David Simon
Encyclopedia
David Simon is an American author, journalist, and a writer/producer of television series. He worked for the Baltimore Sun City Desk for twelve years. He wrote Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
and co-wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood
with Ed Burns
. The former book was the basis for the NBC
series Homicide: Life on the Street
, on which Simon served as a writer and producer. Simon adapted the latter book into the HBO mini-series The Corner
.
He is the creator of the HBO television series The Wire
, for which he served as executive producer, head writer
, and show runner
for all five seasons. He adapted the non-fiction book Generation Kill into an HBO mini-series
and served as the show runner for the project. He was selected as one of the 2010 MacArthur Fellows and named an Utne Reader
visionary in 2011. Simon also co-created the HBO series Treme
with Eric Overmyer
, which ended its second season in 2011.
in Bethesda, Maryland and wrote for the school newspaper, The Tattler. He graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park
. While at college he wrote for The Diamondback
and became friends with contemporary David Mills
.
from 1982 to 1995. He spent most of his career covering the crime beat. A colleague has said that Simon loved journalism and felt it was "God's work". 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. Later in his career he aimed to tell the best possible story without "cheating it".
Simon was a union captain when the writing staff went on strike in 1987 over benefit cuts. He remained angry after the strike ended and began to feel uncomfortable in the writing room. He searched for a reason to justify a leave of absence and settled on the idea of writing a novel. "I got out of journalism because some sons of bitches bought my newspaper and it stopped being fun," says Simon.
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. "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. "I've become increasingly cynical about the ability of daily journalism to affect any kind of meaningful change. I was pretty dubious about it when I was a journalist, but now I think it's remarkably ineffectual."
(1991). The book was based on his experiences shadowing the Baltimore Police Department homicide unit during 1988. The idea came from a conversation on Christmas Eve 1985 in the unit office, where Det. Brian Lansey told him "If someone just wrote down what happens in this place for one year, they'd have a goddamn book." 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." 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 Terry McLarney
got his trenchcoat caught in a seat belt when he tried to exit the car. McLarney asked Simon for help, and Simon helped apprehend and search one of the suspects.
The book won the 1992 Edgar Award
for Best Fact Crime
book. The Associated Press
called it "a true-crime classic". The Library Journal
also highly recommended it, and Newsday
described it as "one of the most engrossing police procedural mystery books ever written". 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. 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."
. Levinson's assistant Gail Mutrux enjoyed the book and both she and Levinson became attached as producers. The project became the award-winning TV series Homicide: Life on the Street
(1993–1999), on which Simon worked as a writer and producer.
Simon was asked by Mutrux to write the show's pilot episode but declined, feeling he did not have the necessary expertise. He collaborated with his old college friend David Mills
to write the season two premiere "Bop Gun
". 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.
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" and "Scene of the Crime" (with Anya Epstein). For season five he was the show's story editor and continued to contribute teleplays writing the episodes "Bad Medicine" and "Wu's on First?" (again with Epstein). 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
" (the latter marking his third collaboration with Epstein) and provided the story for the later sixth season episodes "Full Court Press" and "Finnegan's Wake" (with James Yoshimura
). He provided the story for the seventh season episodes "Shades of Gray" (with Julie Martin
), "The Same Coin" (again with Yoshimura) and "Self Defense" (with Eric Overmyer
). Simon wrote the story and teleplay for the seventh season episodes "The Twenty Percent Solution" and "Sideshow: Part 2". Simon, Martin and teleplay writer T. J. English
won the Humanitas Prize
in the 60 minutes category for the episode "Shades of Gray". 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).
Simon has said that he thought the show was a "remarkable drama" but that it did not reflect the book. 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. Simon said that TV must find shorthand ways of referencing anything real.
, 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. Simon credits his editor John Sterling with the suggestion that he observe a single drug corner. He took a second leave of absence from the Baltimore Sun in 1993 to research the project. Simon became close to one of his subjects, drug addict Gary McCullough, and was devastated by his death while he was writing the project. 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. 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."
The Corner was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times
. 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.
Soon after Homicide concluded Simon co-wrote (with David Mills
) and produced The Corner
as a six-hour TV miniseries
for HBO. The show received three Emmy Award
s, including Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or a Movie, for Simon and Mills.
, executive producer and head writer
of the HBO drama series The Wire
. Many of The Wires characters and incidents also came from Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
. After a critically acclaimed 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.
He again worked with Ed Burns
on creating the show. They originally set out to create a police drama loosely based on the experiences of Burns when working on protracted investigations of violent drug dealers using surveillance technology. 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
. 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."
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 after ordering a further two scripts to see how the series would progress. Carolyn Strauss
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.
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. 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." 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. 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. Simon credits Colesberry for achieving the show's realistic visual feel because of his experience as a director. They recruited Homicide star and director Clark Johnson
to helm the pilot episode. The completed pilot was given to HBO in November 2001. Johnson returned to direct the second episode when the show was picked up, 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." Simon did not read Pelecanos initially because of territorial prejudice; Pelecanos is from Washington. Once Simon received further recommendations including one from his wife Laura Lippman he tried Pelecanos' novel The Sweet Forever and changed his mind. 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. Simon pitched Pelecanos the idea of The Wire as a novel for television about the American city as Pelecanos drove him home. Pelecanos became a regular writer and later a producer for the show's second and third seasons. Simon and Pelcanos collaborated to write the episode "Middle Ground
" which received the show's first Emmy nomination, in the category Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series
.
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
. 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 third season. Lehane has commented that he was impressed by Simon and Burns' ear for authentic street slang.
Eric Overmyer
was brought in to fill the role of Pelecanos as a full-time writer producer. He had previously worked with Simon on Homicide where the two became friends. 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.
Simon and his writing staff were nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award award for Best Dramatic Series at the February 2009 ceremony
for their work on the fifth season. 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.
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. He has said that he feels unable to return to network television because he felt pressure to compromise storytelling for audience satisfaction.
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.
again on Treme
, a project about musicians in post-Katrina
New Orleans. 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. Simon also consulted with New Orleans natives Donald Harrison Jr., Kermit Ruffins
, and Davis Rogan while developing the series. 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.
