"By Any Means Necessary" discussion [spoilers]

[aris-tgd.livejournal.com]

(Sorry for the delay, folks! Working on a night shift + being in the pacific time zone == delays get stretched out.)

This is the discussion post for the episode 1X12, "By Any Means Necessary". Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.

Extra reading:

The article for "By Any Means Necessary" at the Lurker's Guide.

Comments

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I find this episode somewhat hypocritical in retrospect given that B5 was made under non-union conditions (and there was a strike by crew later in the series).

[aris-tgd.livejournal.com]

Well, to be fair, when the show started it was impossible to make a show that cost less than $1M per episode under union conditions, because no such union contracts existed. The contract that JMS and the production company and the unions drew up became the template for all future "cheap" union productions.

[widsidh.livejournal.com]

I wasn't aware of that, but I wonder:
is it known how happy jms was with the arrangement / is he already commneting here...

[aris-tgd.livejournal.com]

From how he discusses the union action in his script book, (Volume 5, for those playing at home,) it seems like going non-union for cheap shows was just how you did things. Here, lemme quote at length:

For the first two years of Babylon 5's production, we shot non-union below the line. (The aforementioned line separates out the crew from such personnel as writers, directors, and actors, all of whom had to be members of their various unions, WGA, DGA and SAG, respectively.) Most of our make-up people, wardrobe, carpenters and others were not union, or had turned their cards over, which was a fairly common practice. That we shot non-union did not mean that we took advantage of our people, however. Salaries were on a par with union wages and in many cases slightly higher. We also offered a health care package that was well in excess of what was being offered by the various unions, even extending it to include our office staff.

In short... our crew was happy. The union... less so. Most non-union-below-the-line shows were produced in other cities or states, outside of the union's jurisdiction or at least out of sight. But we were shooting in Los Angeles, on their home turf, and it was only a matter of time before they came knocking on our door.

...

Warner Bros. Legal Affairs took a hard-line position: we'd have to either shut down the show, or move to Canada, because in their opinion there was no way we could shoot full union and still make this series for the money we had in the budget, which at this point was somewhere in the vicinity of $900,000.

...

The problem was that there was no contract model in existence that would allow a union hour drama series to shoot in LA for less than a million dollars. So we decided to create one. Babylon 5 had been at the cutting edge of everything else SFTV-related to that point, why not go all the way?

So much to the union's astonishment, we sat down with them, opened our books to their inspection, and said, "We want this to happen, tell us how we can make this work." I think it was the first time that producers had sat down with them in a non-confrontational manner and given them total access to every line in the budget. What I didn't know at the time, and only found out later, was that our crew, which liked us a great deal, and whom we had treated with respect from day one, had told the union, "Don't hurt them."

They worked something out, and in order to close the negotiations JMS gave up a script fee for an episode and John Flinn gave up a director's fee for an episode. So it is ironic that the most pro-union episode of the show was made while the crew wasn't organized, but I wouldn't call it hypocritical.

(And no, I make no claims at being JMS! I just memorize lots of information about this show!)

[widsidh.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that is interesting!

I really need to get my paws on the script books! :-)