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David Simon

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For other people named David Simon, see David Simon (disambiguation).
David Simon
Simon in 2004
Simon in 2004
BornDavid Judah Simon
(1960-02-09) February 9, 1960 (age 64)
Washington, D.C., United States
OccupationAuthor, journalist, television writer, producer
NationalityAmerican
EducationBethesda-Chevy Chase High School
Alma materUniversity of Maryland, College Park
SubjectCrime fiction, true crime
Notable worksThe Wire
Treme
Spouse
Kayle Tucker
​
​
(m. 1991; div. 1998)​

​
(m. 2008)​
Children2

David Judah Simon[1] (born February 9, 1960) is an American author, journalist, and television writer and producer best known for his work on The Wire. He worked for the Baltimore Sun City Desk for twelve years (1982–95) and wrote Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991) and co-wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood (1997) with Ed Burns. The former book was the basis for the NBC series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–99), on which Simon served as a writer and producer. Simon adapted the latter book into the HBO mini-series The Corner (2000).

He was the creator, executive producer, head writer, and show runner for all five seasons of the HBO television series The Wire (2002–2008). He adapted the non-fiction book Generation Kill into a television mini-series, and served as the show runner for the project. He was selected as one of the 2010 MacArthur Fellows[2] and named an Utne Reader visionary in 2011.[3] Simon also created the HBO series Treme with Eric Overmyer, which aired for four seasons. Following Treme, Simon wrote the HBO mini-series Show Me a Hero with journalist William F. Zorzi, a colleague first at The Baltimore Sun, and again later on The Wire.

In August 2015, HBO commissioned two pilots from Simon's company Blown Deadline Productions. The first drama, The Deuce, about the New York porn industry in the 1970s and 1980s, stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and co-producer James Franco and began airing in September 2017. The second drama is an untitled program exploring a "detailed examination of partisanship" and money in Washington politics, to be co-produced with Carl Bernstein.[4]

Early life

Simon was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Dorothy Simon (née Ligeti), a homemaker, and Bernard Simon, a former journalist and then public relations director for B'nai B'rith for 20 years.[5][6][7][8] In March 1977, when Simon was still in high school, Simon's father was one of a group of over 140 people held hostage (and later released) in Washington, D.C. by former national secretary of the Nation of Islam Hamaas Abdul Khaalis in the Hanafi Siege.[9][10][11]

Simon was raised in a Jewish family with roots that originated in Eastern Europe and Hungary (his maternal grandfather had changed his surname from "Leibowitz" to "Ligeti").[7][12] He has a brother, Gary Simon, and a sister, Linda Evans, who died in 1990.[8]

Simon graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda, Maryland, and wrote for the school newspaper, The Tattler. In 1983, he graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park. While at college he wrote and was Editor for The Diamondback and became friends with contemporary David Mills.[13]

Career

External videos
video icon Author, Screenwriter, & Producer David Simon: 2010 MacArthur Fellow MacArthur Foundation[14]
video icon A Conversation with President Obama and The Wire Creator David Simon, The White House[15]

Journalism

Upon leaving college, Simon worked as a police reporter at The Baltimore Sun from 1982 to 1995.[16] He spent most of his career covering the crime beat.[16][17] A colleague has said that Simon loved journalism and felt it was "God's work".[17] Simon says that he was initially altruistic and was inspired to enter journalism by the Washington Post's coverage of Watergate but became increasingly pragmatic as he gained experience.[17] Later in his career he aimed to tell the best possible story without "cheating it".[17]

Simon was a union captain when the writing staff went on strike in 1987 over benefit cuts.[18] He remained angry after the strike ended and began to feel uncomfortable in the writing room.[18] He searched for a reason to justify a leave of absence and settled on the idea of writing a novel.[18] "I got out of journalism because some sons of bitches bought my newspaper and it stopped being fun," says Simon.[19]

In 1988, disillusioned, Simon took a year's leave to go into the Baltimore Police Department Homicide Unit to write a book.[20]

Television

Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets

Main article: Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets

Simon's leave of absence from The Sun resulted in his first book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991). The book was based on his experiences shadowing the Baltimore Police Department homicide unit during 1988.[16] The idea came from a conversation on Christmas Eve 1985 in the unit office, where Det. Bill Lansey told him, "If someone just wrote down what happens in this place for one year, they'd have a goddamn book."[18] Simon approached the police department and the editors of the paper to receive approval. The detectives were initially slow to accept him, but he persevered in an attempt to "seem … like part of the furniture". However, he soon ingratiated himself with the detectives, saying in the closing notes of the book, "I shared with the detectives a year's worth of fast-food runs, bar arguments and station house humor: Even for a trained observer, it was hard to remain aloof."[17] During one instance, Simon even assisted with an arrest. Two detectives Simon was riding with pulled their car to a curb to apprehend two suspects, but Detective Dave Brown got his trenchcoat caught in a seat belt when he tried to exit the car. Brown told Simon to assist Detective Terry McLarney himself, and Simon helped apprehend and search one of the suspects.[21]

The book won the 1992 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime book.[22] The Associated Press called it "a true-crime classic".[21] The Library Journal also highly recommended it, and Newsday described it as "one of the most engrossing police procedural mystery books ever written".[21] Simon credits his time researching the book as altering his writing style and informing later work. He learned to be more patient in research and writing, and said a key lesson was not promoting himself but concentrating on his subjects.[17] Simon told Baltimore's City Paper in 2003 that Homicide was not traditional journalism. "I felt Homicide the book and The Corner were not traditional journalism in the sense of coming from some artificially omniscient, objective point of view," said Simon. "They're immersed in the respective cultures that they cover in a way that traditional journalism often isn't."[19]

