
Pandora's Box
How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV
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Narrated by:
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Robert Petkoff
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By:
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Peter Biskind
About this listen
Bestselling author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Down and Dirty Pictures, cultural critic Peter Biskind turns his eye toward the new golden age of television, sparked by the fall of play-it-safe network TV and the rise of boundary-busting cable, followed by streaming, which overturned both—based on exclusive, candid, and colorful interviews with executives, writers, showrunners, directors, and actors
We are now lucky enough to be living through the era of so-called Peak TV, in which television, in its various guises and formats, has seized the entertainment mantle from movies and dominates our leisure time. How and why this happened is the subject of this book.
Instead of focusing on one service, like HBO, Pandora’s Box asks, “What did HBO do, besides give us The Sopranos?” The answer: It gave us a revolution. Biskind bites off a big chunk of entertainment history, following HBO from its birth into maturity, moving on to the basic cablers like FX and AMC, and ending up with the streamers and their wars, pitting Netflix against Amazon Prime Video, Max, and the killer pluses—Disney, Apple TV, and Paramount.
Since the creative and business sides of TV are thoroughly entwined, Biskind examines both, and the interplay between them. Through frank and shockingly intimate interviews with creators and executives, Pandora’s Box investigates the dynamic interplay of commerce and art through the lens the game-changing shows they aired—not only old warhorses like The Sopranos, but recent shows like The White Lotus, Succession, and Yellow- (both -stone and -jackets)—as windows into the byzantine practices of the players as they use money and guile to destroy their competitors.
In the end, this book crystal-balls the future in light of the success and failures of the streamers that, after apparently clearing the board, now face life-threatening problems, some self-created, some not. With its long view and short takes—riveting snapshots of behind-the-scenes mischief—Pandora’s Box is the only book you’ll need to read to understand what’s on your small screen and how it got there.
©2023 Peter Biskind (P)2023 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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The Earl and the Pharaoh
- From the Real Downton Abbey to the Discovery of Tutankhamun
- By: The Countess of Carnarvon
- Narrated by: The Countess of Carnarvon
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Bestselling author the Countess of Carnarvon tells the thrilling behind-the-scenes story of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun on its centennial, and explores the unparalleled life of family ancestor George Herbert—the famed Egyptologist, world-traveler, and 5th Earl of Carnarvon behind it—whose country house, Highclere Castle, is the setting of the beloved series Downton Abbey.
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Plodding Family History…Akin to Listening to Paint Dry
- By J. Willis-Opalenik on 10-31-23
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The Future Was Now
- Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982
- By: Chris Nashawaty
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1982, eight science fiction films were released within six weeks of one another. E.T., Tron, Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian, Blade Runner, Poltergeist, The Thing, and Mad Max: The Road Warrior changed the careers of some of Hollywood's now biggest names―altering the art of movie-making to this day.
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Great story about an incredible year in sci fi film making.
- By Jesse Poole Van Swol on 10-04-24
By: Chris Nashawaty
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Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties
- The Collapse of the Studio System, the Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Body Snatcher—Television
- By: Foster Hirsch
- Narrated by: Foster Hirsch
- Length: 36 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Hollywood in the 1950s was a period when the film industry both set conventions and broke norms and traditions—from Cinerama, Cinemascope and Vistavision to the epic film and lavish musical. It was a decade that saw the rise of the anti-hero; the smoldering, the hidden, and the unspoken; teenagers gone wild in the streets; the sacred and the profane; the revolution of the Method; the socially conscious; the implosion of the studios, the end of the production code; and the invasion of the ultimate body snatcher: the “small screen” television.
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Captivating from start to finish
- By Steve C. on 02-01-25
By: Foster Hirsch
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Springfield Confidential
- Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons
- By: Mike Reiss, Mathew Klickstein
- Narrated by: Mike Reiss
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Four-time Emmy winner Mike Reiss - who has worked on The Simpsons continuously since episode one in 1989 - shares stories, scandals, and gossip about working with America’s most iconic cartoon family ever. Reiss explains how the episodes are created and provides an inside look at the show’s writers, animators, actors, and celebrity guests. He answers a range of questions from Simpsons fans and die-hards and reminisces about the making of perennially favorite episodes.
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Story was arrogant and the delivery was terrible..