Treme is named after the Faubourg Treme
neighborhood in New Orleans that is home to many of the city's musicians. 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. One of the principal characters in the pilot script runs a restaurant. The series was filmed on location and was expected to provide a boost to the New Orleans economy. Simon's casting of the show mirrored that of The Wire in using local actors wherever possible. 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
.
(Oz
) on a HBO mini-series called Manhunt that will focus on the 12 days after the Lincoln Assassination while John Wilkes Booth
was on the run. Simon has written a teleplay
about bluesman Muddy Waters
that has not been produced. He has mentioned plans to write another book; potentially about the rise of drug use in the 1950s and 1970s. Simon told Baltimore's City Paper in 2003 that someday he plans to write another book. "At some point I'm going to put down this crack pipe of television and go back and do another book or something," says Simon. Simon continues to work as a freelance journalist and author, writing for The Washington Post
, The New Republic
, and Details
magazine.
. They have a daughter, and he has a son, Ethan from a previous marriage. Simon's nephew Jason Simon is a guitarist and vocalist for the psychedelic rock band Dead Meadow
.
in mind but with the opinions of his subjects as his priority. He has described his extensive use of real anecdotes and characters in his writing as "stealing life".
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. 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.
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," although Marimow is a Pulitzer Prize
-winning journalist known for tough, well-documented investigations of the Philadelphia police
. Carroll left the Baltimore Sun to become editor at the Los Angeles Times
and resigned in 2005 after budget cuts were announced. "He stands up like a [bleeping] hero, takes a bullet," said Simon. In 2006 Marimow was diagnosed with prostate cancer, something that Simon said "took the edge off" his grudge. Carroll and Marimow "were fuel for 10 years of my life. ... And now, I got nothing," Simon said.
When asked about these comments, Simon responded:
"I spoke with some hyperbole and, I hope, comic effect," Simon said via e-mail. He said his point 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."
Writer
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets is a 1991 book written by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon describing a year spent with detectives from the Baltimore Police Department homicide squad...
and co-wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood
The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood
The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood is a book written by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon and former Baltimore homicide detective Ed Burns. It was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times.-Origins:...
with Ed Burns
Ed Burns
Ed Burns is a producer, screenwriter, and novelist. He has worked closely with writing partner David Simon. They have collaborated on The Corner and The Wire . Burns is a former Baltimore police detective for the Homicide and Narcotics divisions, and a public school teacher...
. The former book was the basis for the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
series Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
, on which Simon served as a writer and producer. Simon adapted the latter book into the HBO mini-series The Corner
The Corner
The Corner is a 2000 HBO drama television miniseries based on the nonfiction book The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood by David Simon and Ed Burns and adapted for television by Simon and David Mills. It premiered on premium cable network HBO in the United States on April 16,...
.
He is the creator of the HBO television series The Wire
The Wire (TV series)
The Wire is an American television drama series set and produced in and around Baltimore, Maryland. Created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, the series was broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States...
, for which he served as executive producer, head writer
Head writer
A head writer is a person who oversees the team of writers on a television or radio series. The title is common in the soap opera genre, as well as with sketch comedies and talk shows that feature monologues and comedy skits, but in prime time series this function is generally performed by an...
, and show runner
Show runner
Showrunner is a term of art originating in the United States and Canadian television industry referring to the person who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a television seriesalthough such persons generally are credited as an executive producer...
for all five seasons. He adapted the non-fiction book Generation Kill into an HBO mini-series
Generation Kill (TV series)
Generation Kill is a 2008 HBO television miniseries based on the book of the same name by Evan Wright about his experience as an embedded reporter with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion of the United States Marine Corps during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It was adapted for television by David Simon,...
and served as the show runner for the project. He was selected as one of the 2010 MacArthur Fellows and named an Utne Reader
Utne Reader
Utne Reader is an American bimonthly magazine. The magazine collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment from generally alternative media sources, including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music and DVDs...
visionary in 2011. Simon also co-created the HBO series Treme
Treme (TV series)
Treme is an American television drama series created by David Simon and Eric Overmyer that premiered on April 11, 2010 on HBO. It takes its name from Tremé, a neighborhood of New Orleans...
with Eric Overmyer
Eric Overmyer
Eric Overmyer is a writer and producer. He has written and/or produced numerous TV shows, including St. Elsewhere, Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order, The Wire, New Amsterdam, and Treme.-Biography:...
, which ended its second season in 2011.
Biography
Born in Washington, D.C., Simon attended Bethesda-Chevy Chase High SchoolBethesda-Chevy Chase High School
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School is a Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, public school named for two of the towns it serves along with Kensington and Silver Spring, Maryland. It is located at 4301 East-West Highway, in Bethesda, an unincorporated community in Montgomery County...
in Bethesda, Maryland and wrote for the school newspaper, The Tattler. He graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
. While at college he wrote for The Diamondback
The Diamondback
The Diamondback is the independent student newspaper of the University of Maryland, College Park. It was founded in 1910 as The Triangle and renamed in 1921 in honor of a local reptile, the Diamondback terrapin...
and became friends with contemporary David Mills
David Mills (writer)
David Eugene Mills was an American journalist, writer and producer of television programs. He was an executive producer and writer of the HBO miniseries The Corner, for which he won two Emmy Awards, and the creator, executive producer, and writer of the NBC miniseries Kingpin.-Early life:Mills was...
.
Journalism
Upon leaving college he worked as a police reporter at The Baltimore SunThe Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun is the U.S. state of Maryland’s largest general circulation daily newspaper and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries....
from 1982 to 1995. He spent most of his career covering the crime beat. A colleague has said that Simon loved journalism and felt it was "God's work". 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. Later in his career he aimed to tell the best possible story without "cheating it".
Simon was a union captain when the writing staff went on strike in 1987 over benefit cuts. He remained angry after the strike ended and began to feel uncomfortable in the writing room. He searched for a reason to justify a leave of absence and settled on the idea of writing a novel. "I got out of journalism because some sons of bitches bought my newspaper and it stopped being fun," says Simon.
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. "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. "I've become increasingly cynical about the ability of daily journalism to affect any kind of meaningful change. I was pretty dubious about it when I was a journalist, but now I think it's remarkably ineffectual."
