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And It Screens Where?
US Broadcast details
Last Updated: 14 November 2000
Cable: The SciFi Channel Syndication:No Network: No
Following the lead of its UK-based counterpart, The SCI FI Channel US acquired exclusive rights to the Emmy Award-winning SF series Babylon 5, the cable network announced Monday, 3 April 2000. SciFi Wire was first with the news, stating that in a deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Pay TV, Cable and Newtork Features, SCI FI picked up the rights to all 112 hour-long episodes of the series, as well as four two-hour telefilms based on the show. Babylon 5 fans will recall that at one point, the SciFi Channel was considered a possible saviour for Crusade, the B5 spin-off series butchered by TNT.
"Babylon 5 is one of sci-fi fans' favourite series. We are thrilled to be able to add it to our schedule," said Bonnie Hammer, executive vice president and general manager of The SCI FI Channel.
Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski told online fans he was delighted by the switch from TNT. "I'm most pleased," he said in a post on rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, "and am looking forward to seeing the show finally get a good timeslot and the kind of support that SFC can give."
Sciography will devote an entire episode to the intriguing behind-the-scenes story of Babylon 5 on Sunday, 24 September 24 as a kick-off to the letterboxed edition of Babylon 5, the series. The Babylon 5 series launches exclusively in the US on SCI FI the following night (25 September) - and will air Monday-Friday at 7.00pm.
As a special added feature, SCI FI will televise the series as it was originally conceived and produced -- in its never-before-seen letterbox format.

UK Broadcast details
Last Updated: 14 November 2000
Digital: SciFi Channel Terrestrial: Channel 4

Recommended Web Link for tx Information: Information Welcome

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Cast Information
Because of the tremendous support for this section, news and links about the Babylon 5 cast now has its own page. Thanks to everyone helping these pages grow!

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The Babylon 5 Production Crew
J. Michael Straczynski -- Douglas Netter -- John Copeland -- John Iacovelli -- Fiona Avery -- Harlan Ellison

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J. Michael Straczynski
Background Info: Aside from creating Babylon 5 and Crusade, Straczynski's credits, in a variety of capacities, also include Murder She Wrote; Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future; The Real Ghostbusters. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Clinical Psychology with a minor in Philosophy, and a second Bachelor's in Sociology with a minor in Literature.

Recommended web sites:
Dirk Loedding's Home Page - JMS Postings - Babylon 5: Find B5 creator Joe Straczynski's on-line comments on all manner of things here.
JMS on Writing: Joe's writings on writing compiled into handy volumes for net users.
Crusade Scripts online: J. Micahel Straczynski's unproduced scripts for the first season of Crusade are topping the readers' chart over at the 'read-online website", bookface.com.
Thetzsite: a site with copies of a few articles written by jms during his tenure on The New Twilight Zone. Joe wrote, among other episodes, The Curious Case of Edgar Witherspoon, co-written with Huck Barkin.

Current Projects:
Comics
The Amazing Spider-Man: Marvel Comics' recently-appointed editor in chief Joe Queseada has agreed a deal with jms to write The Amazing Spider-Man. "As a longtime Spidey fan, this is something I'm looking forward to enormously," jms told online fan on 1 October. " The first jms-written issue of TMS will probably hit the stands around March or April 2001.

Joe's Comics: Midnight Nation is about a hard-nosed homicide detective investigating what looks like another drug-related murder. Only there's a little more to it than that...
Straczynski announced will be co-ordinating this new comics imprint for Top Cow earlier this year. "Rising Stars has done extremely well for Top Cow," he told online fans, "to the point where they asked me if I'd like my own imprint. I said I'd be flattered.
"They wanted to know what we should call it. I looked around at all the other heightened titles -- Chaos, Awesome, Megadeathtech kinds of titles designed to be impressive and massive -- and said, "How about just... Joe's Comics?" As in, "I'd like some of Joe's Comics," or "Read at Joe's," with a big 1950s diner clock logo. They thought it was a great idea.
"So the imprint starts this fall: mini-series, maxi-series, one shots and the like, which I'll write and TC will print. The basic deal is: I write whatever I want, and they publish it. It's a terrific deal, and the TC folks are amazing to work with.

Rising Stars: Action figures featuring characters from the comic book are now available, including Patriot and Chandra.