Homicide: Life on the Street

Main article: Homicide: Life on the Street

The publishers of Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets were eager for a screen adaptation and submitted it to numerous directors but there was little interest.[18] Simon suggested that they send the book to Baltimore native and film director Barry Levinson. Levinson's assistant Gail Mutrux enjoyed the book and both she and Levinson became attached as producers.[18] The project became the award-winning TV series Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–1999), on which Simon worked as a writer and producer.[16]

Simon was asked by Mutrux to write the show's pilot episode but declined, feeling he did not have the necessary expertise.[23] He collaborated with his old college friend David Mills to write the season two premiere "Bop Gun".[17][24] The episode was based on a story by executive producer Tom Fontana and featured Robin Williams in a guest starring role that garnered the actor an Emmy nomination. Simon and Mills won the WGA Award for Best Writing in a Drama for the episode.[17] Simon also received Austin Film Festival's Outstanding Television Writer Award in 2010.

Simon left his job with the Baltimore Sun in 1995 to work full-time on Homicide: Life on the Street during the production of the show's fourth season. Simon wrote the teleplay for the season four episodes "Justice: Part 2"[25] and "Scene of the Crime" (with Anya Epstein).[26] For season five he was the show's story editor and continued to contribute teleplays writing the episodes "Bad Medicine"[27] and "Wu's on First?" (again with Epstein).[28] He was credited as a producer on the show's sixth and seventh seasons. He wrote the teleplays for parts two and three of the sixth season premiere "Blood Ties"[29][30] (the latter marking his third collaboration with Epstein) and provided the story for the later sixth season episodes "Full Court Press"[31] and "Finnegan's Wake" (with James Yoshimura).[32] He provided the story for the seventh season episodes "Shades of Gray" (with Julie Martin),[33] "The Same Coin" (again with Yoshimura)[34] and "Self Defense" (with Eric Overmyer).[35] Simon wrote the story and teleplay for the seventh season episodes "The Twenty Percent Solution"[36] and "Sideshow: Part 2".[37] Simon, Martin and teleplay writer T. J. English won the Humanitas Prize in the 60 minutes category for the episode "Shades of Gray".[38] Simon was nominated for a second WGA Award for Best Writing in a Drama for his work on "Finnegan's Wake" with Yoshimura and Mills (who wrote the teleplay).[39]

Simon has said that he thought the show was a "remarkable drama" but that it did not reflect the book.[18] He has also said that when writing for the show he had to put his experiences of the real detectives aside as the characters became quite different, particularly in their more philosophical approach to the job.[23] Simon said that TV must find shorthand ways of referencing anything real.[17]

The Corner

Main article: The Corner

In 1997 he co-authored, with Ed Burns, The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, the true account of a West Baltimore community dominated by a heavy drug market.[40][41] Simon credits his editor John Sterling with the suggestion that he observe a single drug corner.[16] He took a second leave of absence from the Baltimore Sun in 1993 to research the project.[17][42] Simon became close to one of his subjects, drug addict Gary McCullough, and was devastated by his death while he was writing the project.[17] Simon says that he approached the research with the abstract idea that his subjects may die because of their addictions but it was not possible to fully prepare for the reality.[17] He remains grateful to his subjects saying "This involved people's whole lives, there's no privacy in it. That was an enormous gift which many, many people gave us. Even the most functional were at war with themselves. But they were not foolish people. And they made that choice."[17]

The Corner was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times.[43] Simon again returned to his journalism career after finishing the book but felt further changed by his experiences. He said he "was less enamored of the braggadocio, all that big, we're-really-having-an-impact talk" and no longer believed that they were making a difference; he left his job at The Sun within a year for work on NBC's Homicide.[17]

Soon after Homicide concluded Simon co-wrote (with David Mills) and produced The Corner as a six-hour TV miniseries for HBO.[18] The show received three Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or a Movie, for Simon and Mills.[18]

The Wire

Main article: The Wire

Simon was the creator, show runner, executive producer and head writer of the HBO drama series The Wire.[42] Many of The Wire's characters and incidents also came from Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.[44] After the fourth season, Simon signed on to produce the fifth and final season of The Wire, which focused on the role of mass media in society.[45]

Again he worked with Ed Burns on creating the show. Originally they set out to create a police drama loosely based on Burns' experiences when working on protracted investigations of violent drug dealers using surveillance technology.[46] During this time Burns had often faced frustration with the bureaucracy of the police department, which Simon equated with his own ordeals as a police reporter for The Baltimore Sun.[47] Writing against the background of current events, including institutionalized corporate crime at Enron and institutional dysfunction in the Catholic Church, the show became "more of a treatise about institutions and individuals than a straight cop show."[48]

They chose to take The Wire to HBO because of their existing working relationship from The Corner. Owing to its reputation for exploring new areas, HBO was initially dubious about including a cop drama in their lineup, but eventually agreed to produce the pilot[48][49] after ordering a further two scripts to see how the series would progress.[50] Carolyn Strauss, the president of HBO entertainment, has said that Simon's argument that the most subversive thing HBO could do was invade the networks' "backyard" of police procedurals helped to persuade them.[16]

The theme of institutional dysfunction was expanded across different areas of the city as the show progressed. The second season focused on the death of working-class America through examination of the city ports.[51] The third season "reflects on the nature of reform and reformers, and whether there is any possibility that political processes, long calcified, can mitigate against the forces currently arrayed against individuals." [51] For the fourth season Simon again turned to Burns' experience, this time his second career as a Baltimore public school teacher in examining the theme of education.[16][52] The fifth season looked at the media, as well as continuing themes such as politics from earlier seasons.

