Good points. I'd point you, incidentally, to an essay by Mark Twain on, I
believe, the Boxer rebellion, in which he dissects the phrase "my country
right or wrong," the earliest use I've ever seen of that phrase. Also A
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which has some very serious
commentary on what *is* patriotism, what what *is* the Nation?

Uncritical jingoism is as inherently unpatriotic as uncritical attacks. It's
important to see what a goverment does that is good, by our ability to
perceive the good, and support it...and to find what is in need of redress,
and fix it. But either way, we have to be honest about what we see, and ask
ourselves if it's right. Even if we come back toward saying yes, it *is*
right, at least we've thought about it, and now have reasons and objective
criteria for *why* it's right. Or why it's wrong.

jms

And this really isn't about setting records, that ain't the point, only a
byproduct. The emphasis has to be quality; quantity means nothing if it's
a lot of bad TV.

(If one chooses to really quibble, 92 TZs are mainly half-hours, so you're
looking at about 50 hours, and the number of jms B5's have already
exceeded that number. But again, this is really a rather silly
discussion.)


jms

"Jerry 'Garibaldi' Doyle (sp) recently stated in an interview that he was
looking to leave mid season this year (season four). Whether the writer
of the article (the interviewer) made it look like Doyle (sp) was unhappy
or if Mr. Doyle real is unhappy, it came across that way. He seems to
blame the writing (you in this case) for not developing his character
more. To add fuel to the fire, the rumor mill has been grinding out that
Bester will be reappearing soon and Doyle's character will be leaving on
the same show. How do you as the semi-sole writer of the series respond
to an actor who believes that his abilities are not being fully used."

First, I've never seen Jerry say that in print, and he's not leaving
mid-season year 4, and in fact he's had more to do this season than he has
in a long time. He has a huge arc this season. B5 is an ensemble show,
so there's always going to be some times when actors get more or less to
do, that's part of the job.

I commend to you the article that just came out in (you'll pardon the
expression) Starlog this month...it's an interview with Jerry that
addresses all of those points, and disputes all the commentrs you just
made here.

"If WB in the US wouldn't sell the tapes to us and the UK is selling them.
Would it be possible to have a studio (anyone who has the equipment) over
here set up to buy the tapes from the UK (which is done on PAL) and pull
them off and record them back on to VHS standard without violating the
copyright laws?"

Nope.

"Rod Sterling and the Twilight Zone will be mark that few writers and even
few producers will ever be able to hit."

It's Rod Serling. If you're going to use the name, learn how it's spelled
(you got it wrong each time you typed it). On the matter of script
numbers, I replied to that elsewhere. On the rest...Rod is one of my
icons, so believe me, I know his work far, far better than most people. I
have read his original scripts (many not available anywhere but via CBS),
have collaborated with him posthumously on the Twilight Zone v2.5, I know
his wife, Carol, and his neice, Sandi Serling, is one of our publicists.
Believe me, I know from Serling.


jms