JMS on CompuServe (Jul 13, 1996) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
Brent Barrett
bbarrett at speedlink.com
Sat Jul 13 14:24:47 EDT 1996
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WARNING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The following posts may contain SPOILERS for
upcoming Babylon 5 episodes.
Continue at your own risk.
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THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL IS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE
RESPECTIVE MESSAGE AUTHORS AND CANNOT BE
REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT THE EXPRESSED
PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR.
Note that JMS has expressed his public permission
that all of his messages may be reproduced freely.
I give permission for my summaries to be reposted in
any form, however I reserve all rights to them and
the right to revoke this permission at any time.
[ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
Sb: #538667-B5 BUBBLE BUDDY
Sb: #538841-Delenn Kissing
Sb: #538992-Babylon 5
Sb: #539033-Previously on Babylon 5
Sb: #538958-You are number 29!
[ Summary: The poster who complained about JMS breaking his promise to
license only intelligent products replies to JMS and pretends to
apologize only to use sarcasm to put-down the show and all of the
news JMS relayed in his previous response to this fellow. Including
a slam against S.M. Stirling, in which he said, "Exactly what has
S.M. Stirling written? I'm sure other B5 fans will want to read
more from this major new talent." He concludes with, "Anyway, Joe,
I hope you, B5, and the B5 Bubble Buddies continue to enjoy all
the respect and popularity you deserve." ]
[ Editor's note: I made a promise to all CIS posters that I would
reproduce their posts without edit or comment. I have kept that
promise and will continue to keep it. In this case, since I'm
not reproducing this poster's message, only summarizing it, and
since he's just plain annoying, I felt I had to let you, the B5
reading public know that I, personally, refuse to ever reproduce
anything written by this "person." -- BB ]
#: 538938 S5/Babylon 5: General
12-Jul-96 14:17:16
Sb: #538667-B5 BUBBLE BUDDY
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
S.M. Stirling's credits are beyond reproach, and if you don't know who
that is, or what he's done, then the loss is yours...and you're simply showing
your ignorance here of written SF. And we've had lots of other quality SF
writers doing our books, like Neal Barrett Jr. and Lois Tilton and John
Vornholt, among others. But I guess maybe you don't know who THEY are either.
That's okay...they don't know who you are, either.
Re: the comic...yes, WB did want DC to do it originally, and they did so
for some time. But they're really not set up these days to do much licensed
stuff, the Star Trek books and other licensed stuff have pretty much all gone
to other publishers. Creatively, things weren't working out, and in reality,
WB can get more from an outside company that pays larger bucks for the license
than with an in-house company which doesn't have to.
So again, your facts don't touch reality at any two contiguous points.
And yes, there *is* a large demand for B5 merchandise. And if you used
this forum for any purpose other than to issue snide commentaries, you would
know that from *day one* on this series, I've stated very openly that I do not
WANT a lot of merchandising on this show while it's in production. I'm taking
the Calvin and Hobbes model on this one. I said here, in front of all the
users on CIS, GEnie and elsewhere, long before we were ever in a position to
even get offers, that I intended to drag my feet on licensing, because I've
been involved with, or seen too often shows in which the tail began wagging the
dog, where merchandise begins to drive the show.
I refuse to allow that to happen with B5. It's real simple: you tell
the story first. Make the show first. Then, when it's all done, if it's a
hit, and ours is growing steadily, then there's all the time in the world to do
some merchandising. If not, it's a moot question anyway. For every 10
prospective licensing deals that come through my hands, I appove only 1, and
usually with a great deal of conditions involved, and direct creative
supervision.
Bill Watterson could've made gazillions of dollars licensing all kinds
of Calvin and Hobbes stuff. His friends wanted him to, the company REALLY
wanted him to, others couldn't understand why he wouldn't do it...but he
understood the importance of the story, and the product. Take care of that
first, and the rest will attend to itself later. He made a good living doing
what he was doing, and I do okay too...how much more do you need?
I guess it's beyond your comprehension that anyone would actually turn
down money, or want to do something for reasons other than money. Again, the
loss is yours.
jms
#: 538841 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
12-Jul-96 10:15:21
Sb: #538654-#Delenn Kissing
Fm: BRENT BARRETT
Joe,
OK, my first reaction was a smile. Of course Joe was kidding, he's just
playing with us. But then I start thinking . . . where *does* Delenn pick up
those sayings like "Something in the air"?
Are you *serious*? :-) Is she really reading such things? I mean, I wouldn't
consider it out of character, as she does seem to try to read-up on things in
which she has an interest (the little bit with the Universe Today in the teaser
for Divided Loyalties comes to mind).
Did she really? :-)
-- Brent
#: 538940 S6/Babylon 5: Spoilers
12-Jul-96 14:17:20
Sb: #538841-Delenn Kissing
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Nope, just kidding.
jms
#: 538992 S5/Babylon 5: General
12-Jul-96 17:28:32
Sb: #538592-#Babylon 5
Fm: TOM KNUDSEN
Joe,
<DC got the license by buying it, like everybody else. But since
things creatively went south, we now go elsewhere.>
Does this mean that there's still a chance to see the books you were
going to write?
Tom^^^^
#: 539072 S5/Babylon 5: General
12-Jul-96 22:08:15
Sb: #538992-Babylon 5
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Yup.
jms
#: 539033 S5/Babylon 5: General
12-Jul-96 18:40:02
Sb: #538594-#Previously on Babylon 5
Fm: BILL HIRST
> I work extremely hard at doing the
> best I can to make sure that each episode contains all or 90% of the
> information you need to follow what happens.
And it works. I've shown episodes out of sequence to someone who only started
watching in season two, and they work as stand-alone stories. Each one works as
an individual show, but when you put them together, you see a larger picture.
When you go back and watch the old episodes, you notice bits of foreshadowing
you missed the first time.
Excellent craftmanship.
-Bill
#: 539073 S5/Babylon 5: General
12-Jul-96 22:08:16
Sb: #539033-Previously on Babylon 5
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Thanks. It's kind of like building a text-hologram, I suppose....
jms
#: 538958 S5/Babylon 5: General
12-Jul-96 15:37:54
Sb: #538471-#You are number 29!
Fm: TROY STARR
JMS -
That got me thinking: If you had the choice, how would you have prefered the
show to be created and distributed? Would you prefer independant distribution
(such as PTEN), a cable network (TNT), or a broadcast network? How would you
balance the creative freedom allowed by independant distribution vs. the market
penetration of a prime time broadcast network slot?
- Troy
#: 539074 S5/Babylon 5: General
12-Jul-96 22:08:19
Sb: #538958-You are number 29!
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
It'd be either a guarantee from a cable network -- which would let us do
a lot more in terms of language and hard storylines -- or syndication. This
show wouldn't have lasted long on the networks, which invariably tend to
interfere creatively, and only give short orders to start. This is a very
eccentric show....
jms
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