Babylon 5

[Farscape One]

I think it was Rick Berman or Michael Piller who actually decided they misscast Dukat after seeing the dailies a few days into the "EMISSARY" shoot. They went with Alaimo because they thought of him at that point.

Great decision. He was excellent as Dukat.

 

[dupersuper]

I'd heard that on Star Trek, the practice of using the same actors over and over for aliens came about because they knew they could work despite the makeup, but just recently, an alternate explanation was offered for Babylon 5 doing it, that the makeup company already had lifecasts of the actors' heads, so it was easier to create new makeup for them since they didn't need the actor for the prep-work.

Also, it becomes a fun game of spot the actor in the different alien make-up.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

So the emperor is dead (good riddance!) but poor G’Kar. Londo’s speech to Vir was really sweet. Oh and I enjoyed Vir gleefully waving at Morden’s decapitated head!

The Shadows are gone now too.

 

[Forbin]

So the emperor is dead (good riddance!) but poor G’Kar. Londo’s speech to Vir was really sweet. Oh and I enjoyed Vir gleefully waving at Morden’s decapitated head!

The Shadows are gone now too.

You're zipping thru this! Imagine having to watch this over a period of years, with endless months between seasons, not sure if it would even be renewed, and playing tag with what time and channel it might be on.
And oh, God, those horrific TNT promos for season 5!

 

[Reverend]

Also I’m guessing it was nepotism that got her the part.

Not quite how it went down. IIRC the original actor that portrayed Anna for the recorded message back in season 2 couldn't return for whatever reason (I'm assuming scheduling commitments.) So Boxleitner was like "well, I am married to an actress, and she does have some experience playing my wife, so..."
As nepotism casting goes I'd call that a fairly inoffensive case. I mean it's not like the part was created for her, she wasn't the first choice, they were in a bit of a schedule crunch, and it was just such a very simple and easy fix that they'd have been silly not to go for it. It helps that she was also pretty good in the role.

You're zipping thru this! Imagine having to watch this over a period of years, with endless months between seasons, not sure if it would even be renewed, and playing tag with what time and channel it might be on.
And oh, God, those horrific TNT promos for season 5!

Plus I think over here they held off airing the last few episodes of season 5 for like a year or something ridiculous.
Because the broadcast schedule over here was so weird, I didn't even get to see every episode of the first two seasons until Sci-Fi re-aired the while thing "uncut" in the early 2000's...which I mostly remember because Claudia Christian doing nude promos for it, which of course she did because: Claudia Christian.
(Before anyone gets excited, no not nude, nude. Think shampoo advert nude.)

 

[DonIago]

I'm reasonably sure the actress who originally portrayed Anna Sheridan also played Ishara Yar? Frankly I think Melissa Gilbert did a better job.

 

[David cgc]

And oh, God, those horrific TNT promos for season 5!

I liked the Keith David one. The character promos were... fine... but the tie-in ads over the end credits were dire.

My sister got me into the show, and sent me dubs of the tapes she made off of TNT (my parents didn't have cable when I was growing up until a few years after B5 finished), so until the DVDs came out, and excepting a handful of episodes I got on the official VHSes when I could find them, whenever I watched them, they had all these three-year-old cable ads from Pittsburg.

 

[JD]

Not quite how it went down. IIRC the original actor that portrayed Anna for the recorded message back in season 2 couldn't return for whatever reason (I'm assuming scheduling commitments.) So Boxleitner like "well, I am married to an actress, and she does have some experience playing my wife, so..."
As nepotism casting goes I'd call that a fairly inoffensive case. I mean it's not like the part was created for her, she wasn't the first choice, they were in a bit of a schedule crunch, and it was just such a very simple and easy fix that they'd have been silly not to go for it.

I think the worst case of nepotism casting on a TV show has to be Diagnosis: Murder. Dick Van Dyke had one son in a regular role, his grandson had a recurring role in the later seasons. I think by the time the show was over, along with him, his son and grandson, they had one more grandson on, his brother, his daughter, and I think possibly at one two other relatives I can't remember.

