The Wrap has a feature called “Hollywood Breakthrough,” where people who work in the entertainment industry describe how they got their big break. At present, there are five featured screenwriters, perfect for a five-part series, one per day this week.
Today’s featured writer is J. Michael Straczynski. His writing credits include several TV series including “The Twilight Zone” (12 episodes, 1986-1989), “Murder, She Wrote” (7 episodes, 1991-1993), and “Babylon 5″ (110 episodes, 1994-1998), and movies Changeling (2008) and Ninja Assassin (2009). Here is an excerpt:
“Babylon 5” took five years, because at that time, no American space-based science-fiction series had gone more than two seasons in 25 years, so the odds were completely against us.
For five years it went from network to studio to studio to production company, and it was just no, no and by the way, no — we’ve tried this before, it’s not gonna work. “Star Trek” owns the playing field. It took five years to find two guys — one at Warner Brothers and one at Chris-Craft stations, at that time, who got it and said, Look, we’re gonna be creating this new network called PTEN, why don’t you come and present it to the group?
I went to the meeting and, like 30 different shows were being created in front of these studio executives over a period of like a week — and I had one shot at this. And I knew if I didn’t do it, it was gonna be dead forever. I was waiting to go on, and I was grinding my teeth so hard I literally shattered a molar straight down into the root. When I breathed, I saw colors I never saw before.
They said to me you have to go home; you can’t pitch in this condition. And I said, If I come back after they’ve heard all 30 pitches, forget it. So I got a big old tumbler of ice water and held it there to numb the tooth with tears coming down my face.
So I went out there to give the presentation — and I had rubber-tongue. I was numb from the ice; I could barely talk. But somehow they got it, and we got the series out of it.
That’s got to be one of the best pitch-stories I’ve ever heard. And there’s more drama with other series. Go here to read more. And in honor of Straczynski’s work on the series — and his shattered molar — here is the last five minutes of the final episode of “Babylon 5″:
