JMS had some GREAT political commentary in that Babylon5 arc.
It was good until Sorkin left after season four, and apparently took half the words with him. After that it mostly coasted.
Iâll confess that Iâm far too fond of the Presidential debate episode from season 7, in which Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda) debates Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits), as the candidates for the next presidency.
I particularly love that they decided to perform and broadcast that episode live, the same way that real debates are broadcast live. And most especially that their solution to the question about âhow does âliveâ work, when the west coast airs the show three hours after the east coast?â was basically âwell obviously, weâll do it live twice.â
I think that was everyoneâs solution to that issue, at least everyone who did live episodes back then. Certainly E.R. and Will & Grace did their live episodes twice. Donât know if Roc did (the show that repopularized the live episode practice back then), but since everything is all set up for the East Coast broadcast already, you might as well do it twice. By that time, most of the added expense and effort is paid for; might as well do one more performance.
Oddly, I found the West Coast (second) performances of the E.R. and W&G live episodes to be less polished than the East Coast ones.
I never really watched any of those shows (and I didnât see any of them live; Australia was pretty much behind on television by 6 months to two years, in that era). Itâs interesting to hear about! Hadnât known that live TV was making a resurgence.
As something of a theater guy, I always got a real kick out of live TV. 
Me too⌠theyâre great fun and kinda thrilling when they pull it off, and kinda hilarious when they donât. Roc did their entire 2nd season live, and were, if anything, too good at it, since most of the cast had previously been on Broadway.
I donât know if they did each episode twice, but they were the first American primetime scripted series to do a full season live since the 50s.
I was working on Will & Grace when they did their two live episodes. They were great fun, and even though all four of the main cast had extensive live theatre experience, that didnât prevent the wheels from falling off in entertaining ways a couple times.
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