Those relationships will likely prove beneficial. Indeed, Ball is already shooting his next HBO series, "True Blood," an adaptation of Louisiana-based vampire novels by Charlaine Harris (although the show was announced last year, long before Naegle took the new job).
"We respond to the same stuff," Ball said of Naegle. "What's great about her is that she really loves television and how excited she gets about it."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, April 17, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 38 words Type of Material: Correction
'Dexter': The Channel Island column in Monday's Calendar section reported that HBO had passed on the opportunity to develop "Dexter." The series was in fact brought to Showtime first, which bought it. HBO did not pass on "Dexter."
That seems true. Naegle said she's crazy about "Lost," "Mad Men," "House," "Dexter," "Weeds" and "Battlestar Galactica," along with "some reality shows." (Eagle-eyed observers will note the lack of half-hour comedies on this list other than "Weeds.")
Most shows she watches off her TiVo, although she made sure to tune in live for HBO's five-night-a-week shrink drama "In Treatment." "That's been my latest sort of obsession," she said.
But maybe the most important quality Naegle will bring to the HBO gig is her openness, her sense that TV's next great hit will spring from some place entirely unexpected.
"As an agent, I'm always careful not to discount someone because they'd worked on some show that I didn't like or had written a movie that I didn't care for," she said.
Television "should be a medium that people can really jump in on. It should be wide open enough that if you can find a great filmmaker from Sundance, or you can find somebody who's sitting in Milwaukee and has just written a script that they love, then that could end up being a hit show . . . There's talent everywhere you look."
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The Channel Island column runs every Monday in Calendar. Contact Scott Collins at scott.collins@ latimes.com
