{original post unavailable}

"Everybody involved in B5 is in it for the money."

Y'know, this with some of your other comments here -- using the
old canard of dismissing anyone who disagrees with you as "worshipping"
someone who creates or does a TV show -- amounts to some of the most
cynical crap I've seen in a long time.

Here's a little revelation for you: Before doing B5, I was a
writer producer on MURDER, SHE WROTE. A top-ten (sometimes even top 5)
rated megahit for CBS, with extremely high visibility. I resigned M,SW
to take on the reins of a syndicated series, which pays me HALF WHAT I
EARNED WHEN I WAS ON M,SW. Not only is my producer's fee half what it
was when I was at the network, the scripts fees are ALSO far
less...about $15,000 as compared to $24,000 for a network script. The
residuals are lower in syndication, the publicity budget is less,
people pay less attention to you in town.

Now...why don't you just sit down and do the math, and poke
your head out of your butt long enough to consider that maybe, MAYBE,
some people do something because they're motivated by something other
than just being in it "for the money." If I were "in it for the
money," I would've stayed with a hit network series for major bucks.
If I were "in it for the money" I'd be pushing for more merchandising,
I'd *NEVER* have set a ceiling of 5 years on the show, and I'd
certainly never want to get away from TV and go back to writing novels
when this is all over, since books pay a fraction of TV.

It's truly sad to see the world through your eyes, in which no
one does anything for reasons other than THE BUCKS...no story wanting
to be told, no art, no music, no committment, nothing other than sheer,
naked greed.

Do not mistake cynicism for open-mindedness. Yours is just
another form of prejudice. One can be just as close-minded by assuming
the worst of others as by (to use your term) "worshipping."

jms

Philip Hornsey <74053.2101@compuserve.com> asks:
> How many years did you have to worry about where the next meal
> was comming from, and how many times did your *mind* tell you
> that you were an idiot for trying to be a writer instead of
> getting a "straight" job, while your heart wouldn't let you try
> something else?

Quite true. During the period where I was working to break in
as a writer, I earned maybe $3,000 a year tops. I used my little
income to buy writing supplies instead of food...at one point, at 6'4"
I was down to about 155 pounds. Maybe a bit less. I was getting by on
beef jerky and soda because I couldn't afford real food. (Water
would've been cheaper than soda, but I needed the sugar rush to get my
energy level up enough to write; with the result that by the time I
crashed at night I had the shakes from lack of food and the sudden
sugar drop.)

Everyone told me to forget it, to take a regular job, and let
the writing wait. But I knew that if I did this...I'd never get out.
It was all or nothing.

So yeah, I paid my dues. And then some. And if you pay your
dues, and you work hard, and you keep to your vision, and you have
something roughly resembling talent...sometimes things work out. They
did.

jms

{original post unavailable}

We've always done everything in our power to assist our actors
in taking outside work when they're not needed in the show. We let
Stephen Furst out of his contract enough to do "Misery Loves Company"
for Fox, and rearranged our shooting schedule days to accommodate him;
ditto when Peter Jurasik wanted time off to do "The Late Shift," and
Andreas when he wanted to do a recent movie project.

The key is that we need *advance word* on these things; then we
can adjust the scripts and schedules. If someone comes to us at the
last minute, we can't do much about that.

jms