Simon was reunited with his The Corner producers Robert F. Colesberry and Nina K. Noble on The Wire.[45] Simon credits Colesberry for achieving the show's realistic visual feel because of his experience as a director.[53] They recruited Homicide star and director Clark Johnson to helm the pilot episode.[53] The completed pilot was given to HBO in November 2001.[50] Johnson returned to direct the second episode when the show was picked up,[53] and would direct the series finale as well, in addition to starring in the fifth season.

Simon approached acclaimed crime fiction authors to write for The Wire. He was recommended the work of George Pelecanos by a colleague while working at the Baltimore Sun because of similarities between their writing. The two writers have much in common including a childhood in Silver Spring, attendance at the University of Maryland and their interest in the "fate of the American city and the black urban poor."[50] Simon did not read Pelecanos initially because of territorial prejudice; Pelecanos is from Washington.[18] Once Simon received further recommendations including one from his wife Laura Lippman he tried Pelecanos' novel The Sweet Forever and changed his mind.[50] He sought out Pelecanos when recruiting writers for The Wire. The two met at the funeral of a mutual friend shortly after Simon delivered the pilot episode.[50] Simon pitched Pelecanos the idea of The Wire as a novel for television about the American city as Pelecanos drove him home.[50] Pelecanos became a regular writer[54] and later a producer for the show's second[55] and third seasons.[56] Simon and Pelecanos collaborated to write the episode "Middle Ground"[57][58] which received the show's first Emmy nomination, in the category Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.[59]

Pelecanos left the production staff following the third season to focus on his next novel; Simon has commented that he missed having him working on the show full-time but was pleased that he continued to write for them and was a fan of the resultant book The Night Gardener.[60] Similar to Simon's own experience in researching Homicide Pelecanos spent time embedded with the Washington DC homicide unit to research the book.

Crime novelist Dennis Lehane has also written for the series starting with the third season.[56][61] Lehane has commented that he was impressed by Simon and Burns' ear for authentic street slang.[50]

Eric Overmyer was brought in to fill the role of Pelecanos as a full-time writer producer.[60][62] He had previously worked with Simon on Homicide where the two became friends.[60] Simon has said that he was impressed with Overmyer's writing particularly in synthesizing the story for "Margin of Error" as the episode is the height of the show's political storyline but must also progress other plot threads.[60]

Simon and his writing staff were nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Dramatic Series at the February 2009 ceremony for their work on the fifth season.[63] Simon and Burns collaborated to write the series finale "-30-" which received the show's second Emmy nomination, again in the category Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.[64]

Simon has stated that he finds working with HBO more comfortable than his experiences with NBC on Homicide and that HBO is able to allow greater creative control because it is dependent on subscribers rather than on viewing figures.[40] He has said that he feels unable to return to network television because he felt pressure to compromise storytelling for audience satisfaction.[18]

Generation Kill

Main article: Generation Kill

Simon produced and wrote Generation Kill for HBO with Ed Burns. They again worked with Nina Noble as a producer. The miniseries is an adaption of the non-fiction book of the same name. It relates the first 40 days of the 2003 invasion of Iraq as experienced by 1st Reconnaissance Battalion and their embedded reporter, Evan Wright. Simon and Burns worked with Wright in adapting his book into the series.[65]

Treme

Main article: Treme

Simon collaborated with Eric Overmyer again on Treme,[66] a project about musicians in post-Katrina New Orleans.[50] Overmyer lives part-time in New Orleans, and Simon believed his experience would be valuable in navigating the "ornate oral tradition" of the city's stories.[50] Simon also consulted with New Orleans natives Donald Harrison Jr., Kermit Ruffins, and Davis Rogan while developing the series.[67] The show focuses on a working-class neighborhood, and is smaller in scope than The Wire. The series premiered on April 11, 2010 on HBO and ran for four seasons.

Treme is named after the Faubourg Treme neighborhood in New Orleans that is home to many of the city's musicians.[66] Simon has stated that the series will explore beyond the music scene to encompass political corruption, the public housing controversy, the criminal-justice system, clashes between police and Mardi Gras Indians, and the struggle to regain the tourism industry after the storm.[68] One of the principal characters in the pilot script runs a restaurant.[67] The series was filmed on location and was expected to provide a boost to the New Orleans economy.[68] Simon's casting of the show mirrored that of The Wire in using local actors wherever possible.[67] Wendell Pierce, who had previously played Bunk Moreland on The Wire, stars in the series. Clarke Peters, also of The Wire, is another series regular. Many other stars of The Wire have appeared in Treme, these include Steve Earle, Jim True-Frost, James Ransone, and Anwan Glover.[69]

