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dr.strangelove

(4,851 posts)
Tue Feb 28, 2012, 11:02 AM Feb 2012

Alan Ball Stepping Down as Show Runner of HBO’s ‘True Blood’

Alan Ball Stepping Down as Show Runner of HBO’s ‘True Blood’

Alan Ball, the television producer and screenwriter who has helped imbue the supernatural drama “True Blood” with its sex-saturated bite, is preparing to say fangs for the memories to that hit HBO series. The cable network announced on Monday night that Mr. Ball, who won an Academy Award for writing “American Beauty” and an Emmy for directing the pilot episode of his HBO series “Six Feet Under,” would not remain the show runner of “True Blood” for a possible sixth season.

HBO said in a statement that according to the terms of Mr. Ball’s overall deal with the network the plan for a potential Season 6 of “True Blood” was always that “Alan would take a supervisory role on the series and not be the day-to-day show runner.” The network added: “If we proceed to season six, the show will remain in the very capable hands of the talented team of writers and producers who have been with the show for a number of years.”

There’s just one hitch: “True Blood,” which is adapted from Charlaine Harris’s best-selling Sookie Stackhouse novels, has completed its fourth season and is preparing for its fifth; HBO has not officially announced a sixth season. That the network would not renew the popular show – which often draws more than 5 million viewers for new episodes – seems unthinkable. But on a series where vampires make love to werewolves and men and women can turn into dogs and horses, well, stranger things have happened.

Mr. Ball is expected to continue developing new shows for HBO and Cinemax, and will serve as an executive producer on “Banshee,” a new Cinemax series about a criminal posing as a sheriff in a Pennsylvania town.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/alan-ball-stepping-down-as-show-runner-of-hbos-true-blood

I am hoping this does not rock the boat too much. I enjoy this series.

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Alan Ball Stepping Down as Show Runner of HBO’s ‘True Blood’ (Original Post) dr.strangelove Feb 2012 OP
Alan Ball is such an incredible talent.... I still marvel... hlthe2b Feb 2012 #1
He is gifted dr.strangelove Feb 2012 #2
After how dreadful S4 was, this is not a surprise. kaitcat Feb 2012 #3

hlthe2b

(102,358 posts)
1. Alan Ball is such an incredible talent.... I still marvel...
Tue Feb 28, 2012, 11:09 AM
Feb 2012

that anyone could have made a series about undertakers and death as compelling (and often funny) as he did.

 

kaitcat

(193 posts)
3. After how dreadful S4 was, this is not a surprise.
Tue Feb 28, 2012, 02:49 PM
Feb 2012

They killed off way too many people in that last terrible episode of a terrible S4. I've spent the last couple of weeks rewatching the last five or six episodes of S3, which still hold up really, really well.

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