What you have to understand at this point is that there's really no time left. 
It takes a large amount of money to hold a cast and crew together while other
options are being sought, and even then options on varoius cast members and
others begin to expire fast.

WB can't keep spending holding money while they're seeking another prospect. 
It's a business decision, but a sensible one, given the large amounts of money
involved.  Their approach now is to believe in the show enough to get it on the
air, let the ratings speak for themselves, and see what happens.

My only regret is for the cast, who are all uniformly terrific, and who are
caught out in all this.

 jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com

--------
Subject: (fwd) from jms re: Crusade
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated


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

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com