Who is gene roddenberry

Beyond Uhura , pp. When The Lieutenant ended, Roddenberry began planning for his next series, a science fiction-adventure show entitled Star Trek. He wrote his series proposal, Star Trek is Initially proposed for MGM, the studio, although initially enthusiastic, refused to buy it. The in lore later famed exact phrase was actually coined by Writer Samuel A. Peeples an acquaintance from Roddenberry's earlier television days shortly before the Desilu pitch occasion, not Roddenberry, who had called it "a "Wagon Train" concept", but typically, was by him appropriated as his own nevertheless.

However, on that occasion, Katz took a backseat and an awkward and hopelessly unprepared Roddenberry, left to his own devices, seriously bumbled his presentation. Fontana said of Roddenberry, not without affection.

We answered his questions and it turned out that his interest was due to the fact that they were developing a science fiction show of their own. Unsurprisingly, CBS was not interested, as ABC had previously been due to the fact that they already had another Allen science fiction show, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea , in development themselves.

On the set of "The Cage" with Solow r and three extras, "lamenting" the absence of Katz. He thoroughly groomed, prepared, and coached Roddenberry for his next, very last-chance, meeting with NBC the following month, as well as taking an active part in the presentation.

Additionally, Solow instructed Roddenberry to keep quiet when not required to speak which, given Roddenberry's predilection to the contrary, was excruciating for him , as NBC was wary due to their previous dealings with Roddenberry on The Lieutenant , and, most notably, to drop the "Wagon Train To The Stars" pitch-line Roddenberry had used on the previous pitching occasions.

This eventually resulted in success, but " i t was Herb's tenacity and Herb's presentation that sold the series. Yet, the first pilot, " The Cage ", was rejected by NBC, pronounced "too cerebral" as famously coined by Roddenberry later on, even though he was not even allowed to attend the pilot's presentation nor did he ever meet NBC management in person again after the original pitch.

This should have been the end of Star Trek there and then, but, in a for the industry hitherto unprecedented move, the network ordered a second pilot, which eventually led to the series being picked up by them. However, neither of them were picked up to become a series, though April Savage came close as network ABC actually picked up the series, but decided to cancel the series after all, before regular series production was slated to begin.

Unexpectedly confronted with the production of three expensive television properties, which aside from Star Trek and April Savage also included Mission: Impossible , all of them brought in by Katz and Solow who were specifically hired to do so, in order to safeguard the future existence of the ailing studio , where there had only been one before, the I Love Lucy show, the conservative board of directors feared, not unjustified, that the small studio would financially overstretch itself.

Vigorously defended by Solow who wisely had left Roddenberry out of the meeting as the latter had seriously bumbled his Star Trek pitch to network CBS two years earlier, but who firmly believed in the show , and despite the fact that Star Trek was ordered by NBC, the entire Desilu board virtually unanimously voted to cancel Star Trek in February nevertheless.

Yet, as Chairwoman of the Board, Lucille Ball had the power to override her board, and this she did with a mere nod of her head towards Solow. For all intents and purposes, and contrary to widely held beliefs in Star Trek -lore, this was factually the very first time that the Original Series came exceedingly close to cancellation.

Once on the air however, Star Trek developed a loyal following. Much later, influenced by a fan write-in campaign, NASA even named its prototype space shuttle Enterprise , in recognition of the ship that Roddenberry conceived for the series. Having already vigorously worked the press for months to raise awareness for the new series, Roddenberry, one week before the regular series started its run on television, in person presented his creation to the general public at the 1—5 September " Tricon World Science Fiction Convention " in Cleveland, Ohio, promoting the new Star Trek series, as well as presenting the audiences the first two pilot episodes for the series, "The Cage" uncut original version and "Where No Man Has Gone Before" revised version, as this episode was already slated to air.

It was there that Roddenberry discovered his knack for showmanship, as he — in complete contradiction to his dealings with studio and network "suits" — , quickly established a rapport with audiences, not few of them such as Allan Asherman , Isaac Asimov famously shushed-up by Roddenberry when the former turned out to be a bit too rambunctious at the presentation , as well as John and Bjo Trimble , the latter two yet to play a role of note later on becoming " Trekkies " soon thereafter.

