Ed Burns | |
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| Born | Edward P. Burns[1] (1946-01-29)January 29, 1946 (age 79) |
| Occupation | Screenwriter, television producer, teacher, police officer |
| Subject | Crime fiction,true crime |
| Notable works | The Wire,The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood,Generation Kill |
Edward P. Burns (born January 29, 1946) is an American screenwriter and television producer. He has worked closely with writing partnerDavid Simon. ForHBO, they have collaborated onThe Corner,The Wire,Generation Kill,The Plot Against America, andWe Own This City. Burns is a formerBaltimorepolice detective for the homicide and narcotics divisions, and a public school teacher. He often draws upon these experiences for his writing.[2]
Burns served in theU.S. Armyinfantry during theVietnam War.[3] He then served in the Baltimore Police Department for twenty years. When he worked in homicide, his partner was DetectiveHarry Edgerton, who would later become the basis forFrank Pembleton on the television seriesHomicide: Life on the Street.[3]
Following his retirement from the police force, Burns became a teacher in the Baltimore public school system. He has said that he stumbled into teaching with little preparation because of the intense demand for teachers in inner-city schools.[3] He taught seventh and eight grade. Psychologically, he compared the experience of teaching to the Vietnam War.[3]
He found the experience profoundly challenging because of the emotional damage that the vast majority of his students had already experienced before reaching the classroom. He saw his primary role as instilling caring behavior in his pupils.[3] He felt his major impact was in giving the children an example of an "adult who's consistent, who's always there, who always comes through with what he said, then that's a new world for them."[3]
In 1995, he co-authored, with Simon,The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, the true account of a West Baltimore community dominated by a heavy drug market.[4] Simon credits his editor John Sterling with the notion that he observe a single drug corner.[5] It was named a Notable Book of the Year byThe New York Times.[6] An adaptation of the book, also calledThe Corner, was produced as a six-hour TVminiseries forHBO.[7] The show received threeEmmy Awards.[7]
Burns was a producer, writer, and co-creator (also with Simon) of the HBO seriesThe Wire. They originally set out to create a police drama loosely based on Burns's experiences working on protracted investigations of violent drug dealers using surveillance technology. He had often faced frustration with the bureaucracy of the police department, which Simon equated with his own ordeals as a police reporter forThe Baltimore Sun. Writing against the background of current events, including institutionalizedcorporate crime atEnron and institutional dysfunction in theCatholic Church, the show became "more of a treatise about institutions and individuals than a straight cop show."[8]
They chose to takeThe Wire to HBO because of their existing working relationship from the 2000miniseriesThe Corner. Owing to its reputation for exploring new areas, HBO was initially dubious about including a cop drama in their lineup, but eventually agreed to produce thepilot.[8][9]
The theme of institutional dysfunction was expanded across different areas of the city as the show progressed. Thesecond season focused on the death of white working class America through examination of the city ports.[10] Thethird season "reflects on the nature of reform and reformers, and whether there is any possibility that political processes, long calcified, can mitigate the forces currently arrayed against individuals."[10]
Burns has called education the theme of thefourth season. The writing drew extensively on his experience as a teacher. Rather than solely focusing on the school system, the fourth season looks at schools as a porous part of the community that are affected by problems outside their boundaries. Burns states that education comes from many sources other than schools and that children can be educated by other means, including contact with the drug dealers they work for.[3]
Thefifth and final season focuses on the media's coverage of crime and corruption in Baltimore, tapping into Simon's past withThe Baltimore Sun. Burns was nominated for theWriters Guild of America Award for Best Dramatic Series at theFebruary 2009 ceremony for his work on the fifth season.[11] Simon and Burns collaborated to write the series finale, "-30-". The show was nominated for several Emmys and numerous other awards.[12]
Burns traveled to Africa to film a miniseries as a producer and writer forGeneration Kill (airdates July 13 to August 24, 2008) for HBO Network. The seven-part miniseries received 10 Emmy nominations. His influence on the show stems from the year he spent in Vietnam. Burns stated that as a writer "(He) can use the universal experience of war to create a realistic scenario for the viewers."[13]
He also drew from his experience as a writer forThe Wire. Simon and Burns wrote for both shows and had similar ideas in characterization for the show. Burns stated that he wanted "To make characters into characters, not cliches. Just as we did onThe Wire."[13]
Burns co-created the HBO miniseriesThe Plot Against America with Simon.[14] The six episode miniseries premiered in 2020.[15]
Burns is an executive producer and writer for the HBO miniseriesWe Own This City. The series was developed by Simon andGeorge Pelecanos from the non-fiction book of the same name by formerThe Baltimore Sun reporterJustin Fenton. The series focuses on police corruption in the Baltimore Police Department and particularly the Gun Trace Taskforce.[16]
My editor on Homicide, John Sterling, had the idea, says Simon.He said, 'Why don't you just go to a corner in the city [and write about it]?' I think he meant just do a neighborhood story. But for Simon, who knew how many of Baltimore's intersections had become open-air drug markets, the wordcorner had taken on a different connotation.So I picked a drug corner, he says.
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