On Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:53:54 -0800 (PST), "John W. Kennedy"   
    wrote:   
   >On Jan 21, 3:12 pm, Steve Silverwood    
   >wrote:   
   >> B5 really pioneered lots of things.  It proved that a serial show --   
   >> not just episodes but a real story arc -- was a viable programming   
   >> model.   
   >   
   >No, "Wiseguy" and "Hill Street Blues" had already established that.   
   >Heck, even "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" had played with the   
   >idea. B5's innovation was making the long-term story arcs themselves   
   >coherent storytelling, not just the episodes and the short-term arcs.   
   >The closest thing since may have been the first two years of "Alias".   
   I thought the context here was Science Fiction, but I concede the   
   point.   
   >> >Lost in Space is fun and campy but was it really any more important than   
   >> >Fireball XL-5, The Starlost or UFOs?   
   >>   
   >> Not hardly.  LIS shouldn't have even been included in the list.   
   >   
   >It's not a question of artistic value, but one of historic importance.   
   >There are plenty of parallels. The American musical, for example, was   
   >strongly influenced by "The Black Crook" (1866, I think) and the 1902   
   >"Wizard of Oz", but neither one is tolerable today. No one ever does   
   >"The Black Crook", and the single amateur performance of "Wizard of   
   >Oz" last summer was the first full-dress production since the 1920s.   
   >Similarly, "Lost in Space" is a landmark, even though most of it is   
   >bloody awful. "Fireball XL-5" was a kiddy show, "The Starlost" was   
   >repudiated by its creator even before it went on the air, and "UFO"   
   >was an adult production of a kiddy-show concept. (And "Fireball XL-5"   
   >and "UFO" were British, anyway, which puts them out of "Pioneers"'   
   >purview.)   
   What's wrong with British programming?   
   -- //Steve//   
   --- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32   
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