Editing J. Michael Straczynski (section)

==== Live action and network shows ====
After leaving animation, Straczynski freelanced for ''[[The Twilight Zone (1985 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]]'' writing an episode entitled "What Are Friends For" and, for [[Shelley Duvall]]'s ''[[Nightmare Classics]]'', adapting ''[[The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]'', which was nominated for a [[Writers Guild of America|Writer's Guild]] Award.

Straczynski was offered the position of story editor on the syndicated live-action science fiction series ''[[Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future]]''.  Straczynski constructed a season long arc with lasting character changes and wrote a third of the scripts himself. After one season, the toy company [[Mattel]] demanded more input into the show, causing Straczynski to quit.  He recommended DiTillio to take over the job as story editor for a second season, but the toy company financing fell through and that season was never produced.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-14848|title=B5 – Capt Power|date=1994-11-09|author=Straczynski, J. Michael|access-date=2011-01-04}}</ref>

Soon after, the [[1988 Writers Guild of America strike]] began. Straczynski met [[Harlan Ellison]] during this time and later became friends with him.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-12638|title=How'd You Meet Harlan|date=1995-03-23|author=Straczynski, J. Michael|access-date=2011-01-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-10766|title=The Harlan Award|date=1998-06-20|author=Straczynski, J. Michael|access-date=2011-01-04}}</ref> Straczynski is an executor of Ellison's collected works.

After the strike ended, the producers of the new ''Twilight Zone'' needed to create more episodes to be able to sell the series into syndication with a complete 65-episode package. They hired Straczynski as executive story editor to fill in the remaining number of needed episodes.

After leaving ''Twilight Zone'', his agent of the time asked him to pitch for the show ''[[Jake and the Fatman]]''.<ref>{{cite book|title=The (Even More!) Complete Book of Scriptwriting|last=Straczynski|first=J. Michael|publisher=Writer's Digest|year=1996}}</ref> Initially wary, Straczynski finally did and was hired on as an executive story consultant under [[Jeri Taylor]] and [[David Moessinger]]. When Taylor and Moessinger left the show, Straczynski left too as an act of solidarity.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-13203|title=Looking for Captain Power|date=1995-07-13|author=Straczynski, J. Michael|access-date=2011-01-04}}</ref>

When Moessinger was hired as executive producer for ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]'', he offered Straczynski a job as co-producer. Straczynski joined ''Murder, She Wrote'' for two seasons and wrote seven produced episodes. Moessinger and Straczynski 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 wrote one episode of ''[[Walker, Texas Ranger]]'' for Moessinger between the pilot episode for ''Babylon 5'' and the start of its first season.<ref name="JMS_1996_0305">{{cite web|url=http://www.jmsnews.net/msg.aspx?id=1-15629|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004142308/http://www.jmsnews.net/msg.aspx?id=1-15629|url-status=dead|archive-date=2011-10-04|title=click... *click*... CLIC|date=1996-03-05|publisher=JMSNews, originally published on [[AOL]]|author=Straczynski, J. Michael|access-date=2008-07-12}}</ref>

Straczynski wrote an adaptation of [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s ''The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' for the [[Showtime (TV network)|Showtime]] network, which was nominated for a Writers Guild of America award,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265408/awards|title=Awards for "Nightmare Classics" (1989)|publisher=IMDB: The Internet Movie Database|access-date=27 August 2012}}</ref> and a ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]'' movie, ''[[Murder, She Wrote: A Story to Die For]]'', which he produced.