Here you go KoshN, I keep it in a text file so I can just copy and paste whenever someone asks:
Q: "I'd like to know how many episodes are sold and what plans you
have..."
JMS: "For?"
Q: "Crusade."
JMS: "Thank you. It's a very long story. There's stuff I can
say, and there's stuff that I can't say. So, I'll tell you what I can
say and lie about what I can't say. "We shot 13 episodes. And TNT will
be airing those on June 9 at 10:00, starting then and going straight
through, more or less.
And we had... they had said they weren't going to do more beyond
that, beyond the 13. We tried at that point to take it to the SciFi
Channel, but it was so late in the game.... It takes a lot of money to
be able to support an entire season of a show. The SciFi Channel had
already allocated their funds for the year, so they couldn't pick it up.
If the show does well, the first 13, then it will be considered
for a season, beginning with the second season, on the SciFi Channel. If
the show does well, it will go on. "As for more what happened...
Let me tell you a fairy tale. And every fairy tale begins with
Once Upon A Time...
"...There was a writer of songs in a kingdom. And he wasn't the
best writer of songs on the entire planet. There were others who were as
good or better. And he had written 110 really good songs... and four or
five long odes.
And they said, 'Do some more songs for us.'
And he said, 'Sure.'
And he began writing more songs. And those were for this little
kingdom which was great. As were the ministers, who had always before
worked with him.
"Then the King heard about the new songs that were being
commissioned. Not the Emperor. Not the Emperor Theodore and his wife
Lady Jane. I ain't talking about them. I'm talking about the lower king
of a particular land, all right. I don't want the Emperor getting pissed
at me.
And he (the King) said, 'Well, I should be involved creatively.'
"And thus there came... runners would come with scrolls, which the
singer/songwriter would look at and burn.
"Now this is just a fairy tale. Okay? This is nothing but a
fairy tale. This is not about Crusade. Okay? I'm just telling you a
story here.
"And the King became wroth. He waxed Wroth, and Wroth wasn't
very happy about it. Old joke, I'm sorry.
"So they called for a grand meeting at which, along one long
table were ministers, and emissaries, and ambassadors, and functionaries
and assistants, and programming-uh,...a whole lot of guys. Now on the
other side of the table was the writer of songs. And they had plenty of
these huge scrolls in front of them. And they began to open the first
one.
"And the writer of songs said, 'no.'
"And they brought someone in with a book to explain to them what
the word 'no meant, because they had never heard it before. And they
said, 'no to what?'
"I said... The writer of songs said, in this imaginary story,
'no to all of it. No to all of it in all its parts and pieces, from page
1 to page 20. No to all of it.' The writer of songs felt that what they
wanted was, in modern terms, for a moment, sort of Baywatch meets
wrestling in space. Which was not applicable, exactly, to our fairy tale
scenario. (aside: If I every work again, it'll be a miracle)
"It became clear that if the King's emissaries were not properly
responded to, that they may say, 'you can only write 13 songs.' And the
writer of songs said, 'better 13 songs that I can believe in than 22
that I do not.
"So there were 13 songs, and the writer of songs has moved to a
different kingdom knowing that the 13 songs were songs that he wanted to
hear. And in the 13th song there was a sub-thread in the song about
people who come in with suggestions, which is rather similar to the
King's situation. Astonishingly, the King saw the 13th song and didn't
realize what it was.
"And the writer of songs moved to another kingdom and lived
happily ever after.
"And this has nothing to do with Crusade or your question, but I
thought I'd tell you that story because it amuses me."
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"Crying isn't gonna get your dog back. Unless your tears smell like dog food. So you can sit here eating can after can of dog food until your tears smell like dog food or you can go out there and find your dog."-Homer in The Canine Mutiny
