Trivial unimportant things that bug me a little about Dallas Season 5: The lobby of Ewing Oil looks like the lobby of a doctor's office. Even an independent oil company should have a huge ostentatious lobby to dazzle people. At 4'11" Lucy Ewing could not be a model much less one that agencies are fighting over. Some of the outdoor South Fork scenes are shot on a set. The light looks harsh and strange, and everything is shot close up of course. But, wow, that set did have a completely functioning swimming pool which they almost always used. Many transition shots have dirt, scratches, hair, and shaky images. It's surprising that CBS didn't demand Lorimar improve its production on the #1 show on television.
I have every Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode beginning with most of the KTMA-TV shows through season 10 on the Sci-Fi Channel. About 10 years ago, after watching most of the first three network seasons (I think I watched one KTMA-TV episode), I decided I would continue my trip on the "Satellite of Love" after I retired. Well, now that I've retired . . .
Gene Roddenberry spoke at my college in the late 1970s. Part of the presentation was a full showing of the pilot. He also showed a reel of Star Trek "bloopers". I don't recall much of his "lecture" other than: (1) an inordinate number of what we later would call "nerds" literally on the edges of their seats in the front row (they probably camped out in front of the auditorium the night before); and (2) Roddenberry noting that CBS passed on the series saying they had a more adult space show they would air instead - Lost in Space. I think he was joking. IMO, that show primarily was aimed at kids.
He claimed that CBS stole ideas from him when he presented Star Trek to the network which went into Lost in Space. He also claimed that CBS wanted to pick up Star Trek after NBC cancelled it and that why he turned them down. Back then there was no way to verify any of this but we now know that Roddenberry told some entertaining stories.
I watched Ellery Queen this morning. Jim Hutton was very good. His early departure from this world was such a loss. The series is excellent. I watched it when it was first shown on the BBC. Production values are as high as they get. Maybe that's why it got cancelled prematurely. Give it a go. Ellery Queen paved the way for series such as Murder she wrote. It was ahead of its time.
We must have seen a similar or the same presentation. I saw him speak in 1975/1976 at the university I attended. They also showed the pilot and bloopers reel. After the show, Roddenberry actually went to the university snack bar followed by some Star Trek nerds. Even though I wasn’t one of them, I tagged along and sat at a nearby table and listened while they fired questions at him. He was very friendly and open with them as I recall. I wish I could remember more about it but it was the 70s.
My memory was that CBS rejected the Roddenberry pilot because they already had a "space" series commitment with LOST IN SPACE. I don't recall anyone accusing anyone else of stealing anything, and when STAR TREK died its ratings death on NBC, no other network was seriously interested in picking it up. And yes, he often embellished his stories with unestablished facts - and it was entertaining.
I probably watched most of Lost in Space - or Leave it to Beaver on Mars or whatever it was called - and I certainly never missed an episode of Star Trek (my favorite TV show back then in 4th-5th grade). I don't recall any overlapping concepts or other ideas. To the extent Star Trek episodes had a "deeper meaning" or sorts was irrelevant to me. (Two guys with black and white faces chasing each other around the universe for eternity? Who cares? Use your phaser already!) It was so much cooler than Lost in Space (and though Angela Cartwright was kind of cute I probably wished my teacher looked like Yeoman Rand). In my book, Star Trek ranked alongside Combat! as must-see action-adventure TV in the 1960s.
Wagon Train on Me TV Adam-12 on Me TV Jackie Gleason on Me TV Twilight Zone ER--bought some cheap DVD series
Yes, I guess he thought that if CBS had already been committed to a sci-fi series then why was CBS pretending to be so interested in Star Trek? I guess he jumped to the conclusion that they were trying to steal his ideas. This was the story he told at conventions during the 70s. Now we know many of his stories weren't exactly true and eventually he stopped telling many of them. One story he did stick with for a long time was that NBC didn't want any minorities in the Star Trek cast and he to fight to get them on the show. In fact NBC had sent a memo to production companies strongly encouraging them to cast minorities, especially after I Spy had become a huge hit for them. No one else at Desilu remembered anything about NBC complaining about the cast other than the alien with the pointed ears.
Many shows started to include minorities about that time, especially ensemble shows (e.g., Mission Impossible). Commercials dragged their feet more, I think. For Star Trek, I suspect the international element was of primary importance.
Season two, episode one of UNCLE. Got halfway through and couldn’t take it anymore. Were they all that goofy? Danger Man is much better.
My kids normally don't like old B&W shows but I had them watch The Howling Man and they enjoyed it as much as I did the first time I saw it when I was a kid.
