Now, now...their benign neglect gave us the whole show with really very little interference.
Comparatively speaking.
Babylon 5
- Thread starter Kail
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Comparatively speaking.
Now, now...their benign neglect gave us the whole show with really very little interference.
I was thinking, should I say that? How can I complain about the studio that made my favorite show? But after all that I've read and heard over the years, I think they did it as a write off rather than because they believed in it in any way. So that's why.
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Oh, I'm every bit as cynical. Or more so. Their net cost was actually zero due to the way it was done through PTEN. The subscribing stations actually financed the show with license fees. That's why we got a fourth season even though PTEN didn't really exist anymore after the third. There's a story in the script books of how the show *didn't* get financed by WB for the fourth season and JMS and Netter (and Copeland?) took out a loan to start production. Eeek!
Didn't WB once claim that they'd never made any money from the DVD sales for B5 or am I imagining that? I can't locate definitive information to confirm one way or the other.
^It certainly rings a bell.
Studios are known for pulling these kinds of shady book keeping tricks to make out they're making a loss in order to avoid paying residuals or claim some kind of tax deduction. IIRC a favourite method essentially involves charging themselves over the odds for catering services, consultation fees and other ill defined expenses.
JMS' participation statement shows that B5 has never 'made money'. Which is true given the nature of bookkeeping. While it's common to rag on studios as keeping crooked books, even I, an outsider but a bookkeeper can pretty much say that there's nothing crooked about it.
(probably TL;DR) Thing is, that the show's budget covers actors and sets and things that can be controlled by the people making the show. But there are a *lot* more expenses than that such as insurance, security, debt service and a million more. Those expenses all get distributed amongst the shows that are part of the studio inventory. The part I don't understand is why those expenses keep getting charged against a show long after it's no longer in production but I'm still quite sure there's nothing actually shady about it.
Something similar, yes. Just as it would all of the other WB shows. It's pretty basic: All of the revenue generating departments share the non-revenue costs of running the studio.
I remember that now, yes. 20-year-old TV show behind-the-scenes trivia coming to the front of my brain doesn't happen as quickly as it used to!
I have started my re-watch of B5, most of it I have not seen since they originally aired in the 90's. So its a bit of treat to watch some episodes I have forgotten about, Just got thru season 1's 'Signs and Portents', great to see our first real introduction to Morden and the Shadows, I had forget about of the episode until I re-watched it yesterday. Was also great to see my friend Walter (Koenig) as Bester again. Sad about Jerry Doyle, I had met him 4 years ago when we had a big dinner/toast for Walter a day before his 'Star on the walk of fame' ceremony. Jerry was a great guy.
I don't think you're supposed to with him. He is what the mundanes fear about telepaths which, ironically, is all a creation of the telepath laws and Psicorp that the mundanes created. Mundane prejudice created the very thing they feared.
The telepath book trilogy is the best of the three trilogies (technomage, Centauri, and telepath) and provides the background for the origin of human telepaths, the formation of Psi Corps, Bester's rise to power and his fate -- worth a read if you can get hold of them.
It more depends on the retailer agreements (i.e wholesale costs). after all the retailer might have already bought that stock so the studio would already have had it's cut and later sold stock at a reduced margin to clear.
I remember a time just a couple of months ago when my mom was pretty lukewarm towards B5 even though (like I have mentioned in the previous posts) she has quite a track record with genre shows. Her reaction has been pretty positive and third season is definitely her favorite so far, but she admits that it wouldn't work without the building blocks from the first year and even back then it was a pretty good show. Yesterday she decided to watch a double whammy Shadow Dancing and Z'ha'dum so obviously I had to be there.
She wondered why they had the huge battle in Shadow Dancing, definitely expected that to be in the finale. Then the ending came and she didn't even pause for a coffee break. Roll it! And there she was, a B5 newbie on the edge of her seat for the whole finale. Her jaw was pretty much on the floor, moving nervously and the face in the "Jump! Jump now!" scene... priceless! G'kar's monogue came and went and the end credits started. She was just floored. All I had to say was "You remember when I said 'Trust me, this is going to be a wild ride and the third season finale is one of my all time favorite cliffhangers.'? Told ya!"
Now towards the fourth season.
She wondered why they had the huge battle in Shadow Dancing, definitely expected that to be in the finale. Then the ending came and she didn't even pause for a coffee break. Roll it! And there she was, a B5 newbie on the edge of her seat for the whole finale. Her jaw was pretty much on the floor, moving nervously and the face in the "Jump! Jump now!" scene... priceless! G'kar's monogue came and went and the end credits started. She was just floored. All I had to say was "You remember when I said 'Trust me, this is going to be a wild ride and the third season finale is one of my all time favorite cliffhangers.'? Told ya!"
Now towards the fourth season.
Home video that doesn't sell at retail gets returned to the studio. Major retailers don't take inventory like Babylon 5 on DVD as a one-way sale.
I shall have to try that M.A.C.O. I had never thought of watching Sleeping in the Light at the end of season four.
I have watching all of Farscape and B5 on my to-do list for the end of 2016.
I have watching all of Farscape and B5 on my to-do list for the end of 2016.
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