Tinderbox

HBO's Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers

By: James Andrew Miller

Narrated by: James Andrew Miller, Amy McFadden, Robert Petkoff

Length: 43 hrs and 32 mins

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

Good listen brutalized by narrators

Narrators were awful. Main narrator sounded like he rolled out of bed after a night of cigarettes and bourbon - mispronounced a lot of words. Female narrator overacts - sounds like a valley girl. Story was ok. Too much emphasis on including every name that worked at HBO

Awesome

I have not gotten through the 1st chapter and it is amazing. Well read by the author and others.

Expert Storytelling

James Andrew Miller strikes gold once again with this engrossing work. Tinderbox does such a great job of unpacking the quintessential story of HBO.

Hard format to follow, but a fascinating book

This was a truly fascinating account of the history of HBO. It wasn't the greatest format for audio, but the performances were good. It was frustrating that some topics were mearly touched on, while others seemed to drag on.

Loved the book; Hated the sloppy audiobook production

The book is fascinating, captivating and exquisitely researched and detailed. The audiobook contains dozens (or more) of shocking and lazy audio edits. How could this have possibly passed any sort of QC process? The mistakes are almost entertaining, they are so plentiful. Still worth the read.

Great Story

The story was fantastic. Great to hear about the inner workings of the network and the creative process. Flow was a bit fragmented and jarring topic changes. Not sure why only a few narrations (Oliver and Gervais) had accents whereas other’s did not-seemed random.

It’s good, but it ain’t great.

First, the released audiobook uses a rough cut that has our narrators repeating himself or herself using a different inflection in delivery.
Annoying to say the least.

As for the content, I very much enjoyed the look into my favorite television production company since childhood. You get detailed analysis early and entertaining backstabbing bureaucratic nonsense but it dwindled into bitching about change and diversification of projects and management thereof.
The productions details were rich but fell short of embarrassing the talent that’s worked for the network.
I liked it but I won’t go pushing this on my friends

okay for diehard fans

I have greatly enjoyed Miller's prior oral histories on SNL, ESPN, and CAA. This book was my least favorite. While I generally enjoyed it, it is far too long. There are countless breathless chapters on relatively forgettable HBO series. The best parts were on HBO's business model and strategy in a changing media world.

HBO history- ALL of it

Exactly the type of book I love. Oral histories from multiple perspectives is simply fascinating to me.

I have seen a LOT of reviews complaining about how boring the book is, especially in the beginning. Of course, the initial founding of the company and the business jargon is not the most exciting set of stories, but this is what the book is. It is the COMPLETE history of the juggernaut that is HBO from the idea to their recent history.

Most fascinating, in my opinion, was once the story got to the creation of their original programs and movies. Larry Sanders, Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Veep, and so many more. To hear the inspiration from creators, the experience of the actors and writers are simply great stories.

There are stories of all types in the book; the most tragic was hearing the late Michael K. Williams speak about how filming The Wire helped with his addiction to drugs. It’s truly sad.

My biggest problem with this audiobook is the fact that, somehow, the worst version of the file somehow was uploaded. There are so many second takes and lines repeated and bloopers. However, the woman narrator (Amy McFadden) made zero mistakes. Whomever edited this really dropped the ball.

Additionally, out of nowhere, when Ricky Gervais was being quoted, suddenly an over-the-top English accent invaded my ears. What? The boom has other English people speaking earlier in the book, but suddenly Gervais needs an accent? It was jarring and just weird.

I love these types of books, Live From New York about the making of SNL is another great book in this genre.

The ins and outs of HBO past and present

In depth history of the entity of HBO.

As a film/TV buff, it's fascinating and covers just about everything. Listen to 1.4x to reduce the mammoth 44+ hr runtime