J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI The Creator of "Babylon 5" For Babylon 5's third (and current) season, J. Michael Straczynski established a new benchmark in American television history. He became the first individual to write every episode of a full 22-episode season for a one-hour dramatic series. Furthermore, when combined with the last five episodes of season two, Straczynski has in actuality scripted a total of 27 consecutive one-hour dramatic shows. He is also scheduled to write the first four shows of the next season, before passing the torch (intermittently) to some of the highly-respected science fiction writers he has used in the past. As noteworthy, of Babylon 5's 66 produced episodes to date, Straczynski singularly has written 49 of them (or approximately 75%). Add to that the fact that he has simultaneously served as the executive producer of what many regard as the most ambitious science fiction series since Roddenberry's original "Trek" -- and the dual task can easily be seen as monumental. "It's never been done before and I now can understand why, because just being the executive producer on the show is an 18-hour-a-day job and writing all the shows is a 16-hour-a-day job. So basically I've got a math problem," Straczynski laughs. What possible explanation could there be for taking on such a formidable challenge? "I kind of thought I might have to, but I didn't start off thinking I was going to do this," he says. "The problem is that the first year was like the introduction to the show, the characters, and the Babylon 5 universe, which allowed for a lot of stand-alone stories. The second year brought us a little more into the 5-year arc. During both, we were able to give good outside science fiction writers the threads of the story and let them come back with their own interpretation. "But this year, the arc was really heating up. There were a lot of changes -- the chairs were being moved around a lot. And since I'm the only one who knows where the story is going, it was simply easier to do it myself. But," he adds, "we will be bringing in outside writers again next season, the moment the story settles down again." As an executive producer, Straczynski supervises the monolithic details that comprise the rich and wondrous tapestry of what viewers have come to expect of Babylon 5 -- spectacular space ships, elaborate costumes, a massive array of sets, sophisticated alien make-up effects, and eye-popping special visual effects. As well, he provides immeasurable input into the creation of each episode's memorable music score, the casting of noteworthy guest stars and unforgettable feature players, the creation of distinctive stories by outside scribes (when he isn't writing them himself), and the final polished editing of every on-air hour (along with producer John Copeland). "I have total creative control over the show, which means I don't sleep a hell of a lot," Straczynski laughs. But, he adds, "it is extremely rewarding. This is a town driven by committee -- and the last good things created by committee were Stonehenge and the Pyramids. Thanks to Warner Bros., Babylon 5 from start to finish is one person's vision." Hard as it is to believe, Straczynski has only been gainfully employed in the television industry since 1984. But during that time, he has written more than 140 produced episodes of television, and served as a story editor and/or producer on numerous shows, including such hits as "Murder, She Wrote," "The Twilight Zone," and "Jake and The Fatman." Though only 41 years old, he has also published two novels, an anthology of short fiction, over 500 nonfiction articles and short stories, a dozen produced plays, another dozen produced radio dramas, and a classic text on screenwriting (of which a new, expanded edition will be appearing this Fall). His remarkable resume also includes significant stints as a contributing editor and monthly screenwriting columnist for Writer's Digest magazine, a special correspondent to the Los Angeles Times, a staff reporter and writer for Time, Inc., the host of a weekly two-hour science-fiction radio talk show in Los Angeles, the entertainment reviewer for a San Diego radio station, and the author of numerous classic comic books. And those are only the career highlights of what this "writer's writer" (as he has been termed by his peers) has done. It's little wonder that Straczynski's Babylonian Productions partner Douglas Netter calls him "the most prolific writer I know. This man is always writing. That's what he does, that's what he loves to do." Netter should know. As the former head of the MGM Studios and a successful independent television producer for the last 17 years, he has worked with the best of the best over the years. How it all began for Joe Straczynski (as he is known by his friends and co-workers; or "JMS" by his Internet fans) is the stuff of which novels are made. He grew up the son of a blue-collar plastics worker "who had a unique economic philosophy, which was blow into town, run up a lot of bills, and split. So, as a result, we were always on the move. Every six months to a year, we'd be in a different town or a completely different state. I went to a different school every year. We had different names that we lived under. Men would come in the middle of the night with badges, and we'd have to pack up and get out. It was that kind of existence." Growing up, there were only two kinds of friends Straczynski could count on: television and public libraries. From television, he developed an early admiration for the work of Rod Serling, Paddy Chayefsky, and Harlan Ellison (Babylon 5's creative consultant and a long-time friend), among others. From his friendly library, he worked his way