The drug of the 80s is a 50 billion dollar a year business.
HBO's investigative series explores the nightmare of cocaine.
Next.
Ten years old and ten million miles from home.
Excuse me!
A stowaway on a spaceship of interstellar outlaws lost in a strange new world.
On the run from alien thugs, he's caught in the crossfire of a cosmic war.
Get us out of here and I promise you I'll get you home.
But first, he must risk his life to save his only friends.
You're a kid. You're no gunner.
I'm the only gunner you got!
Space Raiders. Tomorrow on HBO.
They are photojournalists.
Get the Pope, Charlie. You got the Pope someplace every week.
It's a big story down here because it's the first sign of fighting in Managua.
Their job is to get the story.
Who's Rafael?
Comandante Rafael. The most popular leader of the most popular democratic revolution.
Without getting involved.
Who's that anymore?
I don't think so. I think pictures.
But this war has its own rules.
Rafael is dead.
I think Rafael is alive. I'm gonna find him.
And a bodyguard of lies.
I know this is difficult for you.
But you must do it.
Is the only way to get the truth out.
The most is to kill me.
I thought the war would end soon.
How many reasons do you want?
And stay alive.
You get paid by the hour or by the body.
I get paid the same way you do.
Nick Nolte, Joanna Cassidy, Gene Hackman, Thunder Fire.
Thursday on HBO.
There is a legend of a golden seal.
Her coming will be foretold by a flight of seagulls and the shower of golden rain.
And if she finds men worthy of her trust.
I live for illness. You don't hurt me.
She will teach them and live among them in peace.
That pelt is worth a fortune.
We only kill what we need on this island. That's what you're always telling me.
The Golden Seal. Friday on HBO.
Ladies and gentlemen, two of the most beautiful words in the world of comedy.
Richard Pryor.
Do you remember me?
He's back in an all new film with the last word on just about everything.
From the state of the nation.
I'm into president.
We in trouble.
To drunk driving.
I know. I know.
Richard Pryor. He's fast and furious and hotter than ever.
No baby, you might have herpes.
Richard Pryor here and now. Saturday on HBO.
Hi, I'm Mason Adams.
Welcome to HBO Mailbox.
A program dedicated to answering your questions about HBO.
I'm happy to say that so many of you wrote in this summer.
We decided to make some changes so that we could get to more of your mail.
We even got ourselves a new set.
And here to help me with all of your questions and comments is my new co-host, Carol Bradley.
Welcome, Carol.
Thank you, Mason.
I'm happy to be part of HBO Mailbox.
I think we've found some pretty good ways for all of you and HBO to get to know each other better.
Let's start with a letter from Jerry Lomack of Irwin, Pennsylvania.
He says, it's a shame that comedians have to resort to language and content that is so offensive to so many,
and that HBO seems to endorse this by televising their shows.
We spoke to Robert Klein about his late HBO concert and posed the whole question of profanity in comedy.
Here's what he had to say.
I mean, I'm not the bluest comedian in the world. I think people know that.
But profanity, when used properly and in a certain kind of way, is a part of the language.
I don't mind profanity when it's used properly.
There's a lot of talk about that now because the gates are open.
You can say anything you want, which I like.
But I admit, there's parts of me that are quite conventional, and it kind of hurts my ears a little.
I love the English language. I think it's a rich, beautiful language.
And I like to use it richly.
He does use it richly.
That he does.
Getting back to your letter, Mr. Lomacka,
we don't censor the kind of language you refer to, but we don't encourage it either.
We just try to bring you concert performances of the country's top comedians.
See, we realize that Richard Pryor and George Carlin may not be everyone's cup of comedy,
but they are two of today's top entertainers.
If their style offends you, I'd suggest you keep your eyes open for the concerts of Rich Little, Billy Crystal, Red Skelton, George Burns.
Their brand of comedy will always be a part of HBO.
Another topic that continues to draw mail is television transmission.
Where does HBO come from? Are HBO and cable the same thing?
Why does my picture go whenever there's a storm?
For the answers, we went to the source, the HBO Communications Center.
Right now, you're watching a broadcast from the HBO Communications Center in Long Island, New York.
This is where all our programs come from.
Here, about 125 people operate the state-of-the-art technology that keeps HBO on the air.
All HBO programs, including movies, are shown on videotape.
At airtime, the program is played on a videotape machine and fed into master control,
where technicians check both picture and sound quality.
Once given the okay, the program passes through several highly complex systems,
which convert it into a microwave signal.
It then goes to one of our satellite antennas outside.
The antenna is aimed at a communications satellite about 22,300 miles from Earth.
It beams up our signal to the satellite, where it can be received by cable company antennas across the country.
They bring it to you, along with many other stations, through a cable.
That's why it's called cable TV.
This entire process, from tape machine to your home, takes about a half a second.
That's pretty fast.
You know, even with all of this incredible technology, HBO does have its occasional problem.
But because of the sophistication of our backup systems, most can be solved within a few minutes.
What we can't solve are local problems.
Weather, temperature, or changing terrain can affect local cable wires and disrupt your reception.