Show Me a Hero

Main article: Show Me a Hero

In 2014, HBO greenlit production for Simon's next project Show Me a Hero, a six-hour miniseries co-written with William F. Zorzi and the episodes directed by Academy Award-winner Paul Haggis. The miniseries is an adaptation of the nonfiction book of the same name by Lisa Belkin and tells the story of Nick Wasicsko, the youngest big-city mayor in the nation who finds himself thrust into racial controversy when a federal court orders to build a small number of low-income housing units in the white neighborhoods of Yonkers, New York.[70] Oscar Isaac stars as Wasicsko and leads a cast, which includes Catherine Keener, Jim Belushi, Bob Balaban and Winona Ryder. The miniseries premiered on August 16, 2015.[71]

The Deuce

Main article: The Deuce

The Deuce is a 2017 drama television series set in Times Square, New York focusing on the rise of the porn industry in the 1970s-80s. Created and written by Simon along with frequent collaborator George Pelecanos, the series pilot began shooting in October 2015.[72] It was picked up to series in January 2016. It premiered on September 10, 2017 and is broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States.[73]

The Deuce tells the story of the legalization and ensuing rise of the porn industry in New York beginning in the 1970s and its ongoing rise through the mid-1980s. Themes explored include the rise of HIV, the violence of the drug epidemic and the resulting real estate booms and busts that coincided with the change.

Projects in development

Writing process

Simon is known for his realistic dialogue and journalistic approach to writing.[50] He says that authenticity is paramount and that he writes not with a general audience in mind but with the opinions of his subjects as his priority.[50] He has described his extensive use of real anecdotes and characters in his writing as "stealing life".[87]

In a talk that Simon gave to a live audience in April 2007 at the Creative Alliance's storytelling series, Simon disclosed that he had started writing for revenge against John Carroll and Bill Marimow, the two most senior editors at The Baltimore Sun when Simon was a reporter at the paper.[88] Simon said he had watched Carroll and Marimow "single-handedly destroy" the newspaper and that he spent over ten years trying to get back at them.[88]

Anything I've ever accomplished as a writer, as somebody doing TV, anything I've ever done in life, down to, like, cleaning up my room, has been accomplished because I was going to show people that they were fucked up, wrong, and that I was the fucking center of the universe and the sooner they got hip to that, the happier they would all be.[88]

One of the actions Simon took was to name a character in The Wire after Marimow and make the character "a repellent police-department toady."[89] Carroll left the Baltimore Sun to become editor at the Los Angeles Times and resigned in 2005 after budget cuts were announced.[88] "He stands up like a [bleeping] hero, takes a bullet," said Simon.[88] In 2006 Marimow was diagnosed with prostate cancer, something that Simon said "took the edge off" his grudge.[88] Carroll and Marimow "were fuel for 10 years of my life. ... And now, I got nothing," Simon said.[88]

When asked about these comments, Simon said that he had spoken with "some hyperbole and, I hope, comic effect", adding that his basic viewpoint was: "that simple revenge is both empty and beside the point and that a good story carefully told has to speak to larger themes. You do not tell an ornate, careful story over ten hours of HBO airtime merely to bust on any given soul."[88]

Views on journalism

In an interview in Reason in 2004, Simon said that since leaving the newspaper business he has become more cynical about the power of journalism.[40] "One of the sad things about contemporary journalism is that it actually matters very little. The world now is almost inured to the power of journalism. The best journalism would manage to outrage people. And people are less and less inclined to outrage," said Simon.[40] "I've become increasingly cynical about the ability of daily journalism to effect any kind of meaningful change. I was pretty dubious about it when I was a journalist, but now I think it's remarkably ineffectual."[40]

While testifying at a 2009 Senate hearing regarding the future of journalism in America, Simon indicted what he saw as poor online journalism, calling the phrase citizen journalist "Orwellian to [his] ears."[90] Simon ended his testimony by declaring, "I don't think anything can be done to save high-end journalism."[90]

Political views

Simon has described himself as a social democrat, broadly supporting the existence of capitalism whilst opposing "raw, unencumbered capitalism, absent any social framework, absent any sense of community, without regard to the weakest and most vulnerable classes in society", which he described as "a recipe for needless pain, needless human waste, (and) needless tragedy". He has criticised the idea of trickle-down economics.[91]

In 2013, Simon compared the global surveillance disclosures uncovered by Edward Snowden to a 1980s effort by the City of Baltimore to record the numbers dialed from all pay phones.[92] The city believed that drug traffickers were using pay phones and pagers, and a municipal judge allowed the city to record the dialed numbers. The placement of the payphone number recorders formed the basis of The Wire's first season. Simon argued that the media attention regarding the surveillance disclosures is a "faux scandal."[92][93]

During a November 2013 speech at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney, he said that America has become "a horror show" of savage inequality as a result of capitalism run amok, and that "unless we reverse course, the average human being is worth less on planet Earth. Unless we take stock of the fact that maybe socialism and the socialist impulse has to be addressed again; it has to be married as it was married in the 1930s, the 1940s and even into the 1950s, to the engine that is capitalism."[94][95]

Simon has also spoken out publicly against crime journalist Kevin Deutsch, disputing the portrayal of Baltimore's illegal drug trade in Deutsch's book, Pill City: How Two Honor Roll Students Foiled the Feds and Built a Drug Empire. Simon has described the book as a "a wholesale fabrication."[96]

During the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries, Simon praised Bernie Sanders for "rehabilitating and normalizing the term socialist back into American public life", but opposed some attacks against Hillary Clinton which he felt focused on her presumed motives rather than the substance of policies.[91]

Personal life

In 1991, Simon was married to graphic artist Kayle Tucker. They had a son, Ethan Simon. The marriage ended in divorce.

