We continue our “memorial coverage” of what was going on at our website three years ago to the month. March 2009, then – what are your favourite recollections from those days?
In terms of the number of posts, that month was the sparsest of them all. Only 8 posts, can you imagine? Compared to the several-a-day mode we are in at the moment. Still, there was some substance to our discussions and revelations.
- David and Dan disclosed – in a Swedish newspaper, no less – that the pilot is to be shot in Ireland, starting October. Not specifically Northern Ireland, but hey, that was the first whif of any solid news on the pilot in a long time. We also caught a rumour on what the HBO’s President of Programming thought on the prospective series back then, and were happy to hear it.
- Further topics of discussion were music (which turned out really well in the end, I’m sure you would agree), and one that never gets old: the importance of age and appearance of actors cast.
- Winter also speculated on the ratings (an issue we are going to return to in these last few days before the season two premiere), and made an estimate of what they should be for the show to be considered an initial success. We now know that Thrones reached those numbers, and exceeded all expectations in terms of the buzz it generated, but back then we were still anxious and unsure, yet hopeful.
Hear Me Roar: I hope you guys like these posts. Did this one bring back any particular memories? Did new readers learn something new about WiC.net’s history? Share it with us in the comments.
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42 Comments
First! I wish I’d been around for these, but then at the same time, I’m glad I never had to wait so long for the first season.
Matt ChungQuote Reply
Second! am disappointed that we don’t get any polls anymore like in the “the importance of age and appearance of actors cast” post…
HERP-DERPQuote Reply
Winter totally nailed it in the ratings post. 2.2 million viewers on first showing, instant green light. And of course it’s grown since then.
Maxwell JamesQuote Reply
I like them. Not sure when it was I joined though. I think I remember these but I was only an occasional reader then. I’m looking forward to you getting to Oct/Nov to relive my personal glory day ;p
Jackie MacPhersonQuote Reply
This is a great trip down memory lane. Thanks!
Actually I did a search on ‘Rimshot’ to see when I first appeared. There’s a blog about me in June 2009 referring to my first entry on here (which is sadly lost). I was working on ‘Your Highness’ and speculated that some of the YH sets could be used on GOT which turned out to be true (Red Keep & Eyrie). It’s interesting looking back at the hope mixed with uncertainty about whether the show would be picked up. I remember the excitement of working on the pilot in November 2009 (which I would dearly love to see). Now we can be proud of our show as one of the most successful shows ever made.
Here’s to more years to come!
Here’s a thought – Would the Eyrie set have looked the same (circular stairs etc) if YH hadn’t filmed there first?
RimshotQuote Reply
This is off topic but has there been any word on when HBO plans on sending out screeners to critics. It’s less than 2 weeks away until season 2 premieres and critics still haven’t received screeners yet. I’ve been looking forward to seeing their reactions to the episodes on twitter.
JamesLQuote Reply
I like the posts!
I wasn’t even lurking 3 years ago (I was a bit last year) so it is interesting to read these for the first time. I think the speculation about ratings has aged very well – congratulations Winter.
Owen ParkerQuote Reply
Yeah I also remember those days with fondness but I do recall that anxiety was a predominant feeling and all those “what if’s” were floating around… Now, this today is a WHOLE different game, I mean we are talking about The GoT beating HBO’s personal best in DVD sales etc :) Like!
Andrija AndrewQuote Reply
These are great! We have to keep this party going, at least until the next World Cup post. :)
dizzy_34Quote Reply
Quite new around here myself, but I’m a long-timer on several other online communities so I have a love for these sorts of internet time capsules.
It’s really great to see the anxious mode largely transformed into positive energy since the show began. Truly the rare net-reception of an exemplary production.
Jeff O’ConnorQuote Reply
Those days were awesome. So much excitement over soooo little.
Also, apparently the GoT presentation at TIFF was the most successful event of its kind in TIFF’s history. Over 17,000 free tickets used to attend the event over 10 days. Crazy.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/940531/toronto-embraces-game-of-thrones-the-exhibition
OhDanyBoyQuote Reply
Oh, wow, and thenumbers has released its estimates for DVD sales.
GoT comes in third in DVD’s, with 517,860 units – and 17.6 million dollars in revenue (or about $34 per set).