Much later Roddenberry had admitted to stage fright, " I was nervous, particularly when I saw them watching other films that were shown before, and stomping and laughing. That means nothing in television. Having made his recollections in and exemplary for his predilection to "embellish" events to his own advantage, Roddenberry's parting remark was an intentional slight of Solow, who, understandably, was not amused when informed.

Nevertheless, Roddenberry's ability to establish a, to most accounts, genuine, warm rapport with fans served him well in the years to come. Having attended multiple Star Trek conventions in his boyhood, Raphael Sbarge later recalled having witnessed Roddenberry give a lecture at one such event; " During his speech he said something like, 'One day we'll be able to go out, get any movie we want, put it in our television and watch it at will.

He's so amazing. By late November , when the first season production was nearing its end, studio and Roddenberry were led to believe that Star Trek was not doing well in the ratings by a chagrined NBC, and Roddenberry sensed the possibility of a cancellation in the air. He discussed the matter with Harlan Ellison with whom he was still on good terms at that time and together, both men decided upon a campaign to save Star Trek. Ellison organized "The Committee", an advisory group of the foremost science fiction writers of the time through which a letter-campaign was organized.

Science fiction fans general, not specifically Trekkies alone started to write in, and a veritable contemporary who's who of science fiction made their favorable opinions known in numerous publications, chief amongst them, renowned author Isaac Asimov, with whom Roddenberry would strike up an enduring friendship, stemming from this period. And please don't write any more letters. Actually, NBC had already decided to continue with the series before the campaign had even gathered steam, and Herb Solow had always been doubtful that the letter campaign had anything to do with this.

He was informed by his former NBC colleagues that the network was fully aware that the relatively modest campaign was organized and artificial, and was merely considered a nuisance as the network had a standing policy to answer each and every letter sent to them.

Reassured by some of his former colleagues, sincerely or not, that NBC was proud to air Star Trek , Solow could not get his suspicion confirmed that the decision was inspired by NBC's holding company RCA, which was selling color television sets at the time and who had commissioned the A. Nielsen Company the rating company to investigate the popularity of these sets among the public.

Star Trek was still one of the few full color television series being aired at the time. Aside from producing the series, Roddenberry was responsible for most of the rewriting done on scripts, which was necessary for getting stories into shape and merging them into the Star Trek format, as most writers weren't familiar with the series and its unique concept at the beginning.

Justman described Roddenberry as actually being a much better re-writer than writer. Yet, many writers and even Black, whose script for " The Naked Time " got rewritten without asking for his permit, got awry with Roddenberry for what they considered to be a butchering of their work.

However, most famous became his decades long feud with Harlan Ellison, who only months earlier had helped Roddenberry with the first "Save Star Trek " campaign, over the rewrites of his episode " The City on the Edge of Forever ", arguably the most famous Star Trek episode of them all. After Black's departure from the series in August , Roddenberry, unable to cope with the demands of serving as sole producer and re-writer, hired Gene L.

Coon to serve as line producer and stepped back to the position of executive producer. While still largely overseeing production and occasionally doing re-writes, most of the re-writing was now Coon's responsibility. Under Coon's watch, the series developed into what is now considered the classic Star Trek formula including the introduction of such concepts as the United Federation of Planets , the Prime Directive and, most notably, the Klingons , and also diverged into more light-hearted action-adventure than Roddenberry's dramatic approach.

The new owners considered cancellation of Star Trek , which was in the pre-production stage of season two, but decided to push ahead as the season was already ordered by NBC. Still, near the conclusion of that season, cancellation was made definitive by NBC nevertheless. However, and much to the dismay of NBC, it found itself subsequently and suddenly confronted with a public outcry in the form of the famed, massive letter campaign, complemented by a deluge of phone-ins and unusually large picket-lines at both the New York City headquarters, and the Burbank, California, location, the likes of which, no network or studio had ever been confronted with before years later, it turned out that the cancellation was an East Coast decision, the West Coast actually wanted to continue with Star Trek.

The ultimate saving of Star Trek constituted the by Roddenberry secretly funded and coordinated letter-writing campaign, initiated by Bjo Trimble and her husband in late- and early- , which succeeded in making a shell-shocked NBC buckle and to renew, albeit reluctantly, Star Trek for a third season.

