The love-in continued in 2006 when Carolyn Strauss, then-president of HBO Entertainment, called Entourage the “future of the network”. And a few years later, President Obama name-checked it as his favourite show.

“Ari Gold was based on Ari Emanuel, who is the most powerful agent in Hollywood, and Emanuel’s brother is Rahm, who was Obama’s chief of staff,” says Ellin. “So yeah, Obama loved the show.”

Ellin is joining me on a Zoom call from his home office in Los Angeles. These days, he is predominantly a podcaster, having hosted the successful Entourage companion podcast Victory and Is That Something You Might Be Interested In?, which sees him discuss his experiences in the industry.

But Entourage’s 20th anniversary has triggered a natural reflection for Ellin and a desire to defend the show’s legacy against what he sees as “idiotic revisionism”: “It annoys me that people think we were just tits and ass; that’s not a fair summation.”

“Writers today are far more educated, entitled and elite than I was, and that’s good for them, but Entourage was about four working-class guys who grew up similar to how I grew up and what happens to them when they make it to Hollywood: they party, they hang out, they have sex with beautiful women.”

Ellin concedes not everything has aged well: “Watching a character like Ari Gold back can be tough, but that’s only because you can’t get away with speaking like that to people anymore,” he says.

“But did agents at places like CAA [Creative Artists Agency] or WMA [William Morris Agency] talk like that? Absolutely.”

One part of the show’s legacy that is not up for debate is how acutely Entourage foreshadowed where Hollywood was headed. Long before studios became obsessed with big-budget superhero films, the series had a season-long arc about Vince landing the lead in a James Cameron version of Aquaman.

“When I wrote it, Aquaman sounded like the stupidest movie of all time and then all of a sudden, we’re living in this era of superhero films,” says Ellin. “I hated superhero films then, and I still hate them now.”

As prescient as it may have been about the future of the industry, it’s difficult to imagine Entourage receiving a reboot given the show’s complicated position in the landscape. Not that Ellin is prepared to close the door.

“There’s not even 1 per cent of me that doesn’t think these guys can exist in the world today, and if anything, it’s more interesting now,” says Ellin.

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“I have a lot of celebrity friends, and there are differences in how they have to conduct themselves nowadays. You can’t get away with anything, you never know when a camera is on you, or who you can trust – but don’t hold your breath, I think that idea is finished.”

If Entourage taught us anything, it’s that a deal is never really dead. Just don’t expect Ellin to give his show the And Just Like That treatment.

“I don’t even like to use the word woke, but that show is pandering and it’s garbage. It has no authenticity to it,” says Ellin. “I’d rather not go back than go forward with something like that.”

Find more of the author’s work here. Email him at thomas.mitchell@smh.com.au or follow him on Instagram at @thomasalexandermitchell and on Twitter @_thmitchell.

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