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 StreetsHomicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets is a 1991 book written by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon describing a year spent with detectives from the Baltimore Police Department homicide squad...
(1991). The book was based on his experiences shadowing the Baltimore Police Department homicide unit during 1988. The idea came from a conversation on Christmas Eve 1985 in the unit office, where Det. Brian Lansey told him "If someone just wrote down what happens in this place for one year, they'd have a goddamn book." 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." 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 Terry McLarney
Terrence McLarney
Terrence "Terry" McLarney is currently a Major in the Baltimore Police Department's Homicide Unit. A native of the Washington, D.C. suburbs, McLarney joined the Department in 1976 as a patrolman in the Central District. McLarney became a sergeant in the Department's Western District and then in the...
got his trenchcoat caught in a seat belt when he tried to exit the car. McLarney asked Simon for help, and Simon helped apprehend and search one of the suspects.
The book won the 1992 Edgar Award
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
for Best Fact Crime
True crime (genre)
True crime is a non-fiction literary and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people.The crimes most commonly include murder, but true crime works have also touched on other legal cases. Depending on the writer, true crime can adhere strictly to...
book. The Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
called it "a true-crime classic". The Library Journal
Library Journal
Library Journal is a trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey . It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional practice...
also highly recommended it, and Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
described it as "one of the most engrossing police procedural mystery books ever written". 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. 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."
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. Simon suggested that they send the book to Baltimore native and film director Barry LevinsonBarry Levinson
Barry Levinson is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His films include Good Morning, Vietnam, Sleepers and Rain Man.-Early life:...
. Levinson's assistant Gail Mutrux enjoyed the book and both she and Levinson became attached as producers. The project became the award-winning TV series Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
(1993–1999), on which Simon worked as a writer and producer.
Simon was asked by Mutrux to write the show's pilot episode but declined, feeling he did not have the necessary expertise. He collaborated with his old college friend David Mills
David Mills (writer)
David Eugene Mills was an American journalist, writer and producer of television programs. He was an executive producer and writer of the HBO miniseries The Corner, for which he won two Emmy Awards, and the creator, executive producer, and writer of the NBC miniseries Kingpin.-Early life:Mills was...
to write the season two premiere "Bop Gun
Bop Gun (Homicide: Life on the Street)
"Bop Gun" is the second season premiere of the American police drama television series Homicide: Life on the Street, and the tenth overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on January 6, 1994...
". The episode was based on a story by executive producer Tom Fontana and featured Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
in a guest starring role that garnered the actor an Emmy nomination. Simon and Mills won the WGA Award
Writers Guild of America Award
The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
for Best Writing in a Drama for the episode.
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" and "Scene of the Crime" (with Anya Epstein). For season five he was the show's story editor and continued to contribute teleplays writing the episodes "Bad Medicine" and "Wu's on First?" (again with Epstein). 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
Blood Ties (Homicide: Life on the Street)
"Blood Ties" is the three-episode sixth season premiere of the American police drama television series Homicide: Life on the Street. The episodes constitute the 78th, 79th and 80th overall episodes of the series...
" (the latter marking his third collaboration with Epstein) and provided the story for the later sixth season episodes "Full Court Press" and "Finnegan's Wake" (with James Yoshimura
James Yoshimura
James Yoshimura is a Japanese American writer and producer, best known for his screenwriting work on the NBC series Homicide: Life on the Street and the short-lived Fox series The Jury, for which he served as a co-creator. He also co-wrote Homicide: The Movie, a made-for-television film that came...
). He provided the story for the seventh season episodes "Shades of Gray" (with Julie Martin
Julie Martin (writer)
Julie Martin is an American television writer and producer. She has worked on the NBC crime dramas Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She won a Humanitas Prize and was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for her work on Homicide...
), "The Same Coin" (again with Yoshimura) and "Self Defense" (with Eric Overmyer
Eric Overmyer
Eric Overmyer is a writer and producer. He has written and/or produced numerous TV shows, including St. Elsewhere, Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order, The Wire, New Amsterdam, and Treme.-Biography:...
). Simon wrote the story and teleplay for the seventh season episodes "The Twenty Percent Solution" and "Sideshow: Part 2". Simon, Martin and teleplay writer T. J. English
T. J. English
T. J. English is an Irish American author and journalist known primarily for his non-fiction books about organized crime, criminal justice and the American underworld.- Biography :...
won the Humanitas Prize
Humanitas Prize
The Humanitas Prize is an award for film and television writing intended to promote human dignity, meaning, and freedom. It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser — also the founder of Paulist Productions — but is generally not seen as specifically directed toward religious...
in the 60 minutes category for the episode "Shades of Gray". 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).
Simon has said that he thought the show was a "remarkable drama" but that it did not reflect the book. 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. Simon said that TV must find shorthand ways of referencing anything real.
The Corner
In 1997 he co-authored, with Ed BurnsEd Burns
Ed Burns is a producer, screenwriter, and novelist. He has worked closely with writing partner David Simon. They have collaborated on The Corner and The Wire . Burns is a former Baltimore police detective for the Homicide and Narcotics divisions, and a public school teacher...
, The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood
The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood
The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood is a book written by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon and former Baltimore homicide detective Ed Burns. It was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times.-Origins:...
, the true account of a West Baltimore community dominated by a heavy drug market. Simon credits his editor John Sterling with the suggestion that he observe a single drug corner. He took a second leave of absence from the Baltimore Sun in 1993 to research the project. Simon became close to one of his subjects, drug addict Gary McCullough, and was devastated by his death while he was writing the project. 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. 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."
The Corner was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. 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.
Soon after Homicide concluded Simon co-wrote (with David Mills
David Mills (writer)
David Eugene Mills was an American journalist, writer and producer of television programs. He was an executive producer and writer of the HBO miniseries The Corner, for which he won two Emmy Awards, and the creator, executive producer, and writer of the NBC miniseries Kingpin.-Early life:Mills was...
) and produced The Corner
The Corner
The Corner is a 2000 HBO drama television miniseries based on the nonfiction book The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood by David Simon and Ed Burns and adapted for television by Simon and David Mills. It premiered on premium cable network HBO in the United States on April 16,...
as a six-hour TV miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
for HBO. The show received three Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s, including Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or a Movie, for Simon and Mills.
