Straczynski started in television in 1983, working on animated shows and then in live action, working his way from staff writer to executive producer, culminating in his most famous television work,
Babylon 5, which won two Emmy Awards, back-to-back Hugo Awards, and dozens of other awards. He wrote 92 out of
Babylon 5's 110 episodes, as well as the pilot and five television movies. The character-driven space opera is notable for its five year story arc, emphasis on realism, and its pioneering, extensive use of CGI for its special effects. Straczynski was creator and executive producer of
B5's thirteen-episode sequel series,
Crusade, for which he wrote 10 of the 13 episodes. He ran
Jeremiah, loosely based on the Belgian post-apocalyptic comic of the same name, writing 19 of the 35 episodes.
A partial chronological list of Straczynski's other television credits:
- He-Man and the Masters of the Universe - Staff Writer; specifically writing 9 episodes
- Princess of Power - Staff Writer, specifically writing 8 episodes
- Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors - Staff Writer, specifically writing 13 episodes
- The Real Ghostbusters - Story Editor; writer of 21 episodes and one Special
- Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future - Executive Story Editor; writer of 13 episodes
- The New Twilight Zone - Story Editor; writer of 11 episodes
- Jake and the Fatman - Executive Story Editor; writer of 5 episodes
- Murder, She Wrote - Co-Producer; writer of 7 episodes
- Walker Texas Ranger - Supervising Producer; writer of 1 episode (left show to do B5)
Straczynski was involved in
Spiral Zone, from which he removed his name and used the pseudonym Fettes Grey (derived from the names of the grave robbers in
The Body Snatcher). He wrote an episode of
CBS Storybreak (an adaptation of Evelyn Sibley Lampman's
The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek).
In 1991, executive producer David Moessinger brought Straczynski aboard the hit mystery series
Murder, She Wrote as a producer in an effort to shore up the series' ratings. Together, they moved the protagonist, Jessica Fletcher, from the sleepy Maine town of Cabot Cove to New York City to revitalize the show. The move effectively brought the show back into the top ten from the mid-thirties where it had fallen. Straczynski made Jessica an instructor in writing and criminology, and he is widely held to have most emphasized her role as a working writer, with all the deadlines and problems involved in that profession.
In 2004, Straczynski was approached by Paramount Studios to become a producer of the
Enterprise series. He declined, believing that he would not be allowed to take the show in the direction he felt it should go. He did write a treatment for a new
Star Trek series with colleague Bryce Zabel.
In 2005, Straczynski began publishing his
Babylon 5 scripts. This process ended in June 2008, with the scripts no longer being available from the end of July of that year. His scripts for the television movies were published for a limited time in January 2009.He has written for radio drama, including the series
Alien Worlds for the Mutual Radio Network,
The City of Dreams for scifi.com and an original 20-part radio drama series entitled
The Adventures of Apocalypse Al for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that was to debut in 2007.