Since I’ve been covering the adult movie industry since 1997, I’ve watched a parade of TV shows about the porn industry be announced as being in development disappear into the ether before ever having a chance to illuminate a single blue glowing screen. That said, the announcement yesterday that “The Wire” and “Treme” creator David Simon is at work on a series about the porn businesses for HBO sounds promising.
The show, which is in the development stage for the network, is titled “The Deuce,” and it’s focused on the porn biz of yesteryear. According to the Hollywood Reporter:
“it will chronicle the legalization and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New York’s Times Square from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s. Also explored: the rough-and-tumble world that existed in midtown Manhattan until the rise of HIV, the violence of the cocaine epidemic and a rejuvenated real estate market ended the bawdy turbulence.”
For the project, Simon’s teamed up with George Pelecanos; they previously worked together on “The Wire” and “Treme.” Their point of entry into Times Square’s seedier days came in the form of a guy who’d been “one of the mob fronts on 42nd Street during that era.” But Simon and Peleconos weren’t exactly thrilled at the prospect of jumping into the sex business. “George and I looked at each other and said, ‘I don’t wanna make a porn show. … I’m married with kids and lawn furniture. I don’t want to go there, man. That’s dark.’” (Perhaps it would be reassuring for them to know that many of today’s pornographers are married, have kids, and own lawn furniture.)
A porn star in the San Fernando Valley. (Photo credit: Susannah Breslin)
And because this is HBO, where things tend to stay more porn-y than downright pornographic, “The Deuce” will purportedly focus more on the business than the, you know, bonking. (This is clever. Consumers tend to welcome any opportunity to engage with pornography while pretending they’re not engaging with pornography. That’s American hypocrisy for you, I suppose.)