The Wire
Simon was the creator, show runnerShow runner
Showrunner is a term of art originating in the United States and Canadian television industry referring to the person who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a television seriesalthough such persons generally are credited as an executive producer...
, executive producer and head writer
Head writer
A head writer is a person who oversees the team of writers on a television or radio series. The title is common in the soap opera genre, as well as with sketch comedies and talk shows that feature monologues and comedy skits, but in prime time series this function is generally performed by an...
of the HBO drama series The Wire
The Wire (TV series)
The Wire is an American television drama series set and produced in and around Baltimore, Maryland. Created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, the series was broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States...
. Many of The Wires characters and incidents also came from Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets is a 1991 book written by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon describing a year spent with detectives from the Baltimore Police Department homicide squad...
. After a critically acclaimed 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.
He again worked with Ed Burns
Ed Burns
Ed Burns is a producer, screenwriter, and novelist. He has worked closely with writing partner David Simon. They have collaborated on The Corner and The Wire . Burns is a former Baltimore police detective for the Homicide and Narcotics divisions, and a public school teacher...
on creating the show. They originally set out to create a police drama loosely based on the experiences of Burns when working on protracted investigations of violent drug dealers using surveillance technology. 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
The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun is the U.S. state of Maryland’s largest general circulation daily newspaper and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries....
. Writing against the background of current events, including institutionalized corporate crime at Enron
Enron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with...
and institutional dysfunction in the Catholic Church, the show became "more of a treatise about institutions and individuals than a straight cop show."
They chose to take The Wire to HBO because of their existing working relationship from The Corner
The Corner
The Corner is a 2000 HBO drama television miniseries based on the nonfiction book The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood by David Simon and Ed Burns and adapted for television by Simon and David Mills. It premiered on premium cable network HBO in the United States on April 16,...
. 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 after ordering a further two scripts to see how the series would progress. Carolyn Strauss
Carolyn Strauss
Carolyn Strauss is an American television executive and producer. She was the president of the Home Box Office network's entertainment division until 2008 and was responsible for commissioning highly successful series like The Sopranos, The Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Sex and the City...
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.
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. 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." 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. 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
Robert F. Colesberry
Robert F. "Bob" Colesberry, Jr. was an American film and television producer and first assistant director notable for his work as a producer on the Emmy Award winning miniseries The Corner, the Peabody Award winning television series The Wire for HBO, and the Oscar-nominated movie Mississippi...
and Nina K. Noble on The Wire. Simon credits Colesberry for achieving the show's realistic visual feel because of his experience as a director. They recruited Homicide star and director Clark Johnson
Clark Johnson
Clark Johnson , sometimes credited as Clark 'Slappy' Jackson, Clarque Johnson, and J. Clark Johnson, is an American actor and director who has worked in both television and film.-Early years:...
to helm the pilot episode. The completed pilot was given to HBO in November 2001. Johnson returned to direct the second episode when the show was picked up, 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
George Pelecanos
George P. Pelecanos is a Greek-American author. Many of his works are in the genre of detective fiction and set primarily in his hometown of Washington, D.C. He is also a film and television producer and a television writer...
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." Simon did not read Pelecanos initially because of territorial prejudice; Pelecanos is from Washington. Once Simon received further recommendations including one from his wife Laura Lippman he tried Pelecanos' novel The Sweet Forever and changed his mind. 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. Simon pitched Pelecanos the idea of The Wire as a novel for television about the American city as Pelecanos drove him home. Pelecanos became a regular writer and later a producer for the show's second and third seasons. Simon and Pelcanos collaborated to write the episode "Middle Ground
Middle Ground (The Wire episode)
"Middle Ground" is the eleventh episode of the third season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by George Pelecanos from a story by David Simon & George Pelecanos and was directed by Joe Chappelle. It originally aired on December 12, 2004...
" which received the show's first Emmy nomination, in the category Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series
The Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series is awarded to one television episode each year at the Primetime Emmy Awards. Often regarded as the highest honor that can be bestowed upon an individual episode of television, the nominees and winners often reflect outstanding achievement in...
.
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
The Night Gardener
The Night Gardener is a 2006 crime novel by George Pelecanos. It is set in Washington DC and focuses on homicide detective Gus Ramone and ex-cops Dan "Doc" Holiday and TC Cook as they investigate the possible return of a serial killer.-Plot introduction:...
. 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
Dennis Lehane
Dennis Lehane is an American author. He has written several award-winning novels, including A Drink Before the War and the New York Times bestseller Mystic River, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film. Another novel, Gone, Baby, Gone, was also adapted into an Academy...
has also written for the series starting with third season. Lehane has commented that he was impressed by Simon and Burns' ear for authentic street slang.
Eric Overmyer
Eric Overmyer
Eric Overmyer is a writer and producer. He has written and/or produced numerous TV shows, including St. Elsewhere, Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order, The Wire, New Amsterdam, and Treme.-Biography:...
was brought in to fill the role of Pelecanos as a full-time writer producer. He had previously worked with Simon on Homicide where the two became friends. Simon has said that he was impressed with Overmyer's writing particularly in synthesizing the story for "Margin of Error
Margin of Error (The Wire episode)
"Margin of Error" is the sixth episode of the fourth season of the HBO original series The Wire. Written by Eric Overmyer from a story by Ed Burns & Eric Overmyer, and directed by Dan Attias, it originally aired on October 15, 2006.-Title reference:...
" as the episode is the height of the show's political storyline but must also progress other plot threads.
Simon and his writing staff were nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award award for Best Dramatic Series at the February 2009 ceremony
Writers Guild of America Awards 2008
The 61st Writers Guild of America Awards honored the best film, television, and videogame writers of 2008. Winners were announced on February 7, 2009.-Best Adapted Screenplay:...
for their work on the fifth season. 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.
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. He has said that he feels unable to return to network television because he felt pressure to compromise storytelling for audience satisfaction.
