>* How did you (JMS) keep going in the face of all the doubt and uncertainty
>that
>was B5?

Pure, naked, unbridled, ornery, stubbornness.

>How did you maintain
>a positive outlook (assuming you had one) during the whole thing? How did
>you
>get yourself to keep going in the face of these obstacles?

I'm of Eastern European extraction. The term "positive outlook" is foreign to
that mentality. We know only tenacity.

"So, Herr Hitler, you want to invade Stalingrad in winter, yes? By all means,
make yourself comfortable...."

>* A while back, someone asked you "What do you want?" One of your less
>humorous
>replies was "To tell the story" where I am assuming "the story" was B5. Now
>that you have completed this, do you have another goal? What do you want at
>this point in your life?

To tell the next story. And the one after that. Whether that's a TV show, or
a book, or a comic, or a play...it's all the same to me, as long as I get to
tell my stories the way I see them in my head.

In TV, I figure I've got another few years left in me before I just can't
handle it anymore, so I'd kinda like to do one more show, maybe two depending
on what does or doesn't last...and then get out. I'm 45 now, so that would put
me at about 50, a good age to go for a quieter lifestyle.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
(all message content (c) 2000 by
synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
to reprint specifically denied to
SFX Magazine)

>BS....Joe, you've got the stubbornness of a pit bull and you'll be making TV
>shows
>as long as those squirrels in your brain keep running (or until Harlan and
>Kathryn
>sign the commitment papers.)
>I'll bet you a steak dinner that you'll still be writing/producing when
>you're 60.
>
>50.... my arse.

I'll take that bet.

See, my mind -- that same, pigheaded mind -- made itself up pretty firmly on
this one.

Reason is basically this: I started working in TV round about 1984/85. That's
15 years already in this particular vineyard. And it's soul-killing work.
Always has been. Charles Beaumont said it's like climbing a mountain of ka-ka
to pluck one perfect rose...only to find by the time you've gotten to the top
that you've lost your sense of smell.

It's hard, tedious, soul-breaking work, mainly for the kind of people you have
to deal with, and I have only so much visceral material. I've worked hard all
my life (as have most people), working round the clock for *years*, rarely ever
taking a vacation, writing nonstop...I *need* to find that time when I can
relax a bit, and that ain't never gonna happen as long as I'm working in
TeeVee.

Give up writing? That, no, I'll be writing until I fall down dead. But TV?
Yeah, I could give that up pretty easily when the time comes.

jms
jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
(all message content (c) 2000 by
synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
to reprint specifically denied to
SFX Magazine)