TV production company Stephen David Entertainment has tapped former History programming executive Dirk Hoogstra as its chief creative officer.

Hoogstra will be tasked with developing, packaging and selling new and current projects for the company, which has developed such show as Sons Of Liberty (History), The Making Of The Mob (AMC), and American Genius (National Geographic Channel).

Hoogstra was most recently executive vice president and general manager of History and H2, responsible for launching on History such hit shows as The Bible, Hatfields and McCoys and Vikings. He was replaced as History president in September by Jana Bennett, and at the time parent A+E Networks said Hoogstra would be returning to his roots in independent production, which he has.

“I’ve spent the last few months looking for the right person to take advantage of all the opportunities SDE now has with (company owner) Banijay Entertainment, and Dirk definitely is that person,” said SDE CEO Stephen David. “Because of Banijay SDE’s ability to finance, distribute and produce premium shows at any price point, Dirk will be able to work with partners throughout the world packaging great content.”

History’s Revolutionary War-themed mini-series Sons Of Liberty captured 3.3 million viewers in its finale.

The series, which profiles the lives of a young Sam Adams, John Adams, Paul Revere, John Hancock and Dr. Joseph Warren as they led the Revolutionary War, also averaged 3.1 million viewers, 1.3 million adults 25-54 and 1.1 million adults 18-49 over its three-night run, said network officials.

Last night’s series finale viewership matched the series' Monday night’s premiere audience and was the most watched show on cable Tuesday night, said the network.

The series was produced by Stephen David Entertainment for History.

History’s mini-series Sons Of Liberty drew 3.3 million viewers for its Sunday night premiere, the network said Monday.

The series, which profiles the lives of a young Sam Adams, John Adams, Paul Revere, John Hancock and Dr. Joseph Warren as they led the Revolutionary War, also delivered 1.4 million adult 25-54 viewers and 1.2 million adults 18-49.

Sons Of Liberty, produced by Stephen David Entertainment for History, will air parts two and three over the next two nights, according to the network.  

Stephen David is considered a jack of all trades in the production community. He has developed several successful unscripted reality hits, including History’s Men Who Built America. This past Sunday (Jan. 25), David launched the History scripted series Sons of Liberty. Last year, he also produced a scripted/unscripted hybrid series in History’s three-part The World Wars, which depicted the two biggest conflicts of the 20th century through the scripted eyes of characters involved in the events, including Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Douglas MacArthur and Benito Mussolini. David spoke with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about his unique skillset, as well as upcoming projects including AMC’s unscripted series The Making of the Mob: New York, chronicling five New York mob families, and National Geographic Channel’s American Genius, about the rivalries behind the world’s greatest inventions.

MCN: As a producer, is right now the best time to develop an unscripted project, given the success that you and others have had in the marketplace?

Stephen David: I think there are certainly a lot of channels right now, so a lot of content is needed. I think it is a great time to be producing content. People like me love watching TV, and so it’s awesome to be able to have this many shows to watch.

MCN: With the new developments on the digital side, given the success of Netflix and Hulu and Amazon and a number of other companies looking to get into the television production space, is that a new area for you to explore?

SD: Yes. I’m already in business in that world. Besides sports, I almost watch everything on my phone, so I don’t notice the difference between a Netflix and CBS and History Channel. I’ll just watch the show.

MCN: How did you get started in that production field?

SD: It was a long time ago, in 1993. After college, I was supposed to get my MBA, but I took off a year, went to Los Angeles, printed up a resume on neon green paper, and got my first job on a small movie as a location manager. I actually started another small company where I made a few small films. In 1995, I sold my first script to New Line [Pictures] and I was a screenwriter for seven years. I wrote 10 studio scripts in seven years, but none of them got made. But I was working and all that.

From there, I actually was part of the original creative team on The Apprentice, which got me into the other side of the world. I started doing reality and unscripted shows. So, I feel that what I’m doing in unscripted — which are these hybrid docudramas — is the combination of the two careers I’ve had, which is unscripted and scripted as a screenwriter.

MCN: How did the hybrid genre develop and why do you think it’s become so popular among viewers?

SD: I was hired by History to do a documentary series on the Industrial Revolution. I looked at my budget, which wasn’t that big, and I looked around at the other things that were being done, and I just said, “OK, I’m going to just try and do something different.” Luckily, History was cool enough to let me experiment.