Columns
psycomics.com: Straczynski is writing a weekly column, entitled "Letters From the Edge for psycomics.com, a division of USA Networks. His new column appears each Monday and a new weekly column by Kevin (clerks) Smith runs each Friday. Static Shock and Milestone Comics co-creator Dwayne McDuffie contributes a weekly comic book and media opinion column, Brought to You By, on Wednesdays.

Film
Rising Stars: Variety reported 16 August 2000 a deal worth upward of $1 million in which MGM has optioned J. Michael Straczynski's bestselling comic book Rising Stars for a possible feature.Straczynski is attached to script.
After writing his first pass on the outline for the Rising Stars feature film (tentatively entitled "Born in Fire"), "MGM read the outline, loved it, had a couple of very smart suggestions..." and as of Wednesday 27 September, jms was put to work on writing the script.
If Rising Stars goes into production, it will be Straczynski's first produced feature script, though he has penned scripts for Ivan Reitman and others. The studio will collaborate on the project with management/production firm Atlas Entertainment/Gold Miller/Third Rail and comic book publisher Top Cow. They are already envisioning a Rising Stars trilogy.

Television
Jeremiah Is Straczynski's Pilot: Variety recently identified the pilot being written by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski for Showtime: Jeremiah, based on a long-running European SF comic series of the same name.
Variety said that the SF pilot from Lions Gate Entertainment will tell the story of Earth 15 years after a virus has killed everyone who has reached puberty. Joe Dante (Small Soldiers) will also executive produce the pilot, which could develop into a Showtime series. Straczynski is the designated showrunner.
Of plans for the show, Straczynski commented: The book has been in print about 20 years and is in desperate need of updating," explains Straczynski of his motivation to do the show. "A lot of what was in the book was fresh at the time, but we've had any number of other post-apocalyptic stories in TV and film (A Boy and his Dog, Damnation Alley, Logan's Run, the various Mad Max movies) along the way, and there has to be a totally fresh approach, something to bring the thing into the 21st century. They gave me complete free rein in doing so.
"Joe Dante is aboard also as executive producer, and he will be invaluable in setting the visual and directorial tone of the series. It's been an absolute pleasure working with Joe, and if we get past the next few hurdles -- every series has to go through the stages of pilot outline, pilot script, decision to produce the script and then the go-order on a series, same as with B5 and every other programme -- I'm *really* looking forward to working with him on the series."
As to why Showtime? jms made comments on this over several e-mails:"If you do a show that could just as easily be on ABC...why put it on Showtime? I want to take this to the wall...
" It's also going to be nice, in the pilot, to really take things to the wall in terms of content, something I could never do in syndie or basic cable. "

The World on Fire
On Thursday 28 September 2000, "some friendly folks at Warner Bros. asked if they could take up the banner of my project The World On Fire (formally with Chris Carter) and take it out in the Spring to sell it as a series."
The suspension of a planned collaboration between The X-Files creator Chris Carter and Straczynski, titled The World on Fire has been explained by Straczynski as part of the fallout due to the cancellation of Harsh Realm by the Fox Network. Straczynski revealed that Fox feel the problems with Harsh Realm were attributable to Carter working on a project based on someone else's work and as a result are wary of greenlighting another one, preferring him to come up with his own, original concept for a new show.
"The irony is that if Harsh Realm had been cancelled even a week later, we would've concluded the deal with CBS for the show I'd created, and which Chris, Frank Spotnitz and I would exec produce," Straczynski told online fans and at a recent convention. "CBS had agreed to a pilot production deal, and they were haggling over the per episode licence fee should the show get picked up for series when Harsh Realm got cancelled and the ripple effect started.
"In my years in the biz, I have rarely enjoyed a partnership with anyone as much as with Chris and Frank," Straczynski added, "who are not only stand-up guys, but in all of our discussions I don't think a single idea got broached that didn't make sense.
"Their approach is the same we had at Babylon 5: you check your ego at the door and do what's best for the story. I have nothing but good things to say about them, and even though Fox felt that they needed to go forth only with a 100 per cent Chris Carter creation after Harsh Realm was cancelled (the logic being that it didn't work because Chris didn't actually create it), I consider the experience a positive one. "

Sound
Seeing Ear Theater: Straczynski's audio drama at The City of Dreams resumed this week with MCSD 00121J. A request from Captain J. J. Durham Manasee County Sheriff's Department -- a request for assistance in identifying the voices on the attached tape in light of tragic events that have occurred in community of Clarefield.
Already released at SET are: "Night Calls", "The Tolling of the Hour" featuring Campbell Scott. "The Friends of Jackie Clay" featuring Merwin Goldsmith. "Rolling Thunder" featuring Andre Braugher "The Damned are Playing at Godzilla's Tonight" featuring Steve Buscemi.
Words
Tribulations released Straczynski's new novel, Tribulations, is now available free online at bookface.com. Hardcopy versions are also available at darktales.com.


