Babylon 5 and O'Hare's departure.

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

I thought Marcus was a great character. I loved the way he would tease people, and joke about. He always seemed like a real person to me, whereas a lot of the main cast often came off as being very wooden.

I tried to re-watch B5 and was struck by how poor overall the acting is, I'm not going to single anyone out but a lot of the cast are regularly out-acted by the set.

That's definitely the truth. The acting is a very weak part of the show. The "best" actors on the show merely approach good. There's also a 'dated' feeling to the acting. These days television is filled with more naturalistic acting a la mad men, friday night lights, the wire, to a lesser extent bsg etc etc... it's sometimes cringe-inducing to go back to the "90s sci-fi" level corny acting.

 

[Pingfah]

^Yeah, I've yet to see any naysayer provide a definitive example of what bad actors all the main cast supposedly were.

Well, it's a matter of opinion isn't it. If you think Claudia is a good actress, me posting clips I think are terrible is not going to make you change your mind, one presumes you've already seen the show.

And i'm not a naysayer, B5 is one of my favourite shows, that doesn't mean I have to think it's perfect.

 

[label]

Claudia was pretty horrible, for me at least. O'Hare really didn't do anything for me. Doyle was pretty enjoyable, but not much range. The Doctor and Lennier were in the same boat for me......I enjoyed them but not much range. Really I thought about half the main cast were not very good actors at all.

That being said, I thought G'kar and Londo were beyond brilliant. Sheridan and Delenn very good. Plus, the show had some pretty good character actors like Morden to spice things up.

Still, even with the sub-par acting, failed attempts at humour throughout the entire run, the horrible Byron storyline and some of the painful Season 1 episodes....Babylon 5 still ends up being my favorite show of all time despite the problems the show sometimes had.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Claudia was pretty horrible, for me at least. O'Hare really didn't do anything for me. Doyle was pretty enjoyable, but not much range. The Doctor and Lennier were in the same boat for me......I enjoyed them but not much range. Really I thought about half the main cast were not very good actors at all.

That being said, I thought G'kar and Londo were beyond brilliant. Sheridan and Delenn very good. Plus, the show had some pretty good character actors like Morden to spice things up.

Still, even with the sub-par acting, failed attempts at humour throughout the entire run, the horrible Byron storyline and some of the painful Season 1 episodes....Babylon 5 still ends up being my favorite show of all time despite the problems the show sometimes had.

Claudia, Conway, the Byron guy, were the worst imo, terrible, corny, cringe-inducing, ughhh. I also don't like Scoggins but I think that's more to do with me just not liking her voice/personality than my judgment on her delivery and acting.
A lot of B5's actors fall into the "not particularly great actors, but they are likable because of their earnestness" bucket (Sort of like Mark Hammil in the original star wars )... Boxleitner, Jerry Doyle, Bil Mumy, the guy who plays Vir, etc etc.

I pretty much agree with the chorus that Katsulas and peter jurassik were the best actors on the cast. IMO by far.

 

[Sindatur]

I put Mira Furlan up on the same pedestal as Katsulas and Jurassik

 

[Jan]

^^ Thank you! I was about to post that.

Jan

 

[Captaindemotion]

I actually really liked Mumy's performance the best. I liked how he underplayed everything, which made him much more watchable than the many hams around him. I frequently found Boxleitner, Furlan and the actor who played Marcus (can't even remember his name) embarrassing, while Doyle's Bruce Willis impersonation was merely adequate.

 

[Forbin]

They had far too much screen time and were far too integrally a part of the over-arcing story to be considered anything less than in the "starting lineup".
.

My tired old brain read that as "over-acting story."

 

[Forbin]

Honestly, beside the outright brilliance of Jurasik, Katsulas and Furlan, I think my next favorite was Doyle. I always thought he had a friendly, naturalistic acting style.

 

[Starkers]

I can't shake the feeling that Doyle was playing himself...

Claudia isn't great, but she had the deadpan side of Ivanova down to a tee, O'Hare was a bit overly earnest at times but he had his moments. I would agree there wasn't a really great actor in the main body of the cast aside from Kasulas and Jurasik, and maybe Furlan, but for all the corny 90s style acting the characters all had personality, I liked them. The acting in something like BSG might be light years better but I'd rather watch Garribaldi and co over them any day of the week because they actually looked like they were having fun, and its infectious.

 

[Kaijima]

B5 is proof that writing and character building trumps gimmicks and even acting.

Ivonova's "I am death incarnate" speech is simultaneously one of the worst and best moments in a television show.

