Believe it or not... I was there. I was part of this time and this place. I was on the Star Trek sound stage Jan 9, 1969 and stood there in stunned amazement as the doors that separated the Trek stage from the Mission Impossible stage were pulled open and the entire cast and crew of Star Trek walked through them to pop Champaign corks for the series 'wrap party'. They were oblivious to the presence of the two teens on the stage (myself and a friend) so we were left all alone to explore. Amazing!
Just enjoyed this for the first time. Thanks for posting. And thanks to Herb Solow for acknowledging the contributions of regular office staff, Lucille Ball and other major people who have since died. Really enjoyed this.
How about because opinions are like assholes everybody has one and maybe their opinion was she didn't write good episodes back then cuz Believe It or Not self-righteous as.s hole just because you like something does not mean the rest of the world has to like it too
@@bebbiebowman935- Wow, that's a bit harsh! D C. Fontana was a HUGE force in the original series. She wrote "Journey To Babel," "The Ultimate Computer," and "The Enterprise Incident." (She also had input into nearly a dozen other episodes, being one of the go--to staff writers who helped transform and polish scripts to meet Star Trek standards.) Maybe, just maybe, she's left out here because she was resented by the Hollywood "boy's" club. I'm no particular fan of feminist issues, but credit should be given where credit is due! She was practically Gene Roddenberry's right arm throughout the first two seasons of Star Trek. That she's NOT included here, seeing as she had such a big impact on the original show is, indeed, rather bizarre!
This documentary was released on laserdisc in Japan in 1999 It was never distributed anywhere else. Justman and Solow wrote a book with their account of production of Star Trek TOS in 1996. They wrote it in part to get their version down on paper at a time when other people were doing the same thing. Neither their version of history or Roddenberry's version can be fully trusted. The truth is often somewhere between the two versions.
That's what happened so that the Nielson ratings would go down and NBC had an excuse to cancel the show. Known fact. That's why I personally hate NBC as after the moon landing, the original Star Trek series would have taken off like a rocket and the sky was no limit, only if the network would have gave it one more last chance, then it would have really became more profitable beyond their wildest dreams. Stupid NBC.
Rubbish. Networks don't need "reasons" to cancel shows. CBS killed Gilligan's Island even though it was doing well enough in the rating just because they wanted to make spots available on the schedule for other shows. In part NBC apparently moved Trek to 10pm in part because they finally landed a sponsor for the show: a cigarette company, and you could not advertise cigarettes during family hours.
NBC never supported the show. They begrudgingly put it on the air in the first place, then couldn't wait to see it canceled to make room for shows they were more comfortable with. The real question, in my viewpoint, is why Roddenberry and company didn't shop around for another network after Star Trek's second season. It seems to me ABC might have been persuaded to pick it up. Had that occurred, with some real support at that network, Star Trek might have had a much longer original run. Of course the downside to that, is had that taken place, Star Trek as we know it today, as a world wide phenomenon, might never have happened!
Read the book: Star Trek: The Inside Story by Herb Solow and Bob Justman. Simply the most authentic thing ever published on Star Trek. If you love the show and want to know how it was really created and why, you have to read this book. Astonishing. I am so grateful we finally got the real story before everyone died and left the truth about it unknown. Thank you Herb and Bob!
Hear, hear... Total agreement with you even though I'm not crazy about Marc Eliot's attack piece on Roddenberry. There's enough in the authorized biography of Roddenberry to show he was no angel but he wasn't demonic or a complete lush, slug, or whatever his worst detractors say, either. There's more to the story than you get from one person -- and certainly Harlan Ellison isn't the ultimate authority, either!
Needless music, needless shrinking of the screen to give their name each and every time. "Attention deficit disorder" was invented by the "entertainment" industry.
From what I heard Star Trek wasn't done any favours by the network that continuously cut the budget and moved it around the schedules which also damaged the shows popularity! however....for all I know it was just down to the lack of imagination of the public that has killed off so many sc-fi shows since.
Actually, the network licensing fee went UP every year, but the show was costing more than the licensing fee, and it was Desilu and then Paramount who cut the budget to try to compensate. So the studio, was to blame, not the network.
@@ToxicCrayon It was also the network as they wanted Gene to make the show a space comedy, and Gene ardently refused, so, NBC and Gene locked horns and since the network didn't get it's way, they exacted revenge on Gene and the series by moving it from day to day, time slot to time slot causing the Nielson ratings to drop so they had a good reason to cancel the show.
That's utterly untrue. NBC bought an "action adventure" show and that's what they asked for over and over. I've read actual memo's from NBC's Stanley Robertson to Roddenberry (via the UCLA archives) and there's never any mention of making the show funny or comedic.
It wasn't a success until the young pot smoking audience of the '70s saw the reruns and made it into a mythos...and no shows after, except for the TNG and Stargate SG1, came close to the expansive vision and story...but even those shows had nearly a decade of episodes each to build upon...
The story about CBC not having trouble with tbe strong female or black crew member stikes me as true. After all shows like Buck Rogers had its very beautiful lead woman as head of Earth defense, and in charge of Rogers. So its strikes me that Gene went on a very clever, but dishonest, marketing campaign. Glad i watched this now
"Inside Star Trek - The Real Story" was a based on the 1996 reference book by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman. The documentary looked at the development and evolution of Star Trek: The Original Series from the perspective of the production staff. Released as a single-volume VHS in the US on 3 November 1998,
Obviously these are NBC cronies talking , there is far too much evidence of the real stories , NBC gave Roddenberry so much grief , it made him sick , NBC was responsible for his early demise , finally , switching the time slot for the third season in favor off laugh in ( which was absolute garbage ) was intentionally done to sink the star trek series , what more does anybody need to know ?
Very correct in your writing. Yes, it WAS NBC'S fault, and that simply showed you that NBC was headed by a bunch of morons. Now after the moon landing, the show would have taken off so fast and furious, nobody could catch up with it.
Where is this "evidence"? Interviews with Gene? The actual surviving correspondence in the UCLA Roddenberry archive doesn't support the narrative of constant NBC meddling. Yes, they did sometimes ask for dumb things ("more monsters") and they smartly did put their foot down on occasion (killing Barry Trivers' reprehensible "Portrait In Black and White" script for one), and Roddenberry didn't like that one bit. But he was bitching about network interference even when just working as a freelance writer years earlier, so it was an old saw with him.
This is my most favorite documentary on the original series by far. Thank God they did this before all these awesome people got too old to tell their stories/passed away. Even someone 30 years old at the time is now in their 80s! We already know about the cast and their stories but the writers, producers, behind the scenes, and sound engineers are sharing brand new information. Its amazing! The guy with the big dark glasses, white hair, and blue sports coat speaks like a pro-documentary speaker in a great way. In fact, most everyone here is so well spoken it makes me sad to feel we are losing this professional/formal presentation manner to these millennial children sinking into informal and an almost barbaric manner of presentation....I prefer the Dan Rather/Walter Cronkite style. Regardless, thank you AKSINET? for sharing this.
What a load of BS, Tinker either does not know what he is talking about, or is liying through his teeth. The letter writting campain to save the show was not done by Roddenbery or anyone connected with the show, it was done by the fans. And Tinkers clai it was less then 10,000 lettrs is a crock. It's a fact NBC got so much mail at that time, they had to put additional personal on in the mail room to handle it all. In fact NBC got so much mail demanding Star Trek be renewed that it overloaded some of the equipment used to handle all that mail and a repairman had to be called in. That repairman latter confirmed that NBC recevied a lot more mail then they will admit, Way more they the 10,000 Tinker claims, hundreds and hundreds of thousands, maybe even close to a million. (It would take that much to overload those machines and require the addition of several extra people to handle the mail, surely 10,000 pieces of mail would not have caused that much trouble). Also Tinker seems to forget about the infamous promotional posters that the NBC art department airbrushed spocks ears and eyebrows, to make him look human. No one at NBC would take credit for that, but the art department would not take it upon themselves to do that without being given instructions to do so.
Tinker on the letter campaign, an NBC computer used to tabulate the number of letters crashed at one Million. Memory servers it's own master, would anyone consider renewing a canceled series on the basis of 10,000 letters?
Renshen1957 yeah, he was definately trying to make him and the others sound so much more important than they were. And of course, I remember it being closer to that 1,000,000 mark than 10,000. Why try to make it sound like the fans were not that interested. NBC was the one that wasn't that interested!! With a decent budget and some cooperation, Star Trek could have had more seasons for sure. It's obvious that we wanted more!! We have watched everything they put out because we love it!!
In OKC, channel 4 (NBC affiliate) pre-empted Star Trek on Thursday nights with local programming or info-type commercials and ran ST at 10:30 Sunday night!
Alvin Garcia it makes you wish that they had used some of the music from the Original Series. Especially if the composers from certain episodes are telling their stories for the first time. I certainly wouldn’t exclude Alexander Courage’s fanfare.
Trivia that I read about years ago: The medical thingys that Bones used in the field, the ones with the spinning actions (Before he'd say, 'He's dead, Jim'"), were battery powered gimmick saltshakers from a Spencer's gifts or whatever, and the phaser sounds were recordings of a stick hitting high tension wire.
The first one is true. I'm not so sure the second one is accurate though. (The Star Wars stormtrooper blaster sound is done that way, though. You can replicate the effect with a microphone and a slinky)
Thank you Robert,Trek was put in the basement of time slots by NBC. Gene isn't here to defined himself and some people will say anything now to make them selves look good.
But then the story lives on even today. Who could have known? The fans knew. The diversity of a crew who was passionate and held life at the highest level exploring our universe would excite our imaginations. The world had too many things to create from the simplified lives in a universe of the imaginative Star Trek. Too many wonderful gadgets, and who would have thought that the imagination of some would have sparked new, and even more diverse and creative starships, for generations to come. Ones that would emerge with their own gadgets to simplify our own world. I love the Original Series and am so glad it didn't die in the storage rooms of yesteryear!! The original crew was deep, sexy, strong, and compassionate. You can write a script, but it's the actors that breath life and believability into it, and they did just that!! Yes, there was drama, and people often make fun of Shatner with his form of acting, but can you imagine an actor not doing that? He put depth and life into the character. He was a captain, and someone with that title needed to weigh his every word. He needed to be strong, and the crew needed to feed off of his strength to be confident in following him. He was direct and to the point, expected respect and submission, yet was compassionate and gentle when the need arose. They all played their parts very well. I appreciate all the writers and what all the others did to bring Star Trek together. Music, sound effects, costumes, makeup, all these and more made it interesting and creative, but any other actors would not have made it what it has become today. They were the icing on the cake, they brought all the others imagination's to life. And they contributed ideas and spiced up what they were given with their own creative talents. So bravo to you, and an extraordinary bravo to the actors. Yes, we wouldn't have had Star Trek without the writers, but it would have sunk in the first few episodes without those perfectly matched actors. They brought the spice and the life and the charisma to the show, and that's what the fans craved when it ended.
