Star Trek

This show made all of it's principles into cause celebrities & in fact did the same for it's producers & almost everyone involved with it. This was one of the last series produced by Desilu studios it's first season. Then Desilu was sold to Paramont in order for Lucy & Ricky to separate their business interests after the divorce. Oh, but what a way to end their partnership.

This original series & it's films & syndicated sequels have produced more money for Paramont than any other franchise. William Shatner became so famous for his role in this, that he went to to advertise Promise Margerine, do TJ HOOKER (a Cop series) in the 1970's for ABC. Then he kept working on other stuff until now he has managed to become a TV regular again on Boston Legal.

Lenoard Nimoy(Spock) went on to do several other projects including hosting the syndicated series "In Search of". All the others came back for the movies as well. The big thing that made this series so popular was the plot lines which especially in the first seasons were so imaginative. These were from creator Gene Roddenbury who had learned his craft in the unusual Western series hit Have Gun, Will travel.

Roddenbury made morality a major strength in plotting these original episodes. He tapped some talented science fiction writers as well for ideas. This was really his wagon train to the stars. This original series has a couple of fine veteran Western folks behind the camera with Gene L. Coons & Fred Friedberger who worked on action series like The Wild Wild West. The resemblance of Kirks fight scenes in Star Trek to the Wild Wild West are no coincidence.

Towards the end, as NBC kept cutting the budget, the show suffered too, but by then, NBC still had not realized what they had & killed off the series. Thank goodness for re-runs, then video & now DVDs to keep this original going. The guest list for this series was small, but it had some excellent guest stars including William Windom, Roger C. Carmel, Michael Dunn (Dr Lovelass on Wild Wild West), Ricardo Montoban, & others (Most did guest shots on West too). It is one of the rare Science Fiction series to combine serious themes & comedy successfully & really be inventive. After all, to me it seems like these guys invented the cell phone style of communication in the 1960's. European Scientists are still experimenting to see if beaming people up can be done. What a legacy this series has left all of us.