Generation Kill
Simon produced and wrote Generation KillGeneration Kill (TV series)
Generation Kill is a 2008 HBO television miniseries based on the book of the same name by Evan Wright about his experience as an embedded reporter with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion of the United States Marine Corps during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It was adapted for television by David Simon,...
for HBO with Ed Burns
Ed Burns
Ed Burns is a producer, screenwriter, and novelist. He has worked closely with writing partner David Simon. They have collaborated on The Corner and The Wire . Burns is a former Baltimore police detective for the Homicide and Narcotics divisions, and a public school teacher...
. They again worked with Nina Noble as a producer. The miniseries is an adaption of the non-fiction book
Generation Kill (book)
Generation Kill is a 2004 book written by Rolling Stone journalist Evan Wright chronicling his experience as an embedded reporter with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion of the United States Marine Corps during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. His account of life with the Marines was originally published...
of the same name. It relates the first 40 days of the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
as experienced by 1st Reconnaissance Battalion
1st Reconnaissance Battalion
1st Reconnaissance Battalion is a reconnaissance battalion in the United States Marine Corps. It falls under the command of the 1st Marine Division and the I Marine Expeditionary Force ....
and their embedded reporter, Evan Wright
Evan Wright
Evan Wright is an American writer, journalist, author and television writer and producer. He has reported extensively on subcultures for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. His latest work is American Desperado, a book he co-wrote with Jon Roberts, who was featured in the documentary the Cocaine...
. Simon and Burns worked with Wright in adapting his book into the series.
Treme
Simon collaborated with Eric OvermyerEric Overmyer
Eric Overmyer is a writer and producer. He has written and/or produced numerous TV shows, including St. Elsewhere, Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order, The Wire, New Amsterdam, and Treme.-Biography:...
again on Treme
Treme (TV series)
Treme is an American television drama series created by David Simon and Eric Overmyer that premiered on April 11, 2010 on HBO. It takes its name from Tremé, a neighborhood of New Orleans...
, a project about musicians in post-Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
New Orleans. 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. Simon also consulted with New Orleans natives Donald Harrison Jr., Kermit Ruffins
Kermit Ruffins
Kermit Ruffins is a jazz trumpeter, singer and composer from New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. He has been heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong, Louis Jordan and Eddy Jefferson. Ruffins accompanies a large portion of his songs with his own vocals, and he says that the highest note he can hit...
, and Davis Rogan while developing the series. 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.
Treme is named after the Faubourg Treme
Treme
Tremé is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. A subdistrict of the Mid-City District Area, its boundaries as defined by the City Planning Commission are Esplanade Avenue to the north, North Rampart Street to the east, St. Louis Street to the south and North Broad Street to the west...
neighborhood in New Orleans that is home to many of the city's musicians. 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. One of the principal characters in the pilot script runs a restaurant. The series was filmed on location and was expected to provide a boost to the New Orleans economy. Simon's casting of the show mirrored that of The Wire in using local actors wherever possible. Wendell Pierce
Wendell Pierce
Wendell Pierce is an American actor, best known for his work in HBO dramas, including his portrayal of Detective Bunk Moreland in The Wire and trombonist Antoine Batiste in Treme.-Life and career:...
, who had previously played Bunk Moreland
Bunk Moreland
William "Bunk" Moreland is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Wendell Pierce. Bunk's character is based on a retired Baltimore City Police Detective named Rick Requer and nicknamed "the Bunk", an officer who joined the force in 1964 as a Western District patrolman who...
on The Wire, stars in the series. Clarke Peters
Clarke Peters
Clarke Peters is an American actor, singer, writer and director best known for his role as Detective Lester Freamon on the HBO drama The Wire.-Early life:...
, also of The Wire, is another series regular. Many other stars of The Wire have appeared in Treme, these include Steve Earle
Steve Earle
Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....
, Jim True-Frost
Jim True-Frost
Jim True-Frost, born Jim True, is an American stage, television and screen actor. He is most known for his portrayal of Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski on all five seasons of the HBO program The Wire.-Biography:...
, James Ransone
James Ransone
James Ransone is an American actor and former musician from Baltimore, Maryland. He is best known for his roles as Ziggy Sobotka in the second season of HBO's The Wire, and Corporal Josh Ray Person in the Iraq War-based mini-series Generation Kill...
, and Anwan Glover
Anwan Glover
Ralph Anwan Glover is an American actor and musician. He is one of the founding members of the Backyard Band, a go-go band, as well as appearing as gang member Slim Charles in the HBO series The Wire. He has also appeared in music videos, such as Boyz n da Hood's "Dem Boyz" among others, and has a...
.
Future projects
Simon is collaborating with Tom FontanaTom Fontana
Tom Fontana is an American writer and producer.-TV career:Fontana has been a writer/producer for such series as Oz , The Jury, The Beat, The Bedford Diaries, Homicide: Life on the Street, St...
(Oz
Oz (TV series)
Oz is an American television drama series created by Tom Fontana, who also wrote or co-wrote all of the series' 56 episodes . It was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by premium cable network HBO. Oz premiered on July 12, 1997 and ran for six seasons...
) on a HBO mini-series called Manhunt that will focus on the 12 days after the Lincoln Assassination while John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...
was on the run. Simon has written a teleplay
Teleplay
A teleplay is a television play, a comedy or drama written or adapted for television. The term surfaced during the 1950s with wide usage to distinguish a television plays from stage plays for the theater and screenplays written for films...
about bluesman Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
that has not been produced. He has mentioned plans to write another book; potentially about the rise of drug use in the 1950s and 1970s. Simon told Baltimore's City Paper in 2003 that someday he plans to write another book. "At some point I'm going to put down this crack pipe of television and go back and do another book or something," says Simon. Simon continues to work as a freelance journalist and author, writing for The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, and Details
Details (magazine)
Details is an American monthly men's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications, founded in 1982. Though primarily a magazine devoted to fashion and lifestyle, Details also features reports on relevant social and political issues.-History:...
magazine.
Personal life
David Simon is married to Baltimore novelist and former Sun reporter Laura LippmanLaura Lippman
Laura Lippman is an American author of detective fiction.-Biography:Lippmann was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the daughter of Theo Lippman Jr., a well known and respected writer at the Baltimore Sun, and Madeline Lippman, a retired school librarian for the...
