It is TV, and HBO is facing up to that reality

In the latest boon to Hollywood psychologists, it turns out many TV executives suffer from a previously undiagnosed condition called “HBO envy.” Symptoms include gnashing of teeth each year when the channel adds to its towering stack of Emmy nominations and chronic muttering as magazines and newspapers heap praise upon it.

Still, it’s hard not to wonder if the pay service is becoming a victim of high expectations, compelling what was once a niche channel to put on its big-boy pants and face the same problems that beset the major networks, including a level of scrutiny commensurate with its success. Because, its oft-repeated slogan notwithstanding, lately the service looks very much like it is TV in some respects -- being held up by ego-inflated stars, hanging on to aging franchises, bristling at an attack of the clones by competitors, and watching quality series disappoint ratings-wise.

Although critics adored “The Larry Sanders Show,” that satire of late-night TV was never a mass-appeal hit. Then came “Sex and the City,” the Emmy-winning comedy, which had women all over America debating which character best captured them; and “The Sopranos,” a show that even TV-averse snobs could proudly admit they TiVo-ed. The latter’s acclaim inspired a “Saturday Night Live” parody in which a review quote read, “I’m afraid to look away from the screen while it’s on for fear that it will disappear, and I’ll be forced to kill myself.”

Signs of HBO envy surfaced not long after, abetted by outlets such as the New York Times’ influential Arts & Leisure section, whose coverage at times could be subtitled “Sundays in the City With HBO.” The afflicted are doubtless in for another rough stretch as TV critics assemble in Hollywood this week to preview new programs. Dozens of channels seeking to whet the group’s appetite will likely pale next to HBO’s lavish menu, which includes Al Pacino and Meryl Streep in an adaptation of the Tony Award-winning play “Angels in America”; George Clooney, via satellite from Italy, plugging his new nonfiction series about political consultants, “K Street”; and “The Wire,” a fascinating crime drama that just topped trade publication Television Week’s critics poll.

As HBO is learning, however, measuring up to its own yardstick comes with a new set of headaches. “Sopranos” star James Gandolfini cashed in for a much-sweetened payday after threatening to quit and briefly delaying production. At no small cost, the series was renewed for a truncated 10-episode sixth season, extending into 2006.

“Sex and the City,” meanwhile, is feeling stale at times in its valedictory season, as if every variation in Samantha’s sexual repertoire has been exhausted. And in the eyes of many fans, “Six Feet Under” -- with “The Sopranos” ineligible, it was last year’s Emmy nomination standard-bearer -- underwent a junior jinx, failing to fulfill the promise of its first two seasons.

As for “The Wire,” since it began following “Sex and the City,” the show is losing 40% of its lead-in audience -- the kind of tune-out that would sentence most network series to purgatory. Although viewership isn’t HBO’s sole criterion for success, it can no longer operate totally under the ratings radar, as it did (and most cable channels continue to do) in its early days.

HBO does follow a different business model than ad-supported networks, which allows the channel to take bigger and bolder risks. Not every show needs to be a commercial blockbuster as long as people ante up their monthly fees. Rather, the service patches together a quilt, appealing at various times to different constituencies among its 27 million subscribers (fans of boxing, character-driven movies, voyeuristic documentaries).

Subscribers’ perception that the channel is worth buying needs to be reinforced, so all that media coverage oils the marketing machinery presenting HBO as must-buy TV. With annual profits of more than $800 million, the formula clearly works.

For now, anyway. But with “Sex” signing off, “Sopranos” heading in that direction and “Six Feet” appearing a less worthy heir, the HBO matrix needs reloading -- the same conundrum major networks face when their key franchises age. And if HBO really wasn’t TV, it would have put an off-screen bullet in Tony’s head and wished Gandolfini Godspeed with his film career -- and probably would have bid “Sex” farewell before this season’s Charlotte-converts-to-Judaism subplot.

The competition has also intensified as other channels try to salve their HBO envy by aping the original. Efforts include FX’s “The Shield” (an Emmy winner last year for star Michael Chiklis) and “Nip/Tuck,” a drama about plastic surgeons premiering this month. Then there’s Showtime, which would like nothing better than to escape HBO’s shadow, having recently hired new President Robert Greenblatt, a well-regarded former Fox executive who has produced “Six Feet Under.”

This isn’t to say HBO has lost any of its swagger. Armed with unparalleled marketing muscle and a creative pedigree whose siren song leads big names through the door, executives sound confident (it’s not arrogance if you can back it up) that whatever obstacles they face, the future is bright.

HBO Chairman Chris Albrecht admits that expectations have been raised. “What ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘Sex and the City’ did was show what’s possible,” he says. “It made us more a part of the culture than we’d ever been before.”

Still, he insists the channel isn’t hanging onto anything beyond its creative apex, and that scripts for the coming season of “Sopranos” are among its best ever. As for the growing ranks of HBO wannabes, he says, “It’s flattering, and at the same time, it’s annoying.”

Past performance has afforded HBO plenty of goodwill, and several of its future programs sound intriguing. Among those first up will be “Carnivale,” a series about a traveling carnival in the 1930s whose behind-the-scenes convulsions have caused buzz within the TV industry. Another drama, former “NYPD Blue” co-creator David Milch’s “Deadwood,” is a revisionist western mixing historical characters (Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane among them) with fictional ones.

Also in the pipeline is “Marriage,” an intimate look at a relationship from Milch’s former collaborator, Steven Bochco.

The question is whether such offerings can live up to the standard HBO plasters across the screen each Sunday, prefacing original series with an announcer intoning: “Groundbreaking. Critically acclaimed. Smash hits.”

For anyone else, laying claim to two out of three wouldn’t be bad. But after its sibilant hat trick with “Sex,” “Six” and “Sopranos,” is that ratio still good enough for HBO?

Brian Lowry’s column appears Wednesdays. He can be reached at brian.lowry@latimes.com.