Talk:J. Michael Straczynski/Archive 1

Archive 1

Page name

I'm debating whether to rename this article to [[J. Michael Straczynski]] and making [[Joseph Michael Straczynski]] redirect there rather than vice-versa. He's quite consistently credited and referred to under that form of the name. "Joe" appears rarely, "Joseph" almost never. (Cf google results: 18,800 to 343 to 210.) --Brion VIBBER

Do it - I've hardly ever seen him listed as Joseph rather than J (Or JMS for that matter) -- Malcolm Farmer

Done! --Brion VIBBER 15:30 Jul 31, 2002 (PDT)

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Should there be a mention of Straczynski's Law (No cute children, robots, etc.)? --Paul Soth 15:31, 11 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Straczynski bio

A biography should be added, as the entry seems very IMDb-ish. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jeffrey O. Gustafson (talk • contribs) 10:58, 28 December 2004 (UTC)

Agree. For instance, in the afterword to the Midnight Nation TPB, JMS mentions he was part of a cult for many years. Anyone know anything about that? --Johan L 21:16, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

That's actually why I came to this page, more info about the cult stuff. I guess he hasn't mentioned it in writing since the afterword.142.162.153.217 (talk) 09:41, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Bio information added -- conflict

I added an "Early years" section, but since I got the information from the jacket of his 1982 book, it calls into question that he "started in television in 1983". Can someone find out exactly when he really started? –DeweyQ 05:16, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Are you sure you don't have a later edition of the book? About JMS's start in television, in an interview in Rising Stars 1/2 he says his break in TV was He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which aired from 1983 to 1985, so 1983 seems to be correct. TerokNor 16:46, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

Yep. I double-checked the publishing statement and it is copyright 1982 with no mention of any editions, which suggests first edition. A "break" in TV does not mean "start" though, so I suggest that he may well have sold television scripts before 1982 and became successful with the Masters of the Universe. –DeweyQ 05:47, 16 May 2005 (UTC)

Bio: Richland, TX?

I have always heard that JMS lived in Dallas for some time attending Richland College, a Dallas county community college. I have not found any source suggesting he lived in Richland, Texas. Is there a source to support this Richland, TX claim? Rigel1 17:08, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

No. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 17:41, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Not, Richland, TX - Richland Junior College in Dallas, Texas: jms's post on 1/24/1995: "I attended (in order) Kankakee Community College, Kankakee, Illinois; Richland Junior College, Dallas, Texas; Southwestern Junior College, Chula Vista, CA; and finally San Diego State University." - JoeD80 (talk) 00:35, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Common themes and motifs or Writer profile

What are the themes and motifs his Works?

Love, Hope, Life, freedom, Freewill, Power, The soul

--Brown Shoes22 05:10, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

Powers And Principalities, Unintended Consequences, Hope--142.59.227.129 19:54, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

Atheist?

If he is an atheist, as I have read, maybe we should add the category at the bottom of the page Pictureuploader 01:13, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

He is an atheist, for lack of a better term, so Be Bold! and ad the relevant category. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 01:27, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

He self identifies as an atheist. See: ::[1]

Polish or Belarusian?

Please review the source for adding him to the Polish Americans category, I thought he was Belarusian...

JMS is both Belarusian and Polish, however he identifies more with his Belarusian ancestory. Personal quote: "Background is Byelorussia, White Russian,with some Polish in there."--Nanusia 06:31, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

Just because he says it doesn't mean a thing. It would be helpful to know that historical Belarus is historically Polish land, and the fact that his last name is spelt the Polish way (Polish alphabet rather than Cyrillic converted into Roman alphabet) and the fact that he is of Catholic background (the religion of the Polish szlachta landlords in Belarus as opposed to the Orthodox majority) indicates that he is pretty much Polish as opposed to "White Russian", though you wouldn't expect an American-born man who probably has never been to Belarus to know these things. Let him call himself Belarusian if he wants to, but it probably would not be very accurate. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.178.2.116 (talk) 18:27, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

So your argument is that he's not Belarusian because Belarus was historically part of Poland and since his family is from Belarus he is therefore Polish and not Belarusian? JoeD80 (talk) 23:05, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

The reference used for this from JMSnews doesn't seem to show him saying he's Belrusian or that his family was Catholic? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ravenprocellous (talk • contribs) 03:33, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