Now, that's a job for your local cable company.
They're the experts.
So if trouble persists, give them a call.
Now it's our turn to ask you a question.
We've had a production team around the country, and for this show we asked,
what kind of programs would you like to see more or less of on HBO?
Here's what the viewers of the Rogers Cable System in Syracuse, New York, had to say.
Well, I think the comedy shows are great, and I love not necessarily the news.
I'd like to see more of that.
Science fiction and pure escape type movies. James Bond, if you will.
And the more the merrier.
Less of would be the entertainment specials, because we just never seem to watch them.
I like the concert shows. The Bette Miller show was very good.
If we find another Ali, another Leonard, I think more boxing.
I'd like to see more video jukebox.
Something like Pavarotti or something like that once in a while.
I would definitely love to see more of scientific programs, documentaries.
I'd love to see more series productions.
I enjoy all of it. There's nothing that I don't enjoy at all on it.
Maybe some old classic films. I like more, you know, I like the old classic Bogart
or the old brand old movies and stuff like that.
I prefer that you not put football on there. It's on every other station in the world.
I'm a sports freak, so I enjoy the sports features that you do have.
I love the NFL programming that you have.
No, I don't believe there's anything. Everything you have is good.
I'd like to say thanks to the Rogers Cable System at Syracuse.
Lots of good ideas out there. Let us know yours.
Well, Mason, they're doing just that. Look at all of these letters.
Take this one.
HBO features four or five new movies each month and pads out the rest of the schedule
with numerous repeats. Mark Keating, New York City.
Hey, here's an interesting one.
My wife and I very much enjoyed soccer of last night.
It was a moving film and we appreciated seeing it.
Senator Larry Pressler of South Dakota.
Well, now we're going to try to respond to these and other letters in weeks to come.
Meanwhile, please write to us at our new address, HBO mailbox, room 1016, 1100 6th Avenue, New York, New York, 10036.
Thanks for joining us. We'll try to answer your letter next on HBO mailbox.
There's no place like HBO.
We'll make your spirit shine, your evenings glow.
What a feeling.
There's no place like HBO for October movies.
Getting away from you people is the best thing that ever happened to me.
I mean, how much sex, fun, friendship can one man take?
The big chill.
It's about everything, suicide, despair, where's our hope go? Lost hope, that's it, lost hope.
Glenn Close and William Hurt had a brilliant ensemble cast.
You know, you'd never get a crowd this big at my funeral.
Oh, Karen, come on, I'll come and, you know, I'll bring a date.
The timeless beauty of Deneuve.
What have you done to me?
The haunting sensuality of Sarandon.
I've given you something you never dared dream of.
Everlasting life.
The icy elegance of Bowie.
I'm a young man.
There is no horror so insatiable as the hunger.
Good to see you, Mr. Bond.
The original 007 is back in the Bond business.
I hope we're gonna have some gratuitous sex and violence.
Sean Connery.
Those days are over.
Never say never again.
Oh, James.
There's no place like HBO for exclusive original movies.
For the first time, we feel safe around here.
At what price?
What do you do when the law can't protect you?
When every donkey in the neighborhood to another weed are off limits.
Martin Sheen, Louis Gossett Jr., The Guardian, an HBO premiere film.
I want you out of here.
She's a brilliant student in search of her future.
He's a boozy professor lost in his past.
And educating Rita is a comic lesson in growing pains as they learn from each other.
Why didn't you walk in here 20 years ago?
I don't think they would have accepted me at the age of six.
Michael Caine and newcomer Julie Walters were Oscar-nominated for their terrific performances.
Hello, friend.
People enjoy the intergalactic larceny of space raiders and deadly ninja duel with mafia killers.
People building fallout shelters in their homes, and that's all right if you home when they drop the bomb.
The two funniest words in comedy are...
Bring your friends!
In the 50s, his parents were executed for treason.
Your folks were set up on a bad rap, but that doesn't mean they were innocent babes.
Ten years later, he's asking if they were guilty.
Timothy Hutton, Daniel.
There's no place like HBO
And in November, Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark, here on HBO.
Oh, what a show!
There's no place like HBO
Nicaragua, 1979.
Fighting escalates as Sandinista rebels gather forces in an attempt to overthrow the government of President Anastasio Somoza.
Men and women of the news media are there, positioned and ready to record the explosive events of another civil war.
This month on HBO, Under Fire tells the story of those war correspondents who, every day, lay their lives on the line in order to send home a story.
Bernard Dieterich, who reported on the war in Nicaragua for many years, explains the forces at work from firsthand experience.
There's this terrible pressure to get bang bang, to show visually the war.
And sometimes it's impossible to find because there is none.
The reporter can still stay at a distance if he wishes, if he doesn't wish to go.
He has no reason to really go up and smell the gunpowder.
But photography has to get very, very close to the action.
And the competition today is so great, you will take normally a lot more risks than normal.
Nick Nolte, Gene Hackman, and Joanna Cassidy are the news people around whom this drama revolves.
