Babylon 5 20th Anniversary

[sftv]

It is kindof hard to realize that we're coming up on the 20th anniversary of the debut of Babylon 5. Looking back on what was happening then online is quite interesting (all those posts collected on the front page at jmsnews.com .

I've set up a blog to celebrate and acknowledge this over at http://www.azsf.net/b520 and am planning to do more of a push on Friday, August 10th, the 20th Anniversary of the start of filming on the pilot. The entry from 20 years ago today, August 6th, is pretty interesting, so I've spotlighted that as the first formal post on the blog.

I plan to add more information, including more links and possibly some additional pages for specific items (like the original Babylon 5 Frequently Asked Questions List I maintained).

I'm also hoping to spotlight convention appearances over the next year by Joe and the cast to raise awareness of the anniversary.

One other thing of note from 20 years ago, which Joe didn't really talk much about online that I can find, is he did a panel on Babylon 5 at San Diego Comic Con (which was in mid-August in 1992) which was the first public showing of some footage from the pilot. I'm planning to see if I can track down any usenet postings about that, but if there's anyone who was there, some recollections would be appreciated. I did see Joe do presentations at Gallifrey One and WesterCon in 1992 (with Rick Sternbach in the audience), but didn't make it to LosCon where he screened the pilot.

Lee Whiteside

[sftv]

One side note....

In the August 7th post from Joe, there was this response to someone asking him about Comic Con...

"You don't have to buy Comic Con tickets in advance, they can easily be
purchased the day you arrive, for all or part of the con."

Definitely not true anymore....

[JoeD80]

One other thing of note from 20 years ago, which Joe didn't really talk much about online that I can find, is he did a panel on Babylon 5 at San Diego Comic Con (which was in mid-August in 1992) which was the first public showing of some footage from the pilot. I'm planning to see if I can track down any usenet postings about that, but if there's anyone who was there, some recollections would be appreciated.

There is some in the GEnie posts that aren't quite archived:

http://jmsnews.com/jmsgenieposts.txt

(Oh, and lest I forget to remind one and all...at Comic Con I'll be able
to show the first few minutes of actual live action footage from the movie,
which begins shooting the preceding Monday.)

if you're going to be at Comic Con, or know ANYONE who is,
I strongly suggest you tell them to come early. I spoke with some reps of
the con today, and it already looks like the room, which seats 2,000, is going
to be full fast. We'll be unveiling a LOT of new stuff there, so consider
yourself warned.

BTW, this is probably dopey, but...today, at the costume designer's, I
saw a bunch of the uniforms, and...well, there's going to be one COMPLETE
extra uniform made...just happens to fit me.... I went ahead and
commissioned it, and will probably introduce it at the Comic Con presentation.

[Jan]

Excellent, thanks, Lee!

20 years....I wasn't a 'First One' - I jumped on when the first episode aired. But it's still so cool to realize that I actually watched the first airings of both Trek TOS and B5.

Damn...I'm *old*!

Jan

[OmahaStar]

Excellent, thanks, Lee!

20 years....I wasn't a 'First One' - I jumped on when the first episode aired. But it's still so cool to realize that I actually watched the first airings of both Trek TOS and B5.

Damn...I'm *old*!

Jan

And at the same time, young as when the world was new.

[Jan]

And at the same time, young as when the world was new.

Consider yourself well and truly ::SMOOTCHED::

Jan

ETA: I'm going to sticky this thread so it'll be easy to find as new items come along.

[sftv]

Jan - Thanks for the sticky!

I've updated with an August 8th post (don't want to over do it, but leading up to the August 10th one).

I've added some links and plan to put more up (need to do more of this from home and not at work...). If there's any suggestions for other links to put up, let me know.

Also, I tried accessing the NeverSurrenderDreams.com web site and it came up as "under Maintenance". Has that been shut down or did I just catch it at a bad time?

And any suggestions on actor web sites would be good. I mainly did a few utilizing google, but not all of them that came up looked legit and I didn't want to risk catching something on my work computer (already got a virus from a banner ad on www.thefutoncritic.com)

Lee

[Jan]

Lee,

No problem for the sticky - I expect there'll be numerous postings about it for the coming year. A couple of small suggestions...

- You might want to add the link to your blog to your signature or remember to post it when you let us know of new entries. It'll save scrolling for the rest of us.
- Are you going to allow comments? I posted something inconsequential to the 8/6 (I think) entry and it's not showing as yet.
- Would it be out of line for me to ask that you add a link to the forums here as well as to the archives?

Thanks again for doing this.

Jan

[Jan]

Happy 20th 'birthday' to Babylon 5! Today marks 20 years since the first frame of film was shot for "The Gathering". JMS wrote:

We pulled the trigger and got off the first shot on-camera at about 9:30
a.m. I tried, where possible, to stay out of the line of fire, since by this
time I was vibrating enough to slide into another dimension, and didn't want
to infect anybody else. Went off perfectly.

The main thing, for me, was that today the whole world came alive at the
same time (the world of B5). Up until now, it's been pieces...we see the
actors. We see the sets. We see the costumes. We see the actors in the sets
but not in costume. We see the actors in costume but not on the sets.
Finally, there it was at last...all of our characters, in full costume or
uniform (and the uniforms look DYNAMITE!), on the sets. It was finally,
fully, completely *real* at last.

Huge thanks to everyone who contributed to this show. It's brought many, many people many hours of entertainment, helped form communities and even encouraged some good things to happen in the real world.

Jan

[nottenst]

- Are you going to allow comments? I posted something inconsequential to the 8/6 (I think) entry and it's not showing as yet.

By the way, I just saw your comment there.

[sftv]

Lee,

No problem for the sticky - I expect there'll be numerous postings about it for the coming year. A couple of small suggestions...

- You might want to add the link to your blog to your signature or remember to post it when you let us know of new entries. It'll save scrolling for the rest of us.
- Are you going to allow comments? I posted something inconsequential to the 8/6 (I think) entry and it's not showing as yet.
- Would it be out of line for me to ask that you add a link to the forums here as well as to the archives?

Thanks again for doing this.

Jan

If I can figure out how to edit my signature.... I can change my location, but no edit icon appears next to my signature. (finally figured it out...)

With wordpress there's WAY to much spam once the spammers realize its there, so I have to approve any comments. I think I can allow someone to post freely once I've approved them, though.

Let me see about getting some addtional links up.

I did do a post today about the 20th anniversary of filming on the pilot as well as a set visit on August 10th in 1995.

http://www.azsf.net/b520

[JasonDavis]

Happy birthday, Lee!

Based on the shooting schedules, I think "Convictions" was in production when you visited Babylonian on Thursday, 10 August 1995 rather than "A Day in the Strife." They should have been doing conference room scenes with Sheridan, Ivanova and Brother Theo in the morning followed by corridor work with Garibaldi, G'Kar, security personnel and Carlson in the afternoon.

[Dr Maturin]

Wow, I feel old, and I am only 36...

[Jan]

This is worthy of note. OmahaStar has updated his memorial page for the cast and crew who've passed away.

http://www.isnanchordesk.com/mem/mem.html

In memory, still bright. Thanks, Omaha!

Jan

[Delenn_of_Mir]

I had no idea so many b5 people were gone. I was aware of the main actors, but not of the rest of them. That page is terrific in that it pays tribute to all those who have passed beyond the rim, but also very sad.