SFX Magazine Dispute

JMS has been in a dispute with SFX Magazine for about eight years, although the dispute itself seems to have mainly boiled down to JMS occasionally making derogatory remarks about the magazine and signing nearly every single one of his quotes online with the legend permission to reprint these words specifically denied to SFX Magazine. It is covered on the article on SFX Magazine, I was just wondering if perhaps it should be at least mentioned here? A line in trivia stating something to the effect that "JMS has denied permission for the British SFX Magazine to reprint his statements since 1998"? Some more info on the dispute can be found on the SFX Magazine Wiki entry talk page [2].--Werthead 00:44, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

A neutral fan's retelling of events can be found here. This account has been deemed accurate by JMS. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 03:52, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

This information doesn't seem particularly relevant. First off, the cut-off between JMS and SFX came a year later than that report made out (during the later period of Season 5). Secondly, it doesn't address the extreme slagging-off that JMS unleashed against SFX in the period that everyone who worked on the magazine was a knowledgeless hack who knew jack about SF (evidently he forgot that David Langford - who has won 13 times as many Hugo Awards as JMS has - works on the magazine as columnist, fact-checker and reviewer). It also doesn't cover the fact that SFX offered JMS a full unedited page to print his side of the story which he never replied on. It certainly doesn't explain why JMS' stance on the issue remains the same when most of the personnel on SFX have changed in the eight years since. On the other hand, it is to JMS' credit that he didn't include his traditional "Permission denied" comment (which btw legally has no enforceable power in the UK, as any celebrity stalked by the tabloids could tell you) on his recent tribute to Andreas Katsulas, and to SFX's detriment that they ignored that tribute.--Werthead 21:37, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Why would he want to print "his side of the story" in a magazine that he derides? That would be silly. And his notice is legally enforcable in the UK because the UK has to respect US copyright laws to reprint US copyrighted material. JoeD80 (talk) 23:21, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Oh, it's totally up to the people involved if they want to tell their respective sides of the story. It was clear at the time that SFX didn't actually know why JMS had suddenly developed a dislike to them and they wanted to find out why and apologise if it turned out they were at fault. Obviously now, eleven years on with I think a grand total of one person who was on the writing team at the time still on the magazine (and only then as a freelancer), it's hardly worth getting into again.--Werthead (talk) 03:20, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Supreme Power / Squadron Supreme

• Removed the Supreme Power: Nighthawk and Supreme Power: Doctor Spectrum tpbs from the list, as they were not written by JMS.
• Added Squadron Supreme Vol 1, which is out in Premier HC.
• Should the title of field be changed to (say) "Supreme Power / Squadron Supreme", as the series title has changed?

--Telecart 00:17, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

Rv re: Footnotes, Referneces and External links

Per WP:CITE:

Maintaining a separate "References" section in addition to "Notes" or "Footnotes"

It is helpful when non-citation footnotes are used that a "References" section also be maintained, in which the sources that were used are listed in alphabetical order. With articles that have lots of footnotes, it can become hard to see after a while exactly which sources have been used, particularly when the footnotes also contain explanatory text. A References section, which contains only citations, helps readers to see at a glance the quality of the references used.

Further reading/External links

An ==External links== or ==Further reading== section is placed near the end of an article and offers books, articles, and links to websites related to the topic that might be of interest to the reader. The section "Further reading" may include both online material and material not available online. If all recommended material is online, the section may be titled "External links". Some editors may include both headings in articles, listing only material not available online in the "Further reading" section.

All items used to verify information in the article must be listed in the "References" or "Notes" section, and are generally not included in "Further reading" or "External links". However, if an item used as a reference covers the topic beyond the scope of the article, and has significant usefulness beyond verification of the article, you may want to include it here as well. This also makes it easier for users to identify all the major recommended resources on a topic.

