One that's aged pretty well is Babylon 5. The show's creator also wrote like 95% of the episodes. He was much more cynical and suspicious of "end of history" narratives than most showrunners of the era. I wouldn't dream of spoiling the plot details. But let's just say that his opinions about fascism and fascists are crystal clear: "must be stopped by any means necessary" and "shoot them early and often" respectively.
Writing nine episodes of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe while it's turning into even more of a hyper-capitalist action figure commercial hellscape will do that to you.
Edit: No, seriously, why did they feel the need to churn out "meteor that transforms into a wooly mammoth" as a He-Man toy?
I'm not so sure, he also wrote Superman: Grounded where Superman was a weird, condescending Randian dick. Although that comic did switch writers at some point, so I'm not sure how much of that was JMS.
Babylon 5 had some awful filler episodes (TKO being the prime example) which never should've been made.
Babylon 5 had some awful filler episodes (TKO being the prime example) which never should've been made.
This is true. But that was mostly in the first season where quite a few episodes were written by others, and JMS didn't yet have the clout to fend off the worst of studio meddling.
I do always tell first-time watchers of B5 to just skip TKO. Thankfully it has nothing to do with the overarching plot.
Update, I just looked up the writer of TKO. Several of the earlier weaker episodes were his. He also wrote Born to the Purple, Deathwalker, Eyes, A Spider in the Web, GROPOS, and Knives. Some good concepts, but definitely not series highlights because of the clumsy writing. Frankly I'd put them all in the bottom 10% of the series.
One that's aged pretty well is Babylon 5. The show's creator also wrote like 95% of the episodes. He was much more cynical and suspicious of "end of history" narratives than most showrunners of the era. I wouldn't dream of spoiling the plot details. But let's just say that his opinions about fascism and fascists are crystal clear: "must be stopped by any means necessary" and "shoot them early and often" respectively.
Writing nine episodes of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe while it's turning into even more of a hyper-capitalist action figure commercial hellscape will do that to you.
Edit: No, seriously, why did they feel the need to churn out "meteor that transforms into a wooly mammoth" as a He-Man toy?
deleted by creator
What can I say? The man had a work ethic. Not unlike Tim Follin's soundtrack work on shovelware NES and C64 games.
Ok knowing nothing else i absolutely want a transforming Woolly mammoth but.. Does it just turn into an amorphous shape?
Yes
New bit idea: we convince everyone woolly mammoths are more closely related to dinosaurs than elephants because they laid eggs.
Also that would make mammoths kill the dinosaurs when that one huge mammoth dropped.
I'm not so sure, he also wrote Superman: Grounded where Superman was a weird, condescending Randian dick. Although that comic did switch writers at some point, so I'm not sure how much of that was JMS.
Babylon 5 had some awful filler episodes (TKO being the prime example) which never should've been made.
This is true. But that was mostly in the first season where quite a few episodes were written by others, and JMS didn't yet have the clout to fend off the worst of studio meddling.
I do always tell first-time watchers of B5 to just skip TKO. Thankfully it has nothing to do with the overarching plot.
Update, I just looked up the writer of TKO. Several of the earlier weaker episodes were his. He also wrote Born to the Purple, Deathwalker, Eyes, A Spider in the Web, GROPOS, and Knives. Some good concepts, but definitely not series highlights because of the clumsy writing. Frankly I'd put them all in the bottom 10% of the series.
I blame everyone being exhausted from New Krypton for that.