[B5JMS] How did he do that?

[b5jms-admin at cs.columbia.edu]

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From: "Rich Carlson, N9JIG" <rich at n9jig.com>
Date: 11 Mar 2001 13:19:48 -0700
Lines: 22

How does a writer/producer (read JMS) produce episodes of an hour long 
drama like B5 and not include all the main characters? While the story 
doesn't suffer, but how does he keep the egos of of the actors in check?

There are many episodes of B5 that Londo, Delenn, G'Kar, Dr. Franklin, 
Lita/Talia, or some combination of the above do not appear at all, 
sometimes for several episodes in a row.  On many the absence of the 
character is explained away when it would seem easier to just have the 
character appear.

Were these actors paid per appearance, thus there being an incentive in 
leaving them out of an episode? 

While I know Star Trek references are not appreciated by some here, they 
did make it a point to include everyone somehow. Perhaps they had 
different contracts or larger egos.

-- 
      Rich Carlson, N9JIG
Illinois Highways and Scanner Page
      http://www.n9jig.com


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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 11 Mar 2001 16:35:24 -0700
Lines: 23

We generally made deals for all episodes produced, and I used the actors as I
needed them for the story.

>While I know Star Trek references are not appreciated by some here, they 
>did make it a point to include everyone somehow. 

Only problem with doing that is that it whittles away the complexity of the
story you can tell, and the degree of personalization.  X characters per
episode = Y minutes spent with each of those characters out of a set number of
minutes per episode (about 43).

I always figured, just take what I need for the story and no more than that.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2001 by synthetic worlds, ltd., 
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine 
and don't send me story ideas)