It's more than TV ... it's HBO; By any standard, pay channel is the leading light on the tube

What's the highlight of being a television critic? That's easy: getting to see all the great HBO programs before anyone else. The lowlight? Trying to find something worth writing about besides HBO. Think I'm overstating things? I made a quick survey of the shows my fellow critics listed as their 10 favorites of 2001. The same titles kept showing up on one list after another: "Six Feet Under." "Sex and the City." "Band of Brothers." "The Sopranos." "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Half of a 10-best list. All from HBO. Home Box Office has been the dominant player in pay television since it signed on 30 years ago. It's on tap in one out of three American homes, far more than any other premium channel. In recent years, HBO also has come to dominate the creative landscape of television - and not just cable TV, either. Only NBC has won more Emmys in the last five years. HBO documentaries have been awarded 10 Oscars. Its made-for-TV movies have picked up the Emmy four out of the past five years. Shows like "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City" have generated more buzz than the entire WB lineup. When I was growing up, people bought HBO - or, like my father, refused to - because it showed R-rated movies like "Carnal Knowledge" uncut and commercial-free. These days a lot of pay cable channels do that. What keeps HBO on top is its unmatched lineup of original shows, films, documentaries and specials. Which raises two questions: How did HBO do it? And why haven't other TV networks exercised the sincerest form of flattery and followed suit? For a clue, look at what's playing this weekend on HBO's main channel ("HBO1," as many customers call it, to avoid confusion with HBO2, HBO3 and other related channels). By HBO standards, it's a pretty typical weekend: two original movies - one scripted, one documentary - a boxing match and a series episode. The scripted film, "The Gathering Storm," stars Albert Finney as a 60-year-old Winston Churchill. (It aired Saturday night but, like every program mentioned here, will re-air frequently in the next few weeks.) The film is a charming and very personal portrait of the British leader during his most humbling period, between the two world wars, when his power and influence were at low ebb. Much of it was filmed at Chartwell, the country estate that belonged to Winston and his wife, Clemmie, played in the movie by Vanessa Redgrave. It's fitting that "The Gathering Storm" was co-produced with the BBC. Some people compare HBO to "the Beeb," because they're both quality-minded networks funded by their viewers. Next on the schedule is "Boxing After Dark." HBO has aired professional boxing since 1975. It wasn't a new idea; Friday-night fights were a staple of network TV in the 1950s. What HBO did was revive and reinvent the art of televised boxing. And so it has gone ever since. From comedy specials to documentary film to sitcoms and drama series, HBO has figured out a way to present the old and familiar in ways that are fresh, exciting and often brilliant. Which brings us to 8 p.m. Sundays and "Six Feet Under," the splendid series about a family that operates a mortuary inside a home that time forgot. Currently in its second season, "Six Feet Under" was created by Alan Ball, who toiled on network sitcoms before winning an Oscar for "American Beauty." Ball created the show, but as he freely admits, the concept came from HBO - and after he submitted the first script, it was HBO that urged Ball to make the show, as he put it, "kinkier." Frustrated by his time at ABC and CBS, Ball has sworn off writing for TV. But not HBO. "Where else would I get to write this kind of stuff?" he said in an interview last summer. Ball thinks HBO's penchant for "entertainment that's not mindless drivel" led it to consider a show that dealt with the American obsession with death "in a philosophical, adult, existential way." It's easy to say that HBO's lack of inhibition gives it an advantage over traditional broadcasters. Most people can't imagine "The Sopranos" or "Sex and the City" showing anywhere but on pay cable. Yet HBO's chief rival, Showtime, has tried for years to produce shows with explicit language and sexual content. Name three you can remember. And lest we forget, HBO itself airs forgettable adult programming. The continued survival of alleged sports comedy "Arli$$" is one of several enigmas on the HBO schedule. "They generate a tremendous amount of junk," said John Higgins, deputy