
Copyright 1994, Cyberspace Vanguard Magazine

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    |                       C Y B E R S P A C E                      |
    |                         V A N G U A R D                        |
    |                          E  X  T  R  A                         |
    |   News and Views of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Universe   |
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    | cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu     Cyberspace Vanguard@1:157/564  |
    |           PO Box 25704, Garfield Hts., OH   44125 USA          |
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    |  TJ Goldstein, Editor           Sarah Alexander, Administrator |
    |    tlg4@po.cwru.edu                    aa746@po.cwru.edu       |
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                               April 23, 1994                


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

--!1!--   (Short) Ravings of a Deranged Editor
--!2!--   Surviving:  Jerry Doyle on BABYLON 5
--!3!--   The Monstrous World of Forrest J Ackerman
--!4!--   Administrivia 
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--!1!--   (Short) Ravings of a Deranged Editor
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     No, we haven't gone monthly.
     So why are we here?
     It's simple.  The timing of life doesn't always tick conveniently, so 
rather than publish this interview with Jerry Doyle a month after the 
episode he talks about airs, we decided to do this extra.  We've also got a 
couple of other peices of "perishable" info.  So please bear with us, and 
enjoy.  We'll be back in full at the end of May.
                                                       
                                                ----  TJ Goldstein, Editor
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--!2!--   Surviving:  Jerry Doyle on BABYLON 5
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                            by TJ Goldstein

