All that info will be available at the time.
Just to clarify...the ironic thing is that this really has nothing to do
with B5. The reaction conveyed back to us from the stations was nothing short
of overwhelmingly enthusiastic. The question to be decided was, "Do we open
up a second night of programming (of which B5 was only one of SEVERAL shows to
be picked up during that meeting) or do we wait to see if the *first* night of
programming works out?"
By way of comparison, it would be as if you bought a car, and the
salesman tried to sell you a *second* car before you'd even taken the first
car out of the driveway. It's personally frustrating, but when you come right
down to it, you really can't fault that reasoning.
Meanwhile, nothing has changed...the B5 pilot goes on in February, and
apparently there will be a press tour arranged by Warners because of their
continued excitement, merchandising is continuing, there's going to be a big
PR push in January...that it's going to be a series has never been a question,
once we met the on-schedule/on-budget requirement; it's only a matter of a
couple months difference. The only reason an early push for a second night
was made was because of the excitement about B5, and the desire to use it as
an anchor for that second night...if you go back into the original message
base, we talked then about the importance of letting the stations know your
feelings after it airs. We thought we might be able to strike even before
that, so we pushed early. The stations, in a very understandable position,
want to at least put some shows on that first night before commissioning #2.
I wish I could find some fault in that reasoning, but I can't.
So we press on. As Harlan said when I spoke to him about this earlier,
"It's not SUPPOSED to be easy." You look back at the nightmare of yes/no,
maybe/maybe not, interference, grief and nonsense that preceded TWILIGHT ZONE,
STAR TREK, OUTER LIMITS, and you begin to realize that when you come right
down to it, we've actually had it pretty easy.
It's just part of the process, boys and girls. Nothing's changed.
Onward.
jms |
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