In 2008, Simon married Baltimore novelist and former Sun reporter Laura Lippman in a ceremony officiated by John Waters.[97][98] They have a daughter named Georgia Ray Simon, who was born in 2010.[99]

Simon's nephew, Jason Simon, is a guitarist and vocalist for the psychedelic rock band Dead Meadow.[100]

Simon was the 2012 commencement speaker for the Georgetown University College of Arts and Sciences, as well as the speaker for the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School graduation.[101]

Works and publications

Commentary

  • David Simon (2008-01-20). "Does the News Matter To Anyone Anymore?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
  • David Simon (2009-03-01). "In Baltimore, No One Left to Press the Police". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
  • David Simon (2009-07-16). "Build the Wall". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2012-08-20.

Non-fiction books

Filmography

Producer

Year Show Role Notes
1996 Homicide: Life on the Street Story editor Season 5
1997
Producer Season 6
1998
Season 7
1999
2000 The Corner Executive producer, showrunner, writer
2002 The Wire Executive producer, showrunner, writer Season 1
2003 Season 2
2004 Season 3
2006 Season 4
2008 Season 5
Generation Kill Executive producer, showrunner, writer
2010 Treme Executive producer, showrunner, writer Season 1
2011 Season 2
2012 Season 3
2013 Season 4
2015 Show Me a Hero Executive producer, showrunner, writer
2017 The Deuce Executive producer, showrunner, writer Season 1
2018 Season 2

Writer

Year Show Season Episode title Episode Notes
1994 Homicide: Life on the Street 2 "Bop Gun" 1 Teleplay by Simon and David Mills from a story by Tom Fontana
1996 NYPD Blue 3 "Hollie and the Blowfish" 17 Teleplay by Simon, story by Simon and Bill Clark
Homicide: Life on the Street 4 "Justice: Part 2" 14 Teleplay by Simon from a story by Tom Fontana and Henry Bromell
"Scene of the Crime" 18 Teleplay by Simon and Anya Epstein from a story by Tom Fontana, Henry Bromell and Barry Levinson
5 "Bad Medicine" 4 Teleplay by Simon from a story by Tom Fontana and Julie Martin
1997 "Wu's on First?" 15 Teleplay by Simon and Anya Epstein from a story by Julie Martin and James Yoshimura
6 "Blood Ties: Part 2" 2 Teleplay by Simon from a story by Tom Fontana and James Yoshimura
"Blood Ties: Part 3" 3 Teleplay by Simon and Anya Epstein from a story by Tom Fontana, Julie Martin and James Yoshimura
1998 "Full Court Press" 18 Teleplay by Phillip B. Epstein from a story by Simon
"Finnegan's Wake" 21 Teleplay by David Mills from a story by Simon and James Yoshimura
1999 7 "Shades of Gray" 10 Teleplay by T. J. English from a story by Simon and Julie Martin
"The Same Coin" 12 Teleplay by Sharon Guskin from a story by Simon and James Yoshimura
"Sideshow: Part 2" 15 Writer
"Self Defense" 18 Story
2000 The Corner 1 "Gary's Blues" 1 Writer
"DeAndre's Blues" 2 Writer
"Dope Fiend Blues" 4 Writer
"Corner Boy's Blues" 5 Writer
"Everyman's Blues" 6 Writer
2002 The Wire 1 "The Target" 1 Story and teleplay
"The Detail" 2 Story and teleplay
"The Buys" 3 Story and teleplay
"Old Cases" 4 Story and teleplay
"The Pager" 5 Story
"The Wire" 6 Story and teleplay
"One Arrest" 7 Story
"Lessons" 8 Story and teleplay
"Game Day" 9 Story
"The Cost" 10 Story and teleplay
"The Hunt" 11 Story
"Cleaning Up" 12 Story
"Sentencing" 13 Writer
2003 2 "Ebb Tide" 1 Story and teleplay
"Collateral Damage" 2 Story and teleplay
"Hot Shots" 3 Story and teleplay
"Hard Cases" 4 Story
"Undertow" 5 Story
"All Prologue" 6 Story and teleplay
"Backwash" 7 Story
"Duck and Cover" 8 Story
"Stray Rounds" 9 Story and teleplay
"Storm Warnings" 10 Story
"Bad Dreams" 11 Story
"Port in a Storm" 12 Story and teleplay
2004 3 "Time After Time" 1 Story and teleplay
"All Due Respect" 2 Story
"Dead Soldiers" 3 Story
"Hamsterdam" 4 Story
"Straight and True" 5 Story
"Homecoming" 6 Story
"Back Burners" 7 Story
"Moral Midgetry" 8 Story
"Slapstick" 9 Story and teleplay
"Reformation" 10 Story
"Middle Ground" 11 Story
"Mission Accomplished" 12 Story and teleplay
2006 4 "Boys of Summer" 1 Story and teleplay
"Alliances" 5 Story
"A New Day" 11 Story
"Final Grades" 13 Story and teleplay
2008 5 "More with Less" 1 Story and teleplay
"Unconfirmed Reports" 2 Story
"Not For Attribution" 3 Story
"Transitions" 4 Story
"React Quotes" 5 Story
"The Dickensian Aspect" 6 Story
"Took" 7 Story
"Clarifications" 8 Story
"Late Editions" 9 Story
"–30–" 10 Story and teleplay
Generation Kill 1 "Get Some" 1 Writer
"The Cradle of Civilization" 2 Story
"Screwby" 3 Story
"Combat Jack" 4 Story and teleplay
"A Burning Dog" 5 Story
"Stay Frosty" 6 Story
"Bombs in the Garden" 7 Story and teleplay
2010 Treme 1 "Do You Know What It Means" 1 Teleplay
"Meet De Boys on the Battlefront" 2 Story
"Right Place, Wrong Time" 3 Story
"Shame, Shame, Shame" 5 Story
"Shallow Water, Oh Mama" 6 Story
"Wish Somebody Would Care" 9 Story
"I'll Fly Away" 10 Teleplay
2011 2 "Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky" 2 Teleplay
"Slip Away" 5 Story
"Carnival Time" 7 Teleplay
"What Is New Orleans?" 9 Story
"Do Whatcha Wanna" 11 Story and teleplay
2012 3 "Knock With Me - Rock With Me" 1 Story and teleplay
"The Greatest Love" 4 Story
"Promised Land" 7 Story
"Tipitina" 10 Story and teleplay
2013 4 "Yes We Can Can" 1 Teleplay
"Sunset on Louisianne" 4 Teleplay
"...To Miss New Orleans" 5 Teleplay
2015 Show Me a Hero 1 "Parts 1 & 2" 1 & 2 Story and teleplay
"Parts 3 & 4" 3 & 4 Story
"Parts 5 & 6" 5 & 6 Story and teleplay
2017 The Deuce 1 "Pilot" 1 Story and teleplay
"The Principle is All" 3 Story and teleplay
"Au Reservoir" 7 Story
"My Name Is Ruby" 8 Story and teleplay

