The HBO series The Wire is one of the best television programs to ever be on television. Created by David Simon, the mastermind behind Homicide: Life on the Streets and Treme, the gritty drug-fueled urban drama The Wire was never properly appreciated while it was on the air, but Simon is now getting his just desserts. David Simon, a television producer and writer, was awarded a $500,000 MacArthur genius grant by the MacArthur Foundation.
“To be told you’ve won a MacArthur fellowship is very flattering and gratifying personally,” said Simon, a former journalist and author. “On a practical level I’m a TV producer and storyteller who’s gone about as long as you can go without achieving a mass audience. I have no currency other than things, other than moments like this. I’ll admit it. I can’t go in and wave Emmy awards, I can’t go in and wave Nielsen ratings when I try to get one of these stories told. I can, however, do these stories that actually are not so much about what’s on the entertainment page but maybe about what’s on the op ed. And maybe about what needs to be discussed rather than what’s easy to discuss.”
Since the awards were created in 1981, 827 people have received the so-called genius grant from the MacArthur Foundation. He’s the latest in a long line of creative writers to receive the award, and one of the most deserving of all possible recipients. Unlike the Nobel Prize, there’s not as much politics involved in the MacArthur grant.
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