Take a walk on the wild side
HBO® is making one last trip to Atlantic City as the Prohibition drama Boardwalk Empire will be entering its fifth and final season this fall. But before we find out who will live, die, and triumph, take a walk on the wild side to see what makes it one of the best series around.
Sundays at 9pm on HBOGrowing empire
Tap below to learn why this series is the king of the Prohibition-era Atlantic City playground.
Award nominations
Boardwalk Empire® has turned out to be an awards magnet for HBO®. In its first season alone, the period drama received a whopping 18 Emmy® nominations, including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Steve Buscemi) and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Kelly Macdonald). Since the series’ debut, it has also won an impressive 17 Emmy®s, 4 Screen Actors Guild Awards, 2 Golden Globes, and a DGA, PGA, WGA, and Grammy!
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One of the challenges in shooting Boardwalk Empire was recreating an Atlantic City boardwalk. The production crew built a 300 ft. long boardwalk in an empty lot in Brooklyn, NY. It was the largest freestanding set in New York City. Production of Boardwalk Empire has filmed throughout the five boroughs and on Long Island.
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Martin Scorsese directed the Boardwalk Empire pilot and won an Emmy® for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. The pilot was the first time Scorsese directed a television episode since doing so for Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories in 1986.
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Terence Winter expertly wove fact and fiction together by creating the character of Nucky Thompson (a fictionalized version of real-life racketeer Nucky Johnson) and putting him in a world with real characters from the 1920s and 1930s. Throughout the series, Nucky interacts with gangsters like Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and Arnold Rothstein, businessmen like Andrew Mellon, and politicians like Harry Daugherty.
Looking Sharp
"A large share of the clothing you see in Boardwalk Empire is authentic vintage clothing and clothing from the Hollywood costume rental houses. The number of costumes required for the large crowd scenes you see on the show make it impossible to manufacture everything in the time we have to prep an episode. That said, we make as much as possible for our principal characters in our on-site costume shop. That way we are able to capture the right mood and detail for our lead characters." -John Dunn, Costume Designer
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"BOARDWALK EMPIRE® VOLUME 1—MUSIC FROM THE HBO® ORIGINAL SERIES" won a Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Featuring music from the first and second seasons of the show, the award-winning soundtrack is produced by the series' music supervisor Randall Poster, and is comprised of original prohibition-era music from the 1920s, exclusively rerecorded by top contemporary artists such as Regina Spektor, Loudon Wainwright III, Martha Wainwright, Catherine Russell, Nellie McKay and Leon Redbone.
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The Boardwalk Empire® pilot episode garnered an impressive 7.1 million viewers on its premiere night. It was the highest-rated and most-watched premiere of an HBO® series since the pilot of Deadwood® in March 2004.
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play
Nucky Thompson seizes on the unique opportunities that Prohibition created, carving out a profitable niche in contraband alcohol. But before long, Nucky and his minions find themselves forced to defend their turf against jealous mobsters ... with deadly consequences.
