- "That would have been an incredible journey through what politics actually is. Not “Father Knows Best” politics, but actual politics."
- ―David Simon[1]
The Hall was a cancelled proposed political television series spin-off of The Wire for HBO. It would have followed the political career of Thomas Carcetti.
Conception[]
After season 3 of The Wire, David Simon and his creative team came up with the idea to have a separate show following the political maneuvers of the newly-introduced-in-the-series-character councilman Thomas Carcetti. Had The Hall been greenlit, it would have ran in an alternating manner with its parent show: it would have premiered its first season before The Wire would have returned for its fourth and then followed with a second one before Wire's fifth.
Simon went on as far as beginning to construct the writing staff for the show, but, although the pitch for The Hall was presented to the then-HBO-director Chris Albrecht, the series was not commissioned to be produced.
Simon remembers their proposed project with laughter and believes it was very likely not picked up due to low viewership ratings of The Wire. Simon continues, though, by saying that the show would have been an "incredible journey" and would have revealed the true face of the modern-day politics.
Simon first spoke out about The Hall in a 2012 interview with Salon.com.[1]
Quotes[]
- "We actually went to Chris Albrecht and said, “Here’s a pilot of a show called ‘The Hall’ that follows the Carcetti character and his political career. And we want to run them in tandem"
- ―David Simon[1]
- "Yeah that’s what I need, I need two shows that nobody’s watching in Baltimore, Maryland. What the …"
- ―David Simon jokes what he believes ran through the HBO boss' mind when he heard the pitch of The Hall.[1]
- "Chris [Albrecht, then-HBO-head] must have been looking at me like, “Dude, I’m trying to figure out how to cancel the one show!"
- ―David Simon[1]