How To Make It In America Get the inside track on HBO's latest comedy series from the producers of Entourage

Watch Episode 1 Right Now

For those that just can't wait for the February 14 premiere date, HBO has leaked the pilot for "How to Make It in America" onto youtube. You can catch the pilot in its entirety  above by clicking play.

Note that the free stream is for U.S. residents only.

Bryan Greenberg and Lake Bell Open NYSE

The cast of "How to Make It" is in New York this week to promote the February 14th premiere of their new HBO show. They kicked off the promotional tour by ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

Ian Edelman Tells Us “How He Made It”

You may not know who Ian Edelman is, but you’re about to enter his world. Edelman (pictured, with Victor Rasuk) is the creator of the new HBO series How to Make It in America, which stars Bryan Greenberg, Rasuk, Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi, and Lake Bell in the red-hot center of the downtown New York art and fashion scene. Locations such as Avenue and La Esquina will feel suggestively familiar to members of the city’s real-life fashion set; so too will series story lines about, say, day-jobbing at Barneys and trying to launch a denim line. Here, Edelman talks with Style.com about American dreams, New York stories, and what he learned from the Pegleg designers.

This show strikes me as possibly autobiographical. Is Ben you? Did you make an abortive effort to launch a denim line in your twenties?
Actually, the idea for the show came from me reading about all these American success stories and getting inspired. I mean, look at Ralph Lauren. Ralph Lifshitz from the Bronx, he gets his foot in the door of the fashion industry and through sheer, you know, vision and hustle, winds up creating the first lifestyle brand. He’s an icon and a gazillionaire. And I started wondering, how would that story play out in the world I know?

Which is where the autobiographical tone comes in, I suppose. You do a good job setting up that downtown skate/art demimonde.
Yeah, well, I grew up in New York, skating, playing basketball, and I wanted to show that world off. But I’ll tell you who did have a clothing line, if you want autobiography—Stephen Levinson, who’s the executive producer of this show and of Entourage. HBO put us together after they bought the pitch for How to Make It in America, and one of the ideas he brought to the table was this story of trying to start a sportswear brand, because that was something he’d done, pre-Hollywood.

Did your original concept for the show change much through development?
The show did turn into more of an ensemble piece than I’d imagined.

I guess I’m mostly wondering if the show you’d conceived got Entourage-ed.
Well, obviously, they’ve had a ton of success with Entourage, and so there were conversations like, OK, here’s something we know works for Entourage, story-wise; is there a way we can use that? And there are similarities. But there’s a huge difference, too: How to Make It in America is not wish-fulfillment television. These guys are strivers; they get into a club because they know the bouncer, not because anybody’s a movie star.

One of the other big differences that struck me is that the female characters in How to Make It in America are much more fully realized than they ever are on Entourage. Was that a goal, going in?
Not an explicit goal, but we knew that Rachel—Lake Bell’s character—was going to be a core character, and so of course we had to invest in her point of view. I think that character brings up another big difference between this show and Entourage…I mean, Entourage is almost totally focused on the Hollywood, industry part of L.A. Whereas we cross the borders of New York—there’s Rachel, who works downtown, but who has this very north-of-14th Street aspect to her, and there’s Luis Guzmán’s character, who’s a Dominican gangster trying to go straight, and there’s another key character who’s a hedge fund guy, and so on. That was essential to me, showing the way these different worlds intermingle. Which they do, in New York.

You’ve been living in L.A. for almost a decade. Were there things you’d written about New York—and this particular cool-kid world within New York—that you found you needed to change once you got back on the ground to shoot?
I was definitely having anxiety about that, so I flew out before we shot the pilot and spent a few days hanging out with the kids from Pegleg. That reassured me. The places have changed, the names have changed, but for the most part what they’re doing is not that different from what I used to do. It’s the same grind. That’s how I met [Kid] Cudi, actually—hanging out with the Pegleg guys.

I was going to ask about that…
I think he may have still been working at BAPE when they introduced us. I kind of knew who he was—I’d heard some mix tape stuff—but long story short, it was good timing. We got lucky.

A classic New York story, that. Like Susan Seidelman casting Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan.
I’ll tell you another classic New York story. So, of course, these characters are all amalgams of people I know. Friends, friends of friends, people I went to school with, whatever. You steal a little here and a little there. And Cam, Victor Rasuk’s character, he’s got a bit of this guy I used to skate with—this Dominican kid, he and I would run around town together, a couple of ragamuffins. Well, lo and behold, there’s this woman at HBO, and her husband knows this guy. I’m sitting in a meeting with her and we figure out this connection and we laugh and that’s the end of it. A while later, I run into some friends. And they tell me that this guy—my old Dominican friend—is going around, telling everyone he knows that HBO is doing a show based on his life.