Ironically, the funding Roddenberry provided, was not even his own; He managed to claim the money as business expenses from the studio.

For decades, network and public were led to believe that it was a spontaneous action organized by Trekkies, but Justman and Solow debunked the "spontaneous" nature of the campaign in their book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story. Roddenberry — with Trimble and his future wife Majel Barrett — also founded Lincoln Enterprises in , which specialized in selling Star Trek memorabilia to fans.

Neither Gene nor Majel had any idea how to set up a mail-order business, while the Trimbles have put together several such businesses. He is very like his father, who also believed in big bear hugs. Solow was especially angered by this, accusing Roddenberry with stealing studio property for his own gain. It was originally Lincoln Publishing and it was owned by another gentleman many, many years before.

His attorney was Leonard Maislich [sic. For some reason or another he gave the incorporation to Leonard. It [Lincoln] was merely set up for Gene to handle fan mail for Star Trek. No records of a "hundred years" old "Lincoln Publishing" are known to exist and the "gentleman" in question was actually Roddenberry himself as Maizlish had been his life-long attorney. By transferring title to his attorney who had somehow managed to antedate the company's establishing date to 6 April through proxy Mort Kessler — hence Barrett's "has been in existence for probably almost a hundred years" remark [7] , Roddenberry had thrown up a smokescreen if the studio ever decided to pursue the matter legally, which however, they never did.

As already implied by Trimble and Barrett themselves, there was another, personal reason as well to proceed in this matter, as it was also meant to hide the Lincoln revenues from Roddenberry's soon-to-be ex-wife Eileen as well. It was for these reasons why Lincoln Enterprises was not established as a subsidiary of Roddenberry's official production company Norway Corporation, but as a separate entity, and also explaining why the early, original short-lived company name " Star Trek Enterprises " was changed to " Lincoln Enterprises ".

Unsurprisingly, and not entirely unjustified, as the original Roddenberry couple was still legally married at the time of the incorporation of Lincoln Enterprises, Eileen later found out, and sued all involved parties for damages, resulting in that Maizlish was actually found guilty of "conspiracy to commit fraud" for his part in the deception, though it assessed no punitive damages against him.

Kessler, incidentally, settled out-of-court with Eileen. After Star Trek was saved from cancellation and the third season was commenced, Roddenberry promised to return to the show as line producer, if NBC promised him a new, more family-oriented timeslot of Mondays PM, but threatened to pull out if the network did not do so.

Roddenberry grossly overestimated his value as perceived by network and studio, and since he did not possess the political and diplomatic skills — nor would he ever have — to deal with upper network or studio echelons Herb Solow had always ran interference for Roddenberry and the network and studio, but the former had left the production by now , the network was only too happy to call his bluff.

When the network finally doomed Star Trek to the "graveyard slot" of Fridays 10PM, Roddenberry, having stated at the time to a newspaper, " If the network wants to kill us, it couldn't make a better move. With Fred Freiberger serving as line producer, Roddenberry — while keeping his title and salary of executive producer — relocated his office to the far side of the former Desilu lot as it was now the Paramount lot , and, despite the written promise he had made to the cast and production staff on 28 March to the contrary, recused himself entirely from managing the show in its third and last year, having completely lost heart according to Solow and Justman.

Justman said that the decline of script quality was mainly due to the fact that "the Roddenberry touch" was gone. Exemplary of this was that Roddenberry could no longer be bothered to read or revise scripts, which he had done so vigorously in the previous two seasons, often to the chagrin of writers.

He did made half-hearted efforts to make himself available, but only when Freiberger and the other producers specifically sought out his advise. However, sensing his non-commitment, even that little decreased significantly as the season progressed.

Justman in particular felt deeply disappointed by Roddenberry, feeling that he was one of the few staffers left, alongside Gregg Peters , Edward K. Milkis and, to a lesser degree, Leonard Nimoy and Gene Coon who had returned on an occasional basis as writer only , to continue being the "keepers of the flame". Unlike so many others, including, somewhat hypocritically, Roddenberry himself, Justman has never faulted Freiberger or his writing staff, as they were entirely new to Star Trek , genuinely doing what they could under difficult circumstances arguably in retaliation for the letter campaign, the studio and network had considerably slashed the production budget to a level Solow felt the series could no longer be produced at, leaving the production in protest because of it , but has cited Roddenberry's defection, as the direct cause for him leaving the series exhausted himself, shortly before the end of the production.