 

[Farscape One]

I'm reasonably sure the actress who originally portrayed Anna Sheridan also played Ishara Yar? Frankly I think Melissa Gilbert did a better job.

It was indeed her.

And I do agree Melissa Gilbert was a better casting choice.

 

[diankra]

It was indeed her.

And I do agree Melissa Gilbert was a better casting choice.

IIRC they re-recorded the season two scenes with Melissa Gilbert, intending to re-edit repeats. Not sure that ever happened though.

 

[Farscape One]

I'm pretty sure they never aired the repeats with that re-edited video.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

It was indeed her.

And I do agree Melissa Gilbert was a better casting choice.

Gilbert was not only better, she was excellent in the role. I would hardly call casting her nepotism, considering she dominated the scenes she was in.

 

[DonIago]

I'm pretty sure they never aired the repeats with that re-edited video.

I imagine that could have been potentially legally thorny.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ How so?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Residuals.

Do they continue to pay the original Anna even though her scenes have been excised?

Do they start paying Melissa even though they are not contractually obligated to do so even though she'll sue if they keep putting her archive footage into episodes and neglect to pay her?

Do they pay both women?

Which will upset the delicate balance of paying the talent years after their sweat dried, from the freshly generated revenue.

 

[diankra]

Back in the day, jms said that B5 would be most important in its repeat afterlife. Turned out he was wrong, but trying to future proof by shooting the live action in wide-screen, and reshooting earlier scenes so the new actress had always played the character, was part of his plan at the time (another bit was redoing the fx as cgi improved, which also didn't work out).

 

[JD]

I was watching it for a few minutes when it was on Comet a couple days, and I when one of the space scenes, I found myself wishing the show was popular enough to get a Star Wars Special Edition/Star Trek: TOS Remaster style VFX overhaul. They really had some cool ship designs and I would love to see them done in modern CGI.

 

[diankra]

I was watching it for a few minutes when it was on Comet a couple days, and I when one of the space scenes, I found myself wishing the show was popular enough to get a Star Wars Special Edition/Star Trek: TOS Remaster style VFX overhaul. They really had some cool ship designs and& I would love to see them done in modern CGI.

Jms thought that it would be easy to port the meshes to an new computer which would recreate the shots in higher resolution. In reality, computer systems are incompatible, and the original imaging house owned the programs (precise details are unclear due to an out-of-court, confidential, settlement), so redoing the effects would effectively mean redoing them from scratch. Budget makes sense for an Avengers movie, not for 110 episodes for dvd of a 20 year old series.

 

[Triple-F]

The idea that there was an expectation (by the production/jms or whoever) to redo the CGI at some point in the future is one of those myths that gained traction over the years as it's been repeated far and wide - but it just isn't the case, and I've never seen anyone connected with the production suggest that it was. . . . . Quite the opposite. From John Copeland when asked about it.

We never had a plan to re-render the VFX footage - rendering takes time, resources and consequently $$ - it's always a question of who is paying for it. You know the old adage - there is no free lunch. Well, there is no free rendering, either. In fact the filmed 16x9 versions - Warners had even forgotten that they had those. They used PAL versions and converted them to NTSC for the US market. They actually didn't go back and retransfer the shows.

Don’t put too much blame on Warners though. This was all done several years ago now - and the management has changed. So has the view at Home Video about spending money - they put up all the $$ for The Lost Tales remember.

As for some kind of unclear out of court settlements with the FX house - I'm assuming you're referring to Foundation Imaging . . I don't know where you're getting any of that from . . . Nothing like that ever happened. . . . As for re-doing the original CGI at higher resolutions. . . Not that difficult when you have the files. . . And a lot of people have them. . . Though the thousands of composite shots is an entirely different matter. . . They would require new film plates, and be done from scratch.

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[Forbin]

It was indeed her.

And I do agree Melissa Gilbert was a better casting choice.

And the two actresses could not have been farther apart in physical appearance. It was a little jarring.