The reason I went in that direction was I felt like when I watch a documentary where a lot of facts are thrown at me, I start to just get numb from all the facts and information. My thought was, having been a screenwriter, why don’t we do a documentary that we treat like a scripted show, but through character? If something that we’re trying to tell doesn’t move the character’s story forward, we won’t tell it.

At the same time, as a viewer, the facts will hit you harder because they have to do with the character’s journey and their stakes. So if the number of miles of railroad track someone had to travel was just a fact, I don’t know how much that’s going to hit you. But if you know that this person is trying to beat another person down those same railroad tracks, then it starts to become relevant information.

MCN: When you look at a project, what are you looking for? What was it aboutThe World WarsorThe Men Who Built Americathat clicked for you?

SD: It’s usually the people, if they’re interesting people, [that] you do a show about. I’m much more interested in character than actual history. The characters are so interesting because truth is stranger than fiction, right? And when we research these and we really dig down, everything becomes much more human, much more relatable.

MCN: You’ve now turned your unscripted writing into scripted content with History’sSons of Liberty. How did you cross over into that genre?

SD: Actually, what happened was — this is kind of a strange story — I was listening to Pandora and I heard the song “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones. While I was listening to that I was thinking, “I wonder if there’s anything like in the 1760s? It was a rebellious time.” So I called up the people in my office, and they actually called me back three hours later and found the Sons of Liberty. And then we started looking into it and we said, “I can’t believe you don’t learn this in school and we don’t know this history about the beginning of this country.”

It’s all these names you know, and they’re in their 20s and 30s, starting a gang. The whole story is, it didn’t start in a reverent way. It started in a much more human, survival, down-and-dirty smuggling sort of way, which kind of feels right. It’s not like it’s not patriotic — it is patriotic, it’s all about freedom. But it went from this very small, human thing to a cause to a country.

MCN: Now that you have your hand in both scripted and unscripted, do you have a preference?

SD: I would love to do both. I think that I’m getting to make shows that I really like. They don’t necessarily have to be history, but they have to be interesting character stories. And I like both genres a lot. I watch a lot of scripted. This hybrid thing, I think, is just fun because you get to experiment, but you get to experiment in both of them.

MCN: Switching subjects, you recently sold Stephen David Entertainment. Can you talk to me a little bit about that and what that does for the company?

SD: A company called Banijay Group bought a majority stake in my company. I’ve known these people for a while and I really like them. We have the same values and they care about the quality of the show first and foremost. So they just want me to try and keep making good shows.

There is really no negative. I think the positive here is that they are a well-funded company. It’s a big company, so if there are opportunities, I can now get into these opportunities financially.

History once again takes its “historical fiction” approach — the tack it took with its enjoyable series Vikings — and applies it to the miniseries event Sons of Liberty, a three-night mini series that follows the events leading up to the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution.

The action in Sons of Liberty swirls around Sam Adams (Ben Barnes), a charismatic Boston bon vivant who has run afoul of colonial Gov. Thomas Hutchison (Sean Gilder), for failing to pony up tax revenue that he was hired to collect. Adams is pursued by British soldiers in a local Boston bar, and makes his escape. The ensuing fracas sparks a riot that snowballs into the destruction of the governor’s mansion.

Adams flees to the countryside home of his cousin, John Adams (Henry Thomas), who isn’t keen to involve himself in his relative’s trouble.

With Adams on the run and the Boston natives restless, Hutchison enlists the help of John Hancock (Rafe Spall), an influential and wealthy trader, to “take care” of him. Hancock does so by taking care of Adams’s debts, to Hutchison’s consternation.

The “deal” is seen by Hutchison as a challenge, and prompts him go stop looking the other way when it comes time to collect Hancock’s tariff s. Hancock and Sam Adams then find themselves as business partners, as Hancock looks to Adams and the future Sons of Liberty to help him skirt customs officials.

The ensuing unrest has Hutchinson send to Britain for help, and eventually Gen. Thomas Gage (Marton Csokas) is dispatched to the New World to deal with Adams & Co., setting the stage for the unrest that will lead to rebellion.

Pleading the case for the colonists in London is Benjamin Franklin (Breaking Bad’s Dean Norris), an unofficial colonial emissary in London who eventually gets deported for defending the colonists and, upon his return to Philadelphia, is enlisted to rally them together.

Sons of Liberty is fast-paced and action-packed and, in episode one, the exposition comes so fast and furious that it’s di_ - cult to match the familiar names to the faces who are portraying them. Once the skirmishes between the colonists and redcoats turn deadly, though, the scenes can pack and emotional punch.

