Showtime creating drama about the 1970s music industry, when it was all sex and drugs and Supertramp

By Sean O'Neal | June 23, 2011 | 8:30pm

Aux Features TV

Showtime has purchased the spec script Vinyl, a potential drama series that takes place in the music industry during the A.M. golden days of the 1970s, when the record business was all grooves and easy breezy feelings, instead of ringtones and suicidal thoughts. Written by My Own Worst Enemy’s Jason Smilovic and Tod Katzberg, and with Barry Levinson potentially attached to direct, the show is loosely based on the experiences of executive producers Barry Grieff and Andy Meyer, who worked for A&M Records in the thick of the decade, churning out albums by the likes of Carole King, Supertramp, Styx, and Peter Frampton, and probably doing lots of awesome drugs in the process.

And indeed, the series would delve into some of those sleazier corners, promising to “explore every aspect of the music business through multiple vantage points—from the record executives and rock stars to the drug pushers and the prostitutes, from the stage to the boardroom to the DJ booth.” Hey, what about the bedroom? We’re guessing there’s also a bedroom, or this wouldn't be on Showtime. Anyway, if it gets picked up, Vinyl could end up being a pay-cable rival to HBO’s own in-development music industry saga, its adaptation of A Visit From The Goon Squad. But only one of these will have funny clothes.