References

  1. ^ "Commencement - Bachelor of General Studies". University of Maryland College Park. December 1983. p. 47. Retrieved 14 August 2015. David Judah Simon
  2. ^ "David Simon: 2010 MacArthur Fellow". MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  3. ^ "David Simon: Television Man". Utne Reader, November–December 2011. Retrieved 19 October 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ HBO Orders Two David Simon Pilots, James Franco to Star In Porn Drama Lacey Rose, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 August 2015. Retrieved: 25 September 2015.
  5. ^ "Gets B'nai B'rith Press Post" (PDF). The New York Times. 13 August 1956. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  6. ^ "Bernard Simon, Longtime B'nai B'rith Staffer, Dead at 89". B'nai B'rith. 21 April 2010. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  7. ^ a b Shefler, Gil (16 November 2010). "Pulling no punches, down to The Wire: David Simon, creator of the HBO series, discusses his Jewish upbringing, his characters, and his motivations". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  8. ^ a b Brown, Emma (22 April 2010). "Bernard Simon, public relations director for B'nai B'rith, dies". The Washington Post via Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  9. ^ Simon, Bernard (15 March 1977). "Maybe, He Thought, He'd Wind Up at Entebbe" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  10. ^ Reinhold, Robert (12 March 1977). "Shaken Hostages Tell of Days of Terror" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  11. ^ "Joy, Tears, Prayers and Sorrow Mark End of 39-hour Siege B'nai B'rith Leaders Appeal for Measures to". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 14 March 1977. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  12. ^ "David Simon - Pickles and Cream". davidsimon.com. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
  13. ^ Hinson, Hal (2 June 2002). "Television/Radio; Revisiting Baltimore's Embattled Streets". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 October 2007.
  14. ^ "MacArthur Fellows Program, David Simon =". MacArthur Foundation. 2010. Retrieved March 28, 2015.[permanent dead link‍]
  15. ^ "The President Interviews the Creator of "The Wire" About the War on Drugs". The White House. March 26, 2015. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g Drumming, Neil (2006-09-15). "High Wire Act". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2006-09-27.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rose, Cynthia. "The originator of TV's 'Homicide' remains close to his police-reporter roots". Seattle Times. Archived from the original on 1999-04-28. Retrieved 2006-09-28.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Mary Alice Blackwell. "Fun comes down to 'The Wire'". Daily Progress. Retrieved 2014-05-30.
  19. ^ a b McCabe, Bret (May 28, 2003). "Under The Wire". Baltimore City Paper. Archived from the original on September 10, 2012. Retrieved 2010-09-14. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ Maron, Marc (14 April 2016). "Episode 698 - David Simon". WTF with Marc Maron. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  21. ^ a b c Kalat, David P. (1998). Homicide: Life on the Street: The Unofficial Companion. Los Angeles, California: Renaissance Books. p. 101. ISBN 1-58063-021-9.
  22. ^ "Edgar Award Archives". Mystery Writers of America. Archived from the original on September 15, 2006. Retrieved 2006-09-29.
  23. ^ a b David Simon (1998). Homicide: Life on the Street season 4 interviews (DVD). NBC.
  24. ^ Stephen Gyllenhaal (director), Tom Fontana (story), David Simon and David Mills (teleplay) (1994-01-06). "Bop Gun". Homicide: Life on the Street. Season 2. Episode 01. NBC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  25. ^ Peter Medak (director), Tom Fontana and Henry Brommell (story), David Simon (teleplay) (1996-02-23). "Justice: Part 2". Homicide: Life on the Street. Season 4. Episode 14. NBC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  26. ^ Kathy Bates (director), Tom Fontana, Henry Brommell and Barry Levinson (story), David Simon and Anya Epstein (teleplay) (1996-04-12). "Scene of the Crime". Homicide: Life on the Street. Season 4. Episode 18. NBC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  27. ^ Kenneth Fink (director), Tom Fontana and Julie Martin (story), David Simon (teleplay) (1996-10-25). "Bad Medicine". Homicide: Life on the Street. Season 5. Episode 4. NBC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  28. ^ Tim McCann (director), Julie Martin and James Yoshimura (story), David Simon and Anya Epstein (teleplay) (1997-02-07). "Wu's on First?". Homicide: Life on the Street. Season 5. Episode 15. NBC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  29. ^ Nick Gomez (director), Tom Fontana and James Yoshimura (story), David Simon (teleplay) (1997-10-24). "Blood Ties: Part 2". Homicide: Life on the Street. Season 6. Episode 2. NBC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  30. ^ Mark Pellington (director), Tom Fontana, Julie Martin and James Yoshimura (story), David Simon and Anya Epstein (teleplay) (1997-10-31). "Blood Ties: Part 3". Homicide: Life on the Street. Season 6. Episode 3. NBC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  31. ^ Clark Johnson (director), David Simon (story), Phillip B. Epstein (teleplay) (1998-04-03). "Full Court Press". Homicide: Life on the Street. Season 6. Episode 18. NBC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  32. ^ Steve Buscemi (director), James Yoshimura and David Simon (story), David Mills (teleplay) (1998-04-24). "Finnegan's Wake". Homicide: Life on the Street. Season 6. Episode 21. NBC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  33. ^ Adam Bernstein (director), Julie Martin and David Simon (story), T. J. English (teleplay) (1999-01-08). "Shades of Gray". Homicide: Life on the Street. Season 7. Episode 10. NBC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  34. ^ Lisa Cholodenko (director), James Yoshimura and David Simon (story), Sharon Guskin (teleplay) (1999-01-29). "The Same Coin". Homicide: Life on the Street. Season 7. Episode 12. NBC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  35. ^ Barbara Kopple (director), David Simon and Eric Overmyer (story), Yaphet Kotto (teleplay) (1999-04-09). "Self Defense". Homicide: Life on the Street. Season 7. Episode 18. NBC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  36. ^ Clark Johnson (director), David Simon (writer) (1998-10-30). "The Twenty Percent Solution". Homicide: Life on the Street. Season 7. Episode 04. NBC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  37. ^ Edwin Sherin (director), David Simon (writer) (1999-02-19). "Sideshow: Part 2". Homicide: Life on the Street. Season 7. Episode 15. NBC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  38. ^ "60 Minute Category". Humanitas Prize. Archived from the original on 2007-03-15. Retrieved 2006-09-28. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  39. ^ Nick Madigan (1999-01-14). "Cable pix please WGA". Variety. Retrieved 2006-09-28.
  40. ^ a b c d e Jesse Walker (October 2004). "David Simon Says". Reason Magazine. Retrieved 2006-09-27.
  41. ^ "The Corner: About the Book". Random House. Retrieved 2006-10-03.
  42. ^ a b "David Simon Biography". HBO. Retrieved 2007-10-03.
  43. ^ "Notable Books of the Year 1997 – Non-Fiction". New York Times. Retrieved 2006-09-29.
  44. ^ David Simon (2005). The Wire "The Target" commentary track (DVD). HBO.
  45. ^ a b Wiltz, Teresa (3 September 2007). "Down to "The Wire": It's a Wrap for Gritty TV Series". The Washington Post. Retrieved 3 September 2007.
  46. ^ Guardian Members (22 October 2014). "David Simon on why he created The Wire - Observer Ideas". Retrieved 2 February 2017 – via YouTube.
  47. ^ Steiner, Linda; Guo, Jing; McCaffrey, Raymond; Hills, Paul (August 2012). "The Wire and repair of the journalistic paradigm". Journalism. 14 (6). Sage: 703–720. doi:10.1177/1464884912455901. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  48. ^ a b Ian Rothkirch (2002). "What drugs have not destroyed, the war on them has". Salon.com.
  49. ^ Alvarez, Rafael (2004). The Wire: Truth Be Told. New York: Pocket Books. pp. 18–19, 35–39.
  50. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Margaret Talbot (2007). "Stealing Life". The New Yorker. Retrieved 14 October 2007.
  51. ^ a b Richard Vine (2005). "Totally Wired". The Guardian Unlimited. London. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  52. ^ "A Teacher in Baltimore". HBO. Retrieved 2006-10-03.
  53. ^ a b c David Simon (2005). "The Target" commentary track (DVD). HBO.
  54. ^ "Season 1 crew". HBO. 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-14.
  55. ^ "Season 2 crew". HBO. 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-14.
  56. ^ a b "Season 3 crew". HBO. 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-14.
  57. ^ "Episode guide – episode 36 middle ground". HBO. 2004. Retrieved 2006-08-09.
  58. ^ David Simon, George P. Pelecanos (2004-12-12). "Middle Ground". The Wire. Season 3. Episode 11. HBO. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  59. ^ "Emmy award archives". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
  60. ^ a b c d "Exclusive David Simon Q&A". AOL. 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-14.
  61. ^ "Dennis Lehane biography". HBO. 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
  62. ^ "Season 4 crew". HBO. 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
  63. ^ "2009 Writers Guild Awards Television, Radio, News, Promotional Writing, and Graphic Animation Nominees Announced". WGA. 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-12-12. Retrieved 2008-12-12. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  64. ^ "60th Primetime Emmy Awards". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2009-03-31.
  65. ^ "HBO drafts cast for 'Kill' mini". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 3 June 2007. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  66. ^ a b "Wire Creator Heads to New Orleans". Zap2It. 2008. Retrieved 13 July 2008.
  67. ^ a b c Dave Walker (2008). "More on David Simon's 'Treme'". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved 13 July 2008.
  68. ^ a b Dave Walker (2008). "HBO sets drama series in Treme with focus on city's musicians". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved 13 July 2008.
  69. ^ Dave Walker (2008). "New Orleans native Wendell Pierce set to star in 'Treme'". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved 13 July 2008.