I would sure love to fly in space aboard A spacecraft like the Enterprise In the original series. I would like to have Tricorder, and phaser and and A walkie talkie like those on the original series. I also like the computers on the original series. You can talk to them and they can understand you.
So uninspired they still make new shows based on his work 53 years later... CBS will be dragging Captain Picard out of his final resting place for a new series "Picard".
Sorry if this was mentioned already but Herb Solow's book, "Inside Star Trek the Real Story" is a great read. I presume this video he's hosting is based on the book since it has the same title.
Thank you for posting this film. I'm very grateful to you. I get tired of seeing all of these actors who are on classic television shows tell us how they develop the characters, how they wrote the script, and how they came up with just about everything! I know production does not work that way. But the fans believe these stories. I hope that more of this through history of Star Trek will get out there.
To be honest, I have the audio book version of the original book this video was adapted from... I think the audio book version is better than the video. Too bad they never released it in audio CD but I imagine most of us that have the means HAVE captured the cassettes and mastered our own CD's!
I wonder how truly accurate the Neilson ratings were. When I was a boy our family was chosen for a time as a Neilson family.nothing electronic, they just gave you a journal to record your viewing in. I can say I just wanted the money they gave me for keeping the journal, about $5 I think. I just made up what I watched and wrote some times and shows down. It was a hassle I just wanted to be done with. I knew what shows were on at such and such time and day so I just filled out my weeks worth of viewing in around 15 min.
Please help, im going NUTS, I do NOT recall the uniforms having GOLD arm bands, just plain tighter fitting arms, yes ive been to the library as I thought this was a huge psyop on the internet by AI computers run by the ellites. my past has changed, Prince used to sing dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to celebrate this this thing called life.. Celebrate NOT get through! Maddonna's here real name?? not in my world. the list goes on and on and Quantum Physics says its possible.. so why are the Non affected so aggresive and dismissive as if they have Never seen any quantum physics.
You know if you're going to call someone on something, at least given an explanation. Your kind of response just screams 2- or 3-year-old who's upset because reality doesn't match up to what you think it is!
NBC may not have intended to, but without a doubt the network (who never allowed the show to build a following by repeatedly changing the shows airtime and day - in an era where shows were literally identified by their time slot: “same bat time, same bat channel”, “it’s Howdy Duty time”, “it’s time for the Brady Bunch” etc.) killed Star Trek. If you look at the Neilson’s, over week performance general trended upwards but it never stayed in a slot very long and took profound viewership hits each time it was moved. Why it kept being moved is the real question: my gut tells me, the network execs who did not understand the demographic kept trying to massage it into something it wasn’t.
Why are they downplaying the letter writing campaign? If it was only a few thousand then how come they actually had an announcement at the end of the second season asking people to stop writing because the show had been renewed? And Roddenberry had no gratitude? NBC deliberately put the third season in the Friday night 10 PM death slot after promising him a Monday night time slot. Nothing like leaving out uncomfortable truths. I don't know where this ever aired (other than in Japan) or else it would have received a lot of criticism for elevating the backroom guys and playing down the creative people on the show.
Thousands of physical letters is pretty significant. We forget this is the age of email spam. It didn't have to be hundreds of thousands or a million to get the network's attention.
Oh I get it now. Gene Roddenberry didn't have anything to do with creating Star Trek. It was created by a team of NBC executives. Gene just showed up to collect the pay checks. Hm. I never knew that before. Interesting.
+Porfle Popnecker I was just being facetious. Gene lived, breathed and exhaled STAR TREK. He created it - brought it into being and fought tooth and nail to keep it alive. I was being sarcastic that all these TV execs who opposed him at ever juncture are now trying to take total credit for it.
@@porflepopnecker4376 What's condescending about telling the truth? Condescending is EDITING REALITY because you can't handle the truth. More than one person was involved with the development of Star Trek. It wasn't all Gene Roddenberry...
Thank you kindly for uploading this video. I think, like the fable of the three blind men and the elephant, the truth lies in the hands of the man who is telling it. Really poking up a hornets' nest here, worse than the one over the Desilu soundstage: who assaulted Grace Lee Whitney? She writes about it in her autobiography, but only refers to him as "The Executive." I've always wondered if it wasn't Roddenberry himself. Anyway, thanks again for this peek from a different perspective into TOS. LL&P 🖖♥️
He was blamed, however the writing on at least five episodes were the pitts. And The Children Shall Lead, Is There In Truth No Beauty, That Which Survives, Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, and Turnabout Intruder were way below standards. The others were pretty much great, some even excellent for the third season.
The excerpt of the solow-justman-book about the making of star trek available as another video on YT is WAY better than this present collection of trivia here put together for the Japanese public. I watched five minutes into it and could no longer stand it. This vid is not even useful for learning English. That stupid music throughout the whole vid is too loud and annoying! Forget about this!
Self-serving suit writes a book, then 7 years later the screenplay for this. I watched almost ten minutes and all I saw were suits justifying themselves.
It's easy to forget that not everyone liked Roddenberry. I have heard that Gene did display some Misogynistic tendencies and there was elements of sexism on TOS and TNG not least of which from him. Marina Sirtis called him a "dirty old man." Frankly I think Trek's best years were DS9 and TNG and the Movies with the TOS crew. I think while he's a great visionary, he's very flawed - not very dissimilar from George Lucas. Other people have done better things with their work. www.nationalreview.com/article/439900/star-trek-gene-roddenberry-was-misogynistic-hack Now I wouldn't exactly call myself a Leftist (nor a Rightist) in the current political climate, but I think it's important to gain perspective. Do these things take away from Gene and Star Trek? Perhaps a little, but the vision still holds because it isn't Gene's alone.
