THE BABYLON 5 PHENOMENON * Babylon 5 ranks #6 in the delivery of Men 18-49 and Men 25-54 out of 19 action hour programs*, and #1 in the delivery of Men 18-49 and Men 25-54 VPVHs among all action hour dramas**. (Sources: *NSS SEASON-TO-DATE 9/4/95-3/17/96; **NSS. 9/25/95-2/11/96) * In Viewers for Quality Television's (VQT) monthly surveys, Babylon 5 has regularly ranked high -- indeed, finishing #8 recently in a four-way tie, well ahead of every other science fiction show except "The X-Files." * The 1995 3rd Annual Sci-Fi Fantasy TV's Internet survey of nine newsgroups ranked Babylon 5 #1 among favorite shows -- followed by "The X-Files" at #2 and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" at #3. * A zealous fan recently spent considerable time on the Net tracking the number of times that Babylon 5 references could be found on the Web's some 21 million pages. The result? 20,000 pages that included Babylon 5, compared to 90,000 pages for the entire "Star Trek" legacy, 10,000 pages for "Star Trek: Deep Space 9," and 10,000 pages for "Hercules." Pretty good for a show that had to create its own tradition! Fans Of All Stripes: * A representative of Army Broadcasting told Babylon 5's producers that the episode, "Eyes," was reviewed in the Army Ops. Center at the Pentagon for insight into military procedure and internal affairs. She also said that the Secret Service ran abstract psychological profiles on the characters in this episode, just as they do for criminals and terrorists, to serve as a research model. * Producer John Copeland says he's been informed that the Defense Department refers to Babylon 5 as "Force Multiplier" for its morale-boosting effect on the troops -- particularly those units stationed in remote areas like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. * Also according to information conveyed to the producers, the Naval Intelligence Department constructed a test model for how computer networks are susceptible to compromise, and named each computer in the study after a Babylon 5 character. "And guess which one got compromised first," Copeland reports with amusement. "Londo." * The crew of the remote McMurdo military outpost in Antarctica have friends tape the show back in the States and ship it up in their twice-yearly supplies drop. Babylon 5 has also been adopted by Army Apache and Cobra units stationed at Fort Bragg and the crews of several aircraft carriers, including the U.S.S. Independence. As well, the producers have heard from a convent of nuns, college students, senior citizens, House Sciences Committee members, religious leaders, and "lots of ordinary folk. It's an incredibly diverse audience," says creator and executive producer J. Michael Straczynski. "They all seem to respond to the same thing, which is to see an honest-to-God saga on television." A Global Following * Babylon 5 is carried by networks in over 20 countries, including the U.K., Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Italy, Israel, Jordan, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Phillipines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, and such unlikely places as Trinidad, Tobago, and Malaysia. "Internationally, we are a big success story," says executive producer Douglas Netter, noting that the show is in the Top Ten programs in England, where it is aired by Channel 4. Fans Who Really Care * When a television station in Greece declared bankruptcy last year and shut down literally in the middle of airing a Babylon 5 episode, hundreds of protestors with placards marched in front of the station the next day -- demanding that it return to the airwaves just long enough to finish showing the aborted episode. While they were not successful, the publicity did result in their getting another station to pick up the series. * In Canada's British Columbia, "a small, but vocal core of fans banded together on the Internet (the Vancouver Babylon 5 UseNet group is one of the most active TV groups on the local net) and lobbied CHEK to pick the show up for the third season," reported Vancouver Sun television writer Alex Strachan in December 1995, adding that "the Victoria station saw the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone: Resurrect Babylon 5, mollify the show's UseNet junkies, and fill a hole on Thursday nights." * San Jose Mercury News television writer Mike Antonucci also reported in 1995 that the viewers in his area were not happy about the final episodes of season two airing in the U.K. months before the U.S. "Not only did information about the episodes start to percolate on the Internet, but U.S. addicts wanted tapes (and right away, thank you). One Bay Area die-hard tells me that fans have gathered for home showings of said tapes, creating little festivals at which cultists grumbled about their second-nation status." * Among the scores of fan clubs around the world that have sprouted up during the last four years has been the UK Fan Club, which has shown its appreciation for the series by mounting the first-ever Babylon 5 convention in