Joseph DeMartino
Moderator
Now that the first B5 DVD is in the hot little hands of many of our members, the question naturally arises, "Where are the episodes?" Following is a brief outline of the long and tortured journey B5 has taken towards DVD release, and the latest information from JMS himself.
(You can skip to the quotes at the bottom if you just want the latest news, but you might find the whole story interesting, especially the interplay between the home video releases and the fortunes of the series. The timeline also explains why I believe what I do about the form the eventual episode releases will take.)
Summer 1998. Columbia House acquires the right to release B5 on VHS. They begin taking orders for the first tape and the demand is so overwhelming that they have to put The Gathering on back order.
Fall 1998. Seeing the success of the CH tapes, Warner Home Video begins releasing the series on VHS for sale in retail stores. At the same time it licenses the series to Image Entertainment for release on laserdisc. Garreth Lee of Image requests the widescreen version for the LD release, and is told by Warner Home Video that no such widescreen version exists.
Asked about all of this JMS is surprised to learn that anyone is doing laserdiscs, because Warner Bros. neglected to tell him, and repeats that widescreen PAL masters of all the episodes were created for the European market. He saw them being worked on at Warner Technical Operations, and knows the work was finished long since.
January/February 1999. Crusade is killed before ever airing by TNT. A long downward spiral in the fortunes of B5 begins. The reruns are moved to increasingly bad timeslots as ratings decline.
March 1999. In an on-line interview with The Big Picture, WHV exec Mike Finnegan answers, "yes" when asked if B5 is coming to DVD. He says "to be determined" when asked if it will be the widescreen version. His comments are widely disseminated on the internet. Fans stop buying the VHS tapes.
Spring/Summer 1999. Crusade airs to good ratings on TNT, but not the spectacular ratings that would be needed to put the series back in production. The Sci-Fi Channels tries but fails to work out its budget so as to take the show over. The B5 reruns are moved to Saturdays at 6 AM, effectively taking the series off the air.
When asked by JMS about a widescreen DVD release, Warner Home Video says the only way to do that would be to convert the existing PAL masters to NTSC at a cost of $1500 per episode - which they are unwilling to do.
VHS tape sales continue to decline. WHV stops its VHS release, and later stops supplying master tapes to Columbia House and Image. Image later gets out of the laserdisc business entirely as the format is eclipsed by DVD.
Fall/Winter 1999. JMS reports that Warner Home Video is preparing to release the show on DVD. The Digital Bits reports the same thing, pegging the release as late December or early in 2000.
WHV abruptly cancels its release plans for the show. According to industry sources the reason was three-fold: 1) Increasing fan agitation for a widescreen version with extras convinced them that the core audience would reject their planned barebones, disc-by-disc, 4:3 only release. 2) Paramount was not doing well with their release of the original Star Trek, with two episodes per disc and no extras. 3) Fox, by contrast, did astoundingly well with their release of the entire first season of The X-Files in a boxed set, with extras.
WHV is now in a quandry. It is still skeptical of the potential market for B5 on DVD, but convinced that an expensive widescreen set is the only way it can be sold. Reluctant to invest the money in the face of the poor VHS sales, and the decline in the series fortunes generally (Netter Digital, the Fan Club and B5 Magazine would all fold within months of each other in 2000) the studio quietly shelves the whole DVD project.
Spring 2000. TNT's exclusive contract for B5 is about to expire. In order to make some money on the deal they allow the remainder of it to be bought out by Warner Bros. for a reasonable fee. The Sci-Fi Channel signs to air the show. TNT reschedules B5 for early morning airings 6 days per week in order to get in one complete run before Sci-Fi takes over. "Sleeping in Light" will air the day before Sci-Fi launches B5 on its network.
Late Summer 2000. Looking for a "gimmick" to make their airing of B5 more appealing to viewers, Sci-Fi requests that Warner Bros. provide them with the long-rumored widescreen version. Abandoning their earlier plan to recycle the existing PAL master tapes to NTSC, Warner Bros. hurredly produces new transfers for all the episodes and TV movies. (Screwing whole seasons up in the process.)
Warner Bros. later re-remasters the episodes into correct widescreen format. In a rare burst of foresight, WB creates high definition digital masters, suitable for HDTV syndication, rather than simply generate NTSC broadcast tapes. These new masters can also be used for creating anamorphic widescreen DVDs, so WHV now has its new masters for effectively no cost.
November 2000. For the first time Warner Bros. publicly and officially states that B5 will be released on DVD. They say the discs will begin arriving in 2001, but give no other details. Later both The Digital Bits and The DVD File report that WHV plans season-by-season boxed sets, but that the first discs won't arrive until late 2001 or early 2002.
January 2001. The Sci-Fi Channel announces a deal for a new B5 TV movie, B5: Legend of the Rangers, which will also serve as the pilot for a possible series.