--Tenebrae 04:18, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

I think that the "Reference" section in this article should be renamed "External links". As per WP:CITE a separate "References" section is helpful when non-citation footnotes are used, which is not the case in this article. Nor is there so many footnotes that it is difficult to see the sources used. With the exception of JMSNews, the sites in the "Reference" section has not been cited in the article.Epameinondas 00:21, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

"External links" are additional, "for further reading" links. "References" are general references used in writing the article. Not every sentence is footnoted; a birth date and basic biographical background, for example, come from general references. --Tenebrae 16:06, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

JMS' First Play

Jeff, et al, what are your collective thoughts about including specific information about Joe's first published play at the age of 18? I am intentionally being vague. I am somewhat reluctant to add this information since I was the person who announced the existence and title of the play, to which Joe replied "EEK!" According to Joe, "Oh, I didn't really do it for the money, there wasn't much involved at the time...it's not that I wrote it for money, it's that I wrote it when I was *18* and when you look back at ANYdamnthing you wrote at 18 the impulse is to shriek and run away." Also, the play is still in publication and being performed. --Dan Dassow 15:36, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Snow White, right? As he's confirmed it online, and by his own account (and others) the play is still being preformed (not to mention a certain notoriety amongst B5 fans), I don't see why it shouldn't get a mention - but not necessarily a whole section or anything. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson 16:03, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

trivia

Those trivia point belong under Babylon 5:

• Straczynski created a fictional food called "spoo." While the first reference to it was in an episode of the Captain Power series, it is most closely associated with the fictional Centauri race of the Babylon 5 universe. In the fifth season episode (A Tragedy of Telepaths), "B5" characters Londo Mollari and G'Kar discover that fresh spoo (something said to be abhorrent to Cenaturi) is being delivered to the dungeons of the Royal Palace on Centauri Prime. This leads to their finding G'Kar's former aid, Na'Toth, is still being held prisoner. She is secretly freed by Mollari at G'Kar's insistence and returned to Narn.

• Straczynski appears in a cameo role as a technician in the final episode of Babylon 5, which is the only episode that he directed. The technician character terminates the power on the station leading to its demolition as a navigation hazard. In the episode commentary, Straczynski says that he felt he had to be the person who "turned out the lights", both figuratively and literally, on the series.

• Straczynski first used the name "Babylon 5" on the 1980s children's television series Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. The character Lieutenant Michael "Tank" Ellis was a product of genetic-engineering colony "Babylon 5".

--Leocomix 23:25, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

References

Utterly stupid sentence edited out

What kind of differently smart person committed such a sentence:

Originally, they came from historical Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth territory in Carpathian Mountains.

I've edited it out of the Early age section. Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is 16th to 18th century history. If you want to point out his Polish heritage refer to the area of Russian Poland. It may not be precise, but it's far more suitable.
On the other hand, the Carpathian Mountains are in the southern part of today's Poland and all of it (well, almost) lied in Austria at the break of 20th century.
Not to mention that the sentence is upside down, as it should be written the other way around, if at all.
Llewelyn MT (talk) 19:50, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Too much focus on the comics?

It seems ridiculous to me that the work that led to Strazczyinksy's fame, Babylon 5, has such a small part in this Wiki. From reading this, the focus lies way too much on the work he did for Marvel. The persons who recently worked on this wiki page are too much influenced by their personal interests. Straczynksi achieved fame because of Babylon 5, the wiki page should reflect that. Too much attention is given to trivial facts about publications in prints. Strazcynisky using UseNet is only mentioned in the introduction while "Thor trade paperbacks" gets a separate section? This is simply ridiculous if one compares the impact of the former to the latter. 82.215.38.219 (talk) 03:03, 12 July 2008 (UTC)Daeron

Writer's Digest Columnist

J. Michael Straczynski was a long running columnist for Writer's Digest magazine. I can't remember the name of his column or how many years he wrote the column tho.Lowellt (talk) 14:54, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

He wrote the scripts column from 1982 - 1991. JoeD80 (talk) 05:52, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

"Polish American"

[3] - This info should be removed from this WP:BLP article until it is properly sourced to secondary WP:RS/WP:V sources. Cirt (talk) 15:22, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Ah, my mistake, this appears to be sourced to primary sources [4] and [5]. Secondary sources would be preferable if possible. Cirt (talk) 15:25, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Recently-added photo

RussellB recently added a new, better image to the article, here under the claim that JMS had authorised its use. This is indeed correct; however, the licensing description on the image page needs sorting out on this basis, lest it be speedily deleted. Can anyone with more image experience than me help sort this out? Steve ^{T • C} 11:08, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Question about the awards sub-section

The awards sections mentions jms has won 3 techncial emmy’s for babylon 5.

