JMS on CompuServe (Apr 21, 1997) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

[bbarrett at speedlink.com]

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 [ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
    Sb: #663789-#Mention of B5
    Sb: #663807-Mention of B5
    Sb: #663860-#Modern Major Miracle
    Sb: #663929-John Leonard Quotes


 #: 663789 S5/Babylon 5: General
    20-Apr-97  12:03:53
Sb: #Mention of B5
Fm: REBECCA ESCHLIMAN

jms -

In case you hadn't been notified of this before:

B5 is referenced several times (pp. 101, 125, 129) in critic John Leonard's new
book, Smoke and Mirrors.

-rje-

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.  -- Emily
Dickinson


 #: 663802 S5/Babylon 5: General
    20-Apr-97  14:29:12
Sb: #663789-#Mention of B5
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

      Well, what the heck does it *say*?  I'm stuck at home writing and can't
get to a store to find out.

                                                                    jms


 [ Summary: A french viewer thanks JMS for the show. ]

 #: 663842 S5/Babylon 5: General
    20-Apr-97  18:09:18
Sb: #663807-Mention of B5
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

      Thanks, we try.

                                                                    jms


 [ Summary: A fan presents JMS with six lines of praise sung to the tune
   of "The Modern Major General." ]

 #: 663863 S5/Babylon 5: General
    20-Apr-97  21:27:06
Sb: #663860-#Modern Major Miracle
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

      Thank you.  Now go to your room before the scansion police get here.

                                                                    jms



 #: 663929 S5/Babylon 5: General
    21-Apr-97  10:20:32
Sb: #John Leonard Quotes
Fm: REBECCA ESCHLIMAN




The context is more of a panoramic overview of TV science fiction, rather than
a critique of individual shows, although he does indicate preferences for Alien
Nation, Beauty and the Beast, and VR5.

Page 101 - "After Gunsmoke, Westerns were finished on television--until
Lonesome Dove.  Science fiction was likewise a prime-time loser--except for
three different Star Trek derivatives, Babylon 5 and of course The X-Files.
The hour-long dramatic series can no longer compete with sitcoms and
newsmagazine shows--unless they turn out to be N.Y.P.D. Blue and ER.  No
generalization is safe from programs people *like*."

Page 125 - "What did it mean--so many cowboys and Indians in outer space, so
many SWAT teams and drug-busters, and such a foam and froth of humanoid
diversity?  It was hard to tell, just sitting there trying to sort out the
Minbaris from the Centauries from the Vorlons from the Narns, all of them
gathered on Babylon 5, the 'Interspecies Station in Neutral Space,' with
mind-scanners, changeling nets, customized atmospheres, variable gravities and
Claudia Christian, that started out its series life in 1993 as 'the last best
hope for peace,' but had become, by 1996, 'the last best hope for victory'
instead, as well as changing captains."

Page 129 - "But you will have noticed that *evil* aliens have made a comeback.
On the small screen, no more Morks, Alfs or Favorite Martians, though we can't
be sure about John Lithgow.  And on the big screen no more namby-pamby E.T.'s.
No more wishy-washy liberal humanist feel-good close encounters with fancy
harmonicas from outer space.  Whoever they are, they're out to get us.  Like
the Shadow Empire, waging war on Babylon 5.  And those Kazons with the bad
complexions who seized control of Voyager and dumped Kate Mulgrew on a
prehistoric pile of lava, among subverbalizing ape people, without Federation
technology.  And those gaseous insects called CHIGs against whom the marine
cadets of Space: Above& Beyond waged total war every Sunday night on Fox. Not
even to think about the alien usurpation of our very own Social Security
Administration by dozens of replicas of Roy Thinnes, an invader this time
instead of an invadee, in the 1996 season finale of the X-Files."

-rje-


 #: 663957 S5/Babylon 5: General
    21-Apr-97  12:22:04
Sb: #663929-John Leonard Quotes
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

       Thanks for taking the time to transcribe all that.  I figured just a
synopsis, but you went far beyond the line of duty on that.  Many thanks again.

                                                                       jms



[END]

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