‘Entourage’ Creator Says HBO Ignores Series Over ‘PC Culture’ Backlash: ‘I Resent It Tremendously’
In a lengthy interview with Yahoo Entertainment, “Entourage” creator Doug Ellin criticizes HBO for ignoring his series in the decade since the comedy signed off the network. “I resent it tremendously,” Ellin said, adding that HBO giving “Entourage” the cold shoulder in recent years is due to the same “wave of righteous PC culture” that has created backlash around the series. “Entourage” is often criticized for its misogynistic depiction of women and accused of glorifying toxic Hollywood culture, among other grievances. Ellin said the show was merely depicting Hollywood at the time and would be updated with the times if HBO rebooted the property.
“I don’t think ‘Entourage’ was this vulgar boy-fest that people like to paint it as now,” Ellin said. “When we came out, the New York Times said we were the smartest show on television! If we did reboot the show, it’s not that I would make it any more PC, but I would write it to the best of my abilities to reflect the reality of the world right now.”
“At the time, it was an extremely realistic depiction of this town, but what the show was about was friendship and loyalty and family,” Ellin continued. “Those are the things that I hope people will take away from it long after the rest quiets down. I think there’s an overcorrection that happened, and hopefully we’ll get to a place where there’s equality for everybody, but there’s also room for people to create their art and not be judged so harshly.”
Ellen said the PC culture backlash was a driving force behind HBO sidelining the series on its streaming platforms. “For a while, we were hiding in, like, ‘wish-fulfillment shows,’” the creator 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.”
According to Ellin, the retroactive backlash against “Entourage” cost him another HBO series. As the creator explained, “I did a pilot with Michael Imperioli, Michael Rappaport and Ed Burns that [HBO] passed on, which I’ll never forgive them for. 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 summed him his feelings about the “Entourage” backlash by saying, “Nobody says that about ‘The Sopranos,’ where they murder people, that maybe we should readdress whether murdering people on TV is OK. 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.”
Head over to Yahoo’s website to read Ellin’s interview in its entirety.