Monday, January 17, 2011

Texas Tidbits: Star Trek - Is Mr. Spock Really a Texan?

The Rod
The answer to the question in the title of this post is a definite "kind of". Let me splain. Mr. Spock is a product of the fertile mind of one Eugene Wesley Roddenberry, creator of the phenomenon known as Star Trek. "OK, so what's the connection to Texas?", you ask. Gene Roddenberry was born in El Paso on August 19, 1921. There's your "Texas Connection".

Star Trek is the everlasting legacy of Gene Roddenberry, no doubt, but the man had quite an interesting life before creating Captain James T. Kirk, his crew and the USS  Enterprise. Gene was raised in Los Angeles, where his Dad was a cop. Gene attended several colleges, earned an Associate of Arts degree  from Los Angeles City College and later studied pre law and aeronautical engineering. It was also during this time that he became a licensed pilot. During World War II, Roddenberry piloted the B-17 Flying Fortress on 89 missions earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal. After the war, Gene was a pilot for Pan Am and later an LA Policeman. It was 1953 when Roddenberry left the LA Police Department to become a full time screenwriter. That decision had an impact on television and hundreds of millions of people who would later become "Trekkies". I'll have more on that in a minute.

A few years after becoming a screenwriter, Roddenberry became the Head Writer for a great old TV Western called Have Gun, Will Travel". He would later produce a TV show called The Lieutenant, which is said to be the inspiration of the G.I. Joe Action Figure. From the website Famous Texans.com, we get this: As a fan of science-fiction, Roddenberry saw similarities between space explorers and American pioneers.  He envisioned a science-fiction series for television that, like the westerns he wrote, would have continuing characters. At the time he conceived it in 1963, this would have been a first for TV. Based on the popular show, "Wagon Train," Roddenberry called it a "wagon train to the stars," or a "star trek." With the airing of the first episode of Star Trek in 1966, Roddenberry not only created a history-making TV show, but an entire industry built around it. I think it's safe to say that there have been hundreds of billions of dollars spent on Star Trek merchandise and memorabilia since its inception. Star Trek conventions are held by the hundreds every year all over the world, Star Trek movies have grossed hundreds of millions of dollars and the original TV show has inspired (insert number here) spin off TV series. The Star Trek brand is a monster that keeps feeding on its own and producing new monsters like rabbits make babies. And I mean "monster" in a good way. The continued success of all things Star Trek is truly mind boggling, especially considering it's been almost fifty years since the original TV series made its debut. Not a bad run, huh?

(Doing my best "Scotty" impersonation) Dammit, Jim, I gave her all she's got! And I have given her all she's got in this post. I have only one thing to say. "Beam me up, Scotty".

(Special thanks to famoustexans.com)

4 comments:

  1. Hi Toby,

    I saw that you posted about Gene's connection to Texas. Did you know Leonard Nimoy, Mr. Spock himself, had an appearance on Gunsmoke before his extraterrestrial fame?

    PBS's second season of Pioneers of Television is airing, covering topics such as Classic Sci-Fi, including 'Star Trek', and Westerns, and I just wanted you to know that you can embed video of the programs directly onto your site that may suit posts like this one. Various clips from interviews and other content, including a 30-second preview of the Westerns episode, are available at http://video.pbs.org/program/1691668391/ . To embed the video, just click on the clip or episode and then hit the link that loads after the sponsorship clip to grab the code. To see and embed Nimoy talking about his time on a Western,, check out http://video.pbs.org/video/1716498683 .

    Hope you enjoy!
    Marc
    PBS

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  2. Marc...thanks a million for the information and thanks for taking time to drop me a comment. You can bet your bottom dollar that I'll be a regular visitor to your site. Take care and don't be a stranger.

    Toby

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  3. Marc...one more thing...Leonard Nimoy also played a KAOS Agent in a bus station on an episode of "Get Smart" back in the mid-60s. :)

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  4. Thanks Toby, interesting factoid. Let me know if you have any difficulty with the video embed.

    --Marc

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