Why did Michael O'Hare leave Babylon 5?

I've heard that he and JMS reached a mutual agreement but that they never disclosed exactly why they decided he should leave. Was it because he wasn't a good enough actor?

 

There are multiple stories. Even the scriptbooks don't put the issue to rest. Its likely that the only people who will ever know where in the room with WB (or was it PTEN?) when the decision was made.

I'm sure Jan will be by presently to offer up what little was in the script books.

 

I was at a con, and Claudia asked for the camcorders to be shut off. Then she told this guy that she could see the blinking red light which meant he was still filming her... Then she told us that it was because Michael was sleazy and "inappropriate" with some of the women on the set, whatever that means to whatever degree.

 

^Unlikely that they would have had him return later in the series if that was the case.

 

I thought it was because he wanted to be nearer his family in New York.

Kind of the opposite reason George Dzundza left Law & Order.

 

No, I've already done that once today. That's enough.

Jan

 

Hey, thanks, Jan. A link is plenty fine.

 

I'm sure she knows what that's like.

 

I must be one of the few people who really enjoyed O'Hare's performance. He was a man suffering from PTSD, he was subdued as hell and clearly depressed and O'Hare really showed that. It's just a very different role to see on TV, especially on a sci-fi show (well, until BSG but they were able to play with it more than they were back then).

That sounds like bullshit (on Claudia's part, not yours). She's been known to say some not so truthful things in the past. I saw her a few years back and she still left it somewhat ambiguous as to how she left B5.

 

I read that thread, thanks.

I don't know what others think of O'Hare's performance, but I thought it was quite wooden, so I'm glad that he was replaced by Boxleitner.

I also read somewhere that there had been rumors of behavioral problems with OHare on set, but I don't know if there's any truth to that.

 

One rumor is that he was more used to how stage acting was done than TV, and this annoyed the rest of the cast.

Another is that JMS realized he gave too many storylines to one char (Minbari time-traveling savior AND the stuff Sheridan did) and decided to even it out.

Another is that the Network just didn't like him.

 

I too like Michael O'Hare and got to met him at SDCC the summer before Babylon 5 aired as a series. He seemed quite nice and thoughtful. Much like Sinclair, he seems like a person who is more introspective. It showed in his performance, which was right for the character. I also liked that he went against the type of MediaSF captain. He wasn't the space cowboy.

Garabaldi called it in "Infection." Sinclair, especially in the first season, was looking for something to die for and not something to live for. The Earth-Minbari War had defined Sinclair for so long that he didn't know how to move beyond it.

Claudia has been known to "bad mouth" O'Hare in magazine interviews. She's said that he was a pain to work with and that he was a "serious" performer that didn't joke around on the set all that much. Doyle has made similar comments as well. Apparently, they didn't get along too much with O'Hare and are vocal about how well they got along better with Bruce.

O'Hare, however, apparently got along well with Mira Furlan, another fellow theater actor.

Of course, this is the first time I've heard allegations of "inappropriate" behavior. Then again, both Claudia and Doyle are known for hyperbole in their recollections of the series.

Doug Netter was quoted once as saying that the network forced the change (although, he may have been misquoted as it appeared in a British SF mag that isn't known for its accuracy), while Harlan Ellison was quoted in TV Guide as saying that Sinclair's departure was planned from the start.

The truth, as the show says, is a three-edged sword. Whatever it is, it will remain between, as JMS says, the four people in the room that day. As it should be. It is what it is. The series we got is the series we got.

 

I liked the way O'Hare portrayed Sinclair also. A lot. I thought his portrayal of a man whose career advancement had stopped cold after the missing 24 hours at the end of the Minbari war, suddenly and inexplicably given a high-profile, plum job far beyond what would ordinarily be assigned to somebody of his rank was perfect. What some call wooden, I call subtle. Look how much more relaxed he was when he came back in the third season. Relieved of his survivor's guilt and no longer in the crosshairs of every officer who'd wanted the job on B5, he was able to relax and enjoy an adventure and ready to become the greatest historical figure in the Minbari culture.

Jan

 

Fo'sho.

The character of Sinclair I identified with more than Sheridan because of his line in WWoE. "All my life, I've wondered who I am and where I belong," he says in the episode to Delenn. You could see this in the first-season with the character. He was a man looking for a purpose. I didn't get that vibe as much with Sheridan, who despite still having to get over certain things and be able to do much darker things than he would've done prior to Z'ha'Dum, felt very much like the arrived hero.

Sinclair felt very much like the hero in progress.

 

Doyle said on his radio show that O'Hare was a lunatic. I saw this on another forum about what he said on his show.

"My first season of Babylon 5 working with Michael O'Hare, he's a whack-job a complete lunatic. He flies out from New York, he gets the gig, we're doing our rehearsels he says to me one day "Uh can you give me a ride out the the set?" yeah sure! "Wanna stop and have breakfeast?" yeah good! He gets in the car and he's playing with the buttons in my car trying to turn the radio off and I'm like what are you doing? And he goes "I don't want any sound" and I go well why dont you just ask me to turn it off? And he goes "I dont want to talk today!" And I say well why do you want to go to breakfeast and he goes "you talk, I'll listen!" so obviously we hurry through breakfeast, we go out to the set and I realise I'm dealing with a complete nut-job here.

After we finished that first Friday night we go to this bar in Santa Clarita and I'm off in one corner talking to this actress Pat Tallman..just chatting her up having drinks we just got done shooting. He comes over and sits between us and I go oh ok...he was number 1 on the call sheet, he was the lead. He was the guy that got all the media interviews..because he was the lead on the show, and the face and voice on Babylon 5. So he's chatting her up and I'm like "Oh..ok..I'll just talk to the bartender here..." and order 3 more drinks. He turns around, looks at the 3 drinks and says "What is that?" and I say "umm...I'm buying a round..", and he says "Dont try to control me!!" and I went "oh..o...k..." this guy is a complete lunatic!

Now outside of the fact that he sexually harrassed an 18 year old makeup artist and hair gal because he's talking about how its lonely to be on the road and well he did certain things at night with her in mind I thought thats a very nice thing to address to an 18 year old that was interning on a show, not making any money trying to work her way up in the union.

He punches a female actress on the set. He comes after me we have the big meeting. Finally I say to him "Michael is there an Indian behind every tree?" and he says "maybe..you and I will settle this May 26 after we wrap production" And at the end of all this I went back to the guys and said you know what? I don't need this crap..I dont need the money"

 

I thought he did a fair enough job as Sinclair. He seemed better in WWOE though. I don't care, it all worked out for the best.

 

After reading "To Dream In The City of Sorrows", I look at O'Hare's performance in "War Without End" in an entierly new light.

Spoiler: To Dream In The City of Sorrows

He knows he's going to see Catherine again.

 

She's a fine one to talk.

Several years back (when B5 was on the air) she showed up at the local Renaissance Faire drunk off her ass. She was loud and carrying on, and then she saw this pretty young girl. She went over to the girl and started groping her most inappropriately right where everyone could see. The girl was maybe fifteen, if that. And she didn't like it one bit.

The girl's mother called security on Christian, who then proceeded to take her by each arm and forcibly evict her from the premises while she started screaming "You can't do this to me! I'm Claudia Christian! I'm on TV!"

 

JMS found out that O'Hare was secretly a DS9 fan.