  70. ^ Nellie Andreeva (30 June 2014). "HBO Greenlights David Simon Miniseries Starring Oscar Isaac and Catherine Keener". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  71. ^ Amanda Kondolojy (20 May 2015). "'Show Me a Hero' to Premiere on HBO Sunday August 16th at 9pm". Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  72. ^ a b Andreeva, Nellie (6 August 2015). "David Simon '70s Times Square Porn Drama Starring James Franco, Capitol Hill Drama With Carl Bernstein Get HBO Pilot Orders". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
  73. ^ "David Simon's HBO Porn Drama Starring James Franco Picked Up to Series".
  74. ^ "Ta-Nehisi Coates Signs With UTA". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
  75. ^ "David Simon - A Maryland Film Festival panel slated". davidsimon.com. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
  76. ^ Kaltenbach, Chris (4 May 2015). "Md. Film Fest panel to feature David Simon, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Taylor Branch, James McBride". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  77. ^ Cep, Casey N. (11 May 2015). "Telling the Story of Civil Rights: A Conversation in Baltimore". The New Yorker. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  78. ^ Branch, Taylor (2006). At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 (2006 Hardcover ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-684-85712-1. OCLC 62118415.
  79. ^ Fleming, Jr., Mike (5 March 2014). "'The Wire's David Simon Takes On Oprah-Produced HBO Mini On Martin Luther King". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media, LLC. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  80. ^ a b c Simon, David. "In Development". David Simon. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  81. ^ Swanson, James L. (2006). Manhunt: The Twelve-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer (1st ed.). New York: William Morrow. ISBN 978-0-060-51849-3. OCLC 61253945.
  82. ^ Kauffman, Michael W. (2004). American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies (1. ed.). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-375-50785-4. OCLC 55000441.
  83. ^ Weiner, Tim (2007). Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (1st ed.). New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-51445-3. OCLC 82367780.
  84. ^ Goodman, Amy (26 August 2015). "Two Separate Americas: David Simon's New Mini-Series Looks at "Hypersegregation" in Public Housing". Democracy Now!. Retrieved 27 August 2015. video interview that includes full transcript
  85. ^ Hopewell, John (9 April 2018). "'The Wire's' David Simon Developing New Series Set During Spanish Civil War (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Variety Media, LLC. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  86. ^ Clarke, Stewart (21 May 2018). "Michael Douglas, Ava DuVernay, David Simon Board New Shows for Atrium TV". Variety. Variety Media, LLC. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  87. ^ Margaret Talbot (2007). "Stealing Life". The New Yorker. Retrieved 14 October 2007. Simon's gift is in recognizing an anecdote [...] for the found parable that it is — "stealing life," as he once described it to me — and knowing which parts to steal.
  88. ^ a b c d e f g h Vozzella, Laura (6 January 2008). "Baltimore Sun. Fake newsroom, real anger". Articles.baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
  89. ^ Bowden, Mark (January 2008). "The Angriest Man In Television". The Atlantic.
  90. ^ a b "David Simon testifying about the future of Newspapers". YouTube.
  91. ^ a b Sheehan, Helena; Sweeney, Sheamus (10 March 2018). "The Wire and the World". Jacobin (magazine). Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  92. ^ a b Duncan, Ian. "David Simon weighs in on NSA surveillance." The Baltimore Sun. June 8, 2013. Retrieved on June 12, 2013.
  93. ^ "We are shocked, shocked…" (Archive) David Simon Blog. June 7, 2013. Retrieved on June 12, 2013.
  94. ^ David Simon (7 December 2013). David Simon: 'There are now two Americas. My country is a horror show'. The Guardian. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  95. ^ David Simon on America as a Horror Show. Moyers & Company, 31 January 2014.
  96. ^ "Fake Pill City - The Millions". The Millions. 2017-02-22. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  97. ^ Zak, Dan (28 September 2010). "'The Wire' writer David Simon among MacArthur genius grant winners". The Washington Post. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  98. ^ Weiss, Max (August 2009). "The Baltimore Grill: Laura Lippman". Baltimore Magazine. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  99. ^ Pinckley, Diana (3 October 2010). "Author Laura Lippman on her husband David Simon, New Orleans life and her love for mysteries". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  100. ^ "Dead Meadow Gets Some Help From Uncle Dave". New York. 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-20. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  101. ^ "LivingSocial CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy and Producer of "The Wire" David Simon among this year's commencement speakers". georgetownvoice.com. 4 May 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
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