B5's acceptance (NO spoilers)

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: B5's acceptance (NO spoilers)
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
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+  1: Apr 25, 1996: stewart at bae.bellcore.com (Peter Stewart)
*  2: Apr 25, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

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From: stewart at bae.bellcore.com (Peter Stewart)
Lines: 48

Michael Franz (mfranz at lamar.ColoState.EDU) wrote:
[topic changed, spoilers deleted - NO spoilers ahead]

: By the way, I was reading a book by H.P. Lovecraft the other day, and I got 
: to thinking.  Nobody respected this guy when he was alive, but people can
: still buy his books 70 years after his death!  Then I thought about guys like
: John Grisham.  Sure, he makes six figure movie deals now, but he'll be
: history in 10 years, much less 70 years after he dies.  So, who's the more
: "successful" writer?  I imagine that in the year 2050, Star Trek: Voyager
: will be featured mainly on Mystery Science Theater 3000, while true
: aficionados of science fiction literature will be going to the digital video
: archives and watching Babylon 5.  You say there is no life after death, but
: that's not true.  As long as you are remembered, you can never truly die.
: May you and Babylon 5 live forever!

This reminded me of something I was thinking about the other day. If you
think of it, B5's current run and the way its being treated is a bit similar
to the way the original Star Trek series was treated (treated as in
treated by the general TV audience and the media as opposed to how the
story is being done)

The original Star Trek was not as popular as most of the other shows of its
day, though, like B5, it had a loyal core group of followers. Its detractors
claimed Star Trek was a ripoff of Lost in Space or some other TV show, much
like B5's detractors claim B5 rips off Star Trek or what-have-you. Star
Trek was once saved from being cancelled by fan letters, similar to the
way we're being encouraged to write in our support of B5 (though admittedly
B5 is in better shape ratings-wise than Star Trek was at that point).

Star Trek eventually was cancelled and did not become the eventual
sensation that it did until some years later when it first went into
syndication. Then its popularity exploded.

While I certainly hope B5 will have better luck and last longer than Star
Trek did in first-run, I can't help but wonder if some years down the
road B5 will suddenly explode with the intense popularity that Star Trek
enjoyed. It would be interesting to see.

Maybe even further down the road someone will do another SciFi series
and USENET will see endless "... rips off B5!!" threads :)

Pete

-- 
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Pete Stewart               | "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent"
stewart at bae.bellcore.com   |    - Salvor Hardin
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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 9

I think this is fairly accurate; I've long felt that this show wouldn't
really take off until, ironically, it was over and in long term
syndication.  Which is okay by me...


 jms



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