Entourage Creator Doug Ellin Accuses HBO of Giving the Show the Cold Shoulder Amid Today’s ‘Righteous PC Culture’
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Entourage creator Doug Ellin is lashing out against his former employers at HBO over the way the show has been treated in today’s social climate.
In a new interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Ellin expressed his frustration that his hit comedy series, which aired from 2004 to 2011, doesn’t get the same respect from the network as classics like The Sopranos and Sex and the City.
“I resent it tremendously,” Ellin told the outlet, insisting that the recent “wave of righteous PC culture” has tarnished the legacy of Entourage, which spent a lot of screen time showing five male leads chasing women around Hollywood – a storyline that’s become problematic in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
“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 further suggested that the retroactive backlash against Entourage resulted in HBO turning down a second project from him. “I did a pilot with Michael Imperioli, Michael Rapaport and Ed Burns that they passed on, which I’ll never forgive them for,” he revealed. “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].”
A Sopranos prequel film, titled The Many Saints of Newark, hits theaters this fall, while HBO Max is developing a Sex and the City reboot, but Ellin said the network has no interest in reviving Entourage, which was critically acclaimed at the time of its release.
In fact, Ellin believes that the network has gone out of its way not to promote the series on its platforms. “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.”
He added, “I don’t think Entourage was this vulgar boyfest that people like to paint it as now. When we came out, the New York Times said we were the smartest show on television!”
Ellin also discussed how he would approach an Entourage reboot in today’s climate. “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,” he said. “Of course it’s going to be written in a slightly kinder, gentler way because that’s the world we live in.”
In Ellin’s view, Entourage was essentially “about friendship and loyalty and family,” and even depicted women in a positive and progressive light.
“The actresses that we brought in — whether it was Carla Gugino or Emmanuelle Chriqui or Perry Reeves — have spoken about how much those characters helped them in their future careers, and how rare it was to see a woman who could stand up and look a man in the face 15 years ago and do the things that they were doing. I feel very proud of that,” he said.
Ellin also noted that the female executives at HBO “were very proud of the show at the time, and read every script and gave me their thoughts.” He added, “I love and respect women and love great female characters and always have, and did the best I could.”
