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Venue for the comments by Mr. Simon and Mr. Burns was a seminar entitled “Unraveling THE WIRE” at the Museum of Television & Radio on February 10th in New York City.

David Simon, the Creator/Executive Producer of HBO’s acclaimed drama, THE WIRE, reports that he has had constructive discussions with Chris Albrecht and Caroline Strauss of HBO on the possible renewal of the program, but that no decision as yet has been made by the network. Mr. Simon said of the discussions that, “the ball is in my court”, and that he was developing a further presentation for HBO executives on where he wants to take THE WIRE over the next two seasons. Simon indicated he was happy to report his discussions with HBO were not about the program’s ratings or “numbers”, but acknowledged that THE WIRE has clearly not been a “break-out hit” for the cable network. Simon expressed his appreciation of the fact that his conversations with HBO were focused on story-line and not lightening up the program. He hopes and expects to be prepared to restart his discussions with HBO on the program's future by the end of this month.

Mr. Simon and his partner, Producer/Writer Ed Burns, also talked about the remarkable contributions of Wood Harris and Idris Elba to the development of THE WIRE’s story-line in the recently completed Season Three. Simon went on to note that the Barksdale story arc had not originally been intended to extend beyond Season One, but that the power of the “triangulation” of characters played by Harris, Elba, and Larry Gilliard, Jr. had pushed the writers to devote nearly two and one-half seasons of the program to the Barksdale crew.

The venue for the comments by Mr. Simon and Mr. Burns was a seminar entitled “Unraveling THE WIRE” at the Museum of Television & Radio on February 10th in New York City. Other participants in the seminar were John Doman, the actor who plays the role of "Dep. Commissioner Rawls" on the program, Idris Elba who played the role of the now-deceased "Russell 'Stringer' Bell", Seth Gilliam, the program’s "Sgt. Ellis Carver", Jamie Hector who joined the program in its third season as "Marlo Stanfield", noted novelist George Pelecanos, a Producer/Writer for the program, and Karen Thorson, a Producer of the program and the widow of the program’s deceased Executive Producer, Robert Colesberry. The seminar was moderated by Ken Tucker, a writer for New York Magazine.

The evening began with brief remarks by Mr. Tucker and Mr. Simon, which were immediately followed by a presentation of the entirety of Season Three’s opening episode, “Time After Time”. The standing-room-only audience watched raptly, with periodic laughter greeting some of the comic moments in this episode, such as Stringer Bell’s application of Robert’s Rules to his “staff” meeting and Ellis Carver’s reaction to the musical soundtrack selected by his partner, Thomas “Herc” Hauk for their unit’s raid on a Western District drug corner. The audience applauded vigorously at the end of the episode’s airing.

Ken Tucker then introduced the seminar participants individually, with the longest and loudest applause reserved for Idris Elba. Mr. Simon also introduced Nina Kostroff Noble, an executive producer who was present at the seminar. The format for the second half of the seminar was a series of questions and answers, several posed by the Moderator, Mr. Tucker, and many by audience participants. One of Mr. Tucker’s first questions was directed to John Doman, describing the “Rawls” character as the show’s biggest “prick”. Mr. Doman responded that he didn’t see his character as a “prick”. He then described how surprising it was for him as an actor to discover new information about his character’s sexual orientation as late in the series as he and the program’s audience did. Doman went on to say that he felt his character’s feelings of “self-loathing” may help to explain the egotism and arrogance “Rawls” has displayed since the start of Season One.

The first question from an audience member focused on issues of race, and what this questioner saw as “the pairing together” of black and white characters, e.g. Jimmy/Bunk and Rawls/Burrell. Were the writers developing the characters, in particular, as black or white? The questioner illustrated her point by referencing that the Clay Davis character might just as easily have been white, rather than African-American. Mr. Simon responded by noting that in developing characters the writers had drawn upon their experiences with real-life Baltimore individuals, and that many of the show’s characters were based on composites of three or more persons. The Davis character happened to be based on a composite of three African-American legislators from West Baltimore. Mr. Pelecanos observed about race that in his writing he was attempting to capture the individual voices of the characters, and that if you entered a room with twenty blacks, you would expect to hear twenty different voices.

Another question was asked by an individual identifying herself as a criminal defense attorney from Detroit, who lavished great praise on the show’s realism in depicting cops and dealers, but was critical of how it depicted criminal defense attorneys. She pointed to the public defender that represented D’Angelo Barksdale when he was being questioned in New Jersey, who showed her horror at the pictures displayed during her client’s questioning. The questioner felt a battle-hardened Public Defender would never have reacted in that manner. Mr. Simon gently pointed out that the scene wasn’t really about the attorney, but rather was about D’Angelo coming to terms with the acts of violence perpetrated by his family in their business. Idris Elba displaying a quick wit, chimed in that the attorney in question just wasn’t as tough as a Detroit attorney would have been.

Among the questions answered by Mr. Simon related to the role of individual writers who made up the program’s “Murder’s Row” of authors, including Simon, Burns, Pelecanos, Richard Price, Dennis Lehane, and Rafael Alvarez. In discussing the fact that the writing team had healthy fights about story-line and character development, Simon noted that after all the fighting, everyone was still alive. This drew a quick response again from Idris Elba, noting that in fact this was not true, in reference to his now-deceased character, Stringer Bell.

An audience member asked what message the cast, the writers, and the crew wanted to send its audience. For no apparent reason, this question was bounced to Jamie Hector. Although he struggled to respond at first, Hector went on to explain that he hoped to send a message that people need to get involved in their communities, as he has done in mentoring Baltimore youths in the martial arts. His answer seemed very heart-felt and was a particular highlight of the evening. Mr. Pelecanos in response to another audience question about the role of “Cutty”, the ex-convict turned boxing coach, noted that a new novel he has written focuses on a boxing coach, and that the Cutty character is in part drawn from that story. Pelecanos appeared to surprise Hector as he too has had a long interest in the martial arts.

Mr. Simon concluded the program by saying that if anything about his experience since writing “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets” could be called “strange”, it was that his team was even in a position to create and produce a show like THE WIRE.

Summing up the evening, Simon & Co. continue to treat their viewers with the utmost respect, providing thoughtful and honest answers to all questions raised. Idris Elba, clad in bright red sneakers and blue jeans, instead of one of his customary tailored outfits, continues to be a most popular and charismatic figure, even after his character’s untimely passing. WIRE fans everywhere can take heart from the fact that discussions with HBO on the program’s future are ongoing, but do not expect final word for at least another month. Until then, let’s enjoy Seasons One and Two on DVD.