Before YouTube, podcasts, and streaming video, watching videos of the creators and cast of your favorite television show online was a novelty. The official Babylon 5 website began offering a series of exclusive “Real Interviews” featuring members of the cast, creator J. Michael Straczynski, executive producer Doug Netter, producer John Copeland, and others.
Originally streamed using RealVideo streaming technology, these interviews gave fans a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the series during its original run. Many of these recordings have become difficult to find over the years, and I’m pleased to preserve them here as part of Babylon 5’s online history.
The videos were originally released every week for 5 weeks. They are presented below in their original weekly categories.
Click on a video to view.
NOTE: The original videos were very small, low quality and had grainy audio – but I have done by best to present them in a way that still looks good on modern computers. Also, I now think my timeline is wrong. Because Boxleitner was in old age makeup, that places these being recorded more around late April / early May 1997, not 1996 as I originally thought. I am not going to re-edit the videos though. Apologies.
I will be adding more videos weekly until the book debut, so check back often to see what’s new!
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Note: The Bruce Boxleitner interviews are audio only but uploaded to YouTube for playing. Boxleitner was in old age makeup, and to not spoil the final episode of the series (filmed a year earlier when these were recorded) we at WB chose to only upload the audio. Unfortunately, the source videotape has been lost to time so the original video, as far as I know, does not exist.