• enemmän ekspositiota, asiat pitää selittää tarkemmin että tyhminkin katsoja ymmärtää missä mennään ja mitä tapahtuu
• ei viittauksia menneeseen, eihän kukaan Babylon 5:ttä muista
• enemmän tappeluita ja toimintaa
• hahmokehitykseen mallia wrestlingistä
• enemmän isorintaisia naisia, tiukkoja uniformuja, ja yhdeksi päähenkilöksi ns. sexual explorer, joka harrastaa seksiä suunnilleen kaikkien vastaantulijoiden kanssa
• uusi avausjakso, alkuperäinen avausjakso olisi alkanut keskeltä tapahtumia ja sehän ei kelpaa

"So if folks wanted to drop an encouraging note to, let's say, the Sci-Fi Channel, for instance, that would certainly be okay by me." -- JMS, 29.1.1999

From: jmsatb5@aol.com (Jms at B5)
Subject: from jms re: Crusade
Date: 26 Feb 1999 14:07:43 -0700

Bottom line:

The reason we've been waiting so long for news is that the SciFi Channel has
been crunching numbers for weeks, trying to make the deal work with WB, and
doing their level best.  The programming folks there loved the show (and
special thanks has to go to Programming Head Tom Vitale at SFC who worked
hardest to make this work).

The problem is simply this: the money to fund a series is a BIG chunk of
change.  SFC had already allocated its budget for the year as of January 1st,
and there simply wasn't enough left in this year's budget to pull it off. 
Also, the emphasis now is on spending money on shows where one owns a piece of
it, and Crusade is owned entirely by WB.  

At the end of they day, they just couldn't make the dollars work, though they
tried their damndest, and are only to be thanked.

I'm told that if the ratings are good on the 13 which TNT will still air, all
the eps made so far will be shown, there may be a second season, but we'll see.

Meanwhile, I'm taking the day off.  There have been seven offers for overall
deals and multiple network pilot deals with both networks per se and studios on
my desk for about a year now, ever since B5 ended, which I've been putting off
to do Crusade.  Now I'll pick one of those deals and make it.  So the next
thing from me you see will almost certainly be on one of the major networks. 
I'm going back into the deep water again....

Meanwhile, my thanks to all those who emailed and wrote and called and
supported.  It's a good show, as will be seen when the shows are aired, and I'd
rather lose a show I believed in than keep one I didn't believe in.

 jms

        Q: "I'd like to know how many episodes are sold and what plans you
have..." 
        JMS: "For?"
        Q: "Crusade."
        JMS: "Thank you. It's a very long story. There's stuff I can
say, and there's stuff that I can't say. So, I'll tell you what I can
say and lie about what I can't say. "We shot 13 episodes. And TNT will
be airing those on June 9 at 10:00, starting then and going straight
through, more or less.
        And we had... they had said they weren't going to do more beyond
that, beyond the 13. We tried at that point to take it to the SciFi
Channel, but it was so late in the game.... It takes a lot of money to
be able to support an entire season of a show. The SciFi Channel had
already allocated their funds for the year, so they couldn't pick it up.
        If the show does well, the first 13, then it will be considered
for a season, beginning with the second season, on the SciFi Channel. If
the show does well, it will go on. "As for more what happened...
        Let me tell you a fairy tale. And every fairy tale begins with
Once Upon A Time...
        "...There was a writer of songs in a kingdom. And he wasn't the
best writer of songs on the entire planet. There were others who were as
good or better. And he had written 110 really good songs... and four or
five long odes.
        And they said, 'Do some more songs for us.'
        And he said, 'Sure.'
        And he began writing more songs. And those were for this little
kingdom which was great. As were the ministers, who had always before
worked with him.
        "Then the King heard about the new songs that were being
commissioned. Not the Emperor. Not the Emperor Theodore and his wife
Lady Jane. I ain't talking about them. I'm talking about the lower king
of a particular land, all right. I don't want the Emperor getting pissed
at me.
        And he (the King) said, 'Well, I should be involved creatively.'
"And thus there came... runners would come with scrolls, which the
singer/songwriter would look at and burn.
        "Now this is just a fairy tale. Okay? This is nothing but a
fairy tale. This is not about Crusade. Okay? I'm just telling you a
story here.
        "And the King became wroth. He waxed Wroth, and Wroth wasn't
very happy about it. Old joke, I'm sorry.
        "So they called for a grand meeting at which, along one long
table were ministers, and emissaries, and ambassadors, and functionaries
and assistants, and programming-uh,...a whole lot of guys. Now on the
other side of the table was the writer of songs. And they had plenty of
these huge scrolls in front of them. And they began to open the first
one.
        "And the writer of songs said, 'no.'
        "And they brought someone in with a book to explain to them what
the word 'no meant, because they had never heard it before. And they
said, 'no to what?'
        "I said... The writer of songs said, in this imaginary story,
'no to all of it. No to all of it in all its parts and pieces, from page
1 to page 20. No to all of it.' The writer of songs felt that what they
wanted was, in modern terms, for a moment, sort of Baywatch meets
wrestling in space. Which was not applicable, exactly, to our fairy tale
scenario. (aside: If I every work again, it'll be a miracle)
        "It became clear that if the King's emissaries were not properly
responded to, that they may say, 'you can only write 13 songs.' And the
writer of songs said, 'better 13 songs that I can believe in than 22
that I do not.
        "So there were 13 songs, and the writer of songs has moved to a
different kingdom knowing that the 13 songs were songs that he wanted to
hear. And in the 13th song there was a sub-thread in the song about
people who come in with suggestions, which is rather similar to the
King's situation. Astonishingly, the King saw the 13th song and didn't
realize what it was.
        "And the writer of songs moved to another kingdom and lived
happily ever after.
        "And this has nothing to do with Crusade or your question, but I
thought I'd tell you that story because it amuses me."