Charged with the post-production editing of the last episodes, Ed Milkis was the very last senior production staffer left on the otherwise empty lot. By the time the Original Series was definitively cancelled, Roddenberry had in effect already deserted Star Trek completely. Contracted previously in July , he had left months earlier and was already fully engaged in writing the scripts for two proposed Tarzan movies for production company National General Pictures , even having gone for an extended stay in Mexico to scout for locations, though he was still on the payroll of Paramount Television.

The project was canceled before casting was even considered. Though Star Trek -lore has it that Roddenberry staunchly held on to his complete faith in his creation, this was, aside from him deserting the third season, further contradicted during the divorce proceedings from his wife, as it showcased the despondency he felt over the apparent failure of his creation. Eileen declined, astonishingly perhaps in hindsight, but understandable at the time as the Original Series was not to turn in a profit for the coming decades, that is, for Roddenberry at least.

Even as late as , Roddenberry reiterated the offer to his by now ex-wife in a subsequent alimony hearing, but again she declined. Represented by Maizlish, Roddenberry's divorce was finalized in July In effect, he had planned to divorce his wife even earlier, but postponed that action as he felt that he would not have enough time and energy to deal with both the divorce and the production of Star Trek , which had been renewed for a second season.

It was around that time that Paramount discovered that Roddenberry was selling Star Trek merchandise through Lincoln Enterprises, which was formally an illegal endeavor, as he simply did not own the brand. Yet, both parties struck a deal, which allowed Roddenberry to continue in return of a percentage of the sales, as Paramount also started to realize that their Star Trek property was not a too bad one to have after all. Not yet having a well oiled Star Trek marketing machine of their own, Lincoln Enterprises suited the studio well in raising the awareness of their increasingly profitable Star Trek brand.

I see the value. I definitely see the value. It needs to be woke, because they need to put things in your face so there is a discussion. What horrible things had he seen during that war? How many lives did he take because of his actions?

How much death had he himself seen? That in fact optimism may be the result of the maturity that comes from living a life like that. He acted immediately, left his flying career behind and went to Hollywood, only to find the television industry still in its infancy, with few openings for inexperienced writers. At a friend's suggestion, he joined the Los Angeles Police Department, following in his father's footsteps and gaining experiences which would be valuable to a writer.

Established as a writer, he turned in his badge and became a freelancer. Later, he served as head writer for the highly popular series Have Gun, Will Travel. His episode "Helen of Abiginian" won the Writers Guild Award and was distributed to other writers as a model script for the series. Next, he created and produced The Lieutenant series, starring Gary Lockwood and Robert Vaughn; it told the story of a young man learning the lessons of life while in the United States Marine Corps.

Star Trek followed The first of the two pilots was pronounced "too cerebral" by the network and rejected. Once on the air, however, Star Trek developed a loyal following and has since become the first television series to have an episode preserved in the Smithsonian, where an foot model of the U. Enterprise is also exhibited on the same floor as the Wright brother's original airplane and Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. He also co-wrote and produced "Spectre" , a two-hour horror movie for NBC.

On Thursday, October 24, Gene Roddenberry passed away and a world not so far away mourned the loss of one of television's foremost pioneers. In addition to having served as executive consultant on Star Trek feature productions, Roddenberry added "novelist" to his writing repertoire. His novelization of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" Pocket Books, sold close to a million copies and was ranked number one on the national bestseller lists for many weeks.

Sign In. Down 1, this week. View rank on IMDbPro ». While in junior high school he became interested in science fiction and years later while reading a copy of 'Astounding Stories' when he was working as an airline pilot he decided to give it up and become a writer. He moved West and joined the Los Angeles police force to gain experience that would help him toward a writing carer in Hollywod. See full bio ».

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Add it to your IMDb page. Find out more at IMDbPro ». How Much Have You Seen? How much of Gene Roddenberry's work have you seen?