I suggest adding to the title:... PART 1. PART 2 can mention: • Makeup • Prop construction (large and small) • Syndication • Fan support in Conventions (not fan 'harassment' of NBC) • Path to Motion Pictures
Interesting watch. I was a pre-teen when I watched Star Trek original airings. I remember my mom watching a talk show when we lived in Mission HIll's CA and Lenard Nemoy dropped in while still in his makeup and ears! I continued to watch the re-runs in the 70's on a black and white TV as my dad didn't get a color TV until mid-late 1970's. I really wish the Star Trek Phase II would have been produced because we would have gotten weekly episodes, but sadly they went for the $$ and produced Star Trek: The Motion Picture instead.
Interesting that the revisionist history came out after the principals were unavailable to comment, e.g. Gene Roddenberry's role in the creation and launching of Star Trek certainly takes a pounding because apparently Solow and Justman both had this need deep down to expand their roles...and it could only be done after Gene Roddenberry was dead....I'm frankly surprised that Solow didn't announce that he might have mentioned the concept for Star Trek in casual conversation with Gene and that Roddenberry just kinda stole it from him...I think that Solow and Justman deserve a lot of credit for their contributions, but its certainly self serving after the fact that all this revisionist history takes place....The Making Of Star Trek by Stephen Whitfield was written before the show was even cancelled, and apparently no one who appeared in this abortion seemed eager to "correct the facts" at the time or immediately after the book was published, but once Gene was cold,...hell, plenty of accolades for all of us.....
homebuiltindoorplane boy....you really got me with the specifics...who would have thought....others actually contributed? Amazing! Wonder who they are, what they did, what your sources are....not that we all should not just take your word for it. You got nothing....
kylestauffer21 Poor Wittle Boy! You got POWNED! You got your ass handed to you by homebuilt plane! What a stupid premise you made on your idiot comment! What a little TROLL you are! You know NOTHING about star trek! POWNED!
kylestauffer21 Poor Wittle Boy! You got POWNED! You got your ass handed to you by homebuilt plane! What a stupid premise you made on your idiot comment! What a little TROLL you are! You know NOTHING about star trek! POWNED!
kylestauffer21 Poor Wittle Boy! You got POWNED! You got your ass handed to you by homebuilt plane! What a stupid premise you made on your idiot comment! What a little TROLL you are! You know NOTHING about star trek! POWNED!
Believe it or not... I was there. I was part of this time and this place. I was on the Star Trek sound stage Jan 9, 1969 and stood there in stunned amazement as the doors that separated the Trek stage from the Mission Impossible stage were pulled open and the entire cast and crew of Star Trek walked through them to pop Champaign corks for the series 'wrap party'. They were oblivious to the presence of the two teens on the stage (myself and a friend) so we were left all alone to explore. Amazing!
groovy
Sweet story. Have you been to Ticonderoga to the recreation? Wonder how that fares to your memories.
there was no Trek wrap party so must've been Mission Impossible wrap party
Why D.C.Fontana was not mention? Because Dorothy Catherine is a woman. Sad but true.
Just enjoyed this for the first time. Thanks for posting. And thanks to Herb Solow for acknowledging the contributions of regular office staff, Lucille Ball and other major people who have since died. Really enjoyed this.
Wonder why D.C. Fontana was not mentioned. She wrote great episodes.
Because they apparently signed non-disclosure agreements as part of their settlements over grievances with the show.
How about because opinions are like assholes everybody has one and maybe their opinion was she didn't write good episodes back then cuz Believe It or Not self-righteous as.s hole just because you like something does not mean the rest of the world has to like it too
@@bebbiebowman935- Wow, that's a bit harsh!
D C. Fontana was a HUGE force in the original series. She wrote "Journey To Babel," "The Ultimate Computer," and "The Enterprise Incident." (She also had input into nearly a dozen other episodes, being one of the go--to staff writers who helped transform and polish scripts to meet Star Trek standards.) Maybe, just maybe, she's left out here because she was resented by the Hollywood "boy's" club. I'm no particular fan of feminist issues, but credit should be given where credit is due! She was practically Gene Roddenberry's right arm throughout the first two seasons of Star Trek. That she's NOT included here, seeing as she had such a big impact on the original show is, indeed, rather bizarre!
@@bebbiebowman935 Really intense response. Might want to get that sorted out.
@Lexington73300 would this be before or after they caught Leonard Mazlish(Gene's lawyer) going into their offices and going through their desks?
They did not have sophisticated ratings. Numbers only, not who was watching. The show is so good, Its hard to believe how good it was.
This documentary was released on laserdisc in Japan in 1999 It was never distributed anywhere else. Justman and Solow wrote a book with their account of production of Star Trek TOS in 1996. They wrote it in part to get their version down on paper at a time when other people were doing the same thing.
Neither their version of history or Roddenberry's version can be fully trusted. The truth is often somewhere between the two versions.
It was released on VHS in the US.
I trust their accounts over Roddenberry’s because they spread the credit to STAR TREK around.
Roddenberry was a known drug user, a womanizer and adulterer. Qualities we all can trust.
not for you to say, they had nothing to cover unlike Roddenberry
"the network really supported the show" puts the show in the grave yard slot on friday nights at 10 for season 3... lol
That's what happened so that the Nielson ratings would go down and NBC had an excuse to cancel the show. Known fact. That's why I personally hate NBC as after the moon landing, the original Star Trek series would have taken off like a rocket and the sky was no limit, only if the network would have gave it one more last chance, then it would have really became more profitable beyond their wildest dreams. Stupid NBC.
