism. Simon recounts the difficulty he had early in the show's run, when portraying a press conference during the first season. The scene showed rows of empty chairs and mildly interested reporters—something Simon insisted was precisely the way such events looked in reality, instead of the usual energetic pandemonium in standard fare. Most shows, he explained, "have the wrong idea of the media. They think the media is this crass vulture, thrusting microphones in your face; it's all about yellow journalism."

But even though the show has arguably grown more popular as it has proceeded through its run, the fifth season will be its last, seemingly no question about it. Such is the nature of Simon's well-planned opus. While many shows stick around simply for economic reasons, long after they've worn out their welcome, and resort to various kinds of shark-jumping, Simon insists that writers must stay in command of their own story, which means knowing when to resolve storylines, eventually for good. "You have to be able to say goodbye to a show. It's a lot harder when it's a hit."

Simon won't be the only one having a hard time saying goodbye.

Matthew Reynolds is a former journalist now working in feature film development. He is not responsible for items lost or stolen during the reading of this article.

The Wire event photos courtesy Museum of Televison and Radio

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