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A Slow News Week:

B5LR

Regular
<font size="+1">A Slow News Week: </font>
<font size="3">TV Critics Tour, Sci-Fi Promo, Final Cut, DVD hint</font>

Not a great deal of actual information to report, and most of it has been covered in the forum. But for those who only check the news pages, here goes:

Last week the TV Critic’s Association had their press tour in Los Angeles. The Sci-Fi Channel held brief panels on three upcoming projects: The Steven Speilberg alien abduction epic, Taken, the Stephen King sequel mini-series, Firestarter: Rekindled and Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers. Apart from a couple of brief mentions in the trades and the mainstream press, few details about the event are available.

When asked about Rangers series prospects, Sci-Fi Channel Bonnie Hammer said, “We want to see how the movie does first.” She presumably means, “How it does in the ratings” which is a little disappointing. In theory she could have meant “How it does with test audiences” or “focus groups” but I suspect if she had she would have spelled it out.

“How it does” is going to mean “ratings” to most people. The only other news to come out of the event is that the movie will premiere in January, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety. One newspaper report specified January 2nd as the date, but The Sci-Fi Channel hasn’t issued an official press release confirming any of this yet.

A lot of people were confused by what looked like shots of a Victory-class destroyer included in the Sci-Fi promo for upcoming events that debuted during Sunday night’s premiere of The Chronicle. Since the Victory and Excalibur won’t be launched until two years after the events in the Rangers pilot, folks were wondering how they could be featured in the movie. The short answer is, “They couldn’t.” JMS has let it be known that the final CGI for Rangers is just coming in, so the Sci-Fi Channel just used whatever footage they had available to round out the promo.

In this case they took the space shots from A Call to Arms, presumably because they would look “different” than standard B5 shots (and therefore say “new series” to all but hard-core B5 fans who weren’t the target for this part of the promo anyway, since presumably they’ll all be watching regardless.) Also the ActA clips use the “new” jumpgate effect, which also distinguishes the footage from B5 material.

The fact that the final CGI means that post-production is moving ahead and that Sci-Fi shouldn’t have to wait too long for the final cut of the movie.

Finally, JMS resurfaced on the Compuserve SF Media “Straczynski’s Works” section, after an absence of several months. In answer to a fan question he mentioned that the latest word from he’s had from Warner Home Video is that the DVDs will be released “this fall.” Not terribly surprising since WHV would almost certainly have released the disc specs if they were going to meet the original August street date for In the Beginning and The Gathering. But since “this fall” could mean anywhere from September to November, we’re no closer to knowing when we’ll see the discs than we were when JMS first announced that they were in production back in January or February.
smile.gif


And that’s all the news that is genuinely new. Updates when more surfaces.

Joe


[This message has been edited by B5LR (edited July 20, 2001).]
 
How is it that waiting on the ratings is not especially good news?

I thought that they were just being safe.

However, how would putting Rangers into production be any different from launching Farscape? No pun intended.

Could this decision be related to the "problems" that Slade mentioned, or are those something that only a B5 fan would notice?

I realize that everything is just speculation, but I had to ask.

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When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in a confederacy against him.
-Jonathan Swift
 
"Not an especially good sign" means pretty much what it says. It isn't a great sign, as it would have been if Hammer had said, "We just placed the series order with Warner Bros. yesterday." But it isn't necessarily a bad sign, either, and that wasn't what I meant to convey.

Sci-Fi has always had a lot of options for when to pull the trigger on a Rangers series or decide to take a pass. They could have done what another network did with JMS's other new series - approve the film and a full 18 episode first season based on the pilot script alone. They could have done it based on first few day's footage, the rough cut, or (still) the final assembled film. Or they could wait until they see the ratings. JMS has indicated, from the beginning, that this is one of the things they might do.

There are a lot of reasons Sci-Fi may have decided to do what they're doing that have nothing to do with any "problems" with the film. I just wanted to highlight the fact that they are apparently waiting, in contrast to last week's report that a decision was expected at any time. I've edited the original story and the above post to make that point clearer.

Regards,

Joe

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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division

joseph-demartino@att.net
 
I don't understand the "Farscape" reference. What does any of this news have to do with Farscape?

As to waiting for the ratings on the B5LR movie, why are we all so weird about that? It's really only an intelligent decision, IMHO.

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"Why not? Only 1 Human captain has ever survived battle with the Minbari fleet. He is behind me, you are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else."
 
Actually, I haven't edited the above post because my news-editing password does not let me change a B5LR post. Just read "not an especially good sign" as "disappointing" and you'll have the gist of it.
laugh.gif


Regards,

Joe

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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division

joseph-demartino@att.net
 
I am sorry about the above post. I was very vague about what I intended to say.

As for the reference to Farscape, I was wondering how starting a space based hour long show like Farscape would differ from giving Rangers a "start"? I know relatively little about the workings of television, and I was assuming, probably incorrectly, that the surface similarities of the two shows would make their production considerations similar.