Additional Reference
Murder, He Wrote
Straczynski wrote and produced a new Murder She Wrote TV movie, which aired earlier this yearon CBS. The TV movie is entitled "A Story to Die For," and co-stars Richard Crenna and a lot of other folks including, in a strong supporting role, Crusade's Daniel Dae Kim.
Universal Studios broadcast 264 episodes of Murder She Wrote between September, 1984 and May, 1996. Nine of these episodes were filmed in Mendocino, California, while exterior shots throughout Mendocino were used in the remaining episodes.
Source: jms posting on rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
External Links: CBS -- Very basic Murder She Wrote Episode Guide (titles only) -- Jessica Fletcher's House in Mendocino!

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Douglas Netter
27/07/00: Netter Digital has filed for Chapter 11, the part of the US Bankruptcy Code describing how a company or creditor can file for court protection. In the case of a corporation, reorganization occurs under the existing management.
Netter Digital continues to provide visual effects for film and television shows, including the ratings-topping Voltron. Robotech 30000 is also in the works.
Recommended web sites: Netter Digital Entertainment

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John Copeland
03/02/00: The History Channel US has made its first airing of a documentary about The Real Flying Tigers produced by John Copeland and narrated by Bruce Boxleitner. In 1941, with the U.S. government's tacit approval, retired Army Air Force  Captain Claire L. Chennault, then a colonel in China's Air Force, formed the mercenary American Volunteer Group to fight Japan. Later dubbed "Flying Tigers", these brave pilots set records yet to be equaled in the annals of aerial history.
Copeland told Sabndra Bruckner of The Zocalo Today that this project was a "labour of love" for everyone who worked on it. Copeland's office at Netter Digital is adorned with pictures indicating the Flying Tigers were of great interst to him. Check your local listings to see when this program will air  in your locality.
Bruckner interviewed Copeland about this new project in Babylon 5 Magazine Issue 21.

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John Iacovelli (Art Director)
Information welcome!
Recommended web sites: Information welcome!

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Fiona Avery (Reference Editor)
Transcript of VZSciFi event in July 2000 with Fiona Avery here.

Avery continues to pitch stories and scripts in the dog-eat-small furry alien world known as Los Angeles. She penned a short story forBabylon 5 Magazine, "True Seeker" which took place on Narn, a world rarely visited in the series.
September 2000: Fiona Avery's representatives told VZSciFi "There are more comic book announcements on the way, as Fiona gears up to write yet another comic, for another major comic book publisher, coming to stands in the year 2001. Fiona is also collaborating in the first stages of a new Warner Bros. project that has to do with ... wait for it ... Babylon 5."

Current Projects:
Top Cow has confirmed with Silver Bulletins that former Kiss Psycho Circus artist Clayton Crain will be joining Fiona Avery on the soon to be launched No Honor. Crane has previously worked with Brian Michael Bendis on Sam And Twitch #14 has has a considerable history with Todd McFarlane Productions. His more recent work includes a three issue stint on The Darkness (pictured right) for Top Cow.
Top Cow describes No Honor as about a world-class jewel thief who steals an ancient katana from a New York museum, but what he pilfers is a whole lot of grief. Accidentally cutting himself on the blade, he releases the spirit of an ancient Samurai warrior -- into his own body -- and the two must share the same mind, same body, same world until both can find release.
For the Samurai named Tannen, there is no greater dishonour than to inhabit the body of a thief. And for Random there can be nothing more inconvenient than a spirit that knows only honor. Tannen sets in motion a series of events that will lead to avenging his dishonorable death as well as turning the jewel thief named Random into a man of honor.
Additional Reports:
fandom.com, 29 September 200: Straczynski writing protege signs with Top Cow
Wizardworld, 9 October 2000: Avery's "honor"

•Avery has written a script for the fourth season of Earth: Final Conflict, Essence, along with other scripting projects.

