[B5JMS] No JMS for third season of Jerimiah?

[b5jms at cs.columbia.edu]

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From: ktappe at voicenet.com (Kurt Tappe)
Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2003 20:45:51 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 41

ajs at ajs.com (Aaron Sherman) wrote
> I wonder that for about 10 minutes, and then I remember shows like
> Andromeda, The West Wing, Firefly and Whitchblade (sic)

Perhaps Witchblade went away due to stiff wooden acting and
boilerplate scriptwriting?  I tried to watch it--I really tried.  But
JMS quality it definitely was not.

> I presume that the same will go for The West Wing now that Sorkin has
> quit / been fired for being late with scripts (can you imagine telling
> the creator of The West Wing that he has to do a BETTER job?! -- that
> the cost of actors standing around for a day or two when a script is
> late is A BUDGET PROBLEM?!

Um, how is the situation of actors being paid to sit around and
twiddle their thumbs NOT a budget problem?? Now that the WW is
popular, its actors demand significant salaries. Paying them not to
work can very easily cause budget overruns.  What if an episode ends
up being late, and the network has to put a filler in its place? 
That's BIG money lost.

If you're going to compare Sorkin to JMS, then let's take the
comparison all the way.  I have no recollection of the B5 actors
chronically being forced to wait on the set for JMS to come rushing in
with the latest few pages of his scripts.  He works (admittedly very
long hours) to keep this from happening.  He works closely with the
studios to know what his deadlines are and he makes those deadlines. 
And I don't recall any reports of JMS having problems with drugs, the
likely cause of Sorkin's downfall.

So, yes, Sorkin did need to do a better job.  No script is ever truly
finished, but part of being a good writer is knowing when enough is
enough.  At some point, making a deadline is more important than
getting that one last line of dialogue juuuust right.  Due to either
the drugs or his stubbornness, Sorkin seems to not have been willing
to accept this.  As much as it pains to say it (WW was my favorite
current show), the studio seems to have had a good point in this case.

-Kurt



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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2003 03:52:30 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 34

>I have no recollection of the B5 actors
>chronically being forced to wait on the set for JMS to come rushing in
>with the latest few pages of his scripts.  He works (admittedly very
>long hours) to keep this from happening.  He works closely with the
>studios to know what his deadlines are and he makes those deadlines. 

I have this kind of antiquated notion that if someone gives you x-million bucks
to make a show, it behooves you to act *responsibly*.  So really it's just a
matter of being responsible in how you run a show.

As a result, in every season of every show I've run, we always came in under
budget, anywhere from $100K to $500K.  When I said I'd do that on Jeremiah,
they kind of laughed at me, 'cause it was a big show, big names, big production
values...we came in about $300K under in year 1, and about $200K under in year
2.

On B5, Crusade and Jeremiah, we never had a forced call on an actor, never had
actors waiting around for pages to arrive on stage.  We stay 5-6 scripts ahead
at all times, so directors can prep efficiently.  And in  5 years of B5 plus
Crusade, we had maybe 20 days of any serious overtime.  On Jeremiah I think we
had a total of 18 over two seasons.

Just a matter of being responsible with other people's money.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
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