Summer 2001. Seeing the chance of a new series and a real B5 "franchise", Warner Bros. stops renewing licensing agreements with merchandisers and broadcasters, letting them lapse as they expire. The new B5 books from Del Rey do very well.
WB begins supplying video masters to Columbia House again. They resume shipments of their Babylon 5 Collection to subscribers.
July 2001. Reportedly under pressure from other Warner entities, the skeptics at WHV are forced to go ahead and release something from B5 on DVD. They settle on the two TV movies that set the stage for the series. (Something I had suggested that they do in 1997.
) The disc is scheduled for release in December 2001. When offered for pre-order prematurely on Amazon.com the disc quickly racks up enough orders to reach the number 11 spot on the hot 100 list - without any advertising.
And now...
October 2001. Asked about a report that WB was cancelling the DVD release, JMS posted the following. I'm not sure where he posted this, since I never saw the message until last night, and it is not archived on JMSNews.com. But he confirmed that the message is real, so here goes:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Actually, I checked with WB, and they say they've finished conforming all but 3 season 1 eps for DVD, and are still intending to go ahead.
jms (10/10/2001)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Sound like they're doing the (relatively inexpensive) preliminary work of prepping the episodes for DVD transfer so that they're ready to go if the first disc is a big hit.
November 21, 2001. The first DVD is released in Region 4. (Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.)
December 4, 2001. The first DVD is released in Region 1. (U.S. and Canada.)
Because I hadn't seen the above quote on the newsgroup or JMSNews, only in a third-hand account of his comments, I asked JMS to verify its accuracy on the moderated newsgroup. Here is his reply:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Yes, those are all mine, and due to the response to the movie B5 DVDs it's my understanding that WB is almost there on deciding to release the first few seasons.
jms (12/04/2001)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Given that the disc has only been on sale for a few weeks in R4 (which wouldn't figure into Warner Home Video's calculations anyway) and the disc only officially went on sale today in North America, I have to assume that WHV's current enthusiasm is based on strong pre-orders. Presumably they are projecting the total sales based on the pre-orders, so here's hoping that not everyone bought his or her disc on-line.
(I did one of each.)
So things are looking up in DVD land for a change. WHV has already demonstrated an ability and willingness to do anamorphic widescreen, the first disc is good if not spectacular, and they're well aware of what they need to do with the series episodes to make them a success. I'm hoping that we'll see the first season before spring, and that the U.K. editions of the movies (which won't be out until March) will have some of the extras they were unwilling to invest in for the earlier U.S. release.
In the meantime, I'll keep my ears open and keep you posted.
Regards,
Joe
------------------
Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net
(You can skip to the quotes at the bottom if you just want the latest news, but you might find the whole story interesting, especially the interplay between the home video releases and the fortunes of the series. The timeline also explains why I believe what I do about the form the eventual episode releases will take.)
Summer 1998. Columbia House acquires the right to release B5 on VHS. They begin taking orders for the first tape and the demand is so overwhelming that they have to put The Gathering on back order.
Fall 1998. Seeing the success of the CH tapes, Warner Home Video begins releasing the series on VHS for sale in retail stores. At the same time it licenses the series to Image Entertainment for release on laserdisc. Garreth Lee of Image requests the widescreen version for the LD release, and is told by Warner Home Video that no such widescreen version exists.
Asked about all of this JMS is surprised to learn that anyone is doing laserdiscs, because Warner Bros. neglected to tell him, and repeats that widescreen PAL masters of all the episodes were created for the European market. He saw them being worked on at Warner Technical Operations, and knows the work was finished long since.
January/February 1999. Crusade is killed before ever airing by TNT. A long downward spiral in the fortunes of B5 begins. The reruns are moved to increasingly bad timeslots as ratings decline.
March 1999. In an on-line interview with The Big Picture, WHV exec Mike Finnegan answers, "yes" when asked if B5 is coming to DVD. He says "to be determined" when asked if it will be the widescreen version. His comments are widely disseminated on the internet. Fans stop buying the VHS tapes.
Spring/Summer 1999. Crusade airs to good ratings on TNT, but not the spectacular ratings that would be needed to put the series back in production. The Sci-Fi Channels tries but fails to work out its budget so as to take the show over. The B5 reruns are moved to Saturdays at 6 AM, effectively taking the series off the air.
When asked by JMS about a widescreen DVD release, Warner Home Video says the only way to do that would be to convert the existing PAL masters to NTSC at a cost of $1500 per episode - which they are unwilling to do.
VHS tape sales continue to decline. WHV stops its VHS release, and later stops supplying master tapes to Columbia House and Image. Image later gets out of the laserdisc business entirely as the format is eclipsed by DVD.
Fall/Winter 1999. JMS reports that Warner Home Video is preparing to release the show on DVD. The Digital Bits reports the same thing, pegging the release as late December or early in 2000.
