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

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.

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.

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

One of the narrators slurred his words

Extensive, educational, entertaining sums it. Utterly researched. Worthy of the Wharton School. A big minus is one of the narrators slurred his words so badly I nearly gave up on the book.

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

Super

The production must have been rushed to ensure it got out for all of those Thanksgiving travelers and I for one am thankful it was! It was just what I needed for the 17+ hours I spent on the road. I do hope the production issues are fixed eventually. It was odd that Ricky Gervais (and John Oliver) had a different voice actor than the rest of the book. The book ends rather abruptly with the news of the Discovery merger. I understand why Michael K. Williams' death was not noted as it happened less than three months before publication but I was still saddened by it. I also request all references to the HBO auditorium (or theater) would be addended by the voice of Michael Fuchs to the Michael J. Fuchs HBO Auditorium (or theater). I hope this doesn't come across as too negative as it was a great, informative listen!

I’m just here for the set tea

I just wanted more gossip on the shows and the actors. Instead I got way more I could’ve imagined. Great listen. And HBO is savage af.