He says he and partner George Pelecanos were initially hesitant: "George and I looked at each other and said, 'I don't wanna make a porn show. … I'm married with kids and lawn furniture.'"

David Simon is preparing to take a racy turn.

The mastermind behind HBO's The Wire and Treme, along with his frequent collaborator George Pelecanos, is developing a potential series about the porn industry for the premium network. Assuming HBO opts to move forward with the entry, titled The Deuce, it will chronicle the legalization and subsequent rise of the porn industry in New York's Times Square from the early 1970s through the mid-1980s. Also explored: the rough-and-tumble world that existed in midtown Manhattan until the rise of HIV, the violence of the cocaine epidemic and a rejuvenated real estate market ended the bawdy turbulence.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Simon acknowledges that...