The scribe: Michael Patrick King
The scribe: Michael Patrick King
June 29, 2004
Michael Patrick King's New York. How can one tell? His six seasons as the leading creative contributor on HBO's "Sex and the City," for one thing. It may have been a show about four female friends loving and living in New York -- but it was significantly written, directed and overseen by a man, and one who knows his territory.
"I'm working class from the East Coast," says King, who won an Emmy in 2002 for directing an episode of the recently ended comedy. "That's in my DNA. New York is so in-your-face in terms of other life experiences besides your own. It's stimulating on so many levels to me."
Although he started out as a stand-up comedian/aspiring actor/playwright in the early 1980s, television quickly became King's medium. He breezed through stints with CBS' "Murphy Brown" and NBC's "Will & Grace." But with "Sex," King has found a partner in HBO.
"They get me," he says. "They're wide open to ideas, they're willing to be surprised and they're smart. You can have complex characters and complex thinking on HBO -- Sarah Jessica (Parker's) Carrie (on 'Sex') could be a hero and a villain sometimes."
Notes HBO entertainment president Carolyn Strauss: "He makes me cry laughing. He has a really fundamental understanding of who we are, and that's just a good writer."
With "Sex" behind them, King and HBO have entered into a long-term relationship. He has a development deal with the channel and is forming a production company with fellow "Sex" co-executive producer John P. Melfi called Working Class.
"Our goal is to create a production company that facilitates projects we're interested in," King says. "I'm thinking about the wide range of interests I have in terms of quality -- I love traditional network sitcoms, if they're funny. I love HBO, and I love movies. It's about ideas and getting what we learned how to do on 'Sex and the City' going in the real world and working with actors and writers we love."
No matter what project comes next, King says he will always look to the Big Apple for inspiration. After all, it's here that he has found the key to good story ideas: "Walking 30 blocks. People say if you live on a farm, you could walk 30 blocks. Yeah, but you wouldn't be hit with 17 story ideas while you were walking."
"I'm working class from the East Coast," says King, who won an Emmy in 2002 for directing an episode of the recently ended comedy. "That's in my DNA. New York is so in-your-face in terms of other life experiences besides your own. It's stimulating on so many levels to me."
Although he started out as a stand-up comedian/aspiring actor/playwright in the early 1980s, television quickly became King's medium. He breezed through stints with CBS' "Murphy Brown" and NBC's "Will & Grace." But with "Sex," King has found a partner in HBO.
"They get me," he says. "They're wide open to ideas, they're willing to be surprised and they're smart. You can have complex characters and complex thinking on HBO -- Sarah Jessica (Parker's) Carrie (on 'Sex') could be a hero and a villain sometimes."
Notes HBO entertainment president Carolyn Strauss: "He makes me cry laughing. He has a really fundamental understanding of who we are, and that's just a good writer."
With "Sex" behind them, King and HBO have entered into a long-term relationship. He has a development deal with the channel and is forming a production company with fellow "Sex" co-executive producer John P. Melfi called Working Class.
"Our goal is to create a production company that facilitates projects we're interested in," King says. "I'm thinking about the wide range of interests I have in terms of quality -- I love traditional network sitcoms, if they're funny. I love HBO, and I love movies. It's about ideas and getting what we learned how to do on 'Sex and the City' going in the real world and working with actors and writers we love."
No matter what project comes next, King says he will always look to the Big Apple for inspiration. After all, it's here that he has found the key to good story ideas: "Walking 30 blocks. People say if you live on a farm, you could walk 30 blocks. Yeah, but you wouldn't be hit with 17 story ideas while you were walking."
Share on LinkedIn
