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Tinderbox cover art

Tinderbox

Written by: James Andrew Miller
Narrated by: James Andrew Miller, Amy McFadden, Robert Petkoff
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Publisher's Summary

From the New York Times best-selling author of Those Guys Have All the Fun comes Tinderbox, the unvarnished, comprehensive, and astonishing history of HBO, told for the first time through the disruptors who led its epic rise to prestige and changed the way we watch television forever.

The exclusive story of HBO’s key creators, executives, actors, and directors gives listeners an unprecedented peek behind the curtain at the founding and triumph of the first “pay-channel” that brought America The Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Wire, Succession, and countless groundbreaking, culture-shifting shows. James Andrew Miller collects insider accounts of the humble beginnings, devastating missteps, controversial business decisions, and, of course, backstage drama and celebrity gossip from the set.

Since televisions entered Americans’ living rooms, the question of whether programming should be “free” - paid for with advertising - has loomed, to the extent that some broadcasters, lobbyists, and fearmongers warned someone would come along and disrupt their Madison Avenue-championed business model. But who would pay for something that had always been free? Home Box Office dared to ask that question in 1972, opening the doors for other pay-channels and ultimately the streaming platforms that are now the norm. They created different, better content - or at least they convinced viewers that different was better. HBO gave us violent scenes with blood and guts, shows like Tales from the Crypt that were actually scary, rom-coms with sex instead of suggestion. We take their big-budget, “prestige” TV for granted now, but their success was far from assured at the outset.

HBO’s audacity built the viewing culture we have today and permanently transformed the television landscape.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company

©2021 James Andrew Miller (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

What listeners say about Tinderbox

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Jason loves this

Tinderbox was everting I thought it would be and then some. Very detailed very interesting. This a lot more about executives then I thought it would be. But as it turns out AJM makes that very fun.

Ps HBO I have your next script.

@deathbyfoui

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    5 out of 5 stars

A great book marred by countless production errors in the audio recording.

There are 50+ audio errors, repeats, even a time when the narrator jokes that they pronounced the name ‘Chris’ wrong before giving it another take. The performers themselves are fantastic, but whoever edited this together has delivered an incomplete product.

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    3 out of 5 stars

Many, many sections are repeated.

God story, maybe a little too detailed in parts, but the biggest issue is that many audio sections are repeated, or just cut out mid-sentence. Very poor production.

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