Ensuring a series is combat ready

When David Simon ("The Wire") considered HBO's proposal to script Evan Wright's book "Generation Kill," he knew the journalist should stay in the picture, he told television critics at their annual press tour last week. Simon, who worked on the Baltimore Sun's city desk for 13 years, was introduced to script writing by Tom Fontana, who adapted Simon's first book, "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets," into the NBC series"Homicide: Life on the Streets."

By Lynn Smith

July 15, 2008