through every children's title by his pre-teens, and embarked on an adult literary odyssey in which he would revel in the legendary likes of Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Hinlein, E. E. "Doc" Smith, and J. R. R. Tolkien. As he explains of the origins of his unusually long and prolific career: "My entire life I knew I was going to be a writer. That was it. As a kid I collected paper clips and pens of different kinds -- 'I've got to get ready!" Then I hit 17, and I said, 'Okay, I've prepared enough. Now I'm going to start writing! So I've been writing and selling non-stop since I was 17 years old." While still in high school, he wrote articles and plays. His first commissioned work was a full-length comedy written at the request of the school, which was performed in front of a full assembly. "Prior that, nobody noticed I existed," he recalls. "Suddenly, I was noticed." His last year of high school, he started sending out one-act and full-length plays to various theaters. "One local theater decided to produce one of them, and sent a letter suggesting a meeting. I went to it, and they kept waiting for my dad to show up or something. Finally, I was able to convince them that no, I really was the person who wrote the play, and they did it," he says. Working his way through various colleges, he had a full-length play performed for some 20 weeks in summer stock and later published in book form by a leading theatrical publisher. He also acquired degrees in sociology and psychology, with minors in philosophy and literature, and taught creative writing at San Diego State University, while turning out articles for leading magazines and newspapers. And then something possessed him to try his luck in Hollywood. He arrived on April Fools Day, 1981, one of the thousands who flock to Los Angeles each year without a single contact in the industry. Armed only with a portfolio of freelance byline clippings, he quickly worked his way through the ranks of freelancers to staff writer, story editor, co-producer, producer, supervising producer -- and finally -- executive producer and creator of Babylon 5. "Like everyone else in town, I began as a staff writer and I found that I would get rewritten all the time," he says. "So I asked, 'Who did that?' and found out that it was the story editor, and went for his job. Then when I was the story editor, I'd do a script and it would be rewritten. Who was it? The producer. So I went for his job, and eventually you work up to executive producer, and nobody rewrites you anymore. My style of writing is very personal and eccentric, and that was the only way to protect the words." Perhaps, the most telling impact that Straczynski has had on the medium that he regards with such respect that he gave it Babylon 5 is the significance of the following... In early 1995, Newsweek magazine created a Who's Who of 50 of the "most influential thinkers-innovators who will shape our lives as we move into the 21st century." That elite group -- which it designated the "captains in the information revolution" -- included, not surprisingly, such figures as Steven Jobs (the co-founder of Apple and more recently of NeXT), Tim Berners-Lee (the inventor of the World Wide Web), and Kevin Kelly (the executive editor of Wired). But of all the individuals who have in one way or another moved the goal posts in film and television, there was only one name...that of J. Michael Straczynski. Among the other honors which have come Straczynski's way are three prestigious nominations -- for a Writer's Guild Award and an Ace Award for his adaptation of the episode, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," on Showtime's "Nightmare Classics"; and an Academy of Canadian Television and Cinema Gemini Award for an episode of "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future". He has also received the coveted Horror Writers of America's Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel for his book, Demon Night. Certainly, Babylon 5 would have never earned its two Emmy Awards and three Emmy nominations -- as well as numerous other honors -- if it hadn't been for Straczynski. For Straczynski, writing could be called more of a preoccupation than an occupation. He works 10 hours a day, 7 days a week -- until 3 or 4 in the morning, exactly 362 days a year. The only time he takes off are his birthday, Christmas, and New Year's. In fact, when he and his wife visited England several years ago, she told him, "'No writing when you're over there.' And I ended up getting a little notebook on the sly and hiding it in my pocket," he laughs. "By the time we got back, I had outlined my next novel." (Which he then wrote and sold within six months.) Ask him why writing has become the all-consuming rite of his life, and Straczynski jokingly insists, "I'm an incompetent at everything else! My wife will verify this. I'm terrible at everything else. This is all I can do and I enjoy it -- slamming words together in combinations to see what kind of explosions come out of it." Then he adds, more seriously: "If you said to me that I can't write anymore, there'd be a puff of purple smoke and I'd be gone. I would just cease to exist. So I'm always doing three or four or five things at the same time. And while working on this show, I was rewriting my textbook on writing. I get twitchy if I'm not writing something." It's hard to imagine what television would be like today without such visionary wordsmiths as JMS. A copy of Foundation: The Review of Science Fiction, featuring a recent article by Straczynski on the evolution of Babylon 5 and other topics, has been enclosed in this kit for further reference. J. Michael Straczynski Career Chronology "Babylon 5" (1993-present): Creator/writer/executive