This week in history: Babylon 5 pilot premieres
Fourteen years ago, the Babylon 5 two-hour pilot, "The Gathering", aired on the now defunct PTEN syndication network.
Created by J. Michael Straczynski before his more pronounced foray into comics with Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Rising Stars, Midnight Nation, and The Book of Lost Souls, the pilot has many differences between the series that would air a year later, such as makeup (see right), music (The Police’s Stewart Copeland instead of Christopher Franke), and casting.
A tragic bit of trivia: the broadcast in the New York tri-state area was delayed becuase of the first bombing of the World Trade Center fourteen years ago today, knocking out transmissions throughout the region.