Good Schedule News

[zofran at deepthot.ml.org]

John W Kennedy <jwkenne at ibm.net> writes:
> Bob MacAdu wrote:
> > 
> > Jms at B5 wrote:
> > >
> > > TNT has been listening.
> > >
> > 
> > To what? The bitter hostility of the fans - ie the people they lied to
> > when they said they *cared* about this show and that they would run all
> > 22 episodes of S5 without a break? Hardly.
> 
> They never said that.  JMS said once that someone from TNT said that
> they hoped they could do that.  Somehow that little story has expanded
> into an oath sworn on the True Cross by Ted Turner himself.

Actually, what JMS said was:
"The plan for now is to air one new S5 ep per week every week for 22 weeks."

(found in DejaNews, posted to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated on 1997/07/02.)

And, what he said about the NBA finals was: "[TNT] came back to us
with the notion that we would continue new episodes until hitting
#100, break for the NBA games, then come back (starting with another
possible half-hour special) afterward at the same time to finish the
season."

(found in DejaNews, posted to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.info on
1998/01/23 as part of message "JMS CIS Digest: 22-Jan-98 11:46 through
23-Jan-98 12:41 (19 msgs)"

So, my problem is this: 

First we're told we'll get 22 episodes in a row.

Next we're told that there will be a break for the NBA games and then
we'll get the rest of the season.

Now we're told that, after the break for the NBA games we'll get 4
episodes, and then, at some time in the fall after all the other
series have started their new seasons, we'll get the last 5 episodes.

Where does it end? I think the series has suffered a lot from this
bizarre practice of saving the last 5 episodes for the next
season. Those episodes don't feel like part of any season because so
much time has gone by since you last saw new episodes. Why does it
keep happening? I can't think of any other series that does this.

Frankly, I hate what all series are doing these days (showing 4
episodes, then repeating them, then showing 3, then repeating them,
etc.) I'd love it if everyone went back to the system of showing all
the new episodes, then repeating them once, then showing summer
replacements. It was a lot easier to keep track of things.

--Adina