producer. Wrote bible, two-hour series pilot, and 49 of total 66 produced episodes during first three seasons. Executive producer in charge of all creative decisions. The (Even More!) Complete Book of Scriptwriting The updated and expanded version of the author's 1982 best-selling how-to classic will be published by Writer's Digest Books in Fall 1996, which will include an an entire Babylon 5 script. "Guardians" (1995): Writer of the two-hour pilot for a science-fiction syndicated series. "Walker, Texas Ranger" (1993): Supervising producer; writer for one episode. (CBS/Cannon Television) "Murder, She Wrote" (1991-92): Producer for two seasons; writer on seven one-hour episodes. (CBS/Universal) OtherSyde Author's second horror novel, published in hardcover by E.P. Dutton/New American Library in August 1990; also in Germany, England, Japan, and Sweden, among other countries. "Jake and The Fatman" (1989/90): Executive story consultant; writer for four one-hour episodes and a two-hour TV movie. "V: The Next Chapter" (1989-91): Development writer (creator/producer); writer for the one-hour series pilot, four-hour mini-series, and series bible for a new version of the one-hour series for first-run syndication. (Warner Bros. Television) "Nightmare Classics" (1989): Writer for two one-hour adaptations, including "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," which was nominated for both Writer's Guild and Ace Awards. (Think Entertainment/Showtime) Tales From the New Twilight Zone Author, softcover anthology of short stories based on his own scripts; published 1989 by Bantam/Spectra Books, as well as overseas. Demon Night Author, horror novel; nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel by the Horror Writers of America; published in hardcover in Spring 1988 by E. P. Dutton and in softcover in Spring 1990 by Berkeley Books. "The Real Ghostbusters" (1986): Story editor on 13 network and 65 syndicated episodes; writer for the series bible, pilot, 7 network and 9 syndicated episodes. (1988-89): Writer for 5 more network episodes and a primetime Halloween special that aired during the Fall of 1989. (Wrote 23 episodes total). Series was nominated for a 1990 Emmy for Best Animated Series. (Columbia Pictures Television, ABC and DIC Enterprises) "Batman" (1988): Writer for the bible and pilot. (ABC/Nelvana Entertainment) "The Twilight Zone" (1987-88): Story editor for 30 half-hour episodes for first-run syndication; writer on 11 scripts, including a teleplay based on an original Zone outline by Rod Serling. (London Films/CBS International/ MGM-UA Television) "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future" (1986-87). Executive story consultant/story editor; co-writer of syndicated TV movie, "Against the New Order"; story editor on 26 half-hour episodes; writer on 11 original episodes, as well as provided teleplays/outlines for five more. (Landmark Entertainment Group) "The Twilight Zone" (1986): Freelance writer for two original stories, including a produced half-four episode. (CBS/Persistence of Vision) "Elfquest" (1986): Co-writer on series bible and pilot. (CBS/Zander Prods.) "Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors" (1986): Writer for 14 produced scripts. (DIC Enterprises) "She-Ra, Princess of Power" (1985): Staff writer and uncredited co-story editor; writer for 9 produced scripts. (Filmation Studios) "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" (1984): Staff writer; wrote 9 produced scripts; rewrote another dozen. (Filmation Studios) The Complete Book of Scriptwriting Author of this 1982 classic published by Writer's Digest Books in hardcover. Sold over 40,000 copies; reprinted six times and subsequently released in softcover. A standard text at many universities. Also published in Japan. Other: Development Writer/Creator on various one-hour TV series in development (1986/1989) Contributing Editor and bi-monthly scriptwriting columnist, Writer's Digest magazine (1981-91) Special correspondent for the Los Angeles Times; staff reporter/writer for Time, Inc. Author of over 500 newspaper and magazine articles in such national and regional publications as the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Twilight Zone Magazine (as contributing editor), Video Review, Penthouse, San Diego Magazine, Foundation, and the Daily Californian, among others. Science fiction/fantasy writer, with short stories appearing in Shadows 6 and Midnight Graffiti softcover anthology, Pulphouse and Amazing Stories magazines. Host, "Hour 25," a weekly two-hour science-fiction talk show on KPFK-FM in Los Angeles for five years (1987-92) On-air entertainment editor/reviewer for KSDO-AM Newsradio in San Diego, hosting a half-hour weekly broadcast (1979-81) Writer for a dozen produced stage plays (both one-act and full-length), including one play published in book form by Baker's Plays and "The Apprenticeship," which was produced for 20 weeks at the Marquis Public Theater in San Diego (1980) Writer for over a dozen produced radiodramas, many for the nationally syndicated series "Alien Worlds" and "Mutual Radio Theater" (1976-79) Screenwriter under contract for various unproduced feature films, including "Mr. Freeze" for Ivan Reitman Productions (1990-91); "Shattered Lives" for Shelley Duvall/Think Entertainment (1991); and "Journey to Forever" and "Wheels Over the World" for DIC Enterprises (1986-87). Author of various comic books, including STAR TREK's "Worldsinger" issue; TEEN TITANS SPOTLIGHT: Two Face vs. Cyborg's "Face to Face Two Face Face" issue; and NOW'S TWILIGHT ZONE "Blind Alley" issue. Creative Writing Instructor at San Diego State University and other colleges. Also a frequent guest speaker at numerous workshops, conventions, and seminars.