JMS on CompuServe (Mar 13, 1998) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
bbarrett at johndelenn.com
bbarrett at johndelenn.com
Fri Mar 13 21:22:12 EST 1998
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WARNING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The following posts may contain SPOILERS for
upcoming Babylon 5 episodes.
Continue at your own risk.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
P
R
O
T
E
C
T
I
O
N
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Archives of this material may be found at:
http://www.johndelenn.com/
**********************************************
[ Summary of subjects in this section: ]
Sb: #23741-Your religious past?
Sb: #23817-#<DotD Writing Question>
Sb: #23973-News from AOL?
Sb: #23873-<Day of the Dead>
#: 23741 S4/Seas. 1-4 SPOILERS
11-Mar-98 15:19:04
Sb: Your religious past?
Fm: TONY SCARPELLI
Every once in a while, while watching an episode, I'll think: 'Hey, I know
that religion (or religious thought)!' or 'Hey, I know that philosophical
thought!'.
Have you ever studied Gurdjieff or Sufism, or any of the Eastern religions
like Bhuddism?
Or maybe what I see is so universal.
Thanks.
#: 23782 S4/Seas. 1-4 SPOILERS
11-Mar-98 20:27:13
Sb: #23741-Your religious past?
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
"Have you ever studied Gurdjieff or Sufism, or any of the Eastern religions
like Bhuddism?"
I think studied is too formal a word...I've read just about every
religious book out there, in whole (the Bible) or in part (the Gita, others).
It's a good idea to be well-rounded.
jms
#: 23817 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
12-Mar-98 05:37:14
Sb: <DotD Writing Question>
Fm: ANITA KARVE
Hi Joe,
Wonderful episode! Just curious how you work with "visiting" writers. Do you
give them a framework and let them run with it? I ask because since the B5
universe is in your head, I'd assume you'd have to give quite a bit of
guidance.
Also, I'd assume outside writers may not know details like Dodger's brief
friendship with Garibaldi several seasons back, about Adira's importance to
Londo, or much about Mr. Morden. How do you maintain the continuity while
working with someone from the outside?
BTW, you hit the jackpot with Neil!
Regards,
Anita Karve
#: 23864 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
12-Mar-98 13:33:03
Sb: #23817-#<DotD Writing Question>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
It varies, I get involved to different degrees with different writers;
with Neil, it was more "What do you want to write?" He noodled around with
some ideas, ran one past me that he liked, and I liked it...he asked for a
truckload of scripts for reference, picked the characters he wanted to use,
researched them, we talked on the phone and via email a number of times as he
refined his ideas further, then wrote the script. I tucked and nipped a
little here and there, but pretty much left it alone.
jms
#: 23973 (C) S2/Bab 5: General
12-Mar-98 21:37:56
Sb: News from AOL?
Fm: BRENT BARRETT
Joe,
The following was just reported by an AOL subscriber whom I know and
trust:
"Melissa Gilbert just spent a few minutes online at the
B5 chat area of aol, and she said BB was sad because he
found out he would be in only one of the upcoming tv
movies, and neither he nor ANY of the regular cast were
slated for Crusade!"
Is this correct? Have you already made your choices
regarding the casting of both of the new movies and the
new series? I know that you said that we'd all hear about
it when you signed the final deal for Crusade, so I'm
wondering if Bruce is actually just saying that no one
has approached him yet.
Is there anything you can comment on here?
Thanks,
-- Brent
#: 23992 S2/Bab 5: General
13-Mar-98 00:07:14
Sb: #23973-News from AOL?
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
This is not quite correct, but that's all I can say for now. There are
one or two actors who might slide to Crusade, depending on circumstances, and
we have spoken to them on the QT about it...which is probably why this was
said, because I asked the actors in question not to say anything until we got
closer to seeing how things were going to work out; the inquiries were mainly
of an "if we had this role, would you be interested in doing it?" nature,
checking avails and possibilities so we could plan accordingly.
jms
#: 23873 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
12-Mar-98 14:24:11
Sb: #23815-#<Day of the Dead>
Fm: ELIZABETH
<<Bah. It was amusing but this was an example of uneven - Rebo and Zooty
didn't actually tell any jokes that we could understand. Nothing that was
really all that funny except for some physical hat comedy. Only major guffaw
laugh was in Minbari! I guess it's hard to write the universe's premier comedy
team when its hard enough to write comedy on a normal level...>>
Well, actually, Joel, someone suggested that this was a *consistent* (or even,
as opposed to "uneven") thing. IOW, if someone from several hundred years ago
came forward in time and listened to some of *our* comedians, they probably
wouldn't get half of it--because so much of comedy is based on present events,
metaphors, and things that people from back then wouldn't have one clue about.
So it is for us and comedy that is "set" almost 300 years ahead; there's a lot
that we wouldn't understand, because it would be all subtext from *that* time.
<shrug> I hadn't really thought about it until someone pointed it out to me,
but it makes sense to me.
Elizabeth
#: 23993 S5/Seas. 5 SPOILERS
13-Mar-98 00:07:14
Sb: #23873-<Day of the Dead>
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Neil kept the humor sort of off-base...operating on the assumption that
there are some things that become au courant or funny because of context:
Steve Martin's "excuuuuse me," for instance. Now, it ain't funny, it's just
annoying...at the time, EVERYbody was saying it and laughing. R&Z are similar
cultural phenomena...their "with a machine" catchphrase, for instance, which
the crowd new and reacted to. To us, and Lochely, it didn't mean anything.
Lochley's reaction was tailored to be EXACTLY the same as most women's (and
some guy's) reaction to the Three Stooges: either it's funny, or you can't
figure out why people are laughing.
jms
[END]
-***
-*** B5JMS SUBSCRIBERS: Replies to messages go to the list maintainer,
-*** <b5jms-owner at cs.columbia.edu>. If you want to reply elsewhere, adjust
-*** the "To" field. See http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~ezk/b5jms/ for all
-*** other information about this list.
More information about the B5JMS
mailing list