Babylonian Productions does not skimp or hold back money for
publicity because BP does not have ANY money for publicity or promotion.
Period. Warner Bros. Publicity handles all PR for Babylon 5; we have
zero control over that area, but a little influence, that's all.

Nor can we simply decide, out of the blue, to produce a 23rd episode
of the show. Warners and the stations making up PTEN make an executive
decision on the pickup and number of episodes. It is not within our
purview to violate that. Further, that would mean coming in under budget
over the season in an amount equal to the price of one episode, which we
have never done, and never will. Each season, we come in just a smidge
under budget. And I do mean just a *smidge*. Pocket change, compared to
the overall cost of the show.

The small under-budget from year one was invested into new sets and
costumes and to get a leg-up on CGI for year two. The small year two
underage will likely be put toward the production on year three, assuming
we're renewed. Neither Doug nor I take a dime of that. Recently, Warners
did a spot audit, as they do for any series. They showed up at 9 a.m.,
saying they'd be here for a few days. A few hours later, they said they
might be able to finish by the end of the day. By lunchtime, they were
finished, and said that this was the best set of books they'd ever seen.

So the line about maybe someday putting the profits back into the
series, we've been doing that since day one, insofar as the under-budget.
As for profits...there aren't any that we get. Our contract with WB
gives us a percentage of the NET. Now, anyone who works in Hollywood
knows there's no such thing as net profit. It takes a VERY long time for
a TV series to ever show anything. Once the series is finished, and no
more shows are being produced, and the series enters long-term syndication,
lessening the expenditures, then there may finally be some small profit,
but at that point the show's done.

jms