Brooks on Books: "Tinderbox" by James Andrew Miller

When we talked about HBO this season, I had read the section of Tinderbox covering up to about 1990 or so. James Andrew Miller's oral history is a really big book, though! I went back to it and read about The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, and Succession among other shows and events. I even finished the book!

Tinderbox is a juicy read loaded with info about most of the big HBO series, and I give it a strong recommendation. I have to tell you something, though: The real thrust of the text is the executive politics and boardroom intrigue at the company. There is ample stuff about the likes of James Gandolfini, but a whole lot of the history relates to the machinations of various network (and higher-up) people that the average TV viewer does not know at all. Even the stories of hits like Sex and the City and the creative decisions are focused on the executive level as opposed to the production level.

If you are into that sort of thing, you will love the book, but otherwise it might get a bit frustrating at times. Miller's style and format here are familiar to anyone who has read his awesome books about ESPN and Saturday Night Live. He lets the principals tell the story but uses some deft editing and frequent editorial interludes (presented in italics for distinction) to shape narratives. There are a lot of colorful voices in here, and it's fun reading their gossipy comments about colleagues.

I do wish there were more on the Seventies and Eighties as the vast majority is the more modern era of the network. I'd also like to see more about some of the programming other than the original series. We do get a taste of that as Miller highlights some concerts, events like Comic Relief, and some original movies, but I'd like to know more about the programming itself and those choices like why certain theatrical movies played ad nauseam. HBO Boxing gets a lot of space, but other sports like tennis not so much.

I don't want to talk too much about what the book is not because I like what it is. Dick Cavett is barely in it, though, and we noted how he was the de facto face of HBO for a while. Rich Little, someone I remembered as a big deal on the channel in the Eighties, is mentioned in passing. Really, programing in general is not an emphasis until the timeline reaches Larry Sanders.

So for a fan of the early days, it's a little disappointing, but viewers who love 21st-century HBO will be pleased. Eventually I plan to get more of the overall story by diving back into It's Not TV: The Spectacular Rise, Revolution, and Future of HBO, another one I started for the podcast and paused once I got out of the Eighties.