One of the biggest changes is the one least immediately
apparent. After we finished the original pilot, some folks at WB felt
that Laurel was too...strong. They will rarely put it in terms quite
as blatant as that, but that was the message...she was "unlikeable,
unsympathetic, harsh." Meaning some of the guys felt she was too
strong, let's cut to the chase, okay?
They wanted her to loop her lines, soften their (her) delivery.
I fought this tooth and nail. I fought this until finally I was pulled
aside and it was communicated to me that B5 was, after all, still an
unknown property, could be a big failure, and if we ever wanted to see
this thing on the air, we'd accommodate this note (which was, I have to
admit on balance, one of the few they had). The advice was, in
essence, "Pick your battles."