B5 Magazine

[SmileOfTheShadow]

I have the issues that have the short stories in them, but I'm wondering if the information in the other issues are worth having or still pertinent to today? Or has all the information that was in them come out in some form or another and is kinda irrelevent now? Just curious, because I'm considering collecting.


Jon

[Jan]

Well, you know me...for me they're worth it for the JMS columns alone. Seriously, though, I liked them a lot. There are a lot of interviews with crew that you wouldn't find anywhere else and a lot of the photos are gorgeous. Plus, there are columns and interviews written by our own Joe Nazzaro. You can always look up the JMS stuff here but I don't think that the articles about the cast would be available anywhere else.

Jan

[SmileOfTheShadow]

Well, you know me...for me they're worth it for the JMS columns alone. Seriously, though, I liked them a lot. There are a lot of interviews with crew that you wouldn't find anywhere else and a lot of the photos are gorgeous. Plus, there are columns and interviews written by our own Joe Nazzaro. You can always look up the JMS stuff here but I don't think that the articles about the cast would be available anywhere else.

Jan

Wow, I didn't know Joe was that plugged in. That's really cool. I'll go check ebay

Jon

[NotSoWize]

If you head over to the "Please Introduce Yourself Here" thread in the "General" forum, you can read all about how "plugged in" Joe is in his entry and learn that several other posters here have some pretty solid connections to the B5 universe as well.

[SmileOfTheShadow]

If you head over to the "Please Introduce Yourself Here" thread in the "General" forum, you can read all about how "plugged in" Joe is in his entry and learn that several other posters here have some pretty solid connections to the B5 universe as well.

On my way over to that threat now..thanks NotSoWize.

Jon

[arius]

I just wanted to post, to say how impressed I am with the B5 magazine. I have just recently begun collecting the issues, I honestly didnt think that the magazine would be interesting. I have had bad expierences in the past with magazines based on tv shows, alot of them seem to be all 'fluff' and no substance.

I absolutly love the in depth articles on the making of certain episodes or movies, the chronology takes the cake, very in depth. Of course the last word by JMS is a nice touch. Even the small things, like some of the letters from fans that are in it, they dont all say what a great show it is, they dont all say that the magazine is doing a great job, you are able to see alot of different viewpoints.

I wasnt going to get this, I am collecting the scriptbooks from JMS, I have the episode synopsis books, but I am glad I decided to take the plunge and purchase these magazines. I highly recommend them to anyone who wants to become more aware of the inner workings of the show.

I am sad to see that the magazine was stopped in 2000, but with 31 magazines out there, they offer an invaluable tool to any B5 fan.

[Joe Nazzaro]

IÆm coming in to this thread a bit late, but IÆve only just got back from a few weeks in London, so the combination of jet lag and backlog of work always tends to slow me down for a few days, not to mention a laptop that suddenly seems to laps into a coma for no apparent reason.

Anyway, I just wanted to thank Jan for her very kind words re the B5 Magazine and my work for it. Having written for a number of licensed magazines over the years, I can honestly say it was the most enjoyable experience IÆve ever had, in large part because A) everybody from the editor on down really loved the series, B) we were encouraged to examine every aspect of the production, so we were able to cover subjects that were rarely if ever covered in other licensed magazines, and more importantly, C) the production gave us unprecedented access to just about every area of production, right down to eventually allowing our own photographer on set to take photos that werenÆt available anywhere else.

Just to provide a bit of background for anybody whoÆs interested, I was originally contacted by editor John Freeman, who gave me my very first professional (i.e. paid) assignment ever, when he was the editor at Doctor Who Magazine years ago. He was my editor on TitanÆs Star Trek Monthly, and IÆve always had a great deal of respect for John for his efficiency, visual sense and incredible eye for detail. When Titan began putting together plans for an official B5 Magazine, I think I may have been one of the very writers he got in touch with, because I had been happily covering B5 since the pilot, so I like to think I already had a few good contacts in the production. The great thing about talking to John in the very early days was that I was able to offer tons of suggestions about possible features, including an ongoing piece on specific episodes. I used to enjoy Andrew PixleyÆs exhaustive episode-by-episode coverage in Doctor Who Magazine and suggested that we try something similar, but make it a lot more relaxed and free-flowing with bits of trivia as well as comments from cast and crew. The only problem was I subsequently had to do one for just about every issue, which could get a bit tedious as deadline loomed.

But that was a minor complaint. When the production agreed to give us full access, they couldnÆt have been more helpful, going far out of their way to help give us everything we needed, including a copy of just about every piece of visual material that had ever been generated, which is why the magazine looked so good. They also made sure that when one of us was on set (me in the early days, Lou Anders later on), we got everything we needed, and God bless John CopelandÆs assistant Jeffrey Willerth, who spent far too much time twisting peopleÆs arms on our behalf.

