Cards in Carnivàle

It's a few years old now, but I've just started re-watching the HBO series Carnivàle on DVD. I was wondering if anyone knows - are the cards that feature in the opening titles from a real deck or were they custom-made for the show? They've got this great Renaissance art-work on them.
The reader in the series, Sofie, uses a regular RWS. It's a great series, and I think a pretty good treatment of Tarot.

What is the series about? I knew it was on, but I never watched it.

They were made for the show. Sad really, they would be an interesting deck.
An image is here for folks who've not seen them. http://bellanta.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/carnivale.jpg

Also interesting that the show is set in 1934, but features a version of the RWS that didn't come out until the 70's

I loved the show, it is a crime that it was ended after only 2 seasons, with so more more that was to come
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319969/

Thanks Grigori, I thought they might have been made for the show although I was kind of hoping that I could get a deck as they look really cool (not sure about the moon being a monster). Very disappointing that we're not going to get another series of this.

Briar-Rose, it's a series set in the dust-bowl in 30s America. The central story concerns a messiah figure, Ben, and an anti-christ figure, an evangelical preacher. Ben is attached to a traveling carnival, which includes Sofie the card-reader (with her anachronistic cards hehe). Beautifully produced, really dense imagery, both biblical and tarot/ magical, a really complex piece of work. I'd recommend it some wet weekend!

There is a Carnivàle deck made under the auspices of HBO, bearing the title of the show. IT is JUST AWFUL. You don't want it. Trust me; I have it and - well, just DON'T. I never saw the show, but I am assured that the deck has nothing to do with it except that it gets money for HBO. It's shown on Tarotgarden, where it says:

This deck was originally created for the HBO show “Carnivàle” by a design studio that neither understood Tarot or the show, and thus successfully produced a deck that reflected neither.

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TRUE ! Except that it never featured on screen.

Big fan of Carnivale here... what a fantastic show it was! Too bad those a**hats at HBO ended it only after 2 seasons, what were they thinking?? The opening title sequence was amazing, loved the way it took you into the cards. It's a shame they were created only for the title sequence though, they were some really nice looking cards. In case any one is interested, you can see a video of the title sequence here.

gregory said:

There is a Carnivàle deck made under the auspices of HBO, bearing the title of the show. IT is JUST AWFUL. You don't want it. Trust me; I have it and - well, just DON'T. I never saw the show, but I am assured that the deck has nothing to do with it except that it gets money for HBO.

Click to expand...

Never knew that a deck was associated with the show, so I had to go look, and you weren't kidding, those are some fugly cards! They're not even remotely consistent with the basic art direction of the show.