You should give him a cameo. John Varvatos got one… But actually, speaking of Varvatos, that raises another question. I’ve seen the first four episodes of the show, and thus far, I’m impressed with its garmento vérité. But I wonder what will happen when—or if—the story lines head into the runway fashion world.
I’m intrigued by that world, and I kind of like the idea of Ben (Bryan Greenberg) and Cam trying to, like, scam their way through Paris fashion week. I could see that happening. But not anytime soon. They just started climbing the ladder. And they’ve got a ways to go.

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Video: HBO First Look At HTMIA

Japanther Joins HTMIA Soundtrack

By now everyone has seen the "How to Make It in America" teaser trailer. The band credited with the soundtrack is Japanther. Japanther is a punk rock band from New York City that was formed in Brooklyn in 2001. The band consist of Ian Vanek (drums, cassettes, vocals) and Matt Reilly (bass, Casio SK-1). The name of the song is "Challenge," off the 2007 album Skuffed Up My Huffy. Here is the video in its entirety.

Japanther Press:

• “Japanther remains one the NYC’s most under rated acts…” – Pitchfork Media
• “Performance Galaxy” – Vanity Fair
• “The Perfect Act” – PLAYGIRL
• “They are untouchable. Highly, highly recommended.” – Razor Cake
• “The ever-divisive” – The Fader
• “Super hard, incredibly fast, and overall inspiring” – Thrasher
• “A NYC based band whose music conveys what I would call springing life.”- Art Forum

Kid Cudi And Bryan Greenberg Talk New Series

Kid Cudi and Bryan Greenberg sat down with HBO to talk about their new hit series "How to Make It in America." The two discuss their roles, and what its like working on an HBO series.  The clip features some unseen footage from the show that hasn't been seen in past trailers. Cudi and BG seem to have great chemistry together which no doubt will carry over to the small screen.

Don't forget to check out Cudi, Greenberg, and Victor Rasuk  when they host MTV2's Sucka Free on February 14th at noon, the same day as the series premiere.

From Twitter With Love

Anticipation for How to Make It in America continues to build and the airwaves on Twitter are starting to heat up. Attention Tweeters... don't forget to use the hashtag #howtomakeit to see what the word on the street is for the new series.

KurtBert - So pumped for HBO's "How to make it in America" it's going to be the next big show.

npaglinawan - HBO's 'How to make it in America' starring Bryan Greenberg, Kid Cudi, Shannyn Sossaman and a bunch of others...I WANNA WATCH THIS! feb. 14

Landon_A_TSS -  This new show "How to make it in America" on HBO looks kiiiiinda dop.

OhMattG - "How to Make It In America": First Impressions - Get ready for HBO’s next niche series.

KiraCNN - just saw a giant poster on the side of a liquor store in alphabet city for @bryangreenberg and hbo's new series: how to make it in america.

K1MBO1 - HBO's new show "How To Make It In America" looks pre-tty, pre-tty, pretty cool...

First Reviews Are In For “How To Make It”

The premiere date for "How to Make it" is just a few weeks away. In addition to the premiere  parties that HBO is hosting across America, several lucky individuals have been allowed to see the first few episodes of the show. One luck journalist/blogger is Denis McGrath from deadthingsonsticks.com.  Mcgrath is a former television producer and journalist that represents the Central Region on the Council Writers Guild of Canada. Credentials that should give  McGrath a legit opinion on the overall production of the HBO series. He had several great things to say about the show. Story after the break...

The show stars Bryan Greenberg and Victor Rasuk, was created by Ian Edelman and was Directed by Julian Farino. It comes to HBO from Mark Wahlberg's production company, and there are moments where it seems like they're going to try to promote it as a kind of east coast Entourage.

But it's not. It's not even particularly a comedy, though it's pretty funny.  From the opening titles, with its bold sans serif type & chunky early 70's soul theme song, How to Make it in America is HBO's announcement that it's right back at the center of the zeitgeist as tastemaker.

Everything about this show is tremendously appealing. It's about two guys in their twenties trying to make it as entrepeneurs in the fashion world in New York. But what gets me about it is that there isn't a false note anywhere in the show.  It cooks along as the perfect of the moment show about the difficulties and disappointments of the American dream -- even hinting at the darkness underneath, that behind that facade of you can make it with hard work and grit lies worlds and clubs and secret handshakes that stack the deck against you.  It's sincere but not naive, unsentimental but not cynical.

You can read the rest of the article here. HBO has to be happy with the first wave or reviews and hype surrounding its show. Looks like its going to be a good one.

Kid Cudi Does Grammy Interview

If you watched the 52nd annual Grammy Awards last night you noticed Kid Cudi had three chances to win his first award but came up empty. To make things worse, he was stopped by Nick Cannon on the red carpet for an interview.

The “How To Make It” Crew Hits Times Square

HBO continues its all out promotional assault for "How to Make It in America." Today, the crew was spotted on a billboard in Times Square. Its pretty safe to say you've Made It, when there are giant billboards of you floating around New York City. Here is the good news though, if you spot one of these promotional signs, take a picture of it, and post it on the HTMIA facebook page and HBO will send you a surprise gift, at least according to the FB page admin.