The Media Equation
With ‘Alpha House,’ Amazon Makes Bid for Living Room Screens and Beyond
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
John Goodman, center, on the set of “Alpha House,” Amazon’s first original series, in Queens.
By DAVID CARR
Published: November 4, 2013
Not long ago, I was on the set of a show about politics, Washington and a
senator gone rogue. The set had all the trappings of a big-time
television production, but it will be delivered not by broadcast or
cable, but over the Internet by a technology company that has not
historically been in the business of original productions.
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Jonathan Alter, in tie, executive producer of “Alpha
House,” took the idea of the series, a political comedy, to Amazon.
No, this was not “House of Cards,” the Netflix drama that received a lot of attention and an Emmy for best director.
“House of Cards” was actually being filmed about 200 miles to the south,
in Baltimore. I was in Queens watching a comedy called “Alpha House,”
written by Garry Trudeau, the creator of the comic “Doonesbury,” that
pivots around the substantial acting and physical presence of John
Goodman.
“Alpha House,” which will have its premiere on Nov. 15, is the first attempt at original programming by Amazon.com.
It’s a small bet by a very big company, but one that could create
additional momentum for the further disruption of what we still call
television but is quickly becoming something more complicated and
interesting.
The program is loosely based on a house that served as a crash pad
for four Democrats in Washington, including Senators Charles E. Schumer
and Richard J. Durbin, and Representatives George Miller and Bill
Delahunt. Except on “Alpha House,” the four men are all senators, all
Republicans and all flawed in ways that give the comedy impulse plenty
of room to roam.
Mr. Goodman’s character, Gil John Biggs, is a revered former basketball
coach of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels and now a Republican
senator from that state who is confronting a Tea Party challenge from Digger Mancusi, the current Duke coach.
In a scene filmed last month, Mr. Biggs is bathing in post-gaffe regret —
we will avoid spoilers here — trying to deal with a video gone
“virile,” as he describes it. When an aide tells him there are in fact
six deeply embarrassing videos making the rounds on the Internet, Mr.
Biggs’s face becomes a portrait of hatred for this modern age.
He swears lustily, and then moans, “It’s like the Clemson game all over
again!” After his wife and aide suggest that he go on a morning show as
part of an apology tour, he swears again, and says, “I don’t need to
humanize myself! I’m plenty human.”
Washington’s feet of clay are all the rage on television right now —
there’s “Scandal” on ABC, “Veep” on HBO and, of course, “House of Cards”
— but another trend is afoot. Big Internet players like Netflix and
Amazon are stepping up their efforts in original programming, competing
for viewers in the world of streaming.
In the instances of “House of Cards” and “Alpha House,” they are even
presenting the same general subject matter, albeit taking different
approaches — “House of Cards” is a whodunit-to-whom drama while “Alpha
House” is full-contact comedy.
The reasons are obvious, even if the economics are a little opaque. Both
companies want a substantial footprint on your various devices, and to
be part of the television ecosystem, they decided they had to make
“television.” In doing so, they become less of a hostage to the
traditional content providers while putting consumers on notice that
interesting television, if that is what it is, can come from all kinds
of places.
That lesson had to be learned by content creators as well. “Alpha House”
had been percolating for a while with Mr. Trudeau, who wrote “Tanner
88” for HBO. He and Jonathan Alter, the journalist and author, have been
taking trips to the New Hampshire primary for the last 20 years, and
the concept came up again in 2012. Mr. Alter took the idea to Amazon.
“I had no interest in making YouTube videos and didn’t really understand
that Amazon was getting into full-fledged productions,” Mr. Trudeau
said. “It soon became clear that they were willing to put significant
resources into original content.”
The business models — and the marquee programs — of Netflix and Amazon
bear surface similarities, but different agendas are at work. Netflix is
a pure-play entertainment company that uses data, licensed content and streaming distribution
to build an audience of subscribers — similar to cable, but without the
actual cable. “House of Cards,” “Orange Is the New Black” and other
original shows help the company keep subscribers happy and earn new
ones. In that sense, the programming, or the play, is the thing.
For Amazon, programming is an add-on, a benefit of being a member of
Amazon Prime. In addition to free two-day shipping, the company’s 11
million Prime members have access to Amazon Prime Instant Video, with
more than 40,000 movies and television episodes, and beginning next
week, “Alpha House.” The first three episodes will be available on Nov.
15, free to all Amazon customers, and additional episodes will then be
available to subscribers of Amazon Prime every week.
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