Living perpetually on the edge of danger, they hunt down the hot spots, the areas of combat, where little more than a tattered white cloth stands between them, an instant death.
In working with this material, you know, I've become more aware of what really went on in the situation.
I was fairly naive, you know, of what really went on in Nicaragua.
So that I am, as Nick Nolte coming away with more of an awareness of the situation.
You get paid by the hour, by the body.
I get paid the same way you do.
But what happens when awareness turns into sympathy?
When the objectivity of a war reporter is compromised by personal beliefs and morals.
Nick Nolte crosses that line of neutrality and discovers he's being used by both of the sides at war.
Under Fire was filmed on location in Mexico after careful research proved it to be the best choice.
We spent time in Nicaragua before we came here.
We on the whole have managed to find locations that are extraordinarily similar to Nicaragua.
Right down to the cathedral in León being, which is near Managua, is very similar to the cathedral here.
Many of our locations are absolutely identical.
In other cases, we're painting streets so that they look the same.
We're getting extras that would work for Nicaragua that is extremely like the real place.
There's gas rationing in Nicaragua now, and we wouldn't have been able to accomplish what we are able to accomplish here.
Besides the fact that some of the best crews in the world work right in Mexico, so it made it very easy.
And the state of Oaxaca and the state of Chapas gave us a great deal of cooperation.
The Army of Mexico has provided tanks, military M16s, whatever we needed.
The story itself was inspired by actual events surrounding the bloody uprising against the Nicaraguan dictator, Anastasio Somoza.
We're trying to shoot it as realistically as possible, and it's fairly accurate historically.
With maybe some exceptions, the way the Nicaraguan War stopped was not overnight certainly, but as we portray it, kind of.
But it's pretty accurate.
Within the narrow world of the war zone, personal battles rage as well.
For this unhappy threesome, love exists in the form of a triangle.
Well, I think it's always interesting to be the center of two men.
It certainly does make it complex.
And in the story, Claire is definitely the riveting point and the counterbalance of their two energies.
But I'm afraid it's not the best thing you could give him right now.
Why not?
We just split up.
Under Fire takes you behind the line of action with unflinching reality and poses compelling questions about how our involvements can affect the outcome of a foreign war.
You get caught up in these stories, and you just don't let go.
And I think some people often ask me, is this a story worth the human life, worth the death of a correspondent?
Under Fire, this month on HBO.
His voice rings out against oppression and his courage, undaunted by the Soviet government's harassment.
And now, the true story of this modern-day hero, Sakharov.
From honored citizen...
Hide the file and go quickly. Just go.
To outcast, he resisted Soviet terror to fight human injustice.
I am asking you to consider this a serious warning.
Jason Robards is Dr. Andrei Sakharov.
The death sentences have been commuted to 15 years in a labor camp.
Glenda Jackson, his wife.
I didn't fight no more to be pushed around by scum like you.
Together in a story the world cannot ignore.
An HBO premiere film that has been called an important movie, powerful and disturbing.
The best work of any proportion tried by HBO.
Sakharov. Tonight on HBO.
Here at Cherryvale Academy, we offer a well-rounded education.
Including photography, driver's ed, equestrian sports, social events.
My clothes are ruined!
Take them off!
Of course, the highest academic standards.
So many people are very sore-shamed about this very magical action.
And everyone says we have the best student body in the country.
Young man! Illegal use of the hands!
These aren't for your husband.
Yes, for my husband. They're definitely for my husband and we're both definitely married.
Is this the honeymoon suite?
They're all honeymoon suites.
Find out what Phoebe Cates, Bessie Russell, Sylvia Crystal, Mark Mulf and Ray Wollstone have already discovered.
You only go around once in life and you gotta grab for all the look you can get.
When you check out who's checking into the private school.
Tomorrow on HBO.
Ooh!
With only a few weeks until the election.
America? What? Or that?
Not necessarily the news. Ray affirms its commitment to covering all the news that fits into the funniest half hour on television.
You can participate in the Super Bowl to the Super Bowl.
Your opinion on hot NFL topics is your chance to win tickets for Super Bowl XIX.
So reserve an HBO seat for Inside the NFL Football Finest Hour, Thursday.
You are about to come face to face with your greatest fears.
On October 14th, HBO will present an original drama about the most important issue facing mankind today.
Based on a study done by military experts, it depicts the series of events considered likely to begin a nuclear war.
Its purpose is to inform, not to alarm. And while it is a fictionalized event, the fact remains that tomorrow it could happen.
Ten. Nine. Eight.
American warplanes fought a pre-dawn battle over Saudi Arabia with unidentified fighter planes.
Seven. Six. Five.
Untold thousands are trying to escape to areas outside the city.
Four. Three.
Prisoners pull out all the stops. Two. One.
Countdown to Looking Glass, premiering Sunday, October 14th.
Oh, what a shock, there's no place like HBO.
Now, an exclusive HBO Premier Films presentation.
Sakura.
Jason Robards and Glenda Jackson star in the true story of one man's struggle against oppression.
The death sentences have been commuted to 15 years in a labor camp.
Sakura, an exclusive HBO Premier Films presentation.