Bluray sales aren’t posted yet, but 57:43 means that about 690,000 Blurays were sold. If we assume a little more per set for Blurays, say $40, then that amounts to another 27.6 million in revenue. For a total of 45.2 million dollars in revenue.
http://www.the-numbers.com/dvd/charts/weekly/thisweek.php
OhDanyBoyQuote Reply
I miss that time i’m still basically a semi-lurker but i had great fun with those tiny bits of news everytime winter posted something
Jéssica De Freitas MacielQuote Reply
Is this good? on amazon.com blu-ray is on second place, dvd it’s first
on amazon.co.uk blu-ray in forth and dvd the same
I just hope this show can make it till the end.. and what about this numbers for dvd?
http://www.the-numbers.com/dvd/charts/annual/2012.php
zikoQuote Reply
I remember reading the music post.
The Theme song was really good, however the show’s music was ehh, it was okay. Personally I think that music is waaaaay over-used in most things today.
That was one thing I really respected about The Wire, going without a score.
Could it be done in Game of Thrones? Not the way they presented it at least.
You could definitely do a lot of things without music though.
Jordan HealeyQuote Reply
OhDanyBoy,
These are very nice numbers, glad to see HBO is making loads of money. But when I went to the site you link to and I saw that GoT was topped not only by Immortals (which we knew beforehand) but also by something named Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2, I almost died out of laughter.
Black LionQuote Reply
Does all the Blu-Ray and DVD money go right into HBO’s pocket, or do they split it with other production companies? Because if it’s the former, it really looks like they might recoup their costs on disc sales alone.
Man, remember when we were all worried about this show being profitable enough to continue?
PranksterQuote Reply
Obviously there’s a huge discrepancy between what that website is saying and what HBO is saying. I’ll take HBO’s numbers.
Edit: HBO claims they have sold 350.000 DVD’s and blu-ray’s combined. I really wonder how ‘the-numbers.com’ calculates their numbers, doesn’t seem so trustworthy anymore.
KnurkQuote Reply
Knurk,
Indeed. Maybe they have both their DVD’s and Bluray sales for thrones listed in the DVD section? That would make the numbers line up a little closer (still not close).
OhDanyBoyQuote Reply
Waited since first saw a poster where Sean Bean (!!!) was sittin’ on a throne with “Game Of Thrones” (!!!) written bellow.
My reaction was.. Wait.. WHAT?! O_o
KidQuote Reply
I did not discover this site until last year around this time as I had finished reading GoT for the first time. I am however seriously in love with this site. I come here every day for my fix. I think the Wicet team is amazing and doing a awesome job!
HildaQuote Reply
I just remember that three years ago people writing “first” in a thread was already tiresome and banal.
Also, I had no idea ASoIaF was out there and am grateful HBO created the series. After the first two episodes I picked up the books and started reading.
I’m eagerly awaiting the last book as I am convinced the Hound is still alive and has a part to play in the end game.
Kam Fong as Chin HoQuote Reply
that”s pretty cool ;p 3 years ago i had clue of ASOIAFs existence. was there info bout the music for S2 btw? i’m assuming Ramin is coming back with the score.
jkbQuote Reply
Knurk,
Wait so you’re taking the words of an interested biased source over an independent source with no bias whatsoever? Okay…..
Those are good numbers there – it’s basically tied for 2nd with a LOT of units sold (If this is week 1, I’d imagine it’ll hit at least 1M over its lifetime, and perhaps 800K-900K before April 1). And it’s not far off from True Blood Season 3′s #s (http://www.the-numbers.com/dvd/charts/weekly/2011/20110605.php), right before it premiered with over 5 Million viewers.
garik16Quote Reply
I’ve been here for almost a year, although I posted for the first time very recently. I appreciate the work that is put into this site, and am jealous of those who have been here since the beginning. It’s fun to look back and see what was happening before I stumbled upon this site. Keep up the hard work WiC.net, can’t wait for season 2!
The OthersQuote Reply
I was here from probably Day One.
With all this hype about Season 2 I’ve been thinking… A long time ago, after book 4 and 1st season of Rome I was imagining what it would be like to see ASOIAF on TV, that HBO were the only ones able to pull that off, how the first teasers would be Winter is Coming, how the fans would be the ones to get onboard, and then it would go mainstream. When it actually happened, almost exactly like I imagined, it felt amazing and unreal, like I somehow made it happen. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one imagining that, so it’s nice to think we all contributed in a way.
Victoria PavlovaQuote Reply
I know some critics have already seen episodes, but they appear to be under embargo. A tweet from an LA times journalist indicated that, as did an EW story. The embargo should be lifted in a few days – they may not be allowed to talk about it until a week before it airs.
I know the next “Firewall & Iceberg” podcast episode will have a review, and it will be released on Monday.
LarsQuote Reply
yes, if HBO did sell more than 500.000 DVD’s why wouldn’t they have said that? They may be biased, but they have better knowledge of how many DVD’s they’ve sold than the educated guesswork at the-numbers.com.
