More B5 on the way?

[hypatia]

Is there any particular reason that WB might be interested in this, so many years later? I have no idea at all how successful B5 was for them in its original run, or is now. I know it's the one show that doesn't seem to be repeated on cable an a virtually constant basis. I've never really known if that is a lack of interest, or some other reason.

[Jan]

JMS has mentioned that WB tends to put up B5 when testing new technologies such as web streaming rather than seeking opportunities for selling it to a station looking to show re-runs.

Jan

[hypatia]

Now that's interesting. I usually forget that WB is a huge business, with many facets and many different directions and products. "New B5" to them could mean anything from a new game, web production, etc. to mega-Hollywood production.

Thanks, Jan.

[rjb]

Originally Posted by hypatia

I know it's the one show that doesn't seem to be repeated on cable an a virtually constant basis.

We are fortunate in the UK to have had a continuously rolling Babylon 5, on the cable channel `FX` (slightly less on `FX HD`), since it began on 9th November 2009! More than a year and a half, now.

[KoshN]

Originally Posted by rjb

We are fortunate in the UK to have had a continuously rolling Babylon 5, on the cable channel `FX` (slightly less on `FX HD`), since it began on 9th November 2009! More than a year and a half, now.

Whereas here in the US, Warner Brothers pretty much ensures that B5 is a well kept secret.

I was in Best Buy two days ago, and as usual, there were zero B5 DVDs on the shelves. I haven't seen B5 season sets on the shelves in Wal-Mart since ~Sept. 2004. Without the occasional re-run or DVDs on the shelves, how's anybody to know that the show ever existed?

[AnlaShokGrey]

One reason B5 doesn't get repeated a lot on US television is because they aren't stand-alone episodes, and thus the broadcasters probably feel that it wouldn't be as widely viewed in repeats as shows like, for example, Seinfeld or Star Trek (any variety), which don't require 88 previous hours of viewing for someone to understand a random fifth season episode they come across.

[vacantlook]

Episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer aren't stand-alone, and yet Buffy is currently rerun on three channels that I can think of (Logo, Oxygen, and TeenNick), and the Buffy spinoff Angel is on a fourth (TNT).

[hypatia]

This brings back fond memories of hating WB but having some realistic chance for 'Crusade', doesn't it?

I was a bit depressed when not one of my Calculus III students had ever heard of the series. And we spoke with non-math topics a lot before or after class. One student mentioned several times the notion of "they don't want to change the system, they want to be at the top of the system, abusing everybody else".

But no one knew about Vir or Lennier or the Centauri. They also had never heard the expression "throw the baby out with the bathwater".

Did I get old at some point, and no one told me?

[AnlaShokGrey]

Originally Posted by vacantlook

Episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer aren't stand-alone, and yet Buffy is currently rerun on three channels that I can think of (Logo, Oxygen, and TeenNick), and the Buffy spinoff Angel is on a fourth (TNT).

I didn't say this was a law of television broadcasting, written in stone: I said the broadcasters "probably feel" a certain way about B5 because of the very defined (and defining) arc. By the way, there's a reason Buffy runs constantly on Logo. Willow is a huge gay icon, very beloved by the LGBT community. I didn't know it was on Oxygen and TeenNick as well, and I can't account for Angel (and also didn't know TNT was running it). But something that also has to be taken into consideration is the fact that Buffy was a MUCH bigger franchise than B5, and thus more well known in the public consciousness (and thus there's less of a need to know specifically what was happening in the somewhat-arcs each season, and certainly no one has to have five or six seasons worth of knowledge to enjoy the occasional out-of-sequence episode).

I know this is something that B5 fans find hard to swallow, but the show just wasn't that big over here in the US! Criminal, I know, but that's just a fact!

[KoshN]

Originally Posted by hypatia

Did I get old at some point, and no one told me?

We all did, but be of good cheer; we didn't get lobotomies to make us into Reality TV lovers.


p.s. I like one Reality TV show, MasterChef, but I like most cooking shows. <shrug> It's interesting to see the techniques and critiques.