Insider Information
Aug 20, 2007, Posted by mag-girl on: TV Without Pity, Post#257

Just wanted to throw out a few bits of insider info. A friend of mine worked on DW and John.

David Milch didn’t want Deadwood to be canceled. It is thought to be HBO’s doing, thinking they could save money on John since it was not a period piece. AND they would own exclusive rights to it– they shared the DW rights with Paramount, who paid NONE of the production costs.

It is unclear how much David Milch fought for DW. And, once DW was gone, David Milch was in a sense fickle. He didn’t mourn DW, he just moved on to the next thing (I feel like that’s why there is a continual influx of new characters with big storylines in his shows– he’s like a kid drawn to the shiniest new toy… I know that’s oversimplifying, but what was up with the theater people in DW season 3?).

John ended up costing at least as much as DW per episode. Why? It was supposed to be shot on location 20% of the time. By the end of the season, it was shooting on location more than 50% of the time. And the number of cast members, who were kept on hold (on payroll) due to the lack of a schedule grew every episode.

John was supposed to have 12 episodes, but it was also supposed to shoot in half the time. At one point, April was thought to be the end of shooting, when in fact shooting went until the end of June.

The DW movies were tentatively scheduled to happen over the summer with May and June to prep for a July and August shoot (that was the window for the actors’ availability). JFC going over schedule did keep them from happening. Though no one knows if they really would have happened– or if they will happen in the future. I do know there is still talk of the movies happening, but Olyphant’s and McShane’s schedules don’t seem to line up well in the near future.

Reshoots. 98% of the pilot was rewritten and reshot. And many other individual scenes were reshot for other episodes, but no other entire episode was reshot. But whoever noted the number of months it took for The Wire to do 12 episodes compared to John doing 10 is right on. That’s the straw that broke the camels back. If this show had EITHER a medium-sized following OR a reasonable budget, it would be back. HBO doesn’t mind giving things a chance. But the ratings were bad, and the budget was embarassing. Some network shows have the same cost for a season that John had for an episode. And no matter how creative David Milch is, there have to be some restraints. I think HBO is perfectly reasonable to say it can’t take a month to shoot one episode of television.

Take that for what you will. I can’t offer any real credibility except my word.