Carnivàle is a show about the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, but it is not a history lesson. It is a supernatural battle between good and evil, fought through the lives of a traveling carnival and a preacher named Brother Justin Crowe. Created by Daniel Knauf for HBO, the series ran for two seasons, 24 episodes, from 2003 to 2005.
The show mixes Christian theology, gnosticism and Masonic lore, with the Knights Templar figuring heavily. The central struggle is between free will and destiny. That is a heavy load for a show about a carnival, and Carnivàle carries it with a dark, surreal atmosphere that critics praised for style and originality.
Trailer, via Marcel Goyeneche M..
Ben Hawkins and the Carnival
The lead is Ben Hawkins, played by Nick Stahl. He is a young Okie farmer who joins the carnival. His innocence sets him apart from the hardened performers around him. The show’s second lead is Brother Justin Crowe, played by Clancy Brown. Their paths cross over the course of the series.
The carnival itself is a full cast of oddities. Samson, the diminutive manager, is played by Michael J. Anderson. Clayton “Jonesy” Jones, the crippled chief roustabout, is played by Tim DeKay. Lodz, the carnival’s blind mentalist, is played by Patrick Bauchau, with his lover Lila the Bearded Lady played by Debra Christofferson. The fortune teller Apollonia is played by Diane Salinger, and her tarot-card-reading daughter Sofie is played by Clea DuVall.
Adrienne Barbeau plays the snake charmer Ruthie, with Brian Turk as her son Gabriel, the strongman. John Fleck plays Gecko the Lizard Man, and Karyne and Sarah Steben play the conjoined twins Alexandria and Caladonia. Toby Huss and Cynthia Ettinger play Felix “Stumpy” and Rita Sue Dreifuss, the cootch show performers, with Carla Gallo as their daughter Libby. Amanda Aday plays their other daughter, Dora Mae Dreifuss, in a recurring role.
Casting Choices and Reviews
Knauf and his producers favored actors who were not strongly tied to other projects. They made exceptions, like Adrienne Barbeau as Ruthie. The casting directors, John Papsodera and Wendy O’Brien, had experience with freaks from previous projects.
The casting process was contentious. There were preliminary disagreements between creators and producers over Ben, Brother Justin and Sofie. Nick Stahl was the strongest consensus pick for Ben. Sofie was originally written as an exotic gypsy girl, but DuVall won the part after four auditions. Tim DeKay was cast as Jonesy because the producers felt he looked like a baseball player of that era. Michael J. Anderson was the one actor who never faced real competition; Knauf had wanted him as early as the initial meeting.
Ratings and Reception
The show’s first episode set an audience record for an HBO original series and drew strong ratings through the first season. When those ratings could not be sustained in the second season, the show was canceled. An intended six-season run was cut short by four seasons.
Carnivàle won five Emmys out of fifteen nominations in 2004. It received numerous other nominations and awards between 2004 and 2006.
| Season | Episodes | Main Cast |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Total 24 | 17 actors with star billing |
| 2 | Total 24 | 13 main cast, plus recurring |
The show’s large cast made it expensive to produce, but gave the writers more flexibility in story decisions. Character backgrounds were fully developed before filming began, though the audience only learned about them naturally over time.
Carnivàle is a flawed but ambitious show. Its mythology is dense, its performances are committed, and its visual style is distinctive.
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