ATTN JMS: 415?

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: ATTN JMS: 415?
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
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s  1: Jan 13, 1997: Chuck Fullerton <nougat at mindspring.com>
-  2: Jan 15, 1997: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
+ 18: Jan 18, 1997: Chuck Fullerton <nougat at mindspring.com>
* 19: Jan 19, 1997: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

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From: Chuck Fullerton <nougat at mindspring.com>
Lines: 11

             JMS,
                 Have you written 415 yet? How far along are you in 
writing Season 4, and does this tell us anything new about Season
5?



              -Chuck                 




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From: Chuck Fullerton <nougat at mindspring.com>
Lines: 17

JJZM42C at prodigy.com (Penny Rothkopf) wrote:

 I am pleased and thrilled to see how straight-forward JMS is 
>with us!  I am sure he will let us know when he knows.



     God bless you for your optimism, Penny. This group
sure could use a little more of that right now. 




     email any time,
           Chuck



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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 39

Let me clarify a small point in all this. 

We shoot straight through, from August to May.  We don't stop, we can't
stop, except for the occasional holiday, like Christmas or Thanksgiving,
plus one four day hiatus in the fall, and one in the spring.  That's the
only way to make our delivery dates, and to produce this or any OTHER
series.

You can't take a position of, "Okay, I'm going to stop writing scripts and
wait to see what happens."  So if that's the point of concern -- why is
Joe writing if he doesn't know? -- it's because you just can't stop
filming.  The cost alone would be hideous, and that alone would guarantee
the death of B5.

You have to get the basic script into the hopper literally 6 weeks before
you shoot it, so that there's adequate time to build costumes, design and
construct sets, plan EFX shots and the like. 

What you can do, though, and what's being done to some extent, is to plan
out alternate scenes, and alternate endings to scenes, *within* those sets
and using those EFX.  It's not that unlike a computer game tree.  Once we
get closer to filming them, we'll have a better idea of where things
stand, and I'll know which way to go.

You want a bottom line, I'd say it's this: the last sweeps period, we
averaged a 3.8 rating, the highest we've had in a long, long time.  A huge
jump.  If we can crack a 4 rating in the February sweeps, I think it would
be very hard for WB *not* to give us a fifth season.  If we fall short,
then it becomes more problematic.

So as of now, it's all in the hands of the Neilsen gods, starting January
27th.


 jms




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