WHV abruptly cancels its release plans for the show. According to industry sources the reason was three-fold: 1) Increasing fan agitation for a widescreen version with extras convinced them that the core audience would reject their planned barebones, disc-by-disc, 4:3 only release. 2) Paramount was not doing well with their release of the original Star Trek, with two episodes per disc and no extras. 3) Fox, by contrast, did astoundingly well with their release of the entire first season of The X-Files in a boxed set, with extras.
WHV is now in a quandry. It is still skeptical of the potential market for B5 on DVD, but convinced that an expensive widescreen set is the only way it can be sold. Reluctant to invest the money in the face of the poor VHS sales, and the decline in the series fortunes generally (Netter Digital, the Fan Club and B5 Magazine would all fold within months of each other in 2000) the studio quietly shelves the whole DVD project.
Spring 2000. TNT's exclusive contract for B5 is about to expire. In order to make some money on the deal they allow the remainder of it to be bought out by Warner Bros. for a reasonable fee. The Sci-Fi Channel signs to air the show. TNT reschedules B5 for early morning airings 6 days per week in order to get in one complete run before Sci-Fi takes over. "Sleeping in Light" will air the day before Sci-Fi launches B5 on its network.
Late Summer 2000. Looking for a "gimmick" to make their airing of B5 more appealing to viewers, Sci-Fi requests that Warner Bros. provide them with the long-rumored widescreen version. Abandoning their earlier plan to recycle the existing PAL master tapes to NTSC, Warner Bros. hurredly produces new transfers for all the episodes and TV movies. (Screwing whole seasons up in the process.)
Warner Bros. later re-remasters the episodes into correct widescreen format. In a rare burst of foresight, WB creates high definition digital masters, suitable for HDTV syndication, rather than simply generate NTSC broadcast tapes. These new masters can also be used for creating anamorphic widescreen DVDs, so WHV now has its new masters for effectively no cost.
November 2000. For the first time Warner Bros. publicly and officially states that B5 will be released on DVD. They say the discs will begin arriving in 2001, but give no other details. Later both The Digital Bits and The DVD File report that WHV plans season-by-season boxed sets, but that the first discs won't arrive until late 2001 or early 2002.
January 2001. The Sci-Fi Channel announces a deal for a new B5 TV movie, B5: Legend of the Rangers, which will also serve as the pilot for a possible series.
Summer 2001. Seeing the chance of a new series and a real B5 "franchise", Warner Bros. stops renewing licensing agreements with merchandisers and broadcasters, letting them lapse as they expire. The new B5 books from Del Rey do very well.
WB begins supplying video masters to Columbia House again. They resume shipments of their Babylon 5 Collection to subscribers.
July 2001. Reportedly under pressure from other Warner entities, the skeptics at WHV are forced to go ahead and release something from B5 on DVD. They settle on the two TV movies that set the stage for the series. (Something I had suggested that they do in 1997.
And now...
October 2001. Asked about a report that WB was cancelling the DVD release, JMS posted the following. I'm not sure where he posted this, since I never saw the message until last night, and it is not archived on JMSNews.com. But he confirmed that the message is real, so here goes:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Actually, I checked with WB, and they say they've finished conforming all but 3 season 1 eps for DVD, and are still intending to go ahead.
jms (10/10/2001)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Sound like they're doing the (relatively inexpensive) preliminary work of prepping the episodes for DVD transfer so that they're ready to go if the first disc is a big hit.
November 21, 2001. The first DVD is released in Region 4. (Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.)
December 4, 2001. The first DVD is released in Region 1. (U.S. and Canada.)
Because I hadn't seen the above quote on the newsgroup or JMSNews, only in a third-hand account of his comments, I asked JMS to verify its accuracy on the moderated newsgroup. Here is his reply:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Yes, those are all mine, and due to the response to the movie B5 DVDs it's my understanding that WB is almost there on deciding to release the first few seasons.
jms (12/04/2001)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Given that the disc has only been on sale for a few weeks in R4 (which wouldn't figure into Warner Home Video's calculations anyway) and the disc only officially went on sale today in North America, I have to assume that WHV's current enthusiasm is based on strong pre-orders. Presumably they are projecting the total sales based on the pre-orders, so here's hoping that not everyone bought his or her disc on-line.
So things are looking up in DVD land for a change. WHV has already demonstrated an ability and willingness to do anamorphic widescreen, the first disc is good if not spectacular, and they're well aware of what they need to do with the series episodes to make them a success. I'm hoping that we'll see the first season before spring, and that the U.K. editions of the movies (which won't be out until March) will have some of the extras they were unwilling to invest in for the earlier U.S. release.
In the meantime, I'll keep my ears open and keep you posted.
Regards,
Joe
------------------
Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net
