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Television viewers love to binge serialized shows. Thanks to streaming services, digital media, DVD boxsets, and the internet, it’s easy to catch up on heavy serialized shows like The Walking Dead or Breaking Bad.

However, things weren’t always so easy. In the days before streaming it was much harder to keep up with television dramas. If you missed an episode, you were out of luck and just had to hope that you didn’t miss any big developments. Sure, you could program your VCR to tape it, but it was a lot of work to keep up with a show.

Nina Noble was the executive producer of The Wire, an HBO drama that ran from 2002 to 2008. When the series began, people were still relying on VCRs and VHS tapes to keep up with missing episodes, and she believes it’s one of the big reasons the show struggled with ratings.

“When we started there was a sense that there was nobody really watching, but we knew that we were doing work that was important and work that was special that we were proud of every day,” Noble says during a 2014 PaleyFest panel. “It was an incredible family. There was comradery that still continues to this day. People are supporting each other still and that’s what kind of made it special.”

“We were not a hit. When The Wire first started, we still had VHS tapes. That was probably part of it. It was difficult for people to watch, to follow the show from one week to the next. Once they were able to binge watch on weekends, we became more popular I think,” Noble adds.

While the ratings worried the producers, HBO was happy with the numbers.

“There was so little expectation,” showrunner David Simon recalls. “I remember our numbers came in, some of our early numbers, and Carolyn Strauss, one of the firmest supporters of the show at HBO, I expressed some dismay about how few people had watched us on a given Sunday night, and I’ll never forget her quote, it was, ‘Oh, it’s a cute little number. Don’t worry about the numbers.’ And it was like that.”

“That was a window at HBO at a given moment. It was a very rare and improbable window in the entertainment industry and I’m very grateful for it.”

The Wire's David Simon talks about his return to life on the streets with Homicide spin-off graphic novel with Philippe Squarzoni.