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FEET UNDER
    like Dream On and The Larry Sanders Show became increasingly important for HBO. Michael Fuchs took over at the helm in 1984, as the new chairman and CEO; he ‘made a public pledge to produce mature and provocative original programming … and … saw an opportunity to turn HBO into a purveyor of adult-oriented content’ (Rogers et al. 2002: 50, 51). Even though Fuchs pushed the envelope with sexually provocative dramas such as And the Band Played On , as well as those comedy series mentioned above, he failed to create a strong enough identity for the channel at a time when brand marketing was becoming integral to economic survival. Jeff L.
    Bewkes replaced him in 1995. Under Bewkes’ leadership, according to Mark C. Rogers, Michael Epstein and Jimmie L. Reeves, ‘HBO
    found itself on the front lines of yet another television revolution: the development of channel branding as a means of combating audience fragmentation … [and] … HBO [began producing] programmes that upped the ante on violence, sexuality, and the macabre’ (51).
    Today HBO reaches over 28 million homes; it airs almost a hundred uncut Hollywood movies a month and increasingly depends on original programmes like Six Feet Under to woo its subscribers.
    With the recent rise of DVD as well as the proliferation of movie channels with staggered viewing times, these new dramas have become much more important to HBO; as Albrecht is quoted as saying, ‘Nobody is going to buy the service to see Gladiator one more time’ (Carter 2001). Selling directly to the customer means that HBO is free from network constraints, and neither does it have to appease advertisers (Friend 2001: 82). Instead, ‘HBO is eager to produce shows that confirm its audacious marketing claim [It’s Not TV. It’s HBO] that – contrary to every rule laid down since The Beverley Hillbillies went one way and PBS [Public Broadcasting Service] the other – television can be both profitable and of high quality’ (ibid.).
    The question of what we mean by ‘quality’ television is key here: more importantly, how does a television institution like HBO
    understand the term? While commercial television edges ever closer towards inexpensive reality TV like Survivor , HBO markets itself on selling a quality brand product to customers that is not regular TV.
    As ‘the strongest possible counterpoint to network television’, HBO
    desires Six Feet Under – like The Sopranos – to be different (Friend 6
    INTRODUCT ION
    2001: 82). The series is proof of the subscription channel’s antipathy to the mainstream approach. ‘This show is unlike anything that has ever been on network television,’ Albrecht declares, ‘noting that HBO actually ordered a second season before the series even went on the air. “No network would ever do that,” he said’ (Carter 2001).
    Not having to appease advertisers and network executives allows for creative integrity (more on this later), contentious subject matter and edgy scripts which include levels of sex and nudity, violence and profanity rarely, if at all, seen on US TV. Such criteria are intrinsic to the HBO brand identity and key to its appeal. No wonder HBO
    owns Sunday night.
    Quality TV on HBO is also about telling the audience that they have made a wise consumer decision. By purchasing HBO rather than settling for mediocre network fare, programmes like Six Feet Under are designed precisely to make ‘HBO subscribers feel good about their choices’ (Friend 2001: 84). Flattering the audience is important to the company’s marketing strategy. It is predicated on the notion that the subscription channel must attract punters for its commercial survival; yet they use the economic imperative to their promotional advantage.
    ‘Because HBO likes to be seen as a grassroots phenomenon,’ writes Tad Friend, ‘the network plans to sell Six Feet Under by word of mouth’
    (2001: 89). The recent water cooler commercial