HBO Sees at Least One Big Picture (and Plenty of Shows) in Its Future

"Deadwood" (with Timothy Olyphant) is definitely deceased. (And don't hold your breath for a movie.) (By Prashant Gupta)

"John From Cincinnati" wasn't "embraced by viewers, in terms of the number of people watching the show," Lombardo said -- odd, given the network steadfastly insists it does not care about ratings.

"It wasn't embraced by the press," Lombardo said, which immediately endeared him to the critics, given that the broadcast networks are universally utterly dismissive of the media and the role they play in a show's success or failure. He said the decision to pull the plug was "mutual" between HBO suits and creator David Milch.

The decision to put "Deadwood" (also created by Milch) out of its misery, on the other hand, was "much more contentious," Lombardo said.

At which point Plepler jumped in and said that in the best of all possible worlds, the writer has finished telling his or her story "and when he or she is done -- we're done."

Played well in the room.

But then Lombardo added, "The more expensive the show is, the harder it is to justify bringing it back another year."

"Ewww, commerce," the critics said with their eyes.

And the odds of that "Deadwood" movie that had been considered are now "slim to none," the execs said, what with Milch working on a new drama for HBO called "Last of the Ninth," about New York cops in the '70s.

" 'In Treatment' absolutely delivered for us on what the producers said they were going to deliver," Lombardo said of that show's return. "We also felt the show was great as it went along and they absolutely had more stories to tell." He acknowledged it was "an enormous undertaking" to watch the series's first run, five nights a week for nine weeks. "People who did tune in really loved that show," he said. "It got decent press and is an enormously cost-effective show," he added.

"Ick, commerce," critics said with their eyes.

Likewise, "Love Me" got "mixed reviews" and a core audience that was "absolutely devoted" to it and was "another cost-effective show," Lombardo said.

"Yuck, commerce," critics said with their eyes. Critics are devoted to HBO and don't like to hear its execs talking things like "cost-effective" and "ratings."

But the guys redeemed themselves when Lombardo said it's "heartening to get a big audience, but one thing we do believe at HBO, it is a mistake to be swinging for home runs. We would love for our shows to engage as many people as possible, but if they don't and they are done well and engage a sizable group that's unbelievably loyal, that's fine."

Still, one critic noted, a lot of HBO's series have been "somber" of late. Plepler and Lombardo, who came to their current positions during a slo-mo sloughing of execs at the network, agreed, but promised that was about to change.

To that end, they've given Sarah Jessica Parker's production company the thumbs-up to make a pilot for an adaptation of the non-somber "Washingtonienne" novel. It's from former congressional staff assistant Jessica Cutler and was based on her blog of that same name, in which she detailed her interesting life in D.C., including an exhausting array of sexual encounters, some with government suits, some for cash because "how can anybody live on $25K/year?"

Can't wait.

* * *

Speaking of not somber, at HBO's Q&A session for its new series "True Blood," based on Charlaine Harris's popular Sookie Stackhouse novels about a perky mind-reading waitress and her vampire patron and his vampire pals, the pay-cable net's new entertainment division president, Sue Naegle, was asked if HBO execs hesitated to pick up the series because of the Scary Sci-Fi People who would plague them when the show inevitably ended its run, sooner or later.

Actually, the question was more along the lines of "Do execs ever hesitate scheduling a show like this one, knowing once they've made that commitment they're in for a world of hurt?"

"I spent a long time as an agent, setting up and selling shows," said Naegle, a talent agent before joining HBO. That was followed by much blah-blahing about a TV project's success being "execution-driven," superior to someone else's vampire series, yak, yak, yak.

The critic took another whack at the question: "I'm saying if you schedule a show like this, you can never cancel it without problems."

"Oh -- is this a question about crazy fans? I love them!" Naegle said. "I hope this show gets that kind of rise out of people, as long as they don't send a bunch of coffins to my office."

Nope, she has no idea what she's in for.