Rubbish. Networks don't need "reasons" to cancel shows. CBS killed Gilligan's Island even though it was doing well enough in the rating just because they wanted to make spots available on the schedule for other shows. In part NBC apparently moved Trek to 10pm in part because they finally landed a sponsor for the show: a cigarette company, and you could not advertise cigarettes during family hours.
"We're giving it full phasers and it just wont die!"
NBC never supported the show. They begrudgingly put it on the air in the first place, then couldn't wait to see it canceled to make room for shows they were more comfortable with.
The real question, in my viewpoint, is why Roddenberry and company didn't shop around for another network after Star Trek's second season. It seems to me ABC might have been persuaded to pick it up. Had that occurred, with some real support at that network, Star Trek might have had a much longer original run.
Of course the downside to that, is had that taken place, Star Trek as we know it today, as a world wide phenomenon, might never have happened!
They paid a lady $350 to make 500 tribbles, that's how they got 'em.
Read the book: Star Trek: The Inside Story by Herb Solow and Bob Justman. Simply the most authentic thing ever published on Star Trek. If you love the show and want to know how it was really created and why, you have to read this book. Astonishing. I am so grateful we finally got the real story before everyone died and left the truth about it unknown. Thank you Herb and Bob!
Full of BS
Hear, hear...
Total agreement with you even though I'm not crazy about Marc Eliot's attack piece on Roddenberry.
There's enough in the authorized biography of Roddenberry to show he was no angel but he wasn't demonic or a complete lush, slug, or whatever his worst detractors say, either. There's more to the story than you get from one person -- and certainly Harlan Ellison isn't the ultimate authority, either!
Needless music, needless shrinking of the screen to give their name each and every time. "Attention deficit disorder" was invented by the "entertainment" industry.
Set model 22:19.
Jefferies was characterized as cleverly creative. The "Jeffries Tube." He got frustrated every time he was told the budget had been cut.
Peace
No, he seemed like a good guy. Creative, and they were always cutting his budget.
From what I heard Star Trek wasn't done any favours by the network that continuously cut the budget and moved it around the schedules which also damaged the shows popularity! however....for all I know it was just down to the lack of imagination of the public that has killed off so many sc-fi shows since.
The Big Shots didn't like it
Peace
Actually, the network licensing fee went UP every year, but the show was costing more than the licensing fee, and it was Desilu and then Paramount who cut the budget to try to compensate. So the studio, was to blame, not the network.
@@ToxicCrayon It was also the network as they wanted Gene to make the show a space comedy, and Gene ardently refused, so, NBC and Gene locked horns and since the network didn't get it's way, they exacted revenge on Gene and the series by moving it from day to day, time slot to time slot causing the Nielson ratings to drop so they had a good reason to cancel the show.
That's utterly untrue. NBC bought an "action adventure" show and that's what they asked for over and over. I've read actual memo's from NBC's Stanley Robertson to Roddenberry (via the UCLA archives) and there's never any mention of making the show funny or comedic.
It wasn't a success until the young pot smoking audience of the '70s saw the reruns and made it into a mythos...and no shows after, except for the TNG and Stargate SG1, came close to the expansive vision and story...but even those shows had nearly a decade of episodes each to build upon...
The story about CBC not having trouble with tbe strong female or black crew member stikes me as true. After all shows like Buck Rogers had its very beautiful lead woman as head of Earth defense, and in charge of Rogers. So its strikes me that Gene went on a very clever, but dishonest, marketing campaign. Glad i watched this now
"Inside Star Trek - The Real Story" was a based on the 1996 reference book by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman. The documentary looked at the development and evolution of Star Trek: The Original Series from the perspective of the production staff. Released as a single-volume VHS in the US on 3 November 1998,
Obviously these are NBC cronies talking , there is far too much evidence of the real stories , NBC gave Roddenberry so much grief , it made him sick , NBC was responsible for his early demise , finally , switching the time slot for the third season in favor off laugh in ( which was absolute garbage ) was intentionally done to sink the star trek series , what more does anybody need to know ?
Very correct in your writing. Yes, it WAS NBC'S fault, and that simply showed you that NBC was headed by a bunch of morons. Now after the moon landing, the show would have taken off so fast and furious, nobody could catch up with it.
Where is this "evidence"? Interviews with Gene? The actual surviving correspondence in the UCLA Roddenberry archive doesn't support the narrative of constant NBC meddling. Yes, they did sometimes ask for dumb things ("more monsters") and they smartly did put their foot down on occasion (killing Barry Trivers' reprehensible "Portrait In Black and White" script for one), and Roddenberry didn't like that one bit. But he was bitching about network interference even when just working as a freelance writer years earlier, so it was an old saw with him.
In 2011, the decision to cancel Star Trek by NBC was ranked #4 on the TV Guide Network special, 25 Biggest TV Blunders
biggest blunder was Desilu sale
this was awesome! thanks for uploading.
Although it couldn't have been from 1988 - Roddenberry died in 1991
This is my most favorite documentary on the original series by far. Thank God they did this before all these awesome people got too old to tell their stories/passed away. Even someone 30 years old at the time is now in their 80s! We already know about the cast and their stories but the writers, producers, behind the scenes, and sound engineers are sharing brand new information. Its amazing! The guy with the big dark glasses, white hair, and blue sports coat speaks like a pro-documentary speaker in a great way. In fact, most everyone here is so well spoken it makes me sad to feel we are losing this professional/formal presentation manner to these millennial children sinking into informal and an almost barbaric manner of presentation....I prefer the Dan Rather/Walter Cronkite style. Regardless, thank you AKSINET? for sharing this.
