"I'm a writer. I never really wanted the pointy hat that says PRODUCER," J. Michael Straczynski admitted in a 1996 Compuserve Forum Conference. "If I were offered staff writer, for crappy money, no power, but they wouldn't change the words, I'd take it in a hot second." Nevertheless, in bringing his science fiction saga Babylon 5 to the small screen, Straczynski has become one of the most visible television producers in the business. Not only does he oversee the development and production of the series and its spinoffs, he wrote more than ninety of the show's 111 hour-long episodes and has maintained an ongoing dialogue with the show's fans over the internet. The result, according to Newsweek contributor Adam Rogers, "has been some of the most intelligent science fiction on television," earning the ardent devotion of millions of viewers as well as two Hugos from the science fiction community.

Straczynski was...