Cons and Your Health WAS: Re: ATTN JMS: Bizarre Story

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: Cons and Your Health WAS: Re: ATTN JMS: Bizarre Story
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
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s  1: Sep 29, 1996: jegolf at mcs.com (J.M.Egolf)
*  2: Sep 29, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

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From: jegolf at mcs.com (J.M.Egolf)
Lines: 48

In article <52kn0i$mbp at newsbf02.news.aol.com>,
Jms at B5 <jmsatb5 at aol.com> wrote:
>Only east-coast convention currently planned for sure is Necronomicon in
>October, though there are some discussions ongoing with ICON and MIT wants
>me out one of these years.  The problem is always in finding enough free
>time for a trip that far when we're shooting.  It knocks the hell out of
>me, and if I fall down, the show trips as well, and I can't afford that. 
>It's nuts...I threw my back out badly a week or so ago, and I could watch
>the dominoes teeter slightly in terms of script delivery to prep to
>post...someone on the set joked "when joe gets a cold, B5 sneezes." 
>Obviously we're now back up to speed, though.
[...]

> 							jms

Two thoughts -- 

One, as much as we'd enjoy having your own sweet self *anywhere* east of
the Continental Divide, B5 is your baby. If you're too exhausted to enjoy
it, that's not fair to you. Maybe you could send one of the other
producers in your place to some of these cons? (Your resident "Media Sex
God" comes to mind <g>)

<slightly drooling fan mode on>

Secondly, as everybody here is going to tell you, *take* *care* of* 
*yourself*, okay? At First Contact Con in Milwaukee last night (approx 
1/5 of convention came to B5 panel, btw) somebody was showing "The Making 
of B5" in their room. A number of people there had seen you at WorldCon, 
or had seen various pictures of you with the Hugo, and a number of 
comments were made about how much you had aged. Part of it's the beard, I 
know, and I'm not for a second suggesting you should stick around til 
you're 120 by never again ever doing anything difficult or stressful, 
BUT -- 

-- I think most of us here would prefer you "lasted the night", okay? 
Burn your candle at both ends, fine, but do you need to use sparklers for 
wicks?

<going back to behaving herself>

-- 
*******************************
    J.M. ("Jamie") Egolf
   <*> jegolf at mcs.com <*>
"We find meaning where we can." 



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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 38

"A number of people there had seen you at WorldCon, or had seen various
pictures of you with the Hugo, and a number of comments were made about
how much you had aged."

Yeah...it pretty much goes with the turf.  I've noticed it too; the show
has aged me REAL fast.  John's the same way.  In just the last 4 years
he's gone from dark hair with a bit of grey to almost completely grey (or
to make Gharlane happy, gray).  

Part of it is just that the job is very stressful under the best of
conditions.  Add to that the fact that on most shows, you've got a huge
above-the-line staff of writers, story editors, producers, supervising
producers, and exec producers.  On B5, there's Doug (business stuff
mainly), me (creative stuff), John (line producer) and George Johnsen
(post production).  That's *it*.  We could bring in more people, but that
would mean taking the money from somewhere else in the show, and we can't
do that, can't let the quality drop.  So we all carry a larger weight than
usual.

So I can't deny you're right; I'm rather appalled at it myself.  It's the
job, and too many nights of getting 3-4 hours sleep and running around
like a deranged thing the rest of the time.  I was talking to someone the
other day, and he asked how old I was.  "42," I said.  He did a double
take.  "Either you're a hell of a lot older than 42, or you've had a real
hard life."  

Harlan, on the other hand, is amazing...there are days he looks younger
than I do.  I resent the hell out of that, and have asked him to have a
word with nature about it.

But...bottom line..."all is vanity," and I'd do it all again in a hot
second if it meant getting this show on the air the way I want it to be.  


 jms



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