A Close Shave for JMS |
Plans were afoot. It was near Christmas - but that was just co-incidence. Babblings 3 was about to happen - but that was just convenient. All it needed was someone to execute the schemes - that person was Morgan...
JMS (the creator of B5) has previously stated a great liking for Wallace and Gromit, the animated clay-figure creations of Nick Park and Aardman Animations. This Xmas saw the debut on BBC TV, with simultaneous UK PAL VHS video release, of the new W&G feature, "The Close Shave". It was decided on the umtsb5 newsgroup that an excellent 'Thank you' to JMS for his efforts in creating B5 (and by co-incidence a great un-Christmas present) would be a copy of "The Close Shave". Technical problems included the requisite translation to NTSC VHS, and the legal permission to send the copy.
Undaunted, Morgan approached Aardman, and received the following response:
8th January 1996
Dear Morgan,
Thank you for your letter requesting permission to convert one PAL VHS
copy of "A Close Shave" into one NTSC VHS copy.
I am happy to allow this conversion and duplication on the understanding
that it is a one-off standards conversion and only one duplicated VHS
cassette is made.
Thank you very much for the information about Babylon5 and J.Michael
Straczynski's enjoyment of Wallace & Gromit. I hope he appreciates his
tape and the efforts you and the rest of the group have made in getting it
for him.
I shall indeed pass on your kind words of appreciation to all here at
Aardman. One of my jobs is to publish an internal journal/paper. In the
next issue I shall mention your letter and your groups enjoyment of
"A Close Shave".
Thanks once again.
Yours sincerely
Kieran Argo - Festivals and Distribution Officer.
Aardman Animations
There was also the matter of cash to purchase the PAL video and to then get the video conversion done. This was solved at Babblings 3. A collection there, and subsequently through the newsgroup, raised enough not only to get the video sorted out, but also to leave enough over to buy some added W&G merchandise:
What was posted: A Close Shave Pal Video 9.99 NTSC conversion 11.98 T-Shirt 11.99 (Gromit Knitting - Black Xlarge) Wallace Card 1.99 Gromit Card 1.99 (Stand up figures, left blank ) Postcard Book 3.99 + letters. P&P 11.61 total 53.54
Morgan sent the package off with a card organised by Jeanette Simpson packed with messages from the fans on umtsb5, and the following covering letter to JMS:
Dear jms,
Happy UnChristmas!
The UK net list got talking, and while we know that a) You don't do
Christmas and b) You don't break copyright, we also know that you
like Wallace and Gromit and really wanted to see _A Close Shave_.
So...we had a think, and this is what we came up with. Find enlosed
some UnChristmas pressies, with all our love. As you can see, we obtained
permission from Aardman Animation to send you a converted copy. We've
enclosed the original PAL version in addition to the NTSC transfer.
Jeannette chose the card, and wrote in all the messages that people
asked to be included from the Net. Everyone contributed, we collected
at Babblings. We hope you enjoy the various unpresents, and that you're
not too mad with us for sending them. Yea...you don't do Christmas...but
we do appreciation. In our defence - there are no teddy bears in this
package!
With all our best wishes and thanks.
Morgan, on behalf of all at uk.media.tv.sf.babylon5
The package got a response. JMS posted the following to umtsb5 (his first posting to the group) from a new AoL account:
I can't turn my back on you people for a moment, can I?
(And yes, this is me...I'm trying out the AOL system for this, since
I'm not sure how to use the GEnie system to get it to this mailer.)
The infamous Wallace and Grommit package has arrived, happily well
after the odious Chrismerchandise season has passed. Will likely take
a look at it tomorrow, since I'm knee deep in work right now. My
thanks and appreciation to all who were involved in this little
escapade; more logistics have not been put into place since the
Invasion of Normandy, it appears. It is an unbridled and undiluted
wonderfulness. My special thanks to Morgan and Jeannette, the
apparent ringleaders behind this particular scheme, as well as to all
those who signed onto the project by name and sig. Your names have
all been recorded and will be passed on to the proper authorities at
the earliest opportunity.
The UK group, on and off the nets, has been the unyielding spine of
our support, and a vast encouragement to all of us on the show as we
struggle to gain in the US what the UK has already discovered and
apparently embraced. To know we have such friends -- who would go to
such deranged lengths to send along a "pressie" -- is encouraging,
enriching, inspiring, and given a few of the sigs on the attached
card...frightening in the extreme.
In any event...seriously, thank you. Tomorrow night, as I sit down on
the sofa, a bowl of popcorn and a Pepsi in front of me, to watch the
tape, I will be thinking of all of you.
Now...will someone please tell me what the HELL this Cup-A-Soup
business has to do with Slade...?
yr obdnt srvnt,
jms
Have now seen the infamous Wallace and Grommit episode, "A Close Shave,"
thanks to all of you. Wonderfully done, technically marvelous, and a
great deal of fun. Lotsa larfs and sheep.
Doesn't get much better than that.
Thanks again for all the effort.
jms
And so ends the terrible tail of the Babylon 5 creator and his Close Shave..
(We'll draw a veil over Slade and Cup-A-Soup!)
Footnote: We're pleased to note that "The Close Shave" won this year's Oscar for best animated feature - congratulations to Nick Park & to Aardman!
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