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It's Not TV
- The Spectacular Rise, Revolution, and Future of HBO
- Narrated by: Steven Jay Cohen
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
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Publisher's summary
“A read so riveting, it's not hard to imagine watching it unfold on Sunday nights.”—The Associated Press
“An incisive account that is more than a rosy victory lap for one of TV’s most influential channels.”—Eric Deggans, NPR’s “Books We Love”
“It’s Not TV proves to be a lively companion to all these shows.”—Andrew O’Hagan, The New York Review of Books
The inside story of HBO, the start-up company that reinvented television—by two veteran media reporters
HBO changed how stories could be told on TV. The Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Wire, Game of Thrones. The network’s meteoric rise heralded the second golden age of television with serialized shows that examined and reflected American anxieties, fears, and secret passions through complicated characters who were flawed and often unlikable. HBO’s own behind-the-scenes story is as complex, compelling, and innovative as the dramas the network created, driven by unorthodox executives who pushed the boundaries of what viewers understood as television at the turn of the century. Originally conceived by a small upstart group of entrepreneurs to bring Hollywood movies into living rooms across America, the scrappy network grew into one of the most influential and respected players in Hollywood. It’s Not TV is the deeply reported, definitive story of one of America’s most daring and popular cultural institutions, laying bare HBO’s growth, dominance, and vulnerability within the capricious media landscape over the past fifty years.
Through the visionary executives, showrunners, and producers who shaped HBO, seasoned journalists Gillette and Koblin bring to life a dynamic cast of characters who drove the company’s creative innovation in astonishing ways—outmaneuvering copycat competitors, taming Hollywood studios, transforming 1980s comedians and athletes like Chris Rock and Mike Tyson into superstars, and in the late 1990s and 2000s elevating the commercial-free, serialized drama to a revered art form. But in the midst of all its success, HBO was also defined by misbehaving executives, internal power struggles, and a few crucial miscalculations.
As data-driven models like Netflix have taken over streaming, HBO’s artful, instinctual, and humanistic approach to storytelling is in jeopardy. Taking listeners into the boardrooms and behind the camera, It’s Not TV tells the surprising, fascinating story of HBO’s ascent, its groundbreaking influence on American business, technology, and popular culture, and its increasingly precarious position in the very market it created.
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Critic reviews
“A revealing picture of a cultural and business institution from its beginnings to the challenges it now faces. . . . A fascinating account of HBO’s business practices show how the cable network and eventual streaming service struggled to keep up with the world it helped create. . . . Gillette and Koblin’s deep reporting and sourcing are what make It’s Not TV come together so well. The result is a read so riveting, it’s not hard to imagine watching it unfold on Sunday nights."—The Associated Press
“An incisive account that is more than a rosy victory lap for one of TV’s most influential channels.”—Eric Deggans, NPR’s “Books We Love”
“It’s Not TV proves to be a lively companion to all these shows.”—Andrew O’Hagan, The New York Review of Books
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By: James Poniewozik
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Black Founder
- The Hidden Power of Being an Outsider
- By: Stacy Spikes
- Narrated by: Stacy Spikes
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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From the award-winning entrepreneur USA Today named one of the twenty-one most influential Blacks in technology comes an empowering, bracingly honest, entertaining blueprint for success in life and work—including the true story of what really happened to MoviePass—straight from the cofounder and former CEO himself.
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An Epic Journey
- By Amazon Customer on 10-04-24
By: Stacy Spikes
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Too Sweet
- Inside the Indie Wrestling Revolution
- By: Keith Elliot Greenberg
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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In 2017, after being told that no independent wrestling group could draw a crowd of more than 10,000, a group of wrestlers took up the challenge. For several years, these gladiators had been performing in front of rabid crowds and understood the hunger for wrestling that was different from the TV-slick product. In September 2018, they had the numbers to prove it: 11,263 fans filled the Sears Center Arena for the All In pay-per-view event, ushering in a new era. A year later, WWE had its first major head-to-head competitor in nearly two decades when All Elite Wrestling debuted on TNT.
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Super Book, Annoying Narration
- By Richard on 04-10-21
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Backwards and in Heels
- By: Alicia Malone
- Narrated by: Katherine Littrell
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Women have been instrumental in the success of American cinema since its very beginning. One of the first people to ever pick up a motion picture camera was a woman, as was the first screenwriter to win two Academy Awards, the inventor of the boom microphone, and the first person to be credited with the title film editor. Throughout the entire history of Hollywood women have been revolutionizing, innovating, and shaping how we make movies. Yet their stories are rarely shared. This is what film reporter Alicia Malone wants to change. Backwards and in Heels tells the history of women in film in a different way.