. They have a daughter, and he has a son, Ethan from a previous marriage. Simon's nephew Jason Simon is a guitarist and vocalist for the psychedelic rock band Dead Meadow
Dead Meadow
Dead Meadow is an American hard rock band that formed in Washington, D.C. in 1998. Currently comprising vocalist and guitarist Jason Simon, bassist Steve Kille and drummer Mark Laughlin, the band has released five studio albums and one live album.-Biography:...
.
Writing process, characteristics, and motivation
Simon is known for his realistic dialogue and journalistic approach to writing. He says that authenticity is paramount and that he writes not with a general audienceAudience
An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...
in mind but with the opinions of his subjects as his priority. He has described his extensive use of real anecdotes and characters in his writing as "stealing life".
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
John Carroll (journalist)
John S. Carroll was the editor of the Los Angeles Times and The Baltimore Sun. During his tenure the Times won 13 Pulitzer Prizes.-Early career:...
and Bill Marimow, the two most senior editors at The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun is the U.S. state of Maryland’s largest general circulation daily newspaper and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries....
when Simon was a reporter at the paper. 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.
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.
One of the actions Simon took was to name a character in The Wire
The WIRE
the WIRE is the student-run College radio station at the University of Oklahoma, broadcasting in a freeform format. The WIRE serves the University of Oklahoma and surrounding communities, and is staffed by student DJs. The WIRE broadcasts at 1710 kHz AM in Norman, Oklahoma...
after Marimow and make the character "a repellent police-department toady," although Marimow is a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning journalist known for tough, well-documented investigations of the Philadelphia police
Philadelphia Police Department
The Philadelphia Police Department is the police agency responsible for law enforcement and investigations within the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
. Carroll left the Baltimore Sun to become editor at the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
and resigned in 2005 after budget cuts were announced. "He stands up like a [bleeping] hero, takes a bullet," said Simon. In 2006 Marimow was diagnosed with prostate cancer, something that Simon said "took the edge off" his grudge. Carroll and Marimow "were fuel for 10 years of my life. ... And now, I got nothing," Simon said.
When asked about these comments, Simon responded:
"I spoke with some hyperbole and, I hope, comic effect," Simon said via e-mail. He said his point 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."
Non-fiction books
- Homicide: A Year on the Killing StreetsHomicide: A Year on the Killing StreetsHomicide: A Year on the Killing Streets is a 1991 book written by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon describing a year spent with detectives from the Baltimore Police Department homicide squad...
(1991) - The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City NeighborhoodThe Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City NeighborhoodThe Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood is a book written by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon and former Baltimore homicide detective Ed Burns. It was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times.-Origins:...
(co-authored with Ed BurnsEd BurnsEd Burns is a producer, screenwriter, and novelist. He has worked closely with writing partner David Simon. They have collaborated on The Corner and The Wire . Burns is a former Baltimore police detective for the Homicide and Narcotics divisions, and a public school teacher...
) (1997)
Producer
| Year | Show | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Treme Treme (TV series) Treme is an American television drama series created by David Simon and Eric Overmyer that premiered on April 11, 2010 on HBO. It takes its name from Tremé, a neighborhood of New Orleans... |
Executive producer | Season 2 |
| 2010 | Season 1 | ||
| 2008 | Generation Kill Generation Kill (TV series) Generation Kill is a 2008 HBO television miniseries based on the book of the same name by Evan Wright about his experience as an embedded reporter with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion of the United States Marine Corps during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It was adapted for television by David Simon,... |
Executive producer | |
| The Wire The Wire (TV series) The Wire is an American television drama series set and produced in and around Baltimore, Maryland. Created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, the series was broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States... |
Executive producer | Season 5 | |
| 2006 | Season 4 | ||
| 2004 | Season 3 | ||
| 2003 | Season 2 | ||
| 2002 | Season 1 | ||
| 2000 | The Corner The Corner The Corner is a 2000 HBO drama television miniseries based on the nonfiction book The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood by David Simon and Ed Burns and adapted for television by Simon and David Mills. It premiered on premium cable network HBO in the United States on April 16,... |
Executive producer | |
| 1999 | Homicide: Life on the Street Homicide: Life on the Street Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale... |
Producer | Season 7 |
| 1998 | |||
| Season 6 | |||
| 1997 | |||
| Story editor | Season 5 | ||
| 1996 |
Writer
| Year | Show | Season | Episode title | Episode | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Generation Kill Generation Kill (TV series) Generation Kill is a 2008 HBO television miniseries based on the book of the same name by Evan Wright about his experience as an embedded reporter with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion of the United States Marine Corps during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It was adapted for television by David Simon,... |
1 | "Bombs in the Garden" | 7 | Story and teleplay |
| "Stay Frosty" | 6 | Story | |||
| "A Burning Dog" | 5 | Story | |||
| "Combat Jack" | 4 | Story and teleplay | |||
| "Screwby" | 3 | Story | |||
| "The Cradle of Civilization" | 2 | Story | |||
| "Get Some" | 1 | Writer | |||
| The Wire The Wire (TV series) The Wire is an American television drama series set and produced in and around Baltimore, Maryland. Created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, the series was broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States... |
5 | "–30–" | 10 | Story and teleplay | |
| "Late Editions Late Editions "Late Editions" is the ninth episode of the fifth season of the HBO original series, The Wire, the penultimate episode of the series. The episode was written by George Pelecanos from a story by David Simon and George Pelecanos and was directed by Joe Chappelle... " |
9 | Story | |||
| "Clarifications Clarifications "Clarifications" is the eighth episode of the fifth season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by Dennis Lehane from a story by David Simon and Dennis Lehane and was directed by Anthony Hemingway... " |
