Troy Rutter
It is a little overwhelming to be putting things down for the world to see. As I have discovered with online communication, sometimes even just listing things can be seen as "bragging" or "name dropping." So, with that in mind, I will be as brief as possible.
I was first introduced to Babylon 5 via David Strauss on Quantum Link, the Commodore predecessor to America Online. The show was still in development but it sounded interesting, so I quickly joined onto GEnie to join in the discussion. What happened next seems silly or stupid in today's age, but back then there was not an easy way to communicate via email to the different networks. What did exist was a long, drawn out way to write from the internet to Compuserve via a gateway. So I put 2 and 2 together and was able to email JMS and later a VP at Warner Bros., Jim Moloshok.
On September 30, 1992 I created the Babylon 5 Mailing list at Iowa State University. The list grew very quickly to the point where Jonathan Roy, myself, and others helped create the alt.tv.babylon-5 newsgroup. I tried to create the rec group but it was defeated. Maybe someday I will post some interesting stuff from that time.
At any rate, eventually Jim Moloshok released the Digital Trading Cards, a first for any television show. Myself and others on the mailing lists, including Lee Whiteside and Steve Grimm helped distribute these as widely as possible. Because of the efforts in promoting Babylon 5 to the online world, I was offered a job to do the Official Babylon 5 Web Site at Warner Bros. in Burbank, California. I quit school (I was a Senior) and moved out to California in one carload.
To make a long story short, my time with WB was sometimes confrontational but never dull. I found myself torn between the show I loved (B5) and work (WB) - after all, now I was a "suit" but hopefully history will show I made the right choices. Some of the work I am most proud of are the QuickTime VR movies, my "Very Drazi Xmas" mock photo, and of course the Eclipse Cafe and Fresh Aire Lounge chat areas on AOL.
I am currently back in Iowa working at a web design firm. I maintain several personal web sites, with my home page still at www.astralight.com.