 

[RandyS]

B5 is proof that writing and character building trumps gimmicks and even acting.

Agreed. Although I had no problem with the characters or their acting. Except Byron of course, he was just an ass. The character, not the actor.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

About Andrea's departure resulting in the character's apparent death and "dissection" I once read jms comment: "Don't cheese off the writer."

That's also why General Hague was killed off (offscreen) - because the actor who played him, Robert Foxworth, appeared on DS9!

(specifically, Foxworth's agent double-booked him on B5 and DS9, and obviously he couldn't do both. Since the DS9 ep in question was a two-parter - 'Homefront/Paradise Lost' - Foxworth chose that. Makes sense, since it would make him more money. So apparently this pissed JMS off.)

 

[David cgc]

Well, it was "Severed Dreams." The climax of the entire show. JMS couldn't very well punt the episode, but he needed General Hague for it to play out. It was either kill him off, recast him, or have him suffer a head-wound off-screen and be in sickbay for the whole thing in hopes that he'd be available next time. If there was to be a next-time, which I doubt, since IIRC, Hague was also a much-pared-down version of proto-Sheridan.

 

[Neroon]

MLB ... I suspect it would tick off most show runners - who were there first - who have a carefully planned story involving specific characters, but at the last minute need to recast an integral character or replace the character altogether.

 

[Jan]

It was the Hague situation that prompted the "Never honk off the writer." comment. http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-4580

Re: Foxworth...it's also worth noting that JMS hired him to play an important two (three?) episode guest spot on Jeremiah a few years later.

As a bit of trivia, Bruce McGill, who played Major Ryan was cast in error. JMS actually wanted Everett McGill but couldn't remember the whole name so agreed to Bruce when it was suggested and told casting to simply offer the part without an audition. He was surprised to find the wrong actor on set during filming but ended up being very pleased with the performance.

Jan

 

[Captaindemotion]

About Andrea's departure resulting in the character's apparent death and "dissection" I once read jms comment: "Don't cheese off the writer."

That's also why General Hague was killed off (offscreen) - because the actor who played him, Robert Foxworth, appeared on DS9!

(specifically, Foxworth's agent double-booked him on B5 and DS9, and obviously he couldn't do both. Since the DS9 ep in question was a two-parter - 'Homefront/Paradise Lost' - Foxworth chose that. Makes sense, since it would make him more money. So apparently this pissed JMS off.)

Isn't there a blooper were Garibaldi deadpans re Hague 'He's over on DS9'?

 

[Forbin]

It was the Hague situation that prompted the "Never honk off the writer." comment. http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-4580

Re: Foxworth...it's also worth noting that JMS hired him to play an important two (three?) episode guest spot on Jeremiah a few years later.

As a bit of trivia, Bruce McGill, who played Major Ryan was cast in error. JMS actually wanted Everett McGill but couldn't remember the whole name so agreed to Bruce when it was suggested and told casting to simply offer the part without an audition. He was surprised to find the wrong actor on set during filming but ended up being very pleased with the performance.

Jan

How can you go wrong with D-Day?
It should have been him that kamikazeed his ship, so he could yell "RAMMING SPEEEEEED!" again.

 

[RandyS]

About Andrea's departure resulting in the character's apparent death and "dissection" I once read jms comment: "Don't cheese off the writer."

That's also why General Hague was killed off (offscreen) - because the actor who played him, Robert Foxworth, appeared on DS9!

(specifically, Foxworth's agent double-booked him on B5 and DS9, and obviously he couldn't do both. Since the DS9 ep in question was a two-parter - 'Homefront/Paradise Lost' - Foxworth chose that. Makes sense, since it would make him more money. So apparently this pissed JMS off.)

Isn't there a blooper were Garibaldi deadpans re Hague 'He's over on DS9'?

Actually it was Major Ryan (Bruce McGill) who did that. You can find it on YouTube.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

That's also why General Hague was killed off (offscreen) - because the actor who played him, Robert Foxworth, appeared on DS9!

(specifically, Foxworth's agent double-booked him on B5 and DS9, and obviously he couldn't do both. Since the DS9 ep in question was a two-parter - 'Homefront/Paradise Lost' - Foxworth chose that. Makes sense, since it would make him more money. So apparently this pissed JMS off.)

Isn't there a blooper were Garibaldi deadpans re Hague 'He's over on DS9'?

Actually it was Major Ryan (Bruce McGill) who did that. You can find it on YouTube.

Season 3 bloopers at 5:56.

Or more direct clip.