     On the outside, it doesn't look like security chief Michael Garibaldi
has too much in common with Jerry Doyle, the actor who plays him on BABYLON
5.  Mr. Doyle has had acting success in a relatively short period of time,
is a hyper-busy person but thinks that "there's nothing better on a Sunday
than blowing off a day of your life watching football," has graduated from
flight school, has flown and sold business jets, and has spent nine years
as "one of those illustrious investment bankers" on Wall Street.  "It seems
like we were acting then too.  'This is good for you, do it.  Come on, it's
the best thing.'"  Mr. Garibaldi, on the other hand, has a different 
history.  
     "They've flawed him about as much as you can," Mr. Doyle told CV by 
phone during a break in filming as the cast and crew finished up for the 
season.  "They've fired him three or four times.  There's so many you can't 
keep track. You'd think they'd *know.*  He has relationship problems,  he's 
an alcoholic, always getting in fights, getting beat up, beating people up,
throwing stuff, he just tells everybody off, he's irreverent, cynical ...
you know, he's a very cool character to play. ... I didn't get a lot of the 
backstory, like the relationships and the alcohol and all that.  Just from 
the writing style and the situations and the way that he reacted to them I 
could see that he was kind of a twisted individual."
     Now, as the first season wraps up filming, he doesn't know much more.
"I haven't read the bible, the 5 year plan, the arc for the show and the
characters.  I like getting a new script every couple of weeks and kind of
seeing what's happening and going 'wow, that's cool, all right! That's
exciting.'  So I just told the head writers, Joe Straczynski and Larry
Ditillio, that I love what they're doing with the character, no input from
me is required, just keep doing what you're doing.  It's great, so why
change it?"
     For many people, it was Garibaldi's checkered background that drew
them to the show in the very beginning, when series creator Straczynski
(pronounced Stra-ZIN-ski) was trying to drum up support and teasing
people with glimpses of things to come.  Promises he made about
Garibaldi's past are kept in the upcoming episode called "Survivors."
     "Well, pretty much by the title I think says a lot about the
character," Mr. Doyle says.  "He's a survivor.  Past life situations come
back to haunt him, and he's put in a situation of not only dealing with a
relationship -- not a love relationship, it's a past relationship with a
friend of mine's daughter whose father was killed in a tragic accident that
they blamed on me.  And whether she believed it or not ... we had to
rectify that situation.  Plus, you've got losing your job, getting
suspended, dealing with her, trying to convince people that you're not who
they say you are.  It's basically about surviving this period when it all
seems to go wrong at once.  It's a fairly physical script, there's a lot of
fights.  I think I get the snot beat out of me ... one guy once, two guys
the next time, three guys the next time ... I feel like it's the World 
Wrestling Federation.  You're going in the ring and there's like 19 people 
there.  It's like the survivor series or something like that.  I thought the 
script was very good.  I had a lot of fun shooting it with director Jim 
Johnston.  Hopefully my performance is equal to the script because I think 
there was a lot of great stuff in there.
     "I'm not sure he ever really changes," he says, referring to JMS's talk 
of Garibaldi changing as a result of the experience, "but the character 
tends to become more and more enlightened.  And in some scripts he'll put 
the wall up higher and higher and thicker and thicker and in others a brick 
or two will come down, but Garibaldi tends to keep things and people and
situations at a distance and not let them get too close.  It's a great way
to avoid being hurt.  It's the old saying:  would you rather hurt or be
hurt?  Garibaldi tends to choose to hurt rather than be hurt.  He's always
dancing, chucking, jiving, hey-hey-hey-hey-hey, but pretty much keeping
people and things at a distance."  Of course, that's not to say that
Garibaldi never gets the girl.  Later this season he'll have to deal with
past choices in the romance department when a past girlfriend is caught in
the flare-up of war on the Mars colony, trying to decide if he made the
right decision in leaving her to take his current position.
     It's not all serious, however. 
     "Somebody asked me what acting was like compared to working on Wall 
Street and I said this was like a 3 year vacation with a couple of rainy 
days.  This is just way more fun.  You go in in the morning, somebody makes 
you up, and does your hair, and feeds you.  And I'm not making these words 
up.  Somebody tells me what to say, how to say it, where to stand, the 
editors make you look good -- or as good as you possibly can, they tell you 
what time to be back the next day, and they pay you.  Not a bad gig.  Plus 
in this business if you're at a movie and you don't like what I do, I can 
give you $7.50 and tell you to shut up.  On Wall Street, I'm not givin' you 
back 50 million dollars.  Sorry.  You're out of luck.  Next!"
     There is already a "gag reel" for the show, including an incident that 
occurred during the episode "Parliament of Dreams," where Garibaldi is 
supposed to search the quarters of Narn Ambassador G'Kar, played by Andreas 
Katsulas, for evidence in a murder.  He finds a pair of pink panties, and 
when he asks G'Kar if they're his, the Ambassador tells him to get out.  At 
least, that's what finally made it to the small screen.  Originally it went 
a little differently.  "I said 'Are these yours?' and he said 'No, your 
momma's.'  So I stretched them as far as I could and said 'No, THIS is more 
like my momma's.'  And then he said something back and then 'Oh, get out of 
here.'  So I said 'I would, but I'm feeling strangely stimulated.'  So he 
said 'Would you care to tango?'  We have a lot of great moments that don't 
hit the air."
     So with situations that lend themselves to such silliness, how does he
get serious when he needs to?  "Mmm ... I just think about getting fired,
and I'm right there.  'Time to do what we paid you to ...'"
     Long before the show even hit the air, Joe Straczynski teased
net.users with the statement "Today was pajama day.  Don't ask."  It is
apparently not unusual for things ... out of the ordinary to go on.  
     "You have to have fun on the set.  We're there 12, 14 hours a day, 
sometimes it's hot, ticky-tack camera setups that take a long time, but when 
you're spending that much time in one place with that many people, you have 
to have fun.  There's only so much you can talk about as it relates to the
show or acting, or whatever.  So we try and make it as enjoyable an
experience as possible on the set and I think that that transforms itself
into what you see on screen.  When everybody's loose and grooving and
having a good time hopefully it shows up on screen.  Every Friday we have a
day where we do something silly, like 'Not matching shoe day' or 'Pajama
day' or 'Trashy lingerie day.'  I think last Friday was 'Wear as many
pieces of clothing with shows that you've worked on before day.'  So you
have the QUANTUM LEAP pants, and the MURDER SHE WROTE t-shirt, and the
crew jacket for MAGNUM on top of that, with the hat from SNEAKERS ...
it's the ultimate in logo display."
     But "logo display" is not Jerry Doyle's thing.  "What's the deal with
wearing everybody's name on the outside?  I don't get it.  They want you to
have a picture of the President for fifty bucks or a hundred bucks.  And
I'm saying to myself, does he have a picture of me on his desk?  Until he
does, I'm not interested in having him on MY desk."  If you're beginning to 
get the idea that he might be a little bit cynical, you're wrong.  He's a 
