Category Archives: My Star Trek Scrapbooks

The Daily Scrapbook: A massage by Captain Kirk and In Search Of… a lot of episodes

Here’s today’s flashback: From 1977, Bill Shatner gives actress Yvette Mimieux   a nice back massage while taking rehearsing for the then Broadway bound show Tricks of the Trade. (lucky!) Here’s another image. Then many, many TV guide listings of Nimoy’s documentary show In Search Of…, which was syndicated nationwide. Nimoy also narrated a documentary series called The Coral Jungle listed here, and  in other TV work, he co-hosted basically a half-hour commercial for NBC called C’mon Saturday which touted the new and returning Saturday Morning Cartoons that would be airing that fall on NBC (The animated Trek aired two seasons from 73-74, so I don’t know why Nimoy was picked for this unless it was in reruns).  From all this TV work, I am presuming that Nimoy did a lot of extra work in NYC while he was in Equus,   I remember actually watching this (as a 16 year old) and feeling mighty embarrassed for Mr. Nimoy, who played a character caller “Mister Wister” who guided around young Andrea McArdle (of Annie fame) to all the wonders of new Saturday Morning line up.  (For all you out there under the age of 40, it was standard practice for the three major networks to air cartoons and kid shows on Saturday mornings; this is where we discovered The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, and H.R. Puffinstuff ) NBC must have paid him well for this, for the most embarrassing part to me was when he had to sing, to the tune of “Row, Row, Row your Boat” in a faux baritone voice “Turn, Turn, Turn your dial, Right to N-B-C!”  Well, he had bills to pay, I’m sure.

The Daily Scrapbook 11/8/12 1977- A big weekend for Trekkers

Here’s  today’s flashback”  From 1977, a preview of the Star Trek America Convention in NYC.  Unfortunately, I could not go to this one because my Mom had figured one big NYC convention in the last 12 months was enough!  (“But Mom! Leonard Nimoy’s going to be at this one!”–no dice).  Oh well, I would eventually go to another convention, but not until 1994! (And by then, I was an old Trekkie, one of these people who enjoyed Trek before Star Wars came along).I’d just have to content myself with Shatner’s The Tenth Level, which was a pretty good thriller, and darn sad too!

 

The Daily Scrapbook 11/7/12 -Why Barbary Coast Failed and Nimoy & Shat on $20,000 Pyramid

An analysis about why Shatner’s 70’s show The Barbary Coast  failed –probably because it was an awful show? (It basically was a 70’s version of The Wild Wild West, with Shatner in the Artemis Gordon-style role)  Also a mention of that British import Space 1999, and TV listings of Nimoy’s movie The Alpha Caper, and the crazy week when William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy appeared opposite each other on Dick Clark’s $20,ooo Pyramid! Those appearances were pretty funny; at one point they pitted Shatner against himself at the pyramid, and amazingly, he LOST!  I remember he was sitting there giving clues to an empty chair and Clark had to yell out something like “Switch seats, you dope!”

Why did Shatner and Nimoy do this? I’m guessing they needed the money, but it looks like they really enjoyed it -(Nimoy played to win and was especially good!) See the link to these episodes in today’s Wideo Wednesday – (the quality isn’t great but it’s a miracle that someone saved these!)  Thank you Hondo!

The Daily Scrapbook 11/6/12 (August 1977) Enterprise Test Flight

Here’s today’s flashback:  From August 13, 1977, the test flight of the new Space Shuttle Enterprise.  This was a pretty big deal at the time and I remember being excited about this new technology!  Having it named “Enterprise” was a bonus, although it never went into space.   You may recall from this post that the Enterprise is now in it’s permanent home in Manhattan at the Intrepid Air and Sea Museum — hope it was safe from Sandy!  I definitely want to see it next time I’m there!

The Daily Scrapbook 11/5/12 Trekkies of all ages

Here’s today’s flashback from 1976.  Trek news from the TV Guide ‘teletype’ section, notes on Leonard and Bill, an article from Parade Magazine about a middle-aged ‘Trekkie’ Mom Roberta Rogow, from New Jersey who wrote Trekindex, a fanzine guide to everything Trek, and comments in TV Guide from a fangirl who differentiates Trekkers from Trekkies.  The label didn’t really matter to me; just the fact that I was into Trek made me a freak among normals anyway.  There are also three fun limericks here from two girls I met at the Star Trek Bicentennial 10 convention in NYC, Barbara Louis and Marie Letiza. Barbara also supplied me with all the articles you’ll find here in pale Xerox grey. ( I had some of her stuff copied for my scrapbooks, it was so nice to know that I wasn’t the only one!)  Barbara was a cool chick,  with long blond hair and a big smile.  I recall not long after the Trek Convention, we kept in touch for a while, and when she and her family were vacationing in nearby Oneonta, my brother, Mom and I drove out to meet them and she and I shared all our Star Trek scrapbook material, sighing over Leonard Nimoy and wondering if a new Trek TV show would really happen. I still have a letter she wrote me where she gushed about seeing actor/singer David Soul (Starsky & Hutch, and one of the red natives in The Apple) in concert, singing his one hit wonder “Don’t Give Up On Us”.  Barbara was more a a typical teenager than I, (she even had a boyfriend!) Oh how I envied her! Wonder what she’s up to now? Probably a president of a company.

