Exit
Henry Brown, who co-wrote Laurel Avenue (1993), is the only
person of color on that roster.
(HBO confirmed to HuffPost the
names of creators and narrative
architects, but did not identify
any people of color on the list,
aside from Brown.)
Even in HBO’s current,
post-Sopranos era, as the network endeavors to craft a new
identity for itself, the picture
hasn’t improved. Actually, it’s
gotten worse.
Guess how many women or
people of color have been a creator or narrative architect on a
one-hour HBO drama or miniseries since 2008 (the year after
The Sopranos ended)?
None. Not one.
There are a number of reasons
for the existence of problematic
female characters, but this lack is
one of them. It’s also self-evident
that the people at the top networks and television studios have
much more power than Nic Pizzolatto, the creator of True Detective, or any other single HBO
creator or showrunner. Audiences
can and should take individual
writers to task for problems they
perceive in a given show. But as
long as this debate is limited to
HUFFINGTON
03.16-23.14
TV
WHO RUNS THE SHOWS AT HBO?
Between 1975 and April 15, 2014, 38 individuals created or
designed the narrative for HBO one-hour dramas and miniseries.
White men accounted for 34 of those writers, white women
had three slots and there was one, male person of color.
WHITE MEN
NON-WHITE MEN
WHITE WOMEN
individual dramas, and doesn’t
consider the entities that commission and distribute them,
the conversation is likely to go
around in circles indefinitely.
“We can do better; we are doing better; we are striving to do
better,” an HBO spokesperson
told HuffPost via email. “We
have just launched a new program called HBO Access that
seeks emerging, diverse filmmakers ... and we are currently de-