50 Years of Star Trek Page #5

the most pressing

social issues of its day.

We had the one where

Uhura and Kirk kissed.

That, I think, was more of... I

mean, I think that was great.

And the people in the

South, there were probably

a lot of people jumping

out of windows at that.

The director was nervous.

The front office at

Paramount was nervous,

which was just dumb, you

know, then don't do it,

which is what I said.

And they went, "You

don't want to do it?"

I said, "I want to do it.

It's written in the script.

It's a great scene."

This is the first

interracial kiss on television.

[dramatic music]

[applause and laughter]

They were writing some

pretty major stuff in those days.

I mean, very eloquent

writers. Very knowledgeable.

They did "Mark of Gideon,"

which got a lot of flack,

about birth control, overpopulation.

'Cause nobody had

talked about that on TV

up until that point.

NBC was disappointed with "Star

Trek" from the get-go,

but the rating were not bad

and the fan mail was huge.

"Star Trek" is doing things

that a lot of the

affiliates were uncomfortable with,

so they kept moving it from

one bad slot to another

until they finally put

it in the death slot

to get rid of this show.

That is what killed "Star Trek."

Narrator:
The original

series is canceled

after 3 seasons and 79 episodes.

But it's gained a cult following

that's become undeniable.

Within four years, "Trek"

is back on the air.

This time reaching a new

generation of young fans.

["Star Trek:
The Animated Series" theme]

My first contact with "Star Trek"

was probably

watching the animated series

on Saturday morning

TV in the early '70s.

And, you know, I was

really struck by the, you know,

the bright colors of the uniforms.

The fans were very wary.

In fact, some of the cast was wary too.

They felt, "Hey, 'Star

Trek' is starting to get momentum.

"We think there could

be more life in this.

But if we do a

cartoon, it's gonna kill it."

And Gene Roddenberry was

very cagey and very smart.

He says, "No, this will fan the flames.

This will keep it alive rather

than let it disappear."

And he was right.

It sounds funny for saying this,

but it has never been canceled.

You know, um, we were just

off longer than we wanted to be.

So then we have the

'70s, right, '70s hit.

Everyone went to see that

"Star Wars" situation.

[laughter] I think we

can make some money.

So you had a TV script

that was being padded out

into a motion picture.

They took themselves

a little too seriously

and they were trying to be

a little more like, "2001."

Then they brought in Robert Wise

because he was known as

a big-time movie director.

There never really been a movie

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