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Talent takes the stage

Back in the early '90s, Alan Poul was lucky to get the Public Broadcasting Service to air Tales of the City, a series about a sexually diverse and drug-friendly group of San Franciscans. But his luck didn't last long. PBS pulled the second season of Tales> after religious and parental groups objected to its subject matter.

Compared with what's on premium cable nowadays, Tales seems pretty tame. We have a show about four single women having sex - and then more sex - with abandon; a dysfunctional Mob boss who cheats on his wife with, most recently, a one-legged Russian; a group of gay men and their (graphically depicted) sexual exploits; and a dead father chitchatting about his daughter's boyfriend's drug problem.

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In other words, the kinds of projects - and creative freedom - after which Hollywood's top talent is lusting.

"I think that the most important thing that has happened in television in the past 20 years has been the development of original series on premium television," Poul says.

Now an executive producer for HBO's Six Feet Under, Poul turns down more talented directors than he hires. Just two years ago he was scrambling to find directors for the Alan Ball-created series.

To Poul, premium cable is replacing what used to be Hollywood's "A" list feature films, which tended to be psychologically complex. Studios today crank out what he calls "genre" hit films in an attempt to ensure the biggest box office return.

"The mantle has fallen to the premium cable networks," Poul says of the more thought-provoking fare. "I think that's a huge shift in popular culture."

Poul isn't alone here. Spin the premium cable globe and wherever you land you'll likely find a top-notch artist behind any HBO, Showtime Networks or, to a lesser degree, Starz Encore production. Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Hanks, Danny Glover, Kathy Bates, Larry David, Ron Cowen, Eric Stoltz, Darren Star, David Simon and Brad Grey all have gravitated to cable.

With talent like this, you can see how premium cable has become a creative love fest. Actors become directors. Directors become producers and vice versa and back again.

But the love fest may not last very long. While premium channels allow artists freedom, they don't necessarily pay as well as the broadcast networks or Hollywood films for that matter.

In fact, the big restriction to working in the premium cable medium is the paycheck. Even if cable does pay top dollar for upfront episodes, networks offer little to nothing when it comes to back-end booty. Residuals from syndication, a cut of DVD sales and rentals and international distribution revenue aren't shared with premium cable's talent, at least not right now.

With The Sopranos and Six Feet Under winning Emmy after Emmy, syndication is possible, bringing back-end pay to the forefront. DVD and VHS rentals for The Sopranos and Sex and the City topped $70 million in the past 27 months, according to VSDA/VidTrac. Showtime already cut a deal to air its original dramatic series Soul Food on the basic ad-supported cable channel BET in the beginning of this year. And HBO hired Scott Carlin, a syndication veteran, last August to explore ways to increase the network's back-end revenue stream. He's reportedly been shopping Sex and the City to broadcast networks for months, though three have rejected it. CBS, says a source, remains undecided.

"I would say the big issue is residuals," Poul says. "If you direct an hour of Six Feet Under, you'll see very little return down the line except the director's fee you've been given."

If syndication catches on, expect to see contract revisions on the talent end, Poul says, evidenced by last month's salary battle between The Sopranos' James Gandolfini and HBO. Reports on that much publicized battle had broadcast network executives chuckling. Finally, these bohemian cable channels were feeling the pinch of success.

Meanwhile, Darren Star, the creator of another HBO flagship series, Sex and the City, quietly slipped out the back door undetected. He stopped writing for and producing the series, returning to what cable executives refer to as the dark side. He is reportedly working on a broadcast pilot, hoping to launch another hit as he did with Melrose Place and Beverly Hills 90210.

Why'd he go back to broadcast? Carolyn Strauss, HBO's EVP of original programming, says Star just left to pursue his own interests. "There were other things that Darren wanted to do," she says. Star, who could not be reached for comment, still serves as a consultant to the show.

So, will premium cable keep hold of the talent?

"Money is not the draw in working for Showtime," says Ron Cowen, executive producer of the gay drama series Queer as Folk. "This is where you come and have the special project you want to do. Consider it a labor of love."

Showtime lets Cowen and his creative and life partner, Daniel Lipman, sexualize their characters in fairly graphic terms. "We as a culture have removed sex from our lives," Lipman says. "On network television, we really show them from the waist up or it's behind closed doors. We all know that's not how we have sex. We don't have sex from the neck up."

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Talent takes the stage

Cable World, April 21, 2003

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