8 | Story | |||
| "Took Took (The Wire episode) "Took" is the seventh episode of the fifth season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by Richard Price from a story by David Simon & Richard Price and was directed by cast member Dominic West. It aired on February 17, 2008.... " |
7 | Story | |||
| "The Dickensian Aspect The Dickensian Aspect "The Dickensian Aspect" is the sixth episode of the fifth season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by Ed Burns from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Seith Mann... " |
6 | Story | |||
| "React Quotes React Quotes "React Quotes" is the fifth episode of the fifth season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by David Mills from a story by David Simon & David Mills and was directed by Agnieszka Holland... " |
5 | Story | |||
| "Transitions Transitions (The Wire episode) "Transitions" is the fourth episode of the fifth season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by Ed Burns from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Dan Attias, who won the Directors Guild of America Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Drama Series Award... " |
4 | Story | |||
| "Not For Attribution Not for Attribution "Not for Attribution" is the third episode of the fifth season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by Chris Collins from a story by David Simon & Chris Collins and was directed by Scott and Joy Kecken... " |
3 | Story | |||
| "Unconfirmed Reports Unconfirmed Reports "Unconfirmed Reports" is the second episode of the fifth season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by William F. Zorzi from a story by David Simon & William F. Zorzi and was directed by Ernest Dickerson... " |
2 | Story | |||
| "More with Less More with Less "More with Less" is the first episode of the fifth season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Joe Chappelle... " |
1 | Story and teleplay | |||
| 2006 | 4 | "Final Grades Final Grades (The Wire episode) "Final Grades" is the thirteenth and final episode of the fourth season of the HBO original series The Wire. Written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns, and directed by Ernest Dickerson, it originally aired on December 10, 2006... " |
13 | Story and teleplay | |
| "A New Day A New Day (The Wire episode) "A New Day" is the eleventh episode of the fourth season of the HBO original series The Wire. Written by Ed Burns from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns, and directed by Brad Anderson, it originally aired on November 26, 2006.-Title reference:... " |
11 | Story | |||
| "Alliances Alliances (The Wire episode) "Alliances" is the fifth episode of the fourth season of the HBO original series The Wire. Written by Ed Burns story by David Simon & Ed Burns, and directed by David Platt, it originally aired on October 8, 2006.-Title reference:... " |
5 | Story | |||
| "Boys of Summer Boys of Summer (The Wire episode) "Boys of Summer" is the first episode of the fourth season of the HBO original series The Wire. Written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns, and directed by Joe Chappelle, it originally aired on September 10, 2006.-Production:... " |
1 | Story and teleplay | |||
| 2004 | 3 | "Mission Accomplished Mission Accomplished (The Wire episode) "Mission Accomplished" is the twelfth and final episode of the third season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Ernest Dickerson. It originally aired on December 19, 2004.-Title reference:The title... " |
12 | Story and teleplay | |
| "Middle Ground Middle Ground (The Wire episode) "Middle Ground" is the eleventh episode of the third season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by George Pelecanos from a story by David Simon & George Pelecanos and was directed by Joe Chappelle. It originally aired on December 12, 2004... " |
11 | Story | |||
| "Reformation Reformation (The Wire episode) "Reformation" is the tenth episode of the third season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by Ed Burns from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Christine Moore... " |
10 | Story | |||
| "Slapstick Slapstick (The Wire episode) "Slapstick" is the ninth episode of the third season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & George Pelecanos and was directed by Alex Zakrzewski... " |
9 | Story and teleplay | |||
| "Moral Midgetry" | 8 | Story | |||
| "Back Burners" | 7 | Story | |||
| "Homecoming Homecoming (The Wire episode) "Homecoming" is the sixth episode of the third season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by Rafael Alvarez from a story by David Simon & Rafael Alvarez and was directed by Leslie Libman... " |
6 | Story | |||
| "Straight and True" | 5 | Story | |||
| "Hamsterdam" | 4 | Story | |||
| "Dead Soldiers" | 3 | Story | |||
| "All Due Respect All Due Respect (The Wire episode) "All Due Respect" is the second episode of the third season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by Richard Price from a story by David Simon & Richard Price and was directed by Steve Shill... " |
2 | Story | |||
| "Time After Time Time After Time (The Wire episode) "Time After Time" is the first episode of the third season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Ed Bianchi... " |
1 | Story and teleplay | |||
| 2003 | 2 | "Port in a Storm" | 12 | Story and teleplay | |
| "Bad Dreams Bad Dreams (The Wire episode) "Bad Dreams" is the eleventh episode of the second season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by George Pelecanos from a story by David Simon & George Pelecanos and was directed by Ernest Dickerson. It originally aired on August 17, 2003... " |
11 | Story | |||
| "Storm Warnings Storm Warnings (The Wire episode) "Storm Warnings" is the tenth episode of the second season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by Ed Burns from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Rob Bailey. It originally aired on August 10, 2003.... " |
10 | Story | |||
| "Stray Rounds" | 9 | Story and teleplay | |||
| "Duck and Cover Duck and Cover (The Wire episode) "Duck and Cover" is the eighth episode of the second season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by George Pelecanos from a story by David Simon & George Pelecanos and was directed by Dan Attias. It originally aired on July 20, 2003.-Title reference:The title refers in part... " |
8 | Story | |||
| "Backwash Backwash (The Wire episode) "Backwash" is the seventh episode of the second season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by Rafael Alvarez from a story by David Simon & Rafael Alvarez and was directed by Thomas J. Wright... " |
7 | Story | |||
| "All Prologue" | 6 | Story and teleplay | |||
| "Undertow Undertow (The Wire episode) "Undertow" is the fifth episode of the second season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by Ed Burns from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Steve Shill... " |
5 | Story | |||
| "Hard Cases" | 4 | Story | |||
| "Hot Shots Hot Shots (The Wire episode) "Hot Shots" is the third episode of the second season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Elodie Keene. It originally aired on June 15, 2003.... " |
3 | Story and teleplay | |||