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Great Book
- By Alfie on 09-27-21
By: Alicia Malone
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The Simpsons
- An Uncensored, Unauthorized History
- By: John Ortved
- Narrated by: John Allen Nelson, Justine Eyre
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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John Ortved's oral history is the first-ever look behind the scenes at the creation and day-to-day running of the television phenomenon known as The Simpsons, as told by many of the people who produce it.
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Great Content, Awful Reading
- By JH Easton on 03-13-11
By: John Ortved
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Singular Sensation
- The Triumph of Broadway
- By: Michael Riedel
- Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The 1990s was a decade of profound change on Broadway. At the dawn of the '90s, the British invasion of Broadway was in full swing, as musical spectacles like Les Miserables, Cats, and The Phantom of the Opera dominated the box office. But Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard soon spelled the end of this era and ushered in a new wave of American musicals, beginning with the ascendance of an unlikely show by a struggling writer who reimagined Puccini’s opera La Bohème as the smash Broadway show Rent
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Why Didn’t Michael Riedel Read This Himself?
- By Tallulah on 01-17-22
By: Michael Riedel
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We Promised You a Great Main Event
- An Unauthorized WWE History
- By: Bill Hanstock
- Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In We Promised You a Great Main Event, longtime sports journalist Bill Hanstock pulls back the curtain to give a smart fan’s account of WWE and Vince McMahon’s journey to the top. Untangling the truth behind the official WWE storyline, Hanstock does a deep dive into key moments of the company’s history, from the behind-the-scenes drama at the Montreal Screwjob, to the company’s handling of the Jimmy Snuka scandal, to the real story of the Monday Night Wars.
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Pronounce names correctly!
- By JLA4 on 12-29-20
By: Bill Hanstock
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Seinfeldia
- How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything
- By: Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Comedians Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld never thought anyone would watch their silly little sitcom about a New York comedian sitting around talking to his friends. NBC executives didn't think anyone would watch either, but they bought it anyway, hiding it away in the TV dead zone of summer. But against all odds, viewers began to watch, first a few and then many, until nine years later nearly 40 million Americans were tuning in weekly.
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This bad narration is making me thirsty...
- By Audio Gra Gra on 10-06-16
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Rachel Maddow
- A Biography
- By: Lisa Rogak
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 5 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Rachel Maddow has beaten the odds in a way that's novel in today's America: She uses her brain. In a world of banal and opinionated soundbites, she regularly crushes Sean Hannity's ratings thanks to her deeply researched reports. And in our highly polarized world, Maddow amiably engages the staunchest conservatives, while never hesitating to expose their light-on-facts defenses.
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Absolute Pablum.
- By mj on 02-03-20
By: Lisa Rogak
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Hardcore History
- The Extremely Unauthorized Story of the ECW
- By: Scott E. Williams
- Narrated by: Karl Miller
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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ECW was one extreme contradiction piled on top of another. It was an incredibly influential company in the world of professional wrestling during the 1990s, yet it was never profitable. It portrayed itself as the ultimate in anti-authority rebellion, but its leadership was, at various points, working covertly with the two wrestling giants, the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling. Most of all, it blurred the line between real life and the fantasy world of professional wrestling like no other company before it.
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Get a narrator with product knowledge
- By Dr Feelgood on 11-29-16
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Pure Invention
- How Japan's Pop Culture Conquered the World
- By: Matt Alt
- Narrated by: Matt Alt
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Japan is the forge of the world’s fantasies: karaoke and the Walkman, manga and anime, Pac-Man and Pokémon, online imageboards and emojis. But as Japan media veteran Matt Alt proves in this brilliant investigation, these novelties did more than entertain. They paved the way for our perplexing modern lives.
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great book ruined by ending
- By Grant Holder on 06-07-22
By: Matt Alt
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Homey Don't Play That!
- The Story of In Living Color and the Black Comedy Revolution
- By: David Peisner
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Few television shows revolutionized comedy as profoundly or have had such an enormous and continued impact on our culture as In Living Color. Inspired by Richard Pryor, Carol Burnett, and Eddie Murphy, Keenen Ivory Wayans created a television series unlike any that had come before it. In Living Color shaped American culture in ways both seen and unseen. Now, Homey Don't Play That! reveals the complete, captivating story of how In Living Color overcame enormous odds to become a major, zeitgeist-seizing hit.
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Wow, that sucked......