What a load of BS, Tinker either does not know what he is talking about, or is liying through his teeth. The letter writting campain to save the show was not done by Roddenbery or anyone connected with the show, it was done by the fans. And Tinkers clai it was less then 10,000 lettrs is a crock. It's a fact NBC got so much mail at that time, they had to put additional personal on in the mail room to handle it all. In fact NBC got so much mail demanding Star Trek be renewed that it overloaded some of the equipment used to handle all that mail and a repairman had to be called in. That repairman latter confirmed that NBC recevied a lot more mail then they will admit, Way more they the 10,000 Tinker claims, hundreds and hundreds of thousands, maybe even close to a million. (It would take that much to overload those machines and require the addition of several extra people to handle the mail, surely 10,000 pieces of mail would not have caused that much trouble).
Also Tinker seems to forget about the infamous promotional posters that the NBC art department airbrushed spocks ears and eyebrows, to make him look human. No one at NBC would take credit for that, but the art department would not take it upon themselves to do that without being given instructions to do so.
That constant trumpeting and awful background music is very grating. :(
You mean in the video or where you are now?
Tinker on the letter campaign, an NBC computer used to tabulate the number of letters crashed at one Million. Memory servers it's own master, would anyone consider renewing a canceled series on the basis of 10,000 letters?
Renshen1957 yeah, he was definately trying to make him and the others sound so much more important than they were. And of course, I remember it being closer to that 1,000,000 mark than 10,000. Why try to make it sound like the fans were not that interested. NBC was the one that wasn't that interested!! With a decent budget and some cooperation, Star Trek could have had more seasons for sure. It's obvious that we wanted more!! We have watched everything they put out because we love it!!
In OKC, channel 4 (NBC affiliate) pre-empted Star Trek on Thursday nights with local programming or info-type commercials and ran ST at 10:30 Sunday night!
IMDB reports the date of release as 1998, not 1988. The music for this production was lacluster to say the least, but the interviews were interesting.
Alvin Garcia it makes you wish that they had used some of the music from the Original Series. Especially if the composers from certain episodes are telling their stories for the first time. I certainly wouldn’t exclude Alexander Courage’s fanfare.
Trivia that I read about years ago: The medical thingys that Bones used in the field, the ones with the spinning actions (Before he'd say, 'He's dead, Jim'"), were battery powered gimmick saltshakers from a Spencer's gifts or whatever, and the phaser sounds were recordings of a stick hitting high tension wire.
The first one is true. I'm not so sure the second one is accurate though. (The Star Wars stormtrooper blaster sound is done that way, though. You can replicate the effect with a microphone and a slinky)
The second one, almost true. But it was not the phasers, It was the photon torpedoes that had that sound.
But who added the most famous split infinitive in the English language: "...to boldly go.."?
Roddenberry
Peace
Thank you Robert,Trek was put in the basement of time slots by NBC. Gene isn't here to defined himself and some people will say anything now to make them selves look good.
Jesus Christ Deforest, spit it out!
I feel as if I'm watching an infomercial.
But then the story lives on even today. Who could have known? The fans knew. The diversity of a crew who was passionate and held life at the highest level exploring our universe would excite our imaginations. The world had too many things to create from the simplified lives in a universe of the imaginative Star Trek. Too many wonderful gadgets, and who would have thought that the imagination of some would have sparked new, and even more diverse and creative starships, for generations to come. Ones that would emerge with their own gadgets to simplify our own world. I love the Original Series and am so glad it didn't die in the storage rooms of yesteryear!! The original crew was deep, sexy, strong, and compassionate. You can write a script, but it's the actors that breath life and believability into it, and they did just that!! Yes, there was drama, and people often make fun of Shatner with his form of acting, but can you imagine an actor not doing that? He put depth and life into the character. He was a captain, and someone with that title needed to weigh his every word. He needed to be strong, and the crew needed to feed off of his strength to be confident in following him. He was direct and to the point, expected respect and submission, yet was compassionate and gentle when the need arose. They all played their parts very well. I appreciate all the writers and what all the others did to bring Star Trek together. Music, sound effects, costumes, makeup, all these and more made it interesting and creative, but any other actors would not have made it what it has become today. They were the icing on the cake, they brought all the others imagination's to life. And they contributed ideas and spiced up what they were given with their own creative talents. So bravo to you, and an extraordinary bravo to the actors. Yes, we wouldn't have had Star Trek without the writers, but it would have sunk in the first few episodes without those perfectly matched actors. They brought the spice and the life and the charisma to the show, and that's what the fans craved when it ended.
1998 not 88. The fonts in the titling were not available in 1988.
I would sure love to fly in space aboard A spacecraft like the Enterprise In the original series. I would like to have Tricorder, and phaser and and A walkie talkie like those on the original series. I also like the computers on the original series. You can talk to them and they can understand you.
Wow, NBC did a hit job on Gene Roddenberry. The "uninspired" writer...
So uninspired they still make new shows based on his work 53 years later... CBS will be dragging Captain Picard out of his final resting place for a new series "Picard".
Thank you for the information about this video.I didn`t have a time to post descrition for the new videos, but i will try later.
Sandy Courage will be remembered for a lot of great television music including Star Trek.
This video was released in 1998, not 1988 -- typo.
NBC was right- it took almost twenty-five years before anybody had any interest in watching _The Cage._
you have no idea what you're talking about. star trek - all of it - got very popular in the 70s in re-runs
Sorry if this was mentioned already but Herb Solow's book, "Inside Star Trek the Real Story" is a great read. I presume this video he's hosting is based on the book since it has the same title.
