In all the hubbub over the reunion of the cast from The Wire at PaleyFest, it was easy to miss series creator David Simon give some pretty candid comments about a spinoff that almost happened after Season 3.
Simon said “We were actually trying to spin off the city hall show and do a political show. We wrote a bunch of scripts that would spin off after Season 3 of The Wire. But HBO said, ‘No, we only want one show that nobody is watching in Baltimore, not two!’”
It may seem harsh, but it’s kind of true that The Wire didn’t really take off until the tail end of its run on HBO, or even a little bit after. Critical praise is great and all, but it doesn’t really matter if nobody watches it. And at that stage, a show led by Tommy Carcetti wasn’t going anywhere, especially since he hadn’t mastered his creepy/sinister whisper yet.
[via Slashfilm]