The Daily Scrapbook 11/2/12 (July 1977) Nimoy Featured in People Magazine

Here’s today’s flashback:  July 1977, more clippings from TV Guide.  My parents had a subscription, so I was on top of every listing, paragraph, and blurb about anything related to Trek–definitely not what other 16 year old girls were doing at that age! (Geez, no wonder I never had a date in High School!)  More news about the proposed new Star Trek TV series (it was titled Star Trek Phase II), Gene Roddenberry admits concern over how Trekkies may take the new improved special effects, Nimoy appears on an episode of the syndicated  afternoon talk show The Mike Douglas Show (my Mom watched this almost every day), and Nimoy makes another appearance on Dick Clark’s The $20,000 Pyramid.  But the most exciting thing for me in this month was that Nimoy was (finally) featured in a 5 page article in People magazine! (Now, if they had only put him on the cover as he deserved!)  It’s a fine article about Nimoy and his family in NYC during Equus, his struggle to be seen as something other than Mr. Spock, and a great study on his take as Dr. Dysart in the Broadway production. A bonus is definitely the photo of him riding a horse and clowning in a Mr. Spock Tee-shirt that reads “Leonard Who?”   (I must say, for a man of 46, which seemed so old to me at the time,  he was remarkably trim!)  The final quote in the article defines Nimoy even as he is today: “The day I’m satisfied, I’m finished!”

The Daily Scrapbook 11/1/12 From 1977, Shatner looks for other options

Here’s today’s flashback: From June of 1977, Local article by reviewer Gene Grey about Bill Shatner, who wants more out of life than Star Trek, and had just released a 2-disc album of his college tours.  He also states that at this point, any Star Trek movie prospects are “in the garbage.”

I’ve noticed in these old clippings from my local papers that they seemed to use the same Star Trek stills over and over! (Usually publicity stills from Season 1)

The Daily Scrapbook 10/30/12 June 1977- The real Enterprise flies, and Trek will return!

Well, Hurricane Sandy kind of fizzled in my area, still on a high wind watch but no notable damages.  Hope everyone reading this  is okay, and that your managing well.

Here’s a little distraction, today’s flashback is from June of 1977.  Trekkies were having a great time nationally on two fronts.  The experimental space shuttle Enterprise had made its first successful flight and to make the joy complete, Paramount announced that, yes, Star Trek would be coming back as a TV series!! I admit, I was excited at the prospect of Trek being back on TV, but I was wary of it too.  After all, it had been 9 years since the original was canceled, and if if was coming back, I was in the camp that wanted it to look and feel exactly like the original, same uniforms, same ship, same crew.   I remember having doubts about this venture, and was concerned that since many of the actors, especially Nimoy, had moved on, that this just wasn’t going to work, at least not in a TV series. My doubts proved right as the proposed Star Trek 2 pretty much died on the drawing board. But at the time, it was still a possibility.  Yet I knew that if Trek came back in this form, it would lose its distinctly 60’s feel, and I really wasn’t looking forward to a polyester-disco Trek.  Now if the series hadn’t been canceled in the first place I think it would have concluded its mission in a satisfactory condition, and probably would have been canceled a year or two later.  But then, it would have never  evolved into the eventual movie  and TV ‘franchise’ it is today, and we never would have had its ultimate rebirth in J.J. Abrams 2009’s Star Trek, which in the end was the movie I had been waiting 30 years for!  In hindsight, it worked out pretty good, but I still wonder how Trek might have been if it lasted an extra two seasons in its original form.    I’ll write a speculation on this soon, for now, enjoy the euphoria, excitement, and speculation as Trekkies the  world over anticipated the return of their  favorite show .

The Daily Scrapbook 10/29/12 — NYT 1977 ‘Leonard Nimoy Possessed by the roles he plays’

Here’s today’s flashback (something to get you east-coasters minds briefly off of Hurricane  Sandy–Stay Safe Everyone!)

From The New York Times in 1977, here’s a nice, long interview with Nimoy in his rented Manhattan apartment, talking about Equus, Star Trek, and being prescient about what roles he will play (He knew he’ play Dysart, he knew he’d play Sherlock Holmes).   At this point, he was heavily lobbying to play the vampire Lestat in ‘Interview with the Vampire‘ that Paramout had just bought.
I don’t think he foresaw that it wouldn’t be made until 1993 and that Tom Cruise would get the part — I wonder if it  would have been better if it had been made in the late 70s or early 80’s with Nimoy in the role.  We can only imagine.

The Daily Scrapbook 10/26/12 Nimoy in ‘Equus’

Here’s today’s flashback;  From 1977, Leonard Nimoy got to Broadway as the 5th actor to portray Dr. Martin Dysart in Peter Shaffer’s Equus.  The drama  was about disturbed young man fanatically obsessed with horses.  I bet he was delighted to be on Broadway  (his second time, the first in 1973 in Full Circle with Bibi Anderson). and this was the first time I bought an issue of The New York Times just to get some articles! You can see Nimoy’s passion for the theater, and his regrets that he didn’t come to Broadway sooner.

My Mom and two of her friends went to NYC  later that year and saw the show!  Why oh why didn’t she take me with her?   (It’s okay Mom, I’d meet him in 1978!)

Tomorrow: More Equus