editor of the trade publication Broadcasting & Cable. "The Thursday-night sex stuff, the 'G-String Divas' - it's nothing to be proud of, and not all that tantalizing, frankly." But there is one category in which HBO nearly always hits a home run: documentary films. Since 1979, under the leadership of Sheila Nevins, HBO has produced hundreds of documentaries that have helped redefine the genre and collected just about every piece of hardware a film can win. More than any other type of program, the documentary film embodies the values that have made HBO a favorite of critics and viewers. Let's see how the HBO approach helped shape "Small Town Ecstasy," this weekend's offering in the "America Undercover" series airing 9 p.m. Sundays on HBO. Ideas. While most cable channels recycle the same ideas over and over, HBO encourages thinking out of the box. "In many ways, the hardest part of dealing with HBO is coming up with something that hasn't already crossed Sheila's mind," said "Small Town Ecstasy" producer Arnold Shapiro. That's quite a compliment, considering Shapiro has been doing documentaries longer than Nevins has. Though Nevins rejected the subject Shapiro first pitched to her, she was intrigued by the filmmaking methods of the man who made the classic "Scared Straight," in which teen-age offenders are sent to prison to be lectured by hardened criminals. Shapiro, whose work also appears on MTV and UPN, has learned how to entertain younger viewers while slipping them vital information about AIDS, drugs and sex. That appealed to Nevins, who admits to having a low threshold for "informational" films. "I get bored very quickly," Nevins said in a recent phone interview. "I knew I couldn't get my kid to sit down and watch a movie about drugs. But I could get my kid to watch a movie about a crazy guy who (ruined) his family." "Small Town Ecstasy" chronicles a family devastated by the popular recreational drug. The twist is that it's Dad who discovers Ecstasy and then gets his teen-age kids to take it with him. Money. HBO spends a staggering amount on programming, more than $1 billion yearly. Though documentaries are relatively cheap, HBO's deep pockets mean that it can afford a lot of them. Next year, documentaries will begin airing on HBO2, raising the number produced each year by HBO to 40. Nevins also can afford to pay filmmakers to research ideas - and see if a brainstorming session will actually turn into a compelling documentary. With HBO's funding, Shapiro sent several camera crews to Ecstasy raves around the country, looking for potential subjects. One of them visited a rave in northern California and found a 40-year-old man, Scott, and his teen-age son, Craig, taking Ecstasy together. Time. Most cable programs are made in a matter of weeks. HBO measures its production cycles in months and years. It has been famously patient with "The Sopranos," giving creator David Chase 15 months to produce more episodes. After the producers of "Small Town Ecstasy" found Scott, it took awhile for his family's tragedy to unfold. It also took time for director Jay Blumenfield to win Scott's complete trust. Then, when shooting had wrapped, HBO spent nearly four months editing the film. But HBO was in no hurry. This was in 2000, and Nevins had already filled her "America Undercover" lineup for 2001. She scheduled "Small Town Ecstasy" for 2002. Risk-taking. Because HBO programs are not advertiser-supported, they do not live and die on their Nielsen ratings. Over the years, this has emboldened HBO executives to lead with their gut. HBO chief Chris Albrecht, for instance, admitted that he brought back "Arli$$" for a sixth season because his limo driver loved it. Shapiro had promised to deliver a final cut of "Small Town Ecstasy" that was under an hour. "But the tightest cut we made got it down to 1 hour 27 (minutes). And Sheila said, 'That's the length we're going to go with.' " Ultimately, this is what may make it impossible for HBO to happen again - the same reason why, in their heyday, there was only one New Yorker magazine or one Random House. You just can't clone imagination and will. "We cherish people who give their heart and soul to what they do," Nevins said. She was speaking for her own corner of a unique television empire - and, in fact, for all of HBO. You can reach Aaron Barnhart through the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com @ART CAPTION:Albert Finney and Vanessa Redgrave as Winston and Clementine Churchill in 'The Gathering Storm' @ART:Photo @ART CREDIT:STEVE BONHAM/Special to The Star @ART:Graphic (color)