The creator of the hit HBO series Entourage has slammed the premium cable network for what he sees as its submission to “righteous PC culture,” saying executives have given the bro-comedy the cold shoulder because of its portrayal of alpha-male behavior in Hollywood.
Doug Ellin said HBO hasn’t indicated it will bring back the comedy series even as it resurrects The Sopranos and Sex and the City.
“I resent it tremendously,” Ellin told Yahoo Entertainment in a recent interview. He attributed the network’s reluctance to a “wave of righteous PC culture.”
“Nobody says that about The Sopranos, where they murder people, that maybe we should readdress whether murdering people on TV is OK,” he said. “I don’t want to sound obnoxious or that I’m looking at Entourage as high art, but it was a pretty accurate portrayal of how people [acted] at that time in Hollywood.”
Ellin told Yahoo Entertainment he believes the current backlash against Entourage cost him a second HBO series.
“I did a pilot with Michael Imperioli, Michael Rappaport and Ed Burns that they passed on, which I’ll never forgive them for,” he said. “Whether they thought it was good or not, I earned my chance to have a second shot, and they put some other pretty crappy shows on [instead].”
Ellin also accused HBO of not promoting Entourage on its HBO Max streaming service.
“For a while, we were hiding in, like, ‘wish-fulfillment shows,’” he said. “We were nominated for the Emmys or the Golden Globes almost every single year, so to not put us on the must-see comedy list was pretty bizarre.”
Entourage ran for eight seasons from 2004 to 2011. The show was loosely based on Mark Wahlberg’s experiences as an aspiring actor in Los Angeles.
HBO is producing a Sopranos prequel movie titled The Many Saints of Newark, with Michael Gandolfini — son of the late James Gandolfini — playing a young Tony Soprano. The network has also announced a return of Sex and the City that will debut on HBO Max.
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