- By Tyler on 06-20-18
By: Mike Reiss, and others
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Persians
- The Age of the Great Kings
- By: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
- Narrated by: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
- Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The Achaemenid Persian kings ruled over the largest empire of antiquity, stretching from Libya to the steppes of Asia and from Ethiopia to Pakistan. In Persians, historian Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells the epic story of this dynasty and the world it ruled. Drawing on Iranian inscriptions, cuneiform tablets, art, and archaeology, he shows how the Achaemenid Persian Empire was the world’s first superpower—one built, despite its imperial ambition, on cooperation and tolerance. This is the definitive history of the Achaemenid dynasty and its legacies in modern-day Iran.
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Good History and Historiography
- By David A on 04-19-22
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The Big Goodbye
- Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood
- By: Sam Wasson
- Narrated by: Sam Wasson
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Chinatown is the Holy Grail of 1970s cinema. Its twist ending is the most notorious in American film and its closing line of dialogue the most haunting. Here for the first time is the incredible true story of its making. In Sam Wasson's telling, it becomes the defining story of the most colorful characters in the most colorful period of Hollywood history. Here is Jack Nicholson at the height of his powers, as compelling a movie star as there has ever been, embarking on his great, doomed love affair with Anjelica Huston.
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This book is cursed
- By Dobbs on 04-13-20
By: Sam Wasson
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Tough Titties
- On Living Your Best Life When You're the F-ing Worst
- By: Laura Belgray
- Narrated by: Laura Belgray
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Tough Titties is one big permission slip to be a dork, a sometimes-unspiritual slacker, a late bloomer and, ultimately, 100% yourself. It’ll also have you snort-laughing in public and tapping whoever’s nearby to say, “Lemme read you one more part!” Which is annoying, but tough titties.
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Plum! jinx!
- By Emily on 07-19-23
By: Laura Belgray
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The Great Successor
- The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un
- By: Anna Fifield
- Narrated by: Olivia Mackenzie-Smith
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Anna Fifield reconstructs Kim's past and present with exclusive access to sources near him and brings her unique understanding to explain the dynastic mission of the Kim family in North Korea. The archaic notion of despotic family rule matches the almost medieval hardship the country has suffered under the Kims. Few people thought that a young, untested, unhealthy, Swiss-educated basketball fanatic could hold together a country that should have fallen apart years ago. But Kim Jong Un has not just survived, he has thrived.
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Great book
- By WPD on 06-26-19
By: Anna Fifield
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A Place for Everything
- The Curious History of Alphabetical Order
- By: Judith Flanders
- Narrated by: Julia Winwood
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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From a New York Times best-selling historian comes the story of how the alphabet ordered our world. A Place for Everything is the first-ever history of alphabetization, from the Library of Alexandria to Wikipedia. The story of alphabetical order has been shaped by some of history's most compelling characters, such as industrious and enthusiastic early adopter Samuel Pepys and dedicated alphabet champion Denis Diderot. But though even George Washington was a proponent, many others stuck to older forms of classification.
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You have to love library science
- By A. Yoshida on 10-23-21
By: Judith Flanders
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Martin Scorsese
- A Journey
- By: Mary Pat Kelly, Leonardo DiCaprio, Steven Spielberg
- Narrated by: Nancy Linari, P.J. Ochlan
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Few filmmakers, if any, make the kind of impact that Martin Scorsese has made on American cinema. The winner of every prestigious film award, including the Oscar, Scorsese is a living legend. Bestselling author and award-winning filmmaker Mary Pat Kelly’s groundbreaking biography reveals how this working-class boy from Manhattan’s Little Italy became one of our most acclaimed, celebrated, and influential filmmakers. Martin Scorsese: A Journey maps Scorsese’s personal and artistic evolution.
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Good behind the scenes of early Scorsese films
- By Boxing Fan on 12-04-23
By: Mary Pat Kelly, and others
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Bloody Okinawa
- The Last Great Battle of World War II
- By: Joseph Wheelan
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, more than 184,000 US troops began landing on the only Japanese home soil invaded during the Pacific war. Just 350 miles from mainland Japan, Okinawa was to serve as a forward base for Japan's invasion in the fall of 1945. Nearly 140,000 Japanese and auxiliary soldiers fought with suicidal tenacity from hollowed-out, fortified hills and ridges. Under constant fire and in the rain and mud, the Americans battered the defenders with artillery, aerial bombing, naval gunfire, and every infantry tool.
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Very Technical
- By J.Brock on 07-16-21
By: Joseph Wheelan
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Living with the Monks
- By: Jesse Itzler
- Narrated by: Jesse Itzler
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Thinking all monasteries were like the ones he saw in the movies, Jesse Itzler arrived at the New Skete religious community in remote Cambridge, New York, with a shaved head and a suitcase filled with bananas. To his surprise, New Skete monks have most of their hair. They're Russian Orthodox, not Buddhist, and they're also world-renowned dog breeders and authors of dog-training books that have sold in the millions.
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Another amazing book!
- By sammy on 05-18-18
By: Jesse Itzler
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The Secret War
- Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas, 1939-1945
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 30 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Spies, codes, and guerrillas played unprecedentedly critical roles in the Second World War, exploited by every nation in the struggle to gain secret knowledge of its foes, and to sow havoc behind the fronts. In The Secret War, Max Hastings presents a worldwide cast of characters and some extraordinary sagas of intelligence and resistance, to create a new perspective on the greatest conflict in history.
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Better read than listened to
- By B. In -t Veld on 03-25-17
By: Max Hastings
What listeners say about Pandora's Box
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- AlexBenBlock
- 02-16-24
The rise and fall of peak TV
This informative, entertaining audio book explains as much as possible the revolution in tv viewing on networks cable and streaming. There is a lack of attribution at times but author Peter Biskind makes up for it with fast paced storytelling that is chock full of personality profiles, facts, trends and an insiders view. A few years ago there was a boom in programming driven by the rise of Netflix and other streamers. This explains how that led to a lot of innovative tv and why now the trend is back toward network style programs for the mainstream with less edge and the return of commercials. This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand where tv went and where it is going.
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- Mary Anne Davis
- 01-06-24
From network to streaming
I appreciated the breadth of knowledge the author brings to bear on the shift from network to streamers with specific examples of many of my favorite shows that I have watched and loved or hated over the years. To realize the entire arc of television as a phenomenon gives me pause and allows me to appreciate a daily activity not so much as an escape, but more as a participation in contemporary culture. Biskind takes the subject seriously and adds gravitas to subject often dismissed as a waste of time or guilty pleasure.
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- Graham Stevenson
- 01-29-24
Business Vs. Creativity
Peter Biskind is an excellent writer about show business. This book is very good, but the parts I found the most interesting were about how individual shows (Mad Men, The Sopranos, etc.) came to be on the networks/streamers. The business elements (meaning the various executives) understandably need to be covered—I just didn’t find them as compelling personally. Definitely worth listening to if the subject interest you.
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- Oliver Winston
- 12-04-23
A wealth of knowledge and experience
Fun to listen to. So much great stuff here. Highly recommend. Especially if you are interested in entertainment or just want to know how all of these companies have come to be.
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- James Heggs
- 08-02-24
The details
You probably need to read the Biskind books to get the total picture. Down and Dirty Pics, Raging Bulls and Easy Riders sets up this book as they are all written sequentially in real time. Also if you read Its Not TV it’s HBO that also connects dots. You will see the patterns.
New Tech comes old guard shrugs. New tech takes over. Promising they won’t be like the old tech. And boom HBO is saddling one of their more experienced writers with enough notes that could be half the script they are crying about. It comes down to risks.
The creators take the biggest risks, they offer their lives to the craft. The suits do not. So when pressure hits the suits flip flop on a dime. That’s why when new tech, cable transmission, home video, the internet, smart phones, they never see the need to at least see if the new tech is of any value. There’s no risks in trying. You put one egg in the basket and see what’s up. But you’ll see that’s not how these bozos think. They’d sit in the beach house all day because yesterday it rained.
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-17-23
Great
I really enjoyed this book. I think it was a great overview of what exactly is going on in Hollywood right now. And in the end it's hard to know what will happen. But it's clear to everyone that Hollywood does not care as much for what it puts out. As opposed to how much money it really wants to make.
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- Dee
- 12-20-23
Great read
Great for anyone who needs background of the industry, Peter Biskind is an ace! A+
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