Where Was Shatner At The Enterprise Shuttle Rollout?

Whoops, my bad. Someone linked this thread from George Takei's facebook post of the pic today, and I thought it was a current discussion.

 

I think this has been addressed in another thread more recently, cuz I remember trotting out the fact he was shooting KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS around this time (a movie that according to IMDB, did 17 mil on a halfmil budget, kinda amazing!) Also he had about a billion game show appearances to make since he didn't turn down any work during this period. Anybody else remember the embarrassingly awful films he did for high school classes where he'd 'play' real american farmers and other workers? I think Kim Cattrall is in one of them.

 

The shuttle ceremony did not include those two little words that tend to shock and awe.

(Sorry, couldn't resist. Shatner has now become irrevocably Denny Crane for me. Dare I say an even more indelible role than Kirk was...)

 

So in your mind (I'm guessing), the Encyclopedia Britannica of the 23rd century will contain this entry:

Shatner, William (1931 - ? ): Obscure 20th century actor who later achieved worldwide fame in the early 21st century appearing on the television programs The Practice and Boston Legal, winning two Emmy awards. Earlier in his struggling career, Shatner appeared in the film The Devil's Rain (1975), which was entered into the National Film Registry in 2051 as being deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

 

"I once commanded my own starship!"-Denny Crane

 

Even though we're two years on, I'm compelled to point out that Mr. Shatner wasn't homeless and "living in a trailer in his friend's driveway." He (along with his dog) was traveling the country doing summer stock, trying to make a living as an actor shortly after Star Trek ended. He prides himself on never having had to make