• Some of her short stories, including one titled Mankind's Greatest Invention, can be found online at bookface.com. Fiona Avery's first short story, "Luring the Tiger Out of the Mountains" was posted on Bookface.com in August.

Colonies:Avery's next traditional print short story will appear in Colonies magazine, Issue #3, due out in July in the UK and is called The Silence of Roanoake. The Bard and his lovely new friend are tracking down a puzzling mystery. Even though their hunt takes them through dangerous adventures on the moon, they're getting closer to unraveling information about a mystery on Mars. You can order the magazine direct from their web site. They have just updated their ordering system to take credit cards!
Links: Colonies Magazine

Seeing Ear Theater began transmission of Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Lucky Strike" on 21 July 2000. Avery wrote the radio adaptation of the famous short story and Timothy Hutton (pictured left) stars as Frank January.The story is an alternate World War II history about the bombing of Japan.

Themestream is a site on the internet which hosts a wide variety of internet articles on anything you possibly want to read about in the Non-Fiction world. Fiona has opened up a writing corner under "Screenwriting" and "Writing Tips" to discuss working in TV and Film, working in Los Angeles, Breaking In, Prose vs. Script, and many other interesting topics. She plans to write an article a week. Drop by www.themestream.com and do a search for Fiona Avery. You'll immediately find all her articles on the Biz of Writing.

Additional Reference
Crusade
Value Judgements Online: Monday, 24 July is a day many fans have been anticipating! Fiona Avery's three Crusade scripts will go live on bookface.com ! This includes the unproduced Bester story, Value Judgements, plus The Well of Forever and Patterns of the Soul.
On 31 July, Bookface is launching a newly available genre of fiction and Fiona Avery will have "The Midnight Committee" published for their new launch. This story is brand new and exclusive to Bookface, and is one of Avery's personal favorites.
Avery's scripts from Crusade are also available for purchase via: http://www.sff.net/people/chris-tsirbas/sftl.html. At present this service is only available to US fans. Scripts from the Lot is an initiative to curb the illegal sale and distribution of pirated scripts and screenplays. It addresses the issue by providing a venue where screenwriters can offer legal copies of their scripts directly to potential buyers. SFTL also provides the information necessary so that you may contact individual screenwriters to request copies of their work.

Recommended web sites:
Fiona Avery's Official Web Site: Go
Read some of Fiona's short stories online at: bookface.com

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Harlan Ellison (Creative Consultant)
As of 01/00: Harlan had a short story in Amazing Stories Issue (#600)  If you enjoy Harlan's work, you'll not want to miss it!
Recommended web sites: Ellison Webderland
Harlan Ellison's official presence on the web. Harlan doesn't use a computer or the internet himself, but this site is your best resource for this great writer.
The Harlan Ellison Recording Collection is a membership society recording the spoken word. The eight dollar membership fee brings you four newsletters of the Collection and the privilege of obtaining new, never-before-released, top quality records, cassettes, and CDs of Harlan Ellison reading his award-winning stories. To join The Collection, send $8.00 in check or money order to: The Harlan Ellison Recording Collection, P.O. Box 55548, Sherman Oaks, CA 91413, USA

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B5 Script Writers and Authors
Jeanne Cavelos (novelist)
Recommended web sites: Jeanne Cavelos

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J. Gregory Keyes (author, the Bester trilogy)
As of 18/6/00: With the fate of Bester sealed, Keyes is busy with other projects. He contributed a short story to the final issue of Babylon 5 Magazine. Among other things, he recently moved from Washington to  Georgia where his wife has a new job.
Calculus of Angels, the second book in his Newton's Cannon series, has been on the shelves for a while (go out and buy it! and the next one, Empire of Unreason, is expected in May. "There will be a fourth," Keyes told me recently. "However, as yet unnamed.  I did a related short story, set between books one and two in Amazing Stories a few months back."
Recommended web sites: Del Rey Books

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Fan Club
The Official B5 Fan Club
E-mail: b5FanClub@aol.com
The Babylon 5 Fan Club has been caught up in the bankruptcy of Netter Digital, which ran the operation. It's not doing anything right now. "Since as far as I know the orders had to be processed by hand, I don't believe anyone's cards are being charged," J. Michael Straczynski told online fans on 6 October 2000. "I've asked several times for them to take the [web]site offline until this is straightened out. It should be attended to soon."
Recommended Fan Web Sites: Go

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