Ego is a Killer

[shipperx]

David Milch has joined a list of producers who has shown that ego can outpace talent.  His slavish devotion to John from Cincinnati rivals that of some other producers I could name and their white whales.  Only, Milch, being Milch can be far more... expressive... about it, as noted in  commentary queenofthorns posted the other day.  Now, it seems that someone in the bloggosphere has written an open letter to Milch and his ego .  The blogger is right about one thing, the most memorable aspect of JfC is that it is The Show That Killed Deadwood. 


ETA:  Oops.  Queenofthorns's post was friends locked, so here's the direct link to Milch's interview  and the 'what the frakkity hell?!' Milch quote:   “I wrote ("Deadwood's") Al Swearingen for Ed...If he'd had that part the show would still be running.” 

So there you go, in Milch's opinion, Deadwood would still be alive if instead of Ian McShane in the role, Al Bundy from "Married with Children" had played it (not to insult Ed O'Neill, who is a decent actor, just...  you know.  WHAT?!) If that wasn't weird enough, I bring to your attention that Deadwood was, in fact, not cancelled due to ratings.  It was cancelled because Milch didn't want to run two shows at once and he chose to write JfC instead  of Deadwood... and some nimrod at HBO let him.

Comments

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

If that wasn't weird enough, I bring to your attention that Deadwood was, in fact, not cancelled due to ratings. It was cancelled because Milch didn't want to run two shows at once and he chose to write JfC instead of Deadwood...

I HOPED that JFC would be worth the loss of Deadwood.

It seriously and tragically wasn't.

I'm just not interested in weeding out the religious meaning of Milch's "masterpiece". I'm one of those people JOpinionated discussed in his letter to Milch. I'm not religious and after entirely too many years of Catholic school, simply not interested in discussing religious metaphors.

I'm also not intrested in cop shows so I guess after a brief and glorious fling in historic South Dakota, my relationship with David Milch is over and it is time to mourn.

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

BTW, did you see the followup blog where Jim Beaver responds to her open letter?

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Yeah. And I love him but... his version of events of Milch standing up for Deadwood doesn't align with any of the reporting of what was going on at the time so, while I admire his loyalty to Milch, I still think odds are in favor that Milch is a douche.

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

We're in total agreement about Milch...I thought it made interesting reading though.

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

Beaver just wants to keep working. End of story.

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

Once again - Milch: So. Much. HATE.

To think I actually admired him during the run of the phenomenal Deadwood. But as with every other frickin' TV showrunner in Hollywood, he turned out to be a gigantic nimrod who disdained the very show which made him famous. What is wrong with these guys? It can't just be the grass being greener - do they have the attention span of gnats? Are they afraid of/disgusted by their initial success? What the hell is it?

I hope his next Life On Mars ripoff/'70s cop show tanks HARD.

[jerrymcl89.livejournal.com]

Showrunners (at least the ones who produce genuinely unique work, instead of running CBS police procedurals) wouldn't succeed without huge egos. So it's not surprising they also sometimes fail because of them. I never fault someone for working on what he wants to work on, but Milch should probably have realized that even HBO doesn't give you the freedom to do absolutely anything, as though you are Stanley Kubrick.