The performances are strong and both Thomas (best known for his childhood turn as Elliott in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial) and Norris make you forget their more contemporary characterizations. But the first episode’s constant flash-cutting between England and Boston as tensions head up can confuse the viewer at times.

Sons of Liberty will no doubt please those familiar with the Revolutionary period, but less exposition and more characterization might be better for contemporary viewers who don’t know quite so much about history.

Related: Check out what might have been on the dining tables of the Boston radicals here.

Libby O'Connell, chief historian at History, has a nifty new book out, The American Plate (Sourcebooks, November 2014), which breaks down many of our culinary traditions, from before Columbus to today, into two- or three-page, highly-readable narratives or “bites.”

The Wire wondered what she might recommend viewers serve at a viewing party for History’s upcoming Sons of Liberty (check out MCN's review here), about the Boston radicals who lit the spark for the American Revolution.

O’Connell suggested a couple of ways to go, one of which involved starting with a lot of plates on the table at once: raw oysters, a salad with kale and pickles, a meat pie. Followed by more plates, including oxtail soup and smoked meats. And on and on.

The Wire preferred her simpler option: Chowder with bread and cheese.

The chowder would be a fish chowder: “Boston is a very active seaport, and fish is one of its big commercial items.” Include potatoes (popular then via the Irish), carrots, onions and some bacon. “It would be a tasty stew, and it would be the type of thing that people would eat in the wintertime.”

Sourdough bread, or cornbread, on the side. Some sharp cheddar cheese, too. And butter. “They ate a lot of butter.”

Hot apple pie served with heavy cream for dessert. “You’re not worried about calories because you’re working hard every day. Getting your 10,000 steps in was never something people had to worry about.”

Wash it down with a mug of hard cider (available today at most grocery stores) or some local beer. Rum also was popular then.

“And before we are shocked by the quantity of alcohol these folks drank, remember they did not have prescription pain relievers,” O’Connell reassured The Wire. Instead of an Advil for a sore knee, a doctor might recommend a shot of alcohol, administered orally.

The author said her own viewing party, including some French neighbors (appropriately, our emerging nation’s first friends), will feature “a big fat chicken, roasted with Madeira.”

Sons of Liberty, a three-night event, kicks off on Sunday, Jan. 25, at 9 p.m.

A fine New England fish chowder recipe is in The American Plate and on our website at multichannel.com/Jan19.

This article originally appeared as part of Through The Wire in the Jan. 19 edition of Multichannel News.

The three-night scripted mini-series of America's fight for freedom, Sons of Liberty, is set to air Jan. 25-27 at 9 p.m. on History, the channel announced today. 

The series will follow radicals, Sam Adams, John Adams, Paul Revere, John Hancock and Dr. Joseph Warren as they band together to make America a nation. Starting out as young men looking for a purpose, they ultimately find independence in their quest for equality. 

Produced by A+E Studios in connection with Stephen David Entertainment for History, Kari Skogland will direct with the Title theme by Hans Zimmer. Written by Stephen David and David C. White, Stephen David and Matthew Gross serve as executive producers, along with Russ McCarroll and Elaine Frontain Bryant for History. 

Stars include, Ben Barnes as Sam Adams, Ryan Eggold as Dr. Joseph Warren, Michael Raymond-James as Paul Revere, Rafe Spall as John Hancock and Henry Thomas as John Adams. Additional actors include, Marton Csokas, Emily Berrington, Jason O’Mara as George Washington and Dean Norris as Benjamin Franklin.

History has ordered a six-part scripted mini-series entitled Sons of Liberty. The series focuses on the prominent revolutionaries from the U.S.'s formative years. 

Sons of Liberty’s cast includes Ben Barnes as Sam Adams, Ryan Eggold as Joseph Warren, Michael Raymond James as Paul Revere, Rafe Spall as John Hancock, and Henry Thomas as John Adams. The cast will also include Dean Norris as Benjamin Franklin. 

“From the Boston Tea Party to the Declaration of Independence, Sons of Liberty will tell the rebellious story of America’s greatest fight for freedom. History continues its commitment to bring viewers historical drama based on real events that have shaped our past, while capturing the spirit of the time. Adams, Hancock, Revere, are famous names in our history books, and Sons of Liberty will bring their stories to life,” said Dirk Hoogstra, executive vice president and general manager, History, in a statement. 

The series is produced by Stephen David Entertainment and A+E Studios.