LOT cynical.  
     "I've met a lot of different people in a lot of different positions in 
various companies, not only in this country, but around the world.  And it's 
amazing.  They have an ability to shake your hand while they're sticking the 
knife in your back at the same time.  And they'll do it in such a nice way 
that you smile while you're bleeding to death."
     He coughs and lights up a cigarette.  "You have to empower yourself.
Everybody lives under this thinking that there's a certain formula, or a
certain way of living that you have to live, a certain roadmap that you
have to follow, and I just don't buy into it.  My dad was a cop, and he
died when he was forty-one and I was eleven.  Now when you're eleven,
forty-one is ancient.  But when you're thirty-seven, forty-one is around
the corner.  And I decided when I go out, I'm going kicking and
screaming, doing exactly what I want to do, and my last check's gonna
bounce.  That's the philosophy.  That's what I've decided to do."
     But while he talks tough, he's not unapproachable.  Asked the reader-
submitted question "Is he aware that he will soon have droves of screaming
sci-fi geek-chicks running after him," he said "Cool.  I look at it this
way.  I came into this business because I wanted to.  Nobody invited me.
No-one said, 'hey, we really want you to quit what you're doing and come to
LA and get on TV.'  So what we do lends itself to introducing ourselves to
the public.  And the public, they are the ones who keep the show on the
air."
     But in a genre that has become lulled by the pacifist philosophy of
Gene Roddenberry's STAR TREK, B5 sometimes hits hard, causing some people
to accuse the show of appealing the the "lowest common denominator" in
television audiences.  
     "I've gotten feedback from doctors, and heads of corporations, and 
brokers and traders, and truck drivers, engineers and computer guys that dig 
the show.  I don't think there's one constant demographic that this show is 
in tune with... I think we've done a good job of addressing relationships, 
the power structure, we can take a look at modern-day events and really put
things in a futurist tone.  What do you do with career criminals?  What do
you do with murderers?  What's the penal system like, what's the medical
system like?  Is there a welfare system?  All these things come out in kind
of weird ways because looking at it from my standpoint, the world is just
as trashed in 2258 as it is today.  You'd think we'd get something right.
I mean, we still eat meatloaf, which isn't a bad thing, but ... We still
have the same problems and situations, the same upheavals and backstabbing
and conniving and wheeling and dealing that you have today.  We deal with
issues of prejudice.  And now it's not necessarily Earther against Earther.
It's pro-Earth versus anti-Mars or things like that.  In the year 2258
we're still pretty wacky."
     His philosophy on the crux of the matter can probably be summed up
by an answer he once gave a convention-goer who asked him he if thought
science fiction fans were geeks.  He pointed out that the chairman of
IBM can drive down the road at 2 a.m. on Halloween with an arrow through
his head and it's considered normal.  
     "Forget about it.  Do what you want to do, and have fun with it.  
That's what it's all about.  If we have fun making it, and you have fun 
watching it, then we all have fun, and what the hell else is there?"
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--!3!--   The Monstrous World of Forrest J Ackerman
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     Some people are born to greatness, others thrust it upon the world.  
Forry Ackerman is one of the latter.  He's probably best known for his 
creation of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, the long-running magazine of 
fantasy/horror films, which ran for 190 issues before the publisher 
disappeared.  He's also the proud owner of what is probably the world's 
largest movie memorabilia collection.
     He's also a marvelous storyteller with a diverse repertoire that runs 
from the very first World Science Fiction Convention -- "which is a pretty 
big name for a pretty small turnout.  There were only 185 of us, nobody came 
from outside the Continental United States, and we had a banquet so 
expensive that out of the 185 only 29 could afford it" -- to classic films  
-- did you know that Fritz Lang shot 49 times as much footage for 1910's 
METROPOLIS as ever hit the screen, and that he cut different versions for 
each major city? -- to the fimmakers of today.
     "I've just done my 46th cameo in a movie," he said in a phone interview 
for Marcon, where he'll be a guest the weekend of May 13th through May 15th.  
(Call (614) 451-3154 or 70004.1457@compuserve.com for more info.)  "I've 
been in seven of John Landis' films because when he was a 22 year old kid he 
was given $60,000 by an uncle who said 'OK boy, go make a movie.'  Then I 
was invited to go see something called SCHLOCK, THE BANANA MONSTER and I had 
to be up at 4 o'clock the next morning to fly away to Europe and I thought 
'Gee, do I really need to roll in at 1 o'clock in the morning get 3 hours of 
sleep to see something called 'Schlock'?  The name John Landis was utterly 
unknown back then and there was nobody in it of any consequence but I have 
this reputation ever since I was five and a half in 1922 that I have seen 
every fantastic movie possible and I thought gosh, I have to keep my 
reputation intact so I went.  
     "Well I came out into the parking lot at around midnight and this lone 
lanky figure came loping along, tapped me on the shoulder and said 'Mr 
Ackerman?'  and I said 'Well, it's too late to deny it now after about 60 
years,' and he said 'There's only three people whose opinions I would value 
about my movie:  Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, and yourself.'  And I 
thought, even if I'm low man on the totem pole, I'm pretty impressed.  So I 
looked at John Landis pretty severely and said 'Are you the one responsible 
for that movie I just saw?'  And he kind of backed away and said 'Yes, sir' 
and I said 'Well, you'll hear from my lawyer on Monday.'  And he got all 
flustered and started stammering 'Why?' and I said 'Well, isn't it self 
evident?  Look at this suit!  Down on the floor laughing!  It's ruined!  
You'll pay for this!'  So he said 'Gee, you like my movie?'  I thought it 
was sensational.  Well, on the basis of the preview he was given an extra 
$10,000 to add some footage, so I did a little cameo for him, and about 13 
years later he got me out of bed at half past midnight and brought me 
downtown, introduced me to Michael Jackson, and stuck me directly behind him 
in Michael Jackson's THRILLER.  There I am, same red shirt, same bottomless 
bag of popcorn, it was as if thirteen years later I'd never left the 
theater, so engrossed in that monster movie ... So altogether John has put 
me in seven of his films.  The very latest is Beverly Hills Copy III.  I'm a 
teetotaller, but I'm sitting at a bar for 11 hours drinking brandy together 
with Ray Harryhausen -- the brandy is apple juice -- and I got a great bride 
for 11 hours but I had to give her back to Central Casting.  We didn't even 
have time to consummate our marriage.  Didn't seem quite fair to me."
     So while most people associate Forry Ackerman with movies, they don't 
realize the part that he has played in the literature of the genre.  They 
may know he published Ray Bradbury's first story, and that Steven King sent 
him his first story at the age of 14, but they don't know that after serving 
in World War II he became a literary agent, earning only $50 for his first 
year before signing the likes of A.E. Van Vogt and Charles Beaumont as 
clients.  Today he represents somewhere around 200 science fiction and 
fantasy authors and marvels at the way the field has changed.  ....