| "Collateral Damage Collateral Damage (The Wire episode) "Collateral Damage" is the second episode of the second season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by Simon and Ed Burns and was directed by Ed Bianchi... " |
2 | Story and teleplay | |||
| "Ebb Tide Ebb Tide (The Wire episode) "Ebb Tide" is the first episode of the second season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon, from a story by Simon and Ed Burns, and was directed by Ed Bianchi... " |
1 | Story and teleplay | |||
| 2002 | 1 | "Sentencing Sentencing (The Wire episode) "Sentencing" is the thirteenth episode and finale of the first season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon and Ed Burns and was directed by Tim Van Patten... " |
13 | Writer | |
| "Cleaning Up" | 12 | Story | |||
| "The Hunt The Hunt (The Wire episode) "The Hunt" is the eleventh episode of the first season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by Joy Lusco from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Steve Shill... " |
11 | Story | |||
| "The Cost The Cost (The Wire episode) "The Cost" is the tenth episode of the first season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Brad Anderson. It originally aired on August 11, 2002.... " |
10 | Story and teleplay | |||
| "Game Day" | 9 | Story | |||
| "Lessons Lessons (The Wire episode) "Lessons" is the eighth episode of the first season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Gloria Muzio. It originally aired on July 21, 2002.-Production:... " |
8 | Story and teleplay | |||
| "One Arrest" | 7 | Story | |||
| "The Wire The Wire (The Wire episode) "The Wire" is the sixth episode of the first season of the HBO original series, The Wire, the titular episode of the series. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Ed Bianchi... " |
6 | Story and teleplay | |||
| "The Pager" | 5 | Story | |||
| "Old Cases" | 4 | Story and teleplay | |||
| "The Buys" | 3 | Story and teleplay | |||
| "The Detail" | 2 | Story and teleplay | |||
| "The Target The Target (The Wire episode) "The Target" is the pilot episode of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by David Simon from a story by David Simon & Ed Burns and was directed by Clark Johnson... " |
1 | Story and teleplay | |||
| 2000 | The Corner The Corner The Corner is a 2000 HBO drama television miniseries based on the nonfiction book The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood by David Simon and Ed Burns and adapted for television by Simon and David Mills. It premiered on premium cable network HBO in the United States on April 16,... |
1 | "Everyman's Blues" | 6 | |
| "Corner Boy's Blues" | 5 | ||||
| "Dope Fiend Blues" | 4 | ||||
| "DeAndre's Blues" | 2 | ||||
| "Gary's Blues" | 1 | ||||
| 1999 | Homicide: Life on the Street Homicide: Life on the Street Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale... |
7 Homicide: Life on the Street (season 7) The seventh season of Homicide: Life on the Street aired in the United States on the NBC television network from 1998-09-25 to 1999-05-21 and contained 22 episodes.... |
"Self Defense" | 18 | Story |
| "Sideshow: Part 2" | 15 | Writer | |||
| "The Same Coin" | 12 | Teleplay by Sharon Guskin from a story by Simon and James Yoshimura | |||
| "Shades of Gray" | 10 | Teleplay by T. J. English from a story by Simon and Julie Martin | |||
| 1998 | 6 Homicide: Life on the Street (season 6) The sixth season of Homicide: Life on the Street aired in the United States on the NBC television network from 1997-10-17 to 1998-05-08 and contained 23 episodes.... |
"Finnegan's Wake" | 21 | Teleplay by David Mills from a story by Simon and James Yoshimura | |
| "Full Court Press" | 18 | Teleplay by Phillip B. Epstein from a story by Simon | |||
| 1997 | "Blood Ties: Part 3 Blood Ties (Homicide: Life on the Street) "Blood Ties" is the three-episode sixth season premiere of the American police drama television series Homicide: Life on the Street. The episodes constitute the 78th, 79th and 80th overall episodes of the series... " |
3 | Teleplay by Simon and Anya Epstein from a story by Tom Fontana, Julie Martin and James Yoshimura | ||
| "Blood Ties: Part 2 Blood Ties (Homicide: Life on the Street) "Blood Ties" is the three-episode sixth season premiere of the American police drama television series Homicide: Life on the Street. The episodes constitute the 78th, 79th and 80th overall episodes of the series... " |
2 | Teleplay by Simon from a story by Tom Fontana and James Yoshimura | |||
| 5 Homicide: Life on the Street (season 5) The fifth season of Homicide: Life on the Street aired in the United States on the NBC television network from 1996-09-20 to 1997-05-16 and contained 22 episodes. A new opening sequence debuted with the start of this season, including elements of a police investigation and a growing chatter of... |
"Wu's on First?" | 15 | Teleplay by Simon and Anya Epstein from a story by Julie Martin and James Yoshimura | ||
| 1996 | "Bad Medicine" | 4 | Teleplay by Simon from a story by Tom Fontana and Julie Martin | ||
| 4 Homicide: Life on the Street (season 4) The fourth season of Homicide: Life on the Street aired in the United States on the NBC television network from 1995-10-20 to 1996-05-17 and contained 22 episodes.... |
"Scene of the Crime" | 18 | Teleplay by Simon and Anya Epstein from a story by Tom Fontana, Henry Bromell and Barry Levinson | ||
| "Justice: Part 2" | 14 | Teleplay by Simon from a story by Tom Fontana and Henry Bromell | |||
| NYPD Blue NYPD Blue NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan... |
3 | "Hollie and the Blowfish" | 17 | Teleplay by Simon, story by Simon and Bill Clark Bill Clark Clark joined the New York City Police Department in 1969. He worked a special undercover assignment for two years before entering the Police Academy. In 1972 he earned his gold detective shield. On December 31, 1994, Clark retired from the Queens Homicide Detective Squad as a First Grade... |
|
| 1994 | Homicide: Life on the Street | 2 Homicide: Life on the Street (season 2) The second season of Homicide: Life on the Street, an American police procedural drama television series, originally aired in the United States between January 6 and January 27, 1994. Due to low Nielsen ratings during the first season, NBC executives decided to order only a four-episode season,... |
"Bop Gun Bop Gun (Homicide: Life on the Street) "Bop Gun" is the second season premiere of the American police drama television series Homicide: Life on the Street, and the tenth overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on January 6, 1994... " |
1 | Teleplay by Simon and David Mills from a story by Tom Fontana |
External links
- "'The Wire's' David Simon and George Pelecanos" September 23, 2004 Fresh AirFresh AirFresh Air is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States. The show is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its longtime host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated to 450 stations and claimed 4.5 million listeners. The show...
- David Simon on truth, homicide and journalism
- Margaret Talbot's profile of David Simon in the New Yorker
- David Simon speaks at Baltimore's Creative Alliance. "My Nemesis" April 5, 2007
- The Atlantic. "The Angriest Man In Television" by Mark Bowden. January, 2008.
- Treme - David Simons new Show