Posted on 06/16/2014 5:36:35 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Between Rick Perry, Ted Cruz and Wendy Davis, Texas politicians in recent years have lived up to their state's reputation for producing larger-than-life characters.
That makes the Texas political scene a natural for the Hollywood treatment.
HBO has given God Save Texas, a drama about the state's often raucous political culture, the green light for development. It's set to unfold at the Texas statehouse, a perennial flashpoint for national debates about issues ranging from abortion to gun rights to the size and role of government.
According to an early description first reported by Deadline.com, the show will follow an "idealistic cowboy" who, after election to the state Legislature, "becomes the target of the powerful energy lobby and learns how to survive in the crazy, brutal world of Texas politics."
It's being developed from Sonny's Last Shot, a 2005 play by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Lawrence Wright, who will also write and co-produce the show.
State government isn't typical fodder for premium cable, but Texas politics have lately gripped the nation's imagination, pushing the state's colorful perspectives and personalities into the fore. "The thing about Texas is that it's a little larger than life," Executive Producer Lauren Shuler Donner said. "You can't make up characters like this."
Indeed, the show's creators have a deep bench of Texas pols from which to draw dramatic inspiration. It includes veterans of public scrutiny and caricature, including Perry, the long-serving governor and former presidential candidate, and comparatively fresh, yet polarizing personalities such as gubernatorial hopefuls Greg Abbott and Wendy Davis — whose rivalry has caught fire on the national stage.
Even if they don't appear by name, those familiar voices are likely to be heard on the show in one form or another. "Larry did a lot of research," Shuler Donner said. "He met with a lot of characters in Austin."
The show can also be expected to tap into ongoing debates about guns, gay rights and immigration. But the Season 1 story arc will center on another issue painfully familiar to Texans: the state's recent patterns of extreme drought. Shuler Donner suggested efforts toward drought relief would run afoul with special interest groups in Austin.
Shuler Donner says the pilot for God Save Texas is set to enter production soon.
Since this is fiction will the Texas Governor actually resist the 3rd World Invasion?
Translation: we liberals don’t like the choices the voters in Texas make so we will use the propaganda machine to ridicule the voters and their elected officials in an attempt to force the voters to make what we see as the sensible choice.
.... I heard there was going to be a redux series of “Dallas” .... this must be it.
Weren’t they going to call it “What the Frack”
An HBO series commercial for Wendy Davis. I cannot imagine why it would be green-lighted at this time except for an upcoming governor’s race in which the pathetic Democratic candidate is like 12 points down.
As this is fiction, we can always hope that in one episode the TX legislature will finally allow mere proles to open carry handguns. Just like they can in VT or DE.
Lord knows that we’ll be waiting till hell freezes over for the real Texas legislature to allow open carry.
Keep your guns*, move to Texas.
(*Disclaimer...by “keep your guns” we mean keep them safely locked In a safe or pay a lot of money to take a class and be fingerprinted and photographed for a license to carry them. But only carry them concealed. While we like to talk about how Texas is gun friendly, we don’t actually want to have good gun laws. Nor do we want to SEE the vicious and nasty things. Oh no. That may cause Texas liberals to have a case of the vapors!)
If this is just being greenlit now, the election will be a distant memory before it airs.
Let me guess. Evil Republicans and conservatives hold down feisty liberal crusaders.
In a series on California, the conservatives would be marginal people, as would their issues be marginal and minority.
In a series on Texas, the left and their issues will be placed as at least equal, as being blocked and frustrated by right wing politicians.
It will probably be a show about how a noble liberal can find ways to occasionally navigate past the right wing gate keepers, and occasionally even find a noble republican to help him pass something that just “has” to get past the right for the good of the people.
...Saw another Turn Texas Blue bumper sticker today. This HBO series will be used to drive home the message that Texas conservatives are bitter clinging racist bigots. Count on it.
Wendy Davis will probably go the Anita Hill paid speaker route after she loses in November.
And then maybe parlay that money into a House seat.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.