Kathleen Olmstead - Boardwalk Empire: The Untold History of Television

Boardwalk Empire premiered on HBO on September 19, 2010, following much anticipation and fanfare. The head writer and showrunner, Terence Winter, plus some of the directors and even the production designer had worked on The Sopranos, HBOs most celebrated series at that point and the one most often credited with setting in motion the second Golden Age of Television. Legendary film director Martin Scorsese directed the pilot with a budget estimated at $20 million (some sources claim it was closer to $30 million). The network also pledged an estimated budget of $5 million per episode. In fact, the network had so much faith in Boardwalk Empire and its pedigree that a week earlier, on September 10, they had announced that a second season had already been ordereda bold move, considering they had no ratings numbers or public reaction to the Prohibition-era drama.

During its five seasons on the air, the series won numerous awards, including Screen Actors Guild Awards for the entire cast and for the lead actor; a Writers Guild of America Award for Best New Series, a Golden Globe Award for Best Drama series; and Emmy Awards for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. In total, the show received 148 nominations and 52 wins. Through five seasons, fifty-seven episodes, countless bottles of rum, and almost as many deaths, Boardwalk Empire dazzled many viewers with its artistry, style, and attention to every detail.

And yet, despite awards nominations and wins, good reviews, and a significant amount of Internet chatter, Boardwalk Empire did not have the rousing cultural impact, or the ratings, that HBO and its producers expected. The numbers for the pilot episode were strong: 4.8 million for real-time viewers and 7.1 million with DVR viewings. They remained steady through the first season, but dropped as the series continued. The series finale (October 26, 2014) had 2.3 million for real-time viewers and 6.6. million with DVR viewings. Although people wrote about Boardwalk Empire, recapped episodes, and discussed characters and storylines, there wasnt a fever pitch of speculation and excitement about it on social media and news sites, as there was for HBOs other series, Game of Thrones (started in 2011) and True Detective (started in 2014), or AMCs Mad Men (2007 to 2015) and Breaking Bad (2008 to 2013). Ironic, seeing as Matthew Weiner had submitted his Mad Men pilot script to HBO first, but they had never returned his call.

In many ways, HBO was a victim of its own success. As the leader in acclaimed television productions (the network led the pack in awards nominations), they had clout and prestige, but they chose a safer path for what everyone assumed would be their new flagship programa sort of Deadwood meets Sopranos drama with a cast and crew of proven HBO-worthy talent.

However, it wasnt Boardwalk Empires budget or its pedigree that set it apart. Its most striking feature was its willingness to play the long game. They didnt rush storylines, but instead, let plots and characters develop slowly. The writers rarely felt the need to provide exposition for a characters motivation, instead asking the audience to listen and to decipher character actions. They killed popular or central characters and radically changed some characters roles within the series. One character who appeared to be a supporting one actually held the key to the entire series.

The most challenging aspect of the series was the flip side to this strengththere were too many characters. No matter how well written or well acted the show was, the first three seasons were bloated by storylines and unconnected plot points. The truth is, Boardwalk Empire could have been ten different series with ten different lead characters. It is unfortunate to think that some viewers may have lost interest and missed seasons four and five, because this is when the series was pared down and refocused on only a few stories, becoming much more internal and integrative. There was less of a rush to cover ground in trying for exciting viewing. By the close of season five, Boardwalk Empire had proven itself to be a thoughtful and precise story. It may have started as a show about real-life gangsters working with fictional, rum-running criminals, but it ended as one telling personal stories about the choices that can never be undone.

Boss Winter Takes Charge

Terence Winter, the creator and showrunner of Boardwalk Empire, didnt plan to be a writer while growing up. His path to becoming an award-winning screenwriter and producer was non-traditional. Born on October 2, 1960, to a working-class family in Brooklyn, New York, he was a self-described unremarkable high school student who devoted more time to his automotive classes than to English. But when he was sixteen, his perspective started to change. He saw Martin Scorseses Taxi Driver and quickly became obsessed with filmnot just the movies themselves, but the art and history of the medium as well. Although it was difficult in the pre-VHS world, Winter sought out late-night movies and art-house cinemas, taking in as much information as he could find.

He didnt make the decision to attend university until his last year of high school. At first studying Medieval History at New York University (he assumed it was the least popular subject and, therefore, easier to get into), he then switched to a journalism major. He put himself through school with loans and a series of odd jobs (cab driver, doorman, newspaper delivery man). Despite his love of film, Winter continued on this more conventional path, studying law at St. Johns University and even practicing corporate law after graduation. He was, however, unhappy with his career choice. And so, approaching his thirtieth birthday, Winter left everything behind and moved to Los Angeles to try his hand at screenwriting.

Winter faced major hurdles in his new career path. He had no connections in Los Angeles and had never written a script before. He put his nose to the grindstone and, by his own account, practiced writing night and day. Knowing that no one was going to come looking for him, he worked hard to perfect his craft and to make the necessary connections. He taught himself how to write scripts by watching and pulling apart TV shows, scene by scene. He submitted spec scripts for shows like Doogie Howser, M.D., but it took a few years before anything took hold. He won a place in the Warner Bros. Television Writers Workshop and eventually sold scripts to The Cosby Mysteries (starring Bill Cosby) and found regular work on a variety of far more family-friendly than you might expect from the creator of Boardwalk Empire. Over the next few years, Winter wrote for such diverse shows as The New Adventures of Flipper; Sister, Sister; Xena: Warrior Princess; and Diagnosis Murder; occasionally taking on the larger role of producer. However, it was a brief writing gig on The Great Defender (a 1995 series that was cancelled after the first episode aired) that was the turning point in his career. He became good friends with series producer Frank Renzulli. When Renzulli was hired to a new HBO series called