A simple search on the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences web site ( http://cdn.emmys.tv/awards/awardsearch.php ) shows that only two primetime (not technical) awards were given in relation to the franchise. One for special effects for the pilot movie and one for make-up on a season 1 episode. The issuing body does name jms in the list of the named recipients for either (or any other) emmy award. You can verify this by using the simple search engine on the above link.

So my question is why are the awards issued to other people appearing in an article which lists awards given to jms, and what does the third one in the article actually refer to?

I also notice that the article mentions two Space Foundation awards. Though on their offical web site (http://space-frontier.org/annualawards.html ) he is only mentioned as the recipient of one award (1994) which was shared with the cast and crew of Babylon 5. The second (1996) was given specifically to John C. Flinn III, Suzanne E. Sternlicht, Paul Bryant and Ron Thornton.

Accrediting jms as a recepient of awards given to others who worked on Babylon 5 seems a bit misleading to say the least.

Should these not be removed or at least make it clear who *actually* recieved them? Keep forgetting to add this signature thing Minsk59 (talk) 22:24, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

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Hi, sorry for seeming to be insitant on this. But I noticed the recent addition of citations for the awards added by Dan Dassow. Good stuff. But the single citations for the emmy does not mention jms as a recipient– there’s still the separate question about there being a mention of THREE emmy awards. Same thing applies to the space foundation award. He did receive one, and a citation has been included. But where does the second one come from. For that reason.--Minsk59 (talk) 08:59, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

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I've rewritten the Awards section and added citations for all of the awards. Please review and remove the "This section needs additional citations for verification" banner if you are satisfied with the edits and citations. --Dan Dassow (talk) 18:46, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

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Wow, a detailed breakdown. Yeah, that more than covers the questions/concerns I had, thanks. Banner is being removed straight after writing this. ;)--Minsk59 (talk) 23:54, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

removal of "spouse" from infobox by anon user

An anonymous user removed the "spouse" entry from the infobox yesterday, with no comment (either in the commit log or here) regarding the removal. Since that particular IP address has made numerous constructive changes to this article over time, I haven't yet reverted the change. However, I have asked on the user's talk page for some sort of explanation for the removal. If I do not see a response soon, or other sources reporting that Joe and Kathryn are no longer together, I will revert the change. John Darrow (talk) 04:30, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

It is unsourced, un-discussed removal of factual information. Simply revert and move on. --24.90.11.138 (talk) 16:59, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

is there anything new on this matter? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.221.19.162 (talk) 12:20, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

I confirmed with Joe off-wiki that he was the anonymous user who made the change. John Darrow (talk) 18:14, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Shouldn't there be something there with years married to match other biographical pages, since they were married? It seems odd to remove the information entirely. JoeD80 (talk) 23:30, 9 April 2009 (UTC)

Restored, with citation about when they met and their move to LA together in 1981. Anybody know the divorce year? --Orange Mike | Talk 17:34, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Mike, JMS and Kathryn Drennen were divorced prior to the Cannes Film festival in 2008. JMS acknowledged the divorce on RASTB5mod. I do not believe he provided information on when the divorce occurred. Beyond his posting, I do not know of any citable source. [Comment added 17:54, February 2, 2010] --Dan Dassow (talk) 10:17, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

World War Z

What is the background of his withdrawal from the production?--Nemissimo (talk) 00:52, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Any idea?--Nemissimo (talk) 07:56, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

Just simply that Joe wrote the first draft and the production team brought in another writer. Standard Hollywood stuff. JoeD80 (talk) 05:51, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Is a televsion movie a film or televsion

Does anyone know what film script(s) jms was credited with by the time he was 28. “By 28, his credits included television and film scripts”. Or does that refer to the televsion movies. In the Film section it mentions televsion movies and films as two separate entities. 2006 being the date of the first film (as opposed to telvsion movie) mentioned. 28 seems a little early to indicate he had televsion AND film credits if the word film is later used to indicate something other than televsion movies.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.189.16.251 (talk) 21:58, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

I recently came across a list which sheds some light on this. It was a film in 1978 called "Love or Money" done for "CrossOver Productions." I assume it was a local San Diego production because around this time Joe was also producing local plays and local stuff for radio and PBS. JoeD80 (talk) 05:50, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Bibliography?

