 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2009) |
| 12 Miles of Bad Road | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Created by | Linda Bloodworth-Thomason |
| Starring | |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Original release | |
| Network | HBO |
12 Miles of Bad Road is a television show originally created for HBO [1] centered on a Texas matriarch who must reconcile her booming real estate business and immense wealth with the day-to-day struggles of her dysfunctional family life.
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Lily Tomlin | Amelia Shakespeare |
| Mary Kay Place | C.Z. Shakespeare |
| Leslie Jordan | Kenny Kingman |
| Gary Cole | Jerry Shakespeare |
| Katherine LaNasa | Juliet Shakespeare |
| Eliza Coupe | Gaylor Shakespeare |
| David Andrews | Saxby Hall |
| Kim Dickens | Jonelle Shakespeare |
| Cameron Richardson | McKenna Hall |
| Ivana Miličević | Montserrat |
| Sean Bridgers | Lyle Hartsong |
| Leigh Allyn Baker | Marilyn Hartsong |
| Tara Karsian | Deputy Deborah Falcon |
| Ron White | Spain Dollarhyde |
12 Miles of Bad Road was created by writer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, creator of the television hits Designing Women , Hearts Afire , and Evening Shade . It was produced by Bloodworth-Thomason and Harry Thomason's Mozark Productions, as well as HBO. The pilot was shot in 2007. [3] Set in Dallas, but shot in Los Angeles, the characters live in the wealthy north Dallas neighborhood of Preston Hollow.[ citation needed ]
Ten episodes of the series were ordered by HBO, but because of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, only six episodes were shot.[ citation needed ] On March 17, 2008, HBO announced that it was not planning to air the show and the creators were shopping the episodes around to other networks. [4]
The title is a lyric from the song "Crush with Eyeliner" from the 1995 R.E.M. album Monster , which was itself a reference to the hit song "Forty Miles of Bad Road" by Duane Eddy.
Newsweek called it "a scabrously funny satire of real-estate magnates in Dubya's Texas". [5]
The Los Angeles Times reported that after HBO passed on the show, "despite its price and pedigree" of prestigious actors and producers, the critics got a look: [6]
Sent out to critics by its creators, who hoped to prove that HBO was making a grave mistake, 12 Miles is a nightmare tug of war between the bold, the brilliant and the really, truly terrible. The tale of a Texas real estate dynasty, it cries out not for a review but a psychiatric diagnosis -- schizophrenia? Bipolar disorder? Never have so many Emmy-deserving performances been trapped in such a muddled mess of a more than occasionally offensive storyline.
From the June 2008 issue of Texas Monthly: [7]
Critics be damned, 12 Miles of Bad Road is a blast, a hair-spray-spritzed, bourbon-soaked mash-up of Dallas, Desperate Housewives, and MTV's Cribs...12 Miles is post-camp, a knowingly sincere (or sincerely knowing) attempt to resuscitate a genre that was long ago drowned out by our über-ironic culture...it qualifies as the most underrated show of the decade that almost no one has had the chance to see.
On the producers' decision to send the un-aired episodes to critics, the Toronto Star wrote: [8]
A risky proposition, depending on prevailing opinion, with one thin-skinned critic having already weighed in, objecting to the show's somewhat cynical characters and tone. I beg to differ. The show is beyond hilarious, cleverly written and flawlessly cast.
Preacher is an American comic book series published from 1995 to 2000 by Vertigo, an imprint of DC Comics. The series was created by writer Garth Ennis and artist Steve Dillon, with painted covers by Glenn Fabry.
David Edward Kelley is an American television writer, producer, and former attorney. He has created and/or produced a number of television series including Doogie Howser, M.D., Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice and its spin-off Boston Legal, Ally McBeal, Boston Public, Goliath, Big Little Lies, and Big Sky. Kelley is one of very few screenwriters to have created shows that have aired on all four top commercial U.S. television networks as well as cable giant HBO.
Martha Mills Noxon is an American television and film writer, director, and producer. She is best known for her work as a screenwriter and executive producer on the supernatural drama series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). She was also executive producer, writer, and creator of the Bravo comedy-drama series Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce (2014–18) and the Lifetime drama series UnREAL (2015–18), and an executive producer of the CBS medical drama series Code Black (2015–17).
