Babylon 5: The Lost Tales (1 Viewer)

[Joseph DeMartino]

The original pilot film was produced for the same PTEN netlet that carried the series. The Legend of the Rangers series pilot was produced for the Sci-Fi Channel. All of the other TV movies (including the re-edit of The Gathering) were produced for TNT - which at the time specialized in often high-quality made-for-TV movies. And they did respectable, but not spectacular numbers. (In the 3 to 4 million viewer range. Pretty good for basic cable, but nowhere near the 10+ million Sci-Fi did with the Dune minis.)

Even the Rangers pilot did OK considering that it ended up running opposite one of the highest-rated football games in playoff history. (The post September 11th NFL schedule changes pretty much rendered Sci-Fi's huge advertising campaign - which included trailers run before showings of The Fellowship of the Ring in selected theaters - moot.) The project never went to series because Sci-Fi and Warner Bros. couldn't agree on money and owernship. (Sci-Fi wanted to own a piece of the series. WB doesn't make that kind of deal. Then somebody at Universal said, "Don't we already own one of these continuing plot spaceship things?" And thus Battlestar Galactica was reborn.)

The point is the TV movies were doing OK while the show was still on the air or at least in heavy rerun rotation. (Sci-Fi had done well with the B5 reruns, which is what prompted their interest a Rangers
spin-off.) But it has been years since the show has even aired anywhere in the U.S. That means nobody wants to buy the syndication package. That may help explain the show's success on DVD - you can't find it anywhere else unless you want to watch it on a computer screen. But it doesn't suggest any real interest in a TV revival. That's why The Lost Tales was a straight-to-DVD project designed to break even on DVD sales alone. If it sold well, and if enough material were created to fill a time slot or two, WB could offer it practically for free to TV stations and cable networks and maybe raise the profile of the series again. But since the initial disc proved too short to be a TV movie, and JMS isn't interested in doing more, that won't be happening either.

Again, not entirely WB's fault. "It isn't personal - it's just business."

Regards,

Joe

 

[KoshN]

In all likelihood, you shouldn't go to see a B5 movie before you watch the pilot, Seasons 1 thru 5, the rest of the TV movies in the movie collection DVD set, Crusade and the Lost Tales DVD. (I left out the Rangers TV movie/pilot on purpose. ) Don't worry, you'll probably have plenty of time to watch all of the above several times before any B5 theatrical release ever comes out. Hell will probably freeze over before Warner Brothers produces a B5 theatrical release that meets the criteria of JMS' statement:

..."a full- featured, big-budget feature film."