JMS' powers of prediction

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: JMS' powers of prediction
+  1: Oct  8, 1995: gfrazier at efn.org (Gary Frazier)
   2: Oct 12, 1995: Mike Hopkins <mike100000 at delphi.com>
+  3: Oct 13, 1995: thedoge at crl.com (The_Doge of St. Louis)
*  4: Oct 13, 1995: straczynski at genie.geis.com

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From: gfrazier at efn.org (Gary Frazier)
Lines: 58

OK, now that it's been established that JMS was reporting a rumor, can I 
digress here for a moment to tell you a story?

Waaay back in 1990, I joined up with GEnie (being part of the mass exodus 
from Plodigy) and found the SFRT, and JMS posting in the Trek groups 
about how TNG could only last five seasons.  JMS' belief at the time was 
that due to Hollywood economics, it wouldn't make much sense for TNG to 
go beyond 5 seasons...they'd have 100 episodes in the can; this was 
considered to be the optimum number for a successful strip run, and 
production costs were mounting so that Paramount's return would diminish 
if the run went on longer than that.

As it turns out, JMS was not correct.  TNG went on for another two years, 
and spawned DS9 and Voyager to take its place as the ongoing 
manifestations of "The Franchise".

Let's face it...JMS does bring an "insiders" perspective to a pretty crazy
business, but he's human, isn't inside at Paramount, and like in any
fairly closed circle, rumors spread that may or may not have any serious
basis in fact.  A trial balloon may have gone up, and Berman shot it down,
but the leak was that DS9 would be cancelled to concentrate on Voyager. 

If such a thing were to happen, it would be, IMHO, an error, because I
find DS9's storylines to be much more entertaining than Voyager's.  For
one thing, you've got the epic political confrontations between the Feds,
the Cardassians, the Romulans, and now, once again, the Klingons, with
those pesky Changlings and their trained attack dogs, the Jem'Hadar
waiting in the wings.  The conflict is much more appealing to me than
Captain Janeway's pleasure cruise in the Delta Quadrant. 

The political overtones are what make B5 so entertaining for me.  I 
just love all the skulldugery with President Clark and the forces of 
light, with the Shadows looming in the backround and who knows what the 
hell is going on with Kosh and the Vorlons.  Then you've got the internal 
political intrigue of the Centauris and the Minbari to worry about, and 
it's more fun than most humans can stand.  I admire greatly JMS' ability 
to tell a story, a good one, in this form, and keep the whole thing on 
track for the full period.  It's what I always thought Roddenberry was 
doing with TNG to some extent, allowing a grander story to unfold, but 
Roddenberry's vision wasn't as complete as JMS', which is truly epic in 
scope, and clearly well thought out...and even better, brilliantly 
executed.  It doesn't hurt one bit that JMS has some top notch people 
working with him in this effort, who share his vision and compliment his 
ideas so well.

So, JMS isn't going to be hired by a psychic hotline anytime soon.  So 
what?  You can read his posts and get some flavor of what it's like in 
the TV bidness, read them with a grain of salt knowing that sometimes he's
just passing on what's been heard, which may or may not have something to
do with reality.  But it's more than you knew than when you started 
reading, right?  It's more than you'll get off of Paramount's propaganda 
mouthpiece, ET.

Just be damn glad he takes the time to share this perspective with all of 
us.  You don't see Berman or Piller doing this.

Gary
An original Grid Epsilon Irregular

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From: thedoge at crl.com (The_Doge of St. Louis)
Lines: 27

In article <4592r2$q05 at garcia.efn.org>, gfrazier at efn.org (Gary Frazier) wrote:
[...]
> So, JMS isn't going to be hired by a psychic hotline anytime soon.  So 
> what?  You can read his posts and get some flavor of what it's like in 
> the TV bidness, read them with a grain of salt knowing that sometimes he's
> just passing on what's been heard, which may or may not have something to
> do with reality.  But it's more than you knew than when you started 
> reading, right?  It's more than you'll get off of Paramount's propaganda 
> mouthpiece, ET.
   Amen to that.  Personally, I find the "behind the scenes" stuff pretty
fascinating, especially since it's coming from someone actually involved
in the process and not some PR flack.
> 
> Just be damn glad he takes the time to share this perspective with all of 
> us.  You don't see Berman or Piller doing this.
   And considering the kind of personal abuse jms has taken from a
minority of obsessed axe-grinders out there, I don't blame them.  Why
should they open themselves up to that kind of puerile bile?  I expect
that most celebs regard the downside of being openly present on the 'net
as much larger than any possible benefit, and I suspect that they're
right.

-- 
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*     The_Doge of St. Louis           | Arts & Entertainment Producer, 88.1 FM*
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From: straczynski at genie.geis.com
Lines: 18

     Actually, the plan to run TNG originally for just 5 years was
specifically *stated by Paramount* to the news media, nothing to do with
predicting anything.  Also, at that time, I knew a lot of folks who were
working over at TNG as writer/producers, and that was what they had all
been told was the case.  When the show finally began to kick into gear,
ratings-wise, they decided to extend it to seven years, and it took quite
a bit of finageling to get everyone back on board (that was why they did
the Borg two-parter with Patrick Stewart...if he had decided not to sign,
they would've used this as a means of getting rid of the character); you
don't have to do this IF YOU HAVE OPTIONS ON THE ACTORS.
 
     There was no predicting involved.  I reported what was being said by
those directly involved with ST:TNG at the time, what was in the press,
and what was being told to agents.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Five
years WAS the original plan; check the first newspaper articles about the
show, it's all over the place.
 
                                                                        jms