September 1995, with another even-larger event (Babcom '96) planned for June 1996, to be attended by most of the show's stars. * Numerous Babylon 5 fan clubs have mounted their own Internet Web pages and created e-mail newsletters to keep local members informed of show developments -- and to mount crusades for better time periods an/or renewals when necessary. A Major Presence on the Internet * Babylon 5 is one of the most celebrated television shows on the Internet today -- with 265 fan-mounted Web sites, its own official home page, and daily online discussions on CompuServe, GEnie, Bix, Fidonet, and USENET. The show has become so popular on BBSes, in fact, USENET's rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 area recorded over 100,000 messages in 1995 alone. "We went from 0 to becoming the 18th biggest group on the entire Internet within a period of a couple of months," says Straczynski. * A dedicated Internet navigator since 1984 (when he became the first television writer on CompuServe), Straczynski is in fact the only television executive who interacts regularly with fans, consistently putting in three to four hours a day -- seven days a week -- reading the some 500 Babylon 5-related daily postings put up by fans. Why? "Because on the nets, you get questions you never dreamed of, which helps me strengthen my characters and the world of the show," says Straczynski -- who has written a phenomenal 49 of the show's 66 total episodes to date (including the entire third season). "It's been an interesting experiment in truly interactive TV. A viewer can watch our show and 10 minutes later be online with the person who wrote it, created it, and produced it. And do the same thing next week, and the week thereafter. I think it's helped to demystify TV, which was one of my goals." * "J. Michael Straczynski is changing not only the way people look at television, but far, far, far more importantly, the way TV looks at people. In fact, he seems to be boldly going where no producer has gone before -- to the fans, via the Internet," reported Brad Bailey in Dallas' Arts & Entertainment Weekly in March 1995. Bailey also related how he had "sent up a public post to the Netheads at large, timidly offering the fact that I was a writer friendly to the show who was looking into the Babylon 5 phenom as a topic for a possible article. "In fact, the sheer volume of viewer response from Netheads who are also Bab5heads was nothing less than amazing, in and of itself: some 250,000 bytes, roughly 50,000 words...of intelligent, articulate, well-thought-out praise for the show and its creator. "I had also told those folks that I would be willing to do them the hugely condescending favor of asking any questions that they might want to forward along to Big Writer Me, just on the off chance that, waving my press card and touting my Representative of the People status, I would be able to rat-terrier Straczynski's people into maybe getting to do at least a short interview. As regards this Once-in-a-Lifetime Offer, I got numerous responses, but none like I expected. "As David Bilek put it: 'First off, in regards to getting 'some sort of access' to the executive producer, Joe Straczynski, you don't need to go to all that trouble. He reads and responds regularly to the Babylon 5 newsgroup, and the Babylon 5 category on GEnie, home of the Grid Epsilon Irregulars. So, if you have questions for the guy, just send them to him.'" Bailey did, and got back 15,000 bytes (or 3,000 words) from JMS in response to his questions. An Expanding Universe of B5 Merchandise Following are only a few of the exciting collectibles currently available. Internet users: The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5: Resources: Products maintains an updated list of current and upcoming items (http://www.hyperion.com/lurker.html). * The Babylon 5 Original Soundtrack Composer Christopher Franke, one of the pioneers of electronic music and a former member of Tangerine Dream, has reorchestrated his original, powerful scores and primary themes for B5 into four uninterrupted suites, merging the worlds of classical and electronic music. Audio clips available for downloading from Sonic Images Internet site: http://sonicimages.com. Available in compact disc from major retail outlets, Internet virtual stores, or directly from Sonic Images (213-650-4400). * The Babylon 5 Limited Edition CD-ROM Entertainment Utility Contains a hi-tech screen saver -- featuring actual video clips from the series -- and over 100 colorful images, 50 AudioClipsTM, 30 Wallpaper Images, Q SoundTM enhanced. (For Windows 3.1 or later; a Macintosh version soon to be released.) Available from SoundSource Interactive (800-877-4778). * Babylon 5 Character Costumes and Masks Four costumes and two masks currently available from Uncomyn Gifts (800-875-6926 or 360-866-6674). * Babylon 5 Micro Machines Two new 3-pack collections -- featuring 6 new space vehicles -- coming April 1996, in addition to the four continuing collections. Available at all major toy retailers. * * *