- By Just W on 10-11-18
By: David Peisner
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Top of the Rock
- Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV
- By: Warren Littlefield, T. R. Pearson
- Narrated by: Bob Balaban
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Warren Littlefield was the NBC President of Entertainment who oversaw the Peacock Network’s rise from also-ran to a division that generated a billion dollars in profits. In this fast-paced and exceptionally entertaining oral history, Littlefield and NBC luminaries including Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Kelsey Grammer, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, Julianna Marguiles, Anthony Edwards, Noah Wylie, Debra Messing, Jack Welch, Jimmy Burrows, Helen Hunt, and Dick Wolf vividly recapture the incredible era of Must See TV.
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Nostalgic Look at NBC in the 90's
- By Jill on 10-10-12
By: Warren Littlefield, and others
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Samsung Rising
- The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech
- By: Geoffrey Cain
- Narrated by: Michael Braun
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Based on years of reporting on Samsung for The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and Time, from his base in South Korea, and his countless sources inside and outside the company, Geoffrey Cain offers a penetrating look behind the curtains of the biggest company nobody in America knows. Seen for decades in tech circles as a fast follower rather than an innovation leader, Samsung today has grown to become a market leader in the United States and around the globe.
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Misleading title
- By Kevin on 02-25-21
By: Geoffrey Cain
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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.
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The Last Action Heroes opens in May 1990 in Cannes, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone waltzing together, cheered on by a crowd of famous faces. After years of bitter combat, the world’s biggest action stars have at last made peace. In this wildly entertaining account of the golden age of the action movie, Nick de Semlyen charts Stallone and Schwarzenegger’s carnage-packed journey from enmity to friendship against the backdrop of Reagan’s America and the Cold War.
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Fantastic!
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For the independent film lover!
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Burn It Down
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In Burn It Down, veteran reporter Maureen Ryan does just that. She draws on decades of experience to connect the dots and illuminate the deeper forces sustaining Hollywood’s corrosive culture. Fresh reporting sheds light on problematic situations at companies like Lucasfilm and shows like Lost, Saturday Night Live, The Goldbergs, Sleepy Hollow, Curb Your Enthusiasm and more.
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Good, Necessary, + Worthwhile
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What listeners say about It's Not TV
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- L Watson
- 11-12-22
Worth a listen - even if you’ve heard the other one.
This isn’t the only book about HBO, but it’s different enough to enjoy even if you’ve read or listened to the other one. It contains different anecdotes and details, and, being more recent, the later chapters get into the Discovery merger. For fans of HBO and the media biz, this is a fast paced, entertaining, and sometimes surprising examination of one of entertainment’s most miraculous brands.
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- Mikayla
- 12-27-23
The history of the industry, shows, and key players
A fascinating telling of HBO's history, just in time for the cycle to repeat itself as streaming begins to consolidate the way cable did.
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- Lynn
- 04-10-23
Excellent
Of the two HBO books this one is by far the most entertaining. A good balance of telling the history of the first tv disruptor in a way that could rival Succession, Entourage and Game of Thrones…
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- Andrew
- 07-19-23
A great HBO history with more focus on the modern era
Jim Miller’s book is great, and has much more detail, especially about the earlier years of HBO, but this was catnip for someone like me whose introduction to television as a powerful medium was with 1990’s HBO programming. Great listen
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- Richard Spitaleri Jr.
- 02-12-23
Well researched and interesting
Pick this one up when you go on your next long drive as it’s hard to put down. Well sourced and interesting behind the scenes insight into the ups and downs of HBO from its beginnings to present day. Would be straight fives if authors read it themselves. Narrator’s lack of familiarity with certain names and events was noticeable but not too distracting.
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- Some broad in NYC
- 03-09-23
Riveting for anyone interested in this legendary brand
Riveting for anyone interested in this legendary brand that is still surviving as an industry leader
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- Dana
- 03-19-23
As a content creator
I loved it. Huge HBO fan, but understanding the history really gives me a lot to think about.
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- Mark S. Saxton
- 05-28-23
Fantastic book
If you are at all interested in HBO or the process of making great TV, you should pick this up. A highly entertaining business biography with commentary by the important people on the story. Highly recommended.
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- Jonathan Abbott
- 07-14-23
Important and Engrossing
A worthwhile, seminal read on the trajectory of HBO. We’ll researched with great characters and structure. I enjoyed it greatly. Also, a worthy historical read for the next gen!
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- Rusty Shackelford
- 10-22-23
It's not TV. It's DEI.
The first 20 chapters in this book are terrific. Towards the end, it starts to get a bit preachy with lots of Race and Gender politics. The reading performance is terrific, however. There are a lot of good quotes from people who held high positions in HBO. Overall, it was interesting and worth my time.
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