'The Wire' creator 'amazed' TV career still alive

His Baltimore-set series "The Wire" has been dubbed the best TV programme ever made, with a cult worldwide following, but David Simon says he is "amazed" his screen career is still alive. While critically acclaimed, "The Wire" met with poor ratings when it aired in the United States from 2002 to 2008. "Of all the people who've never found an audience, I have the longest and most viable career of anybody," the crime reporter-turned-TV auteur told a masterclass at the Forum des Images film centre in Paris on Monday night. "Every year I am more and more amazed," he said. "The joke is, when viewers started showing up we were two years, three years off the air. They were finding it on DVD and through word of mouth." "The Wire" -- which portrays the different facets of Baltimore, from drug-ravaged housing projects, to down-at-heel docks, crumbling public schools and corrupt institutions -- was nearly pulled twice by the cable network HBO for lack of viewers. "I set about writing memos, and begging, and wrapping my arms around the legs of HBO executives," Simon said. "I couldn't bear the thought of not finishing the story." Simon has attributed the show's low ratings to its largely African-American cast, complex plot and use of thick street jargon. He went on to create the series "Treme", about a cast of characters rebuilding their lives in Katrina-ravaged New Orleans, which last month got the green light for a fourth and final season. Does he have more projects in the pipeline? "At some point HBO may figure out that nobody's watching what I do," he quipped. "The long tail of 'The Wire' has given them a lot of pause before they think maybe they should give up on me. But at some point, you know, I always keep one suitcase packed. "It's getting less and less probable that I'm going to go back to journalism -- but I might, and I'm OK with it if it happens." Simon's full interview will be viewable online from Saturday at www.forumdesimages.fr/fdi/Videos/Les-Master-class-et-les-rencontres.