HBO Passed On YELLOWSTONE Because It Was Too ‘Middle America’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Executive Producer of the hit TV show YELLOWSTONE, Taylor Sheridan, shed some light on the reason why HBO didn’t pick up the show.
Sheridan never named the HBO executive but did say they had a meeting to sort things out.
“We go to lunch in some snazzy place in West L.A. And John Linson finally asks: ‘Why don’t you want to make it?’ And the vp goes: ‘Look, it just feels so Middle America. We’re HBO, we’re avant-garde, we’re trendsetters. This feels like a step backward. And frankly, I’ve got to be honest, I don’t think anyone should be living out there [in rural Montana]. It should be a park or something,'” Fox News Digital reported on Sheridan.
After HBO disagreed with Sheridan on who to cast and multiple conversations Sheridan hung up the phone.
“So I said to them, ‘OK, everybody done? Who on this call is responsible for a scripted show that you guys have on the air? Oh, you’re not? Thanks.’ And I hung up. They never called back,” Sheridan expressed.
After the premiere of YELLOWSTONE Season 3, Movieguide® was very impressed due to the shows stronger biblical and moral values.
Movieguide® reported on the third season of YELLOWSTONE:
The paradigm shift in storytelling is largely due to a paradigm shift in the overall worldview of the series. From nihilism to a nuanced biblical moral framework, major characters demonstrate deep growth. John’s valley dialogue with Kayce at the end of episode 2 is evidence of this.
He says: “I’d like to believe there’s a plan to it all, but I…I don’t see a plan.”
And his son replies: “That’s just because we’re inside it, Dad. You see a plan. You’re standing on it.”
John concludes: “Yeah. I guess we are.”
While this exchange is vague enough to be interpreted multiple ways, both father and son arrive at the conviction that there is both meaning and method to the madness of life. This is the antithesis of nihilism and a strong philosophical shift in the worldview, both of these characters and the show as a whole.
The concrete conviction that one is part of a story can never be iradicated in men and women because humans cannot avoid playing parts in a story – the Story that God is telling with his cosmos and creatures. Whether that part is as one who “wrestles with God” (Israel) or wrestles against God will ultimately determine whether a person’s story is a comedy or tragedy. All this is reinforced at the close of the season as John helps a stranded mother and son, a sacrifice that puts him in great danger, turning down their attempt at repayment, saying helping others is just what one should do. All this would seem to amount to a strong worldview shift in the YELLOWSTONE creative team, and one much more appealing to its audience.