Thank you for posting this film. I'm very grateful to you. I get tired of seeing all of these actors who are on classic television shows tell us how they develop the characters, how they wrote the script, and how they came up with just about everything! I know production does not work that way. But the fans believe these stories. I hope that more of this through history of Star Trek will get out there.
of course we know that, so condescensing, you're not special
To be honest, I have the audio book version of the original book this video was adapted from... I think the audio book version is better than the video. Too bad they never released it in audio CD but I imagine most of us that have the means HAVE captured the cassettes and mastered our own CD's!
It's also on RUclips now.
@@MichaelJShaffer Just listened to it over two nights it was very good and I'll be listening to it again soon
Grant Tinker, since when do 10,000 letters to Desilu constitute "a few thousand"? Just curious.
I wonder how truly accurate the Neilson ratings were. When I was a boy our family was chosen for a time as a Neilson family.nothing electronic, they just gave you a journal to record your viewing in. I can say I just wanted the money they gave me for keeping the journal, about $5 I think. I just made up what I watched and wrote some times and shows down. It was a hassle I just wanted to be done with. I knew what shows were on at such and such time and day so I just filled out my weeks worth of viewing in around 15 min.
boring, actually boring - incredible
Please help, im going NUTS, I do NOT recall the uniforms having GOLD arm bands, just plain tighter fitting arms, yes ive been to the library as I thought this was a huge psyop on the internet by AI computers run by the ellites. my past has changed,
Prince used to sing dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to celebrate this this thing called life.. Celebrate NOT get through!
Maddonna's here real name?? not in my world. the list goes on and on and Quantum Physics says its possible.. so why are the Non affected so aggresive and dismissive as if they have Never seen any quantum physics.
You know if you're going to call someone on something, at least given an explanation. Your kind of response just screams 2- or 3-year-old who's upset because reality doesn't match up to what you think it is!
These people do not tell the truth, Mystery Babylon.
Not as good as the amazing book, but still good!
NBC may not have intended to, but without a doubt the network (who never allowed the show to build a following by repeatedly changing the shows airtime and day - in an era where shows were literally identified by their time slot: “same bat time, same bat channel”, “it’s Howdy Duty time”, “it’s time for the Brady Bunch” etc.) killed Star Trek. If you look at the Neilson’s, over week performance general trended upwards but it never stayed in a slot very long and took profound viewership hits each time it was moved. Why it kept being moved is the real question: my gut tells me, the network execs who did not understand the demographic kept trying to massage it into something it wasn’t.
Imagine Alex Kurtzman calling CalTech to make sure something in Discovery or Picard was scientifically accurate
Yeah, PP (Paramount +) Trek is not something scientists, and most adults, for that matter, can enjoy. LL&P 🖖
I found this video documentary to be .... fascinating.
U r a very interesting person !
Shut up Spock!
Your friend DeForrest.
RIP Herbert Solow
Why are they downplaying the letter writing campaign? If it was only a few thousand then how come they actually had an announcement at the end of the second season asking people to stop writing because the show had been renewed? And Roddenberry had no gratitude? NBC deliberately put the third season in the Friday night 10 PM death slot after promising him a Monday night time slot. Nothing like leaving out uncomfortable truths. I don't know where this ever aired (other than in Japan) or else it would have received a lot of criticism for elevating the backroom guys and playing down the creative people on the show.
Thousands of physical letters is pretty significant. We forget this is the age of email spam. It didn't have to be hundreds of thousands or a million to get the network's attention.
I'd never seen this before; thanks VERY much for posting it.
Klingons lives matter👹👹👹👹👹👹👹👹✋😀😂😁😅😊☺
What was this initially produced for and where was it shown? It is dated 88, so it couldn't be for t interweb.
Interesting behind the scenes look at Star Trek: The Original Series.
As I'm watching this, it is now stardate 201812.08!
I think the actual truth is somewhere between Roddenberry's and NBC's versions.
as if, it never had been made. star trek almost never got started.
Oh I get it now. Gene Roddenberry didn't have anything to do with creating Star Trek. It was created by a team of NBC executives. Gene just showed up to collect the pay checks. Hm. I never knew that before. Interesting.
+Anai Bendai You don't understand the concept of 'cult of personality,' do you?
Wow! That was condescending.
+Porfle Popnecker I was just being facetious. Gene lived, breathed and exhaled STAR TREK. He created it - brought it into being and fought tooth and nail to keep it alive. I was being sarcastic that all these TV execs who opposed him at ever juncture are now trying to take total credit for it.
Anai Bendai
I was talking to Avengerll.
@@porflepopnecker4376 What's condescending about telling the truth?
Condescending is EDITING REALITY because you can't handle the truth.
More than one person was involved with the development of Star Trek.
It wasn't all Gene Roddenberry...
Wow. So heavy handed. Why use the TNG graphics for a video about TOS. And the music... Who thought that was needed throughout.
Hate that next generation stuff, childish and stupid crap, doesn't hold a candle to the Original Star Trek series.
@@danbasta3677 I think TNG was excellent.
Paramount wanted to tie-in as much as they could to publicize their new (and VERY expensive) series.
@@RobertR3750 says a lot about you
They're all dead by now.
Interesting perspectives. This must have been done in the 90s though; it said Roddenberry himself was gone, but he didn't die until '91 or '92.
Right... because Gene always told the truth, huh?
October 24, 1991.
Laserdisc yaay
I've enjoyed this ....thank you for sharing.....those hidden behind the scenes also needs recognition as well....HIGH 5 to all
The backround Music sounds like something I would make lol
I think it's all royalty-free Star Trek sound-alike musical selections.
Studio propaganda
Oh 1988...
A beautiful time in America...
