{original post unavailable}

At this time, officially, I cannot confirm or deny the report.

jms

{original post had no questions}

"...now all those old uniforms are going to go to waste more than
likely, meanwhile, they're a hell of a lot better than that cheesier
new design they've come up with; a pity."

Funny, everybody said that about our Earthforce uniforms when
the first pictures appeared. Now they're the preferred standard.

Further, those uniforms are specific to the mission of the
Excalibur, as uniforms vary within the real military. The regular
Earthforce uniforms are still very much in use in the Crusade universe.

Y'know, I'd've thought that, after learning the lessons on B5
about not judging things too quickly -- the costumes are stupid, who's
the guy with the big hair -- that people would have learend to not
prejudge things before they actually see them on film.

Guess I was wrong.

jms

{original post had no questions}

The TNT memo was apparently real; however, the egregious points
have now been withdrawn, and on top of that, TNT has allocated a big
chunk of change to let us build some new sets and expand stuff.

jms

{original post unavailable}

I think that to dwell on the thing would be to just open wounds
that are better left healed.

jms

(blocked) asks:
> Joe, how is everything going with production?
> And, more importantly, how are you feeling?

Things are going well overall; we've filmed 5 episodes, and have
just extended a planned 1 week production hiatus (we take two such
hiatuses -- hiati? -- every year, one in the fall, one in the spring)
and added three paid weeks in order to allow time for construction on a
number of new sets.

jms

{original post had no questions}

> The TNT memo was apparently real; however, the egregious points have
> now been withdrawn, and on top of that, TNT has allocated a big chunk
> of change to let us build some new sets and expand stuff.

> Hey! That's WONDERFUL news!

What we've done is to try and expedite this so we can have the
new stuff in hand for the maximum number of episodes as quickly as
possible. We always take a one-week hiatus in every block of episodes
we shoot, all the way through B5's history and now. One week around
the start of October (depending on the start of filming), then the
Christmas break, then another one-week hiatus midway through the last
10 episodes.

So what we did here was to add on three weeks to the hiatus,
starting Tuesday. Well, three paid weeks off for most of the crew
directly involved with the actual filming, anyway. Construction, art
department, props, wardrobe and other departments will still be working
away to build and dress the sets and stuff so we can get right back
into shooting on with the new stuff in place.

We're talking here improvements to the corridors, to the
quarters to enlarge them, adding a wardroom/mess hall, an exercise
area...other stuff. We generally add sets each season, and wanted to do
these down the road, but now we have the chance to do them now.

jms

Ray Pelzer <70475.1263@compuserve.com> asks:
> Withdrawn?
> I realize you probably can't elaborate too much on the
> circumstances, butdid they back down because of YOUR fury,
> because of viewer complaint, or did you go the quick and easy
> route and sic Harlan on 'em?? On a note of more immediate urgency,
> how is your recuperation going?????

All that matters is that wisdom prevailed.

And I'm well past the pneumonia, and doing much better now.

jms