ATTN JMS: who can you hire/fire?

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: ATTN JMS: who can you hire/fire?
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
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s  1: Dec 30, 1996: "B5JMS Poster" <b5jms-owner at cs.columbia.edu>
*  2: Jan  2, 1997: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

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From: "B5JMS Poster" <b5jms-owner at cs.columbia.edu>
Lines: 22

Richard Biggs tells the story how he was called to your office one day and
that he was afraid he was going to get fired.  Turns out you told him you
were going to make him a drug addict.  (Better than getting fired, right?
:-)

It occurred to me that many people in the B5 crew are probably intimidated
by you.  You're the writer and executive producer, and also big and tall.
My question are, within the limitations of the budget you get, who controls
the money?  Who has the final say over who to hire or fire, and what to
spend money on or not?  Do you control all of that, or do you have
mini-budgets for individual groups and let managers below you handle the
smaller details within?

Can you briefly list the parts of the management hierarchy above and below
you for, say, 1-2 levels?  Who's your boss and your boss' boss?  To whom are
you the immediate boss and who reports to them?  Or maybe it's all a very
flat hierarchy?

Thanks,
Erez.



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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 33

"You're the writer and executive producer, and also big and tall. My
question are, within the limitations of the budget you get, who controls
the money?  Who has the final say over who to hire or fire, and what to
spend money on or not?  Do you control all of that, or do you
havemini-budgets for individual groups and let managers below you handle
the smaller details within?  Can you briefly list the parts of the
management hierarchy above and below you for, say, 1-2 levels?  Who's your
boss and your boss' boss?  To whom are you the immediate boss and who
reports to them?  Or maybe it's all a very flat hierarchy?"

Doug and I own Babylonian Productions.  Once the budget is allocated by
WB, we have full, final and complete discretionary control over it all. 
Now, if we're going to do something major -- fire or hire a recurring
actor or director -- we have to contact our liaison at WB and explain why,
and what impact it has on standing contracts.  Once they are brought into
the loop, they generally stamp "okay" on it and we move on.  They only get
into the major issues, not the smaller, day to day things.  

Guest stars: Doug and I have final authority, no need to check with WB;
costume designs, sets, CGI, prosthetics...I generally deal with all of
that, with John Copeland.  John handles a fair amount of this stuff as
well, but if there's any kind of decision that needs to be made, to
finalize stuff, it comes to me.  

And that's really the whole chain of command: me and Doug, then John; and
at the approval process for major changes, WB.


 jms




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