What do people think about splitting off the lists into a separate bibliography? At the moment odd lists are scattered through the text and it seems a better idea to have another article for the detail and let this article cover the important examples in a more pros form. It will get a bit messy as some of the lists are used instead of actual prose so it will mean some section will need re-writing or expanding again but it should mean we get a much more solid article that is in a good position to push on for a B. Thoughts? (Emperor (talk) 17:27, 8 July 2010 (UTC))

Star Trek: Re-Boot the Universe

Does there exist any comment from Straczynski about the last Star Trek movie in reflection onto his essay from 2004? 188.174.110.177 (talk) 15:43, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

stra-chin-ski??

JMS pronounces his last name struh-zin-ski, as can be heard on countless audio clips. The current wording suggests that both pronunciations are acceptable, but the other one is merely theoretical in regard to JMS specifically. I suggest "pronounced struh-zin-ski" with no mention of stra-chin-ski. PointDread (talk) 20:19, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

Prefer Google Groups to JMSNews

The latter stores only JMS' posts, while Google allows the reader to see the entire discussion with one more click. (I chose "Individual message" as the default display, which can be expanded using "View thread".) Of course, this doesn't apply to the messages that aren't stored on Google Groups. --PointDread (talk) 16:03, 11 December 2011 (UTC)

Height

Why is height mentioned here? He's a producer/writer not an athlete. Removed it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.206.195.35 (talk) 12:28, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

"Joe"

While "Joe" is a common nickname for people named "Joseph", it is not obvious in this case that he uses it, because it isn't in the title of the article. Because he uses his first initial and middle name professionally, people would easily assume that he goes by "J. Michael", "Michael", or maybe "J." So I think it's worth mentioning in the lede that people refer to him informally as "Joe Straczynski". -Jason A. Quest (talk) 19:02, 10 September 2018 (UTC)

Aliases for Joseph Michael Straczynski

I believe Orange Mike's phrasing is a good compromise and accurately reflects how JMS is called under different circumstances. However, some of us also call him simply Joe or Joeczynski. <*** SMILE ***> --Dan Dassow (talk) 01:01, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

And to some, he is simply The Great Maker. :) --Orange Mike | Talk 14:21, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Polish-American

...is not how Straczynski refers to himself. From the thousands of messages I've read, I'd say he thinks of himself as an American first and foremost, with occasional references to his Byelorussian and Polish heritage, but not simply Polish-American. I get the feeling the anonymous poster is trying to pigeonhole jms' background without any basis in fact, which is why I reverted the repeated edits despite being uncomfortable with discussions of this sort. PointDread (talk) 21:10, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

It's long-since been established that we don't put "German-born" and "Danish-American" and similar descriptions into ledes of articles, period. See Isaac Asimov or Frederick Vogel or whoever for examples. --Orange Mike | Talk 21:20, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

Star Trek: Deep Space 9

Didn't Straczynski pitch what would eventually become Star Trek: Deep Space 9 to Paramount? I recall interviews from the time noting that Babylon was similar for a reason. --Chris Griswold (☎☓) 03:42, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

No, he pitched the Babylon 5 concept and series to Paramount, which they rejected. Then, in 1991, not long after Warner Bros announced they picked up the idea, Paramount suddenly came up with DS9. There are startling similarities - some feel DS9 ripped of B5, some felt the similarities were superficial, it was rather (and can still be) a rather contentious issue amongst the various segments of geekdom. Google is your friend. Seek and you shall eventually find. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 08:20, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Paramount had certainly established Deep Space Station K-7 with The Original Series, but space habitats had been contemplated both in sci fi and more seriously for many a year even back then. Who does not remember the gorgeous artist's impressions from the mid-seventies?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Neill_cylinder

I certainly set a few of my space adventures in that environment! My point is not that Straczynski stole it from me; my point is that every imaginative boy from that era hit upon the idea. These discussions are silly (it is gritty! there is a cynical barman! there are cultural frictions!). 2A01:CB0C:CD:D800:7D50:A0D:4115:74EE (talk) 09:20, 2 March 2023 (UTC)

Aspergers Syndrome

 Shouldn't this be changed? Asperger's Syndrome is no longer recognized as an official syndrome by the medical community. 98.179.157.219 (talk) 12:21, 9 March 2023 (UTC)