Will Ferrell playing in five MLB spring training games for HBO special

At the TCA Summer Press Tour, HBO previewed some of its upcoming new and returning programs. Here’s a rundown of the shows and premiere dates: HBO Back on Board: Greg Louganis (Aug. 4) Four-time Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis may be the greatest diver ever, but his greatest impact may come from being one of the first openly gay athletes in America. This documentary looks at the successes and struggles Louganis faced then and still faces now. Show Me a Hero (Aug. 16, 23 & 30) This miniseries dramatizes the bureaucratic battle that took place in Yonkers, N.Y., over the […]

In the opening moments of HBO’s disquieting new documentary Hard Times: Lost on Long Island, balding, bespectacled Alan Fromm — an unemployed corporate trainer — catalogs the catastrophes he survived prior to losing his job a year earlier: struck by lightning at 15; heart trouble at 21; in the World Trade Center during the 1993 bombing; on the Long Island Rail Road when Colin Ferguson gunned down 25 passengers nine months later; and in the north tower on 9/11. By comparison, he says, unemployment doesn’t seem so bad. But it’s getting there. Fromm often gathers with a rotating crew of […]

Famous families. They enthrall us (say, the royals) and often infuriate us (you, Kardashians) with their power, wealth and privilege — and their ability to emerge unscathed from scandal or misstep. But what is it really like to be part of one? To have your forebears and family name be inescapable reminders of all you must live up to? Or try to live down? HBO’s stellar, slyly funny new family dynasty drama Succession — from comedy veterans Adam McKay (Saturday Night Live) and Jesse Armstrong (In the Loop) — examines the inner workings of the fictional Roy family, proprietors of […]