True Blood
Strange Love
Sunday 7 September 2008 on HBO

Opening with two young adults driving down the road they see a sign selling Tru Blood. After a short confrontation with a vampire they take off. Next, Sookie Stackhouse,a waitress at a local Bar notices a vampire who walks in. After locking eyes with the vampire she confronts him asking his...

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  external: ShoWest honors Alan Ball Jun 23, 2008 (Score: 54)
  
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  external: HBO rolls with Ball's 'True Blood' Feb 14, 2008 (Score: 54)
  

Alan based the TV show Oh Grow Up from a one-act play he wrote before his days as a TV writer. The play was called Bachelor Holiday. (edit) Before Alan became a TV writer, he lived in New York for eight years as a struggling playwright. He once lived with three guys and a dog named Mom in a 100-year old brownstone in Brooklyn. (edit) Alan based the character of Annette Benning in American Beauty from actress Cybill Shepherd who had a reputation of being extremely difficult to work with. (edit) In coming up with Six Feet Under, Alan was inspired in part by Tony Richardson's 1965 satire The Loved One. (edit) He was a writer for the show Cybill and the creator of the show Oh Grow Up. (edit)

Alan: The level of celebrity worship in our society, I think, is verging on the pathological. (edit) Alan: I love to direct! I get really jazzed by directing, but directing is not the same kind of personal expression, the same kind of personal intimate expression that writing is. (edit) Alan: (on the end of "Six Feet Under") I wasn't unhappy. I was emotional. It was sad. So yes, it will be hard to say goodbye to them because I've spent five years with these characters. They're like family to me. It's like you have five children, eight, nine children and they're all going off to college at the same time. (edit) Alan: I think we have become very adept at functioning in this fast-paced, media-driven culture. I have this persona that I can just fall back into when I go to meetings or stuff like that, but not enough of our experience, I think, is real. (edit) Alan: (on working on "American Beauty") It was the ultimate movie experience, the ultimate screenwriting experience. (edit)

Guest Star
Dennis Miller Live Death Himself	GMTV Thursday 15th June Himself
In the Life Episode 109 on Logo: God & Hollywood himself	The Tavis Smiley Show Barbara Lee, Alan Ball Himself

Writer
Cybill Halloween	Cybill Where's a Harpoon When You Need One?
Cybill Oh Brother!	Cybill Zing!
Cybill Name That Tune	Cybill Buffalo Gals

Director
Six Feet Under I'm Sorry, I'm Lost	Six Feet Under Untitled
Six Feet Under Everyone's Waiting	Six Feet Under The Last Time
Six Feet Under Knock, Knock	Six Feet Under Pilot

Other
Cybill Mother's Day Story	Cybill Regarding Henry Story
Grace Under Fire The Road to Paris, Texas Teleplay	Grace Under Fire The Road to Paris, Texas Story
Six Feet Under Pilot Executive Producer	True Blood Strange Love Executive Producer