For the first issue, we wanted to come up with some features that would launch the magazine in a big way, and knowing that I was going to be going to LA, I suggested an interview with the entire cast, or at least as many of them as we could get together at one time. IÆm sure I donÆt have to explain to anybody how difficult that kind of thing is to put together, but the production reserved the conference room and contacted everybody on our behalf. Not only did we get all but two actors I seem to recall, who had other commitments, but virtually every cast member who wasnÆt in front of the camera came in, including the actors who had a day off and drove all the way back to Sun Valley for the interview. It should be pointed out that just about every member of the B5 cast and crew was anxious to promote the serious, and pretty much went out of their way to pitch in. To this day, I canÆt think of any other group of people who would do that. Some of you have probably read that interview, which ran over issues one and two, but it would be difficult to describe how complex it was to conduct; I actually had to use two tape recorders, one on each side of the long table, and the conversation continued to change as new people arrived and others were called back to the set.

I think the episode that best exemplifies the productionÆs attitude was Sleeping in Light. I had been lobbying Joe and John for months to allow me to cover the shoot from beginning to end, and I donÆt think there was ever any problem with them saying no, but it was decided early on that only the B5 Magazine would be allowed on set, so essentially Sheelagh and I were the only people who were covering the episode from the inside. When we showed up on day one, John Copeland called us in to our office and explained that if there was a season five, it meant that Sleeping in Light would be put on the shelf for an entire year, and they asked us to promise that we wouldnÆt tell anybody what we had seen. No written agreement, no non-disclosure; just a gentlemenÆs agreement, which we were more than happy to keep.

As far as my work for the B5 Magazine, the bulk of my work was for volume one, where I was fortunate enough to do most of the main cast and crew interviews. At some point, John Freeman told me that they wanted to do even more in-depth coverage of the series and to that end, they were asking LA-based Lou Anders to do most of the on-set work, since he was basically on their back doorstep and could change his schedule at a momentÆs notice. While Lou did a fantastic job, it was obviously tough for me, because it meant an obvious shift in coverage for the magazine with me doing less and less. But having said that, John agreed that if I had plans to be in LA, I could cover the episode in question, so I was able to be on hand at various points in season five, notably Day of the Dead, for which I was there from start to finish. And if I wasnÆt writing for the B5 Magazine, I was still able to cover the series for various other genre magazines, who at that point were clamoring for more B5 stuff, so I suppose in the end, it worked out best all around.

And although I wasnÆt spending that much time on the West Coast, I was still able to pitch lots of ideas to John, and his successor Brian Robb, who eventually took over as editor and ran it right up to the final issue. My two personal favorites were interviews that I had always wanted to do, the first being a sit-down with producers Joe Straczynski, John Copeland and Doug Netter. The other was a joint interview between Michael OÆHare and Bruce Boxleitner, which had never been done before, and took an awful lot of organizing, but thankfully Bruce and I were able to work together in persuading a very nervous Michael to sit down for a chat. Incidentally, I canÆt possibly say enough nice things about Bruce, who I interviewed for the very first time a few days after he was cast, and was always hugely helpful, friendly and fun to be with. I still remember the first time Sheelagh and I met Bruce and Bill Mumy for dinner in London where they had just come back from Forbidden Planet, a little surprised that nobody had recognized either of them (I think this was still in season two). The next day, we had arranged for Bruce to do something for the UK Sci-Fi Channel and on the cab ride back to his hotel, he pulled out the money they gave him as a fee and tried to split it up with us! ThatÆs just the kind of guy he is. And I still remember sitting on the back steps of the studio with Sheelagh and Bruce during the filming of A Call to Arms, by which time he realized that he wasnÆt going to be part of Crusade. He wasnÆt really angry, but just sort of disappointed to be leaving behind this world that he really loved.

Finally, since I seem to have run off track a bit, a number of people have asked me over the years why the B5 Magazine was cancelled. Obviously the cost of producing a licensed magazine is very highly, due in part to the licensing fee that has to be paid to the studio, and even after a series is off the air (which means that sales inevitably drop), they donÆt drop that fee accordingly, which is why most publishers donÆt renew the license. In the case of the B5 Magazine, I was led to believe that sales were not huge but okay enough to keep it going. But from what I was told, JMS had asked for a fee from Titan for his then-reference editor to read an approve each issue of the magazine (IÆm not 100% sure about this, but I believe she was already being paid to vet every item of B5 merchandise as part of her job), so that was the straw that broke the camelÆs back. Since sales were already marginal, Titan ultimately decided to cancel the magazine instead.

Ironically, I was doing a bit of a clean-out yesterday, getting rid of 20 yearÆs worth of junk that had been accumulating, and I came across a bunch of old B5 Magazines and thumbed through a few of them for the first time in ages. My first thought was that they still hold up awfully well, but it was also nice to relive some of those memories again. Hope I havenÆt bored you guys too much by talking about some of them.

[Jan]

Bored?! Hardly! That was great, Joe, thanks. Hey, back up that laptop *now*, okay? You don't want to lose stuff like JMS did recently.

Guess there's no chance you'll be in Vancouver for the next couple of weeks, is there?