KnurkQuote Reply
Ugh. Nostalgic times like these make me wish WiC had a proper forum too. :(
King JoffreyQuote Reply
looking back at the times 3 years ago makes me happy in a geeky way. Back then no one knew game of thrones (I sound so Hipster right now, I know) and really no one understood why I was frequently freaking out in front of the Laptop when reading the news here (back then wic.net was already on my favourite bookmark toolbar and I checked the site like 5 times a day).
Now I managed to fix my girlfriend not only with the series but also with the books (she’s been constantly reading the books ever since I showed her the first trailer for the show, no she’s on her 2nd re-read in English or so) and a lot of people are talking about the show.
Really exciting how much has happened since then. I remember all those old posts because back then news about GoT were very rare so every tiny bit of news was worth a celebration.
I love this blog :-*
G_LeeQuote Reply
I read ASoI&F at just the right time — only about two years ago. So it was a bonus to find out it was being made into a show that looked to become a pretty faithful adaptation (I was still really, really sore from Last Airbender).
Anyway, I like these posts, personally. :) Now I know how it all went down.
Pink DragonQuote Reply
nice to read about your concern with music on the show.
I personally think it went out the best way possible! Ramin Djawadi did an absolutely amazing job, and I listen to the score every now and then…
but I wonder: is there going to be anything new for Season 2? will they make more songs, or just use the already existing ones?
Thiago SlashQuote Reply
It’s horrible, but I’ve realized I have no idea how long I have been visiting the site.
Year ago I created Twitter account to log in, but I remember excitement about all pre-pilot news, so I must have found site not long after first GRRM’s post on Not A Blog about greenlighting the project.
And a little curio: I found that in very post here, Winter misspelled the surname of one our heroes David Benioff. We owe them the series, let’s remember their names at least ;)
GrzebykKQuote Reply
I first found WiC when HBO announced they had picked up the pilot. I had no idea at the time that there was any discussion to make a TV series based on ASoIaF and I was flipping out (like fuck yeah!) But I do hate getting all hyped up about something when it is so far away especially since in my mind I was like “yeah they are making it but its going to suck,” GRRM had even said before that it was unfilmable. So I bookmarked this site and really didn’t come back until season 1 was in full swing. Now, however, I pretty much check in every day.
So anyway, yeah, its pretty cool going back and seeing posts & comments that I missed out on.
HexonxQuote Reply
Haha! I think that post from “Rob” in the character age thread was my first post on here (at least my first non-Anon post).
Any way to confirm that WiC? email should be the same.
Oh, the memories
the goatQuote Reply
In March of 2009 I don’t think I had even heard of the book series, not to mention the HBO series. I feel like I have been a fan of the series for a long time, but I guess it’s just because of going through 5 books (4 of them twice) plus a season of the TV series (viewed twice) in such a short time that it feels like much longer. It’s always interesting to read about how things were before the series became official. Hopefully in a few year we can look back on some of the posts from this last year and this year.
DreamlifeQuote Reply
That was fun, de ja vu all over again.
OldGranQuote Reply
Unfortunately I can’t tell because that was when we were still on Blogger and it didn’t capture that info.
I had forgotten about that ratings post. Wow. That was a pretty good guess!
Winter Is ComingQuote Reply
Aw, damn. Pretty sure that was me, tho. I remember I found the site pretty soon after I found the pilot script on Westeros.
And yes sir, you were extremely prescient on your ratings speculation! The flames speak to you! (hope you didn’t have to sacrifice anyone important :)
the goatQuote Reply
Pink Dragon,
Oh jeez, The Last Airbender, that one hurts. Such a brilliant show turned into a horrible movie mess.
Shadowcat85Quote Reply
Just as a heads up (even though their numbers appear to be wrong) thenumbers has posted their Bluray results.
680,000 copies of GoT sold, for $44 a pop, resulting in 29.9 million in revenue.
OhDanyBoyQuote Reply
OhDanyBoy,
I actually send an e-mail to the-numbers.com and asked them about the huge discrepancy between their reporting and HBO’s reporting. They replied quickly and said they were going to look into HBO’s report. What is interesting though is that Fox is claiming Immortals sold 1.200.000 copies of DVD & Blu-Rays in the first week. If you take 76% of that, the numbers sold of GoT will lie between the reported numbers of HBO and The-numbers.com. In the end with all the contradicting reports there’s just not making a lot of sense to it except that Game of Thrones sold a shitload of blu-rays and DVD’s.
KnurkQuote Reply