As for my question about Joe's wording, I did not mean to sound alarmist. I was simply in a hurry and did not take the proper time to choose my words carefully.
laugh.gif


Sorry


------------------
When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in a confederacy against him.
-Jonathan Swift
 
As far as the Farscape reference, They had to choose to commit to Farscape just to get the pilot done because the effects were too expensive to put together without a full season commitment. All of that Creature shop work along with the CGI wouldn't have been possible. I don't think they would like to go out on that limb again if they don't have too. Also, B5 has a really set fan base. I think they want to see how much they can expland that before they make any more commitments.

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>As for my question about Joe's wording, I did not mean to sound alarmist. I was simply in a hurry and did not take the proper time to choose my words carefully. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well, I had the same problem, and I'm very glad that you posted what you did. In re-reading the piece, I think my original wording did sound a bit alarmist itself, and I would never have corrected the "news story" version you hadn't brought this to my attention. Since this is the version mostly likely to be checked and picked up by other sites, I'm grateful that you pointed this out.

Regards,

Joe

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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division

joseph-demartino@att.net
 
I'm interested to know how they monitor the ratings to tell the difference between viewers who are already B5 fans and new fans.
Even if they get a really good rating how will they know who else is watching. Comparing it to B5 reruns will be meaningless by then.

I'm curious to know what the SciFi Channel is worried about (apart from money)
laugh.gif
After all Crusade wasn't really a failure, it never had a chance.
crazy.gif


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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>I'm interested to know how they monitor the ratings to tell the difference between viewers who are already B5 fans and new fans.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I doubt the ratings, or even the demographics, give them enough detail to actually be able to tell that. But if the B5 reruns the week the movie airs average a rating of 0.6 and the movie draws a 1.2, there is good reason to suspect that a lot of people who aren't watching the reruns have tuned in to see the movie. Similarly if the demographics say that 50% of the viewers of the reruns are in there 30s, but the movie has an audience that is 70% 20-somethings, you can deduce that there has been a shift.

Networks make decisions like this for all kinds of reasons - or non-reasons. When Warner Bros. and JMS made their deal for Babylon 5 it was for a series with a two-hour kick-off show. Then everything was put on hold while they assembled the PTEN network. Finally they shot the pilot, and JMS and Babylonian assumed that they would start shooting the first episode as soon as the network approved it. Instead Warner Bros. said, "Well, now that we've got the pilot, we'd rather run it first and then start on the series."

The Sci-Fi Channel just hired a new VP of programming. (The announcement was made the day before Bonnie Hammer made her "wait to see how the movie does" comment.) Maybe the new guy, coming from a broadcast network, is more cautious than the previous SFC programming people. You have to remember that a season of the show is going to cost something in the area of $25 million. If you had to sign off on that kind of expenditure, and would be held accountable for the result, wouldn't you be tempted to hedge your bets as much as possible.

No matter what they do the series can't crank up production until after JMS is finished with the first season of "That Which Cannot Be Named", which should wrap around January or February. So why not wait for the ratings?

Also, the B5 rerun ratings have been down of late (as have the ratings of other Sci-Fi shows), so maybe the network is looking for a little reassurance. Is the ratings slump due to the usual summer drop in viewership, the fact that the show has been rerun so many times, or are people just getting tired of B5? If these questions can occur to a layman like me, you can bet that they've crossed the minds of the professionals who wonder about this stuff for a living. If they think seeing what the movie ratings look like is a good idea, who am I to argue?

Regards,

Joe

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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division

joseph-demartino@att.net
 
I don't know how much this would help, but i think that if alot of us here posted our opinions of the movie on Sci-Fi.com that they might take what is said into consideration too. Like if they look and see 100+ posts from ppl saying they loved the movie it might make them edge a little closer to making the series since the know some of the opinions from ppl who watched the show, if they check the board.

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*said in vorlon accent* "We are all confused"
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Teekas Dragon:
I don't know how much this would help, but i think that if alot of us here posted our opinions of the movie on Sci-Fi.com that they might take what is said into consideration too. Like if they look and see 100+ posts from ppl saying they loved the movie it might make them edge a little closer to making the series since the know some of the opinions from ppl who watched the show, if they check the board.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


It certainly couldn't hurt.
smile.gif


In general, one of the reasons to have a website is to promote and get feedback for your business. Even if they do not read all the posts, an increase in traffic on certain topics could be analysed to gauge favorable vs unfavorable response.

So, post and prosper...
wink.gif


Ro

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I have no surviving
enemies. At all.
 
JMS's post about the ex-"TWCBN" (Jeremiah) says that the show will start shooting September 4th and go on the air in January. Showtime had originally planned to launch the series in late March.

The possible timeline that JMS gave for the two shows back in February assumed that Jeremiah would be shooting from August to January or February, with one or two months to deal with post-production on Jeremiah before the first episode had to go to the network. So the decks would be reasonably clear for him to start work on a Rangers series around March.

But with the premiere of Jeremiah moved up by around three months, JMS is probably going to be putting in 18 hour days just to get that series ready for air, and have no time to devote to Rangers much before April.

So, again, if you can't start production on the show for until then anyway, why not get the ratings before signing a $25 million deal with Warner Bros.?

Regards,

Joe

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