Harry Zell Thomason is an American film and television producer and director, best known for the television series Designing Women. Thomason and his wife, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, are close friends of President Bill Clinton and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and played a major role in President Clinton's election campaigns.
Mary Kay Place is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Loretta Haggers on the television series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, a role that won her the 1977 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series. Her numerous film appearances include Private Benjamin (1980), The Big Chill (1983), Captain Ron (1992) and Francis Ford Coppola's 1997 drama The Rainmaker. Place also recorded three studio albums for Columbia Records, one in the Haggers persona, which included the Top Ten country music hit "Baby Boy". For her performance in Diane (2018), Place won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress.
Adam Paul Scott is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Ben Wyatt in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, for which he was twice nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. He has also appeared as Derek Huff in the film Step Brothers, Johnny Meyer in The Aviator, Henry Pollard in the Starz sitcom Party Down, Ed Mackenzie in the HBO series Big Little Lies, and Trevor in the NBC series The Good Place. In 2022, he began starring in the Apple TV+ psychological drama series Severance, for which he received numerous award nominations, including for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, as well as best actor nominations from the Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globes, Critics' Choice, and more.
Terence Patrick Winter is an American writer and producer of television and film. He is the creator, writer, and executive producer of the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014). Before creating Boardwalk Empire, Winter was a writer and executive producer for the HBO television series The Sopranos, from the show's second to sixth and final season (2000–2007).
Linda Joyce Bloodworth-Thomason is an American writer, director, and television producer. She is best known for creating, writing, and producing several television series, most successfully with the sitcoms Designing Women and Evening Shade. She and her husband, Harry Thomason, are also notable for their friendship with former President Bill Clinton, and the role they played in his election campaigns.
Nicholas Austin Pizzolatto is an American author, screenwriter, director, and producer. He is best known for creating the HBO crime drama series True Detective (2014–present).
Samantha Who? is an American television sitcom that originally aired on ABC from October 15, 2007, to July 23, 2009. The series was created by Cecelia Ahern and Donald Todd, who also served as producers. Although highly rated during its first season, the sitcom lost momentum and viewers throughout its second season, and ABC canceled the show in May 2009 before the remaining seven episodes were burned off the 2008–09 TV schedule.
Boldly Going Nowhere is a proposed American science fiction single-camera comedy television series created by Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton and Adam Stein to be aired in 2009 on the Fox network. The series was planned as a parody of the Star Trek franchise in the format of a workplace sitcom; the title was a reference to the famous phrase "To boldly go where no man has gone before" from the opening speech in the first two Star Trek series. A pilot was shot in 2008, but the project was shelved indefinitely.
Lone Star is an American drama television series which originally ran on Fox from September 20, 2010 to September 27, 2010.
Cynthia Cidre is an American screenwriter and producer. She is best known as a showrunner and executive producer of TNT prime time soap opera Dallas (2012–14). Cidre was the creator and an executive producer for the CBS prime time soap opera Cane in 2007, and wrote the scripts for the films In Country (1989), A Killing in a Small Town (1990) and The Mambo Kings (1992). In 2015, she joined as co-showrunner another prime-time soap opera, Blood & Oil, on ABC.
"We Just Decided To" is the first episode of the first season of the American television series The Newsroom. It first aired on June 24, 2012 in the United States on HBO. "We Just Decided To" was written by creator Aaron Sorkin and directed by Greg Mottola. In the aftermath of his public tirade, acclaimed Atlantis Cable News anchor Will McAvoy returns to his job to find that most of his staff are leaving and his new executive producer is his ex-girlfriend, MacKenzie McHale and when some breaking news about a potentially disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico hits the network, the staff faces a new challenge.
The Prince is an American animated sitcom created by Gary Janetti for HBO Max. Originally slated for a late spring 2021 date, HBO Max announced on May 9, 2021, that the series would be delayed due to Prince Philip's death in April 2021. The series premiered on July 29, 2021. In February 2022, HBO Max cancelled the series after one season.