In the 1960’s there was a former policeman, Gene Roddenberry,who was also a part time writer. He wrote many short stories for science fiction magazines and sold some scripts to some television shows. Roddenberry said that his experience as a policeman helped his writing as he got to see first hand the human emotions during times of crisis. In 1963 he produced a show called The Lieutenant. It starred Gary Lockwood as Marine Lieutenant Bill Rice and Robert Vaughn as his superior officer Captain Ray Rambridge. The Captain gave the Lieutenant a hard time. Not because he didn’t like him but he thought he would be a good officer and tried to show him how to be a good officer. The show was on NBC from September of 1963 to September of 1964. Roddenberry had no new show ready but started thinking of his first love, science fiction. Since science fiction is mostly futuristic the plots can be more flexible and he could showcase the more touchy subjects in modern society with little worry if he would anger anyone. So in 1964 he developed the idea and wrote a script for what would become Star Trek. Science fiction was a hard sell to the networks. Especially one that the creator wanted to appeal to adults. In the 1950’s and early 1960’s science fiction was low budget shows that was aimed at children. Every company and network he took the idea to turned him down. He heard that CBS was having producers come in and pitch their ideas for new shows and went to them. He was there quite along time telling them about the science fiction show he wanted to produce and how he had ideas to cut the cost of what would be an expensive show to make at that time. When he was done they said thanks but we already have a science fiction show in mind that we are going to produce. In 1965 he saw CBS use many of his ideas on that show. It was called Lost In Space. Roddenberry still kept trying. Then Desilu studios showed interest and produced the pilot. The pilot was screened for NBC executives and was almost passed over but one executive said the episode actually made him feel like he was on a spaceship. A second pilot was ordered. However, a lot of time had lapsed between the two pilots. As a result the first star of the pilot was unavailable as were some of the other actors. I have read that even if Jeff Hunter, Capt. Christopher Pike in the first pilot, was available they would still have recast his role. The producers liked Mr. Hunter. His wife was his manager and she didn’t get along with the producers so they didn’t want her around. So Mr. Hunter was out and Mr. Shatner was in. The first show aired on September 8th 1966 on NBC. The producers tired hard to get the ratings and to show that it was a program that adults could watch. However, when reporters were on the set to see what made this a series for adults they arrived on the day when the scene that was being shot was one of Dr. McCoy reviving Mr. Spock who described how he was attacked by "the monster." It didn’t come off sounding like a show that many adults would want to watch or let their children watch. Ratings were poor and NBC was losing faith in Roddenberry and company. The show was only saved from cancellation by write in campaigns from die hard fans. This didn’t mean that the network gave them the best facilities to work in. The worse the ratings got the more the floor squeaked and the pipes dripped. The sound man had his work cut out for him in covering up those sounds on what was suppose to be a top of the line ship of the future. While the show was on the air Mr. Roddenberry tried for a spin off that would have been more grounded on earth. It was to star Gary Lockwood from The Lieutenant as Gary Six and Terri Garr as his assistant. The pilot was filmed as an episode of Star Trek but the network was not interested in a spin off from what they saw as a failed series.
On September 6th, 1969 their five year mission came to an early end when another write in campaign failed to save the show and NBC canceled the series. This should have been the end but it wasn’t. In his book Star Trek Movie Memories William Shatner recalled in July of 1968 being asked to appear at a celebration for the scientist and astronauts involved with Apollo 11. He said he was greeted with much more attention then he deserved as he was a pretend hero and Neil Armstrong and the others were real heroes. Other members of the cast echoed this when they have been told that they were role models for many who later went to work for NASA as astronauts and scientist. One of the space shuttles was even named the Enterprise after the ship on Star Trek. When Mr. Shatner left he was to begin filming the third season of Star Trek and felt the show would be around for a long time. Since that was Star Trek’s final season it would be years before Mr. Shatner’s feeling would prove to be true.
During the 1970’s Mr. Roddenberry tired to get other science fiction series like Planet Earth, Genesis II or Strange New World going but had no luck. Paramount bought out Desilu studios and owned the rights to shows like Star Trek and Mission Impossible. Paramount wanted to start a new TV network and asked Roddenberry to produce a new 2 hour pilot film for a Star Trek series. The pilot was given a lukewarm response and the idea for a new network was forgotten. However, since the film was already made so it was released as a feature film to get some of the money back. Because of syndication the fans of Star Trek had grown and were eagerly waiting on a movie based on the series. The film made a small profit. I felt it was ironic that this film was given a G rating and the Disney produced science fiction film, The Black Hole, was released the same day with a PG rating. During the filming of the movie there was tension between Paramount and Roddenberry so they got a new producer for the 2nd film when they hired Harve Bennett. The result is one of the most successful film series in the history of film and many spin off series. Mr. Roddenberry had finally gotten the spin-off from the show that he created with Star Trek: the Next Generation. However, it was in name only. He lent his name to the series but had very little to do with the production of the shows.
After Mr. Roddenberry died his widow, Majel Barrett, kept producing shows based on scripts that he had written but never produced. It resulted in long running syndicated shows like Earth: Final Conflict and Andromeda. After he passed away Mr. Roddenberry’s ashes were sent into space. Recently Paramount has been talking about the 11th film in the Star Trek series. Not too bad for a failed show. So Happy 40th Anniversary to a show that doesn’t know when to quit.
