The Sci-Fi Channel has acquired exclusive rights to the Emmy Award-winning SF series Babylon 5. The cable network announced Monday that series will premiere September 25 and will air Monday through Friday at 7 p.m. eastern time.
Sci-Fi picked up the rights to all 112 hour-long episodes of the series, as well as four two-hour telefilms based on the show.
"Babylon 5 is one of sci-fi fans' favorite series. We are thrilled to be able to add it to our schedule," said Bonnie Hammer, executive vice president and general manager of the channel.
A turbulent path
Babylon 5 has had a checkered broadcast history. The series first aired as the flagship program for "Prime Time Entertainment Network," a package of syndicated shows shared by Warner Brothers and the various television stations owned by Chris-Craft.
, and by 1997 Babylon 5 -- then in its fourth season -- was the last show running under the PTEN logo.
PTEN finally collapsed in 1997, and by the summer it seemed certain B5 would be cancelled. Series creator J. Michael Straczynski even wrote and directed the final episode of the series, constructing the episode in such a way that it could air at the end of either a fourth season or, if the show were renewed, a fifth season.
The mixed blessings of survival
Eventually, another unit of Time Warner, cable channel TNT, ended up rescuing the show, not only buying rerun rights to the first four seasons, but commissioning several TV movies and a fifth season. Intent on building a science fiction franchise, they also expressed interest in a sequel series, Crusade.
The fifth season and the TV movies were moderately successful on TNT, but creative conflicts soon developed over Crusade. TNT cancelled the program midway through its first season, reinventing it as a "miniseries" in the summer of 1999.
There is no word yet as to whether the Sci-Fi Channel will also buy the 13 episodes of Crusade that were produced.
The channel expressed interest in picking the series up when it was cancelled, but had just completed its buying process and was unable to stretch its budget to another television series.
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