An Open Letter to JMS

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: An Open Letter to JMS
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
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s  1: Dec 17, 1996: "Craige K. Howlett" <craigee at ix.netcom.com>
+  8: Dec 19, 1996: chanlon at merge1.mergetel.com (Christopher T. Hanlon)
*  9: Dec 19, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

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From: "Craige K. Howlett" <craigee at ix.netcom.com>
Lines: 75

Since I don't have a way of contacting you directly, I will drop this
off in these newsgroups and hope it gets to you.

I'm not here to...  I believe the word is 'Troll' or looking for a 
'Flame' exchanges.  I'm here to deliver both Praise and Bitch...

1.  I understand that you get several hundred emails daily.  Are you
aware that your ISP can 'filter' your email and drop certain email
address that you don't want to hear from or are having a problems with. 

2.  Jerry 'Garibaldi' Doyle (sp) recently stated in an interview that he
was looking to leave mid season this year (season four).  Whether the
writer of the article (the interviewer) made it look like Doyle (sp) was
unhappy or if Mr. Doyle real is unhappy, it came across that way.  He
seems to blame the writing (you in this case) for not developing his
character more.  To add fuel to the fire, the rumor mill has been
grinding out that Bester will be reappearing soon and Doyle's character
will be leaving on the same show.  How do you as the semi-sole writer of
the series respond to an actor who believes that his abilities are not
being fully used.

3. If WB in the US wouldn't sell the tapes to us and the UK is selling
them.  Would it be possible to have a studio (anyone who has the
equipment) over here set up to buy the tapes from the UK (which is done
on PAL) and pull them off and record them back on to VHS standard
without violating the copyright laws? 

4.  I heard a lot of praise for your writing talents for doing four plus
years of a series and producing it too.  Believe me when I say that I've
been around since you aired the pilot and have only managed to miss four
ep's, without any recorder to help.  Yeah, I don't have a social life
either.  A lot of people are under the misconception that you are the
first to have written these many eps' (four seasons worth) and have done
the producing of it too, in a SF series.  I'm not exactly sure if you
have told the others about the one who came before you, that you are
doing the same thing that someone else did 30 plus years ago.
For those of you who weren't aware of it, let me refresh you.  In the
50's, we in SF who were watching TV on a regular basis, were stuck with
Commander Cody type series.  Starting in the very early 60's, a young
talented writer came to Hollywood from New York.  His past credits
included writing for Playhouse 90.  He wrote a weekly SF TV series that
ran over five years and he produced and wrote over 80+ percent of the
scripts.  He had only a half hour to create believable characters, then
develop them, generate a story line, get us interested in it, get his
point across and finish it up with a thought provoking ending.  Anyone
alive during those days will always remember what this writer did,
because he was the first one to do it.  Every week he gave us story
lines in the SF realm without having space ships and ray guns in them. 
We were left thinking about our world around us and how we see the
people who live in it.  He was the pioneer and trail brazier who came
before Arthur and Stanley did 2001, before Gene did Star Trek and before
Lost in Space was a concept.  His trademark cigarette was always in his
hand.  His mono tone voice spoke to us without ever attempting to insult
our intelligence.  Each week he would introduce the episode and at the
conclusion of it, he left us with his personal thought about what you
had just seen.  He did all of this without 'CGI' or any other special
effects, they were made with crude (by our standards today) make up and
done all in black and white.  He did it by give us powerful scripts with
real punch behind it.  It require the viewer to think about what was
going on and who was doing what to whom.  Many of the actors were
unknown in that day and age, many have gone on to become the heavy
hitters of Hollywood.  They gave us their best performance because they
believed in this writer and his craft.  
Rod Sterling and the Twilight Zone will be mark that few writers and
even few producers will ever be able to hit.  
You are one of those who has achieved this mark and that's worth noting
in anyones books.  But remember what Mr. Sterling own story conjurs up
with respect to being in Hollywood.  The longer you are there, the
longer the beast has to sink its fangs into you.  The money is the bait
the beast uses to lure you into its trap and the longer you take it, the
more it has you hooked, the more you will be forced to write their way
and not yours.  Fear the beast and don't give in to it.

Craige...


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From: chanlon at merge1.mergetel.com (Christopher T. Hanlon)
Lines: 36

On Earth Date 17 Dec 1996 16:37:02 -0500,  the Minbari soul occupying
Craige K. Howlett postulated:

>Lost in Space was a concept.  His trademark cigarette was always in his
>hand.  His mono tone voice spoke to us without ever attempting to insult
>our intelligence.  Each week he would introduce the episode and at the
>conclusion of it, he left us with his personal thought about what you
>had just seen.  He did all of this without 'CGI' or any other special
>effects, they were made with crude (by our standards today) make up and
>done all in black and white.  He did it by give us powerful scripts with
>real punch behind it.  It require the viewer to think about what was
>going on and who was doing what to whom.  Many of the actors were
>unknown in that day and age, many have gone on to become the heavy
>hitters of Hollywood.  They gave us their best performance because they
>believed in this writer and his craft.  
>Rod Sterling and the Twilight Zone will be mark that few writers and
>even few producers will ever be able to hit.  
>You are one of those who has achieved this mark and that's worth noting
>in anyones books.  But remember what Mr. Sterling own story conjurs up
>with respect to being in Hollywood.  The longer you are there, the
>longer the beast has to sink its fangs into you.  The money is the bait
>the beast uses to lure you into its trap and the longer you take it, the
>more it has you hooked, the more you will be forced to write their way
>and not yours.  Fear the beast and don't give in to it.

Oh, boy...have you let yourself open for it...JMS is a major fan of
Serling...and has mentioned that *numerous* times.  :-)


_____________________________

Christopher T. Hanlon

chanlon at mergetel.com
http://www.mergetel.com/~chanlon


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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 15

And this really isn't about setting records, that ain't the point, only a
byproduct.  The emphasis has to be quality; quantity means nothing if it's
a lot of bad TV.

(If one chooses to really quibble, 92 TZs are mainly half-hours, so you're
looking at about 50 hours, and the number of jms B5's have already
exceeded that number.  But again, this is really a rather silly
discussion.)


 jms




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