               [Continued in Volume 2, Issue 3]
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--!4!--   Administrivia 
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If you act fast, you can help to show your favorite Hollywood stars the 
power of the net.  The newly opened Los Angeles Free-Net will be presented 
at a gala to honor acting teacher Sanford Meisner.  Hollywood stars are 
being given accounts so that they can send greetings to him, and will be 
able to read your greetings.  As of right now the complete list is not 
available, but as it will be a large event, chances are that whoever you 
want to reach will be there.  Greetings to the stars can be sent to 
xx998@lafn.org.  All e-mail will be posted to a public newsgroup, and the 
best messages will be printed out and hung from strings on a map of the 
world to show where they came from.  So please, especially if you're outside 
the United States, take a couple of minutes to show those off the net that 
we're out here.  The demo will be held April 28th.

And last but not least, CV is looking for an archivist.  We get hundreds of 
kilobytes of information that we'd like to save each month, but lacking any 
spare time at all, we need someone to organize it for us.  The position is 
an unpaid one (as are they all -- for the moment) but the person chosen will 
have probably more information than they ever wanted to know about the genre 
dumped into their lap without their having to look for it.  If you're 
interested in the position, please contact cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu.




--
                     CYBERSPACE VANGUARD MAGAZINE
           News and Views from the Science Fiction Universe
TJ Goldstein, Editor      |   Send submissions, questions, comments to
  tlg4@po.cwru.edu        |         cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu

