Concept
Although overall plots and characters were created by Alan Ball, there are conflicting reports on how the series was conceived. In one instance, Ball stated that he came up with the premise of the show after the deaths of his sister and father. However, in an interview, he intimates that HBO entertainment president Carolyn Strauss proposed the idea to him. In a copyright-infringement lawsuit, screenwriter Gwen O’Donnell asserted that she was the original source of the idea which later passed through Strauss to Ball; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, proceeding on the assumption that this assertion was true, rejected her claim. Ball stated in an interview "When I went to HBO and they had read my first draft and Carolyn Strauss said, 'You know, this is really, really good. I love these characters, I love these situations, but it feels a little safe. Could you just make it just a little more fucked up?' which is not a note that you get in Hollywood very often. And I thought, 'Wow!' And that gave me free range to go a little deeper, go a little darker, go a little more complicated".
Read more about this topic: Six Feet Under (TV series)
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