Jan

[Joe Nazzaro]

Haven't been invited, haven't been assigned, so guess I'm staying put on the East Coast. Feels strange- with the exception of the aborted film that never happened, this is the only incarnation of B5 I haven't covered. I'm sure somebody at Warner Bros will suddenly wake up and realize they need some publicity if they want to move some copies, but judging from past experience, that will be so far after the fact that it won't be nearly as much fun.

The laptop seems to have struggled back to life, so I have no idea what's happening with it. Fortunately I keep everything backed up on an external hard drive as well as a flash memory that goes everywhere with me. It's just the annoyance factor of maybe having to cough up a month's rent to buy a new laptop if this one goes south.

[FuryPilot]

I'm sure somebody at Warner Bros will suddenly wake up and realize they need some publicity if they want to move some copies, but judging from past experience, that will be so far after the fact that it won't be nearly as much fun.

I was wondering about this myself. I was half-expecting that there would be some sort of trip-to-Vancouver fan contest or press coverage... Something.

Apparently WB assumes that the fan base will buy with just the word of mouth that's already going on. Hey, it worked before...

FP

[Joe Nazzaro]

FP, I'm not sure it's really possible to explain just how badly Warners managed to handle publicity, or lack thereof while the original series was on. If you read JMS's into to volume 9 of the B5 script books, he talked about the the almost impossible situation in regards to getting publicity photos out to various magazine, and I can tell you from past experience that it was absolutely. These are the same people who forgot to take photos of all the guest characters appearing in Day of the Dead and later called me to ask if they could 'borrow' some of my photos taken on set for their trading cards (not offering any money of course). These are also the people who messed up an Art of Babylon 5 book I was going to write with producer John Copeland simply because they couldn't get their act together to actually sign a final deal with the publisher. We can only hope that the current regime is comprised of a brand new group of people, which is actually very likely considering the high turnover rate in the various studio publicity departments.

(Good thoughts, thinking good thoughts, go to your happy place...)

[Garibaldi's Hair]

Although without a firm release date, they probably haven't even thought about publicity yet.

[SmileOfTheShadow]

FP, I'm not sure it's really possible to explain just how badly Warners managed to handle publicity, or lack thereof while the original series was on. If you read JMS's into to volume 9 of the B5 script books, he talked about the the almost impossible situation in regards to getting publicity photos out to various magazine, and I can tell you from past experience that it was absolutely. These are the same people who forgot to take photos of all the guest characters appearing in Day of the Dead and later called me to ask if they could 'borrow' some of my photos taken on set for their trading cards (not offering any money of course). These are also the people who messed up an Art of Babylon 5 book I was going to write with producer John Copeland simply because they couldn't get their act together to actually sign a final deal with the publisher. We can only hope that the current regime is comprised of a brand new group of people, which is actually very likely considering the high turnover rate in the various studio publicity departments.

(Good thoughts, thinking good thoughts, go to your happy place...)

Yikes, that's pretty bad publicity. But you know...networks always seem to mismanage their good shows like this. Thanks for the insight on your time working for the mag, that was really interesting.

Jon

[Joseph DeMartino]

Although without a firm release date, they probably haven't even thought about publicity yet.

How many times have you gone to see a movie at Thanksgiving and seen a teaser trailer with "Summer" and the number of the following year. All those HBO First Look specials and major puff piece slick magazine articles appear just before a film is released, but most of the footage is shot and many of the interviews are recorded while the project concerned is still shooting. So it isn't unheard of for studios to start their publicity efforts well ahead of time - even in the absence of a firm release date.

Regards,

Joe

[arius]

Just a reply to an earlier post of mine in this thread.

I earlier mentioned that there were 31 magazines .. well .. thats because apparently I cant add, there are 33 magazines

volume 1, issues 1-9 (printed in UK only)
volume 2, issues 1-24 (thats when they expanded to US and Australia)

also it appears that in the UK, about a year before the official magazine came to be, there was a one off version of the magazine, my guess is to test sales, it was also made by Titan Magazines, so if you include that .. then it comes out to 34 magazines.

If anyone ever has the opportunity to get any of the magazines, I highly recommend them. I have had nothing but pleasure reading them. Some of the highlights include:

1) A couple of short stories printed from issues 22-24 (official canon)
2) Various excerpts from the psi corps trilogy, and some of the comics
3) Lots of cast and crew interviews, from all the main players of each show, all the way down to various directors, writers, sfx people etc.
4) Every issue ends in a Last Word, by JMS himself discussing everything from how he originally came up with the idea for B5, he reproduces his original notes in one of them, talks about his growing up, talks about crusade starting, getting cancelled .. all kinds of goodies
5) The most important thing that I have to say, and I have said it before .. is that the magazines are 'fluff' pieces, in reviews, it is common for the writers to list the flaws of certain episodes, in the letters to the editors section, you get lots of views from readers of the magazine. JMS did control this magazine, he could have made sure this was a fluff piece if he wanted, but he wanted a real objective magazine, and thats what it is.