Wish we could turn back the clock.
Fascinating! Thanks for this! I look forward to seeing more of your videos! You just earned a new subscriber! :)
Thank you kindly for uploading this video. I think, like the fable of the three blind men and the elephant, the truth lies in the hands of the man who is telling it.
Really poking up a hornets' nest here, worse than the one over the Desilu soundstage: who assaulted Grace Lee Whitney? She writes about it in her autobiography, but only refers to him as "The Executive."
I've always wondered if it wasn't Roddenberry himself.
Anyway, thanks again for this peek from a different perspective into TOS. LL&P 🖖♥️
Fred Freiberger made the 3rd season crap.
Nothing but bad erroneous comments from some.
He was blamed, however the writing on at least five episodes were the pitts. And The Children Shall Lead, Is There In Truth No Beauty, That Which Survives, Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, and Turnabout Intruder were way below standards. The others were pretty much great, some even excellent for the third season.
A science fiction situation comedy in a semi family setting....MADE IN THE USA...
Ib Melchior & Vic Lundin? Nothing?
Was definitely worth watching...
Ah how the past holds on to you and squeezes out fond memories. "......." Star trek !
Thanks. I knew it was around then.
Pretty authentic compare to Discovery channel version. Good stuff.
The excerpt of the solow-justman-book about the making of star trek available as another video on YT is WAY better than this present collection of trivia here put together for the Japanese public. I watched five minutes into it and could no longer stand it. This vid is not even useful for learning English. That stupid music throughout the whole vid is too loud and annoying!
Forget about this!
Nice to see the people who worked behind the scenes for a change.
Fascinating. ^b-
The 1995 Paramount logo plasters the 1987 logo.
Syndication is a horrible death? Well if you don't have or sold your residuals maybe.
This was a blessing message that made me want to share the episode with my family and friends. I wanted to feel that way all day. I loved it. Thanks.
Self-serving suit writes a book, then 7 years later the screenplay for this. I watched almost ten minutes and all I saw were suits justifying themselves.
It has nothing to do with it,everyone knows that roddenberry wasnt a saint,And he only had one story
Piece of the Action was embarrassing utter drivel
I have the book!!!!
no women
I believe they are not being honest entirely here. They did put it in the death slot for programming.
If they supported the show why was there only three seasons 🙄
Wow! Thanks for this.
What. Episode is stark trek cont up to now ?
It's easy to forget that not everyone liked Roddenberry. I have heard that Gene did display some Misogynistic tendencies and there was elements of sexism on TOS and TNG not least of which from him. Marina Sirtis called him a "dirty old man."
Frankly I think Trek's best years were DS9 and TNG and the Movies with the TOS crew. I think while he's a great visionary, he's very flawed - not very dissimilar from George Lucas. Other people have done better things with their work.
www.nationalreview.com/article/439900/star-trek-gene-roddenberry-was-misogynistic-hack
Now I wouldn't exactly call myself a Leftist (nor a Rightist) in the current political climate, but I think it's important to gain perspective. Do these things take away from Gene and Star Trek? Perhaps a little, but the vision still holds because it isn't Gene's alone.
I suggest adding to the title:... PART 1. PART 2 can mention: • Makeup • Prop construction (large and small) • Syndication • Fan support in Conventions (not fan 'harassment' of NBC) • Path to Motion Pictures
Interesting watch. I was a pre-teen when I watched Star Trek original airings. I remember my mom watching a talk show when we lived in Mission HIll's CA and Lenard Nemoy dropped in while still in his makeup and ears! I continued to watch the re-runs in the 70's on a black and white TV as my dad didn't get a color TV until mid-late 1970's. I really wish the Star Trek Phase II would have been produced because we would have gotten weekly episodes, but sadly they went for the $$ and produced Star Trek: The Motion Picture instead.
sure
me too
Interesting that the revisionist history came out after the principals were unavailable to comment, e.g. Gene Roddenberry's role in the creation and launching of Star Trek certainly takes a pounding because apparently Solow and Justman both had this need deep down to expand their roles...and it could only be done after Gene Roddenberry was dead....I'm frankly surprised that Solow didn't announce that he might have mentioned the concept for Star Trek in casual conversation with Gene and that Roddenberry just kinda stole it from him...I think that Solow and Justman deserve a lot of credit for their contributions, but its certainly self serving after the fact that all this revisionist history takes place....The Making Of Star Trek by Stephen Whitfield was written before the show was even cancelled, and apparently no one who appeared in this abortion seemed eager to "correct the facts" at the time or immediately after the book was published, but once Gene was cold,...hell, plenty of accolades for all of us.....
kylestauffer21 you are an idiot
homebuiltindoorplane boy....you really got me with the specifics...who would have thought....others actually contributed? Amazing! Wonder who they are, what they did, what your sources are....not that we all should not just take your word for it. You got nothing....
kylestauffer21 Poor Wittle Boy! You got POWNED! You got your ass handed to you by homebuilt plane! What a stupid premise you made on your idiot comment! What a little TROLL you are! You know NOTHING about star trek! POWNED!
kylestauffer21 Poor Wittle Boy! You got POWNED! You got your ass handed to you by homebuilt plane! What a stupid premise you made on your idiot comment! What a little TROLL you are! You know NOTHING about star trek! POWNED!
kylestauffer21 Poor Wittle Boy! You got POWNED! You got your ass handed to you by homebuilt plane! What a stupid premise you made on your idiot comment! What a little TROLL you are! You know NOTHING about star trek! POWNED!
Totally boring.
No mention of Forbidden Planet? FP was basically Star Trek before there was Star Trek
I can dig it!