Alan Ball | The New York Observer

Fangs for the Memories: Shades of Buffy in Ball's True Blood

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:29:32 -0400

When people talk about HBO’s new drama True Blood (airing Sunday, Sept. 7, at 9 p.m.), they’ll inevitably refer to it as “Alan Ball’s vampire show.” That’s accurate, of course. Mr. Ball, creator of the late, lamented funeral-parlor drama Six Feet Under, has indeed made his new series, based on a series of novels by Charlaine Harris, about vampires: living among us like refugees, trying to fit in. There’s blood and fangs and graves...

Alan Ball to Take on Bad Girls for HBO

Tue, 27 May 2008 10:09:20 -0400

Look out, Oz! Move over, Prison Break! It's time for some imprisoned Bad Girls to take over HBO thanks to Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball. Mr. Ball is reuniting with the network to executive produce and oversee writing for the show, which will be an American version of the long-running British drama about the staff and inmates of a women's prison. Don't be expecting a "Cell Block Tango"-like performance...

The Hollywood Reporter...

Alan Ball Adds Swede to HBO Vampire Show

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:37:01 -0500

Teen girls aren't the only ones getting into those sexy sexy vampires! Alan Ball, who created the morbidly hilarious Six Feet Under, is making his own show about them, based on Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire book series. Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard, a son of Stellan Skarsgard (Good Will Hunting, that evil guy in Pirates of the Carribean), has joined the cast of Mr. Ball's True Blood. The show centers on the love story...

Strictly Ball-Room

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 20:00:00 -0400

The hit HBO series Six Feet Under met its end in 2005, and ever since, its creator, Alan Ball, who got his start in the New York theater scene, has been pining for home. “I sold myself to television and moved out here,” he explained on the phone from California. “I mean—I love L.A., but I miss New York terribly.” This summer, after 11 years of living in the Hollywood Hills, the 49-year-old Oscar-winner...

Six Inches Under

Sun, 15 Aug 2004 20:00:00 -0400

Plain old screenwriters rarely achieve the recognizability of a Coppola or Tarantino. Charlie Kaufman comes to mind and, on the other end of the spectrum, Joe Eszterhas. A third member of this elect crew is Alan Ball. After stints on Grace Under Fire and Cybill , Mr. Ball became a name in his own right when he won the Academy Award for writing American Beauty , and then, in the manner of Michael Crichton...

Gerry Laybourne's $400 Million Gamble: Nickelodeon Queen Joins With Oprah for Women's Cable-Web Venture

Sun, 24 Oct 1999 20:00:00 -0400

It's here. A fledgling women's media empire is in the process of moving into 40,000 square feet of retrofitted office space (and digital TV studios) at 448 West 16th Street. Nabisco had a factory on this spot in the old days. In the next century, it may prove to be ground zero for the synergistic possibilities of TV and the Internet, as well as a mothership for a pragmatic brand of feminism.

Oprah Winfrey has...