James Andrew Miller calls Mad Men one of "the big 3" of hit shows HBO rejected

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https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv...ew-1235048630/

"The Crown was an obvious one, but Mad Men kept coming up," says Miller. "They had the opportunity to read Matthew Weiner’s pilot, and I get into the whole story of what happened. Nobody can be in a position where they buy every hit, of course. But I think all three of those could have been on HBO. It’s very frustrating for a network when they turn down a show and it becomes a huge hit. There’s a lot of finger-pointing." What was it like for Miller to report on HBO vs. his previous oral histories of SNL, CAA and ESPN?: "There were some similarities — particularly with ESPN in the sense that there were a significant number of people who have been there for 20, 25, 30 years, so long that when you’re trying to do a book of record, they warmed up and were incredibly helpful across the administrations," he says. "The second thing is that, much like ESPN and all of these places, HBO started from humble roots where they were the underdog. Now in this post-Netflix era, they’ve gone back to feeling like they are the underdog and some of them relish that. As a result, there’s a real fighting spirit."