
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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- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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I have discovered a group of women who refuse to be exploited, are immune to manipulation, and who never settle in the name of love. These ladies know what they want and take what they want by beating men at their own game. Utilizing the secrets exposed in this book, these women gain power, money, and status. Men call them gold diggers, women call them hos, but they call themselves winners. This is the book that society doesn't want you to listen to….
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I spent $24,000 in 4 months
- By B.M. on 10-06-18
By: G. L. Lambert
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Medieval Myths & Mysteries
- By: Dorsey Armstrong, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Dorsey Armstrong
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Original Recording
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The 10 enlightening (and often humorous) lectures of Medieval Myths and Mysteries will show you how far from the “dark” times of legend these centuries were. Uncover the facts about the Knights Templar. Reveal the truth behind the tales of legendary creatures like the Questing Beast and the unicorn. Trace the events of the Black Death and the ways it altered the world in its wake, and much more. With Professor Armstrong, you will dig deep into the ways that later generations reshaped the narrative of the medieval years and perpetuated the myths.
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Interesting, but centered on Britain
- By Ximena on 04-10-20
By: Dorsey Armstrong, and others
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The Man Who Killed Kennedy
- The Case Against LBJ
- By: Roger Stone
- Narrated by: David Rapkin
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Lyndon Baines Johnson was a man of great ambition and enormous greed, both of which, in 1963, would threaten to destroy him. In the end, President Johnson would use power from his personal connections in Texas and from the underworld and from the government to escape an untimely end in politics and to seize even greater power. President Johnson, the thirty-sixth president of the United States, was the driving force behind a conspiracy to murder President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. In The Man Who Killed Kennedy, you will find out how and why he did it. Political consultant, strategist, and Libertarian Roger Stone has gathered documents and used his firsthand knowledge to construct the ultimate tome to prove that LBJ was not only involved in JFK's assassination, but was in fact the mastermind. With 2013 being the fiftieth anniversary of JFK's assassination, this is the perfect time for The Man Who Killed Kennedy to be available to readers. The research and information in this book is unprecedented, and as Roger Stone lived through it, he's the perfect person to bring it to everyone's attention.
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COMPELLING BOOK - THE CROOKS ARE IN POWER
- By Theo Tsourdalakis on 12-01-13
By: Roger Stone
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My Big TOE: Awakening
- Book One of a Trilogy Unifying Philosophy, Physics, and Metaphysics
- By: Thomas Campbell
- Narrated by: Thomas Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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My Big TOE: Awakening, written by a nuclear physicist in the language of contemporary culture, unifies science and philosophy, physics and metaphysics, mind and matter, purpose and meaning, the normal and the paranormal. The entirety of human experience (mind, body, and spirit) including both our objective and subjective worlds is brought together under one seamless scientific understanding.
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What a Trip (but to where?)
- By Michael on 11-26-13
By: Thomas Campbell
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Mythology: Mega Collection
- Classic Stories from the Greek, Celtic, Norse, Japanese, Hindu, Chinese, Mesopotamian and Egyptian Mythology
- By: Scott Lewis
- Narrated by: Madison Niederhauser, Oliver Hunt
- Length: 31 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Do you know how many wives Zeus had? Or how the famous Trojan War was caused by one beautiful lady? Or how Thor got his hammer? Give your imagination a real treat. This Mega Mythology Collection of eight audiobooks is for you....
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An interesting set of introductions.
- By Kevin Potter on 05-30-19
By: Scott Lewis
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Caffeine
- How Caffeine Created the Modern World
- By: Michael Pollan
- Narrated by: Michael Pollan
- Length: 2 hrs and 2 mins
- Original Recording
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Michael Pollan, known for his best-selling nonfiction audio, including The Omnivores Dilemma and How to Change Your Mind, conceived and wrote Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World as an Audible Original. In this controversial and exciting listen, Pollan explores caffeine’s power as the most-used drug in the world - and the only one we give to children (in soda pop) as a treat.
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Leaves much to be desired
- By Melody H on 02-02-20
By: Michael Pollan
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The Complete Book of Five Rings
- By: Miyamoto Musashi, Kenji Tokitsu - editor/translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The Complete Book of Five Rings is an authoritative version of Musashi's classic The Book of Five Rings, translated and annotated by a modern martial arts master, Kenji Tokitsu. Tokitsu has spent most of his life researching the legendary samurai swordsman and his works, and in this book he illuminates this seminal text, along with several other works by Musashi.
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Best translation I have encountered.
- By DW on 05-27-16
By: Miyamoto Musashi, and others
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Great info marred by unedited mispronunciations
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Great story about an incredible year in sci fi film making.
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Great info marred by unedited mispronunciations
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Great story about an incredible year in sci fi film making.
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The ending
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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
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Cue the Sun!
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Who invented reality television, the world’s most dangerous pop-culture genre? And why can’t we look away? In this revelatory, deeply reported account of the rise of “dirty documentary”—from its contentious roots in radio to the ascent of Donald Trump—Emily Nussbaum unearths the origin story of the genre that ate the world, as told through the lively voices of the people who built it. At once gimlet-eyed and empathetic, Cue the Sun! explores the morally charged, funny, and sometimes tragic consequences of the hunt for something real inside something fake.
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Weak, semi-unconnected stories
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The Men Who Would Be King
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For 60 years, since the birth of United Artists, the studio landscape was unchanged. Then came Hollywood’s Circus Maximus---created by director Steven Spielberg, billionaire David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, who gave the world The Lion King---an entertainment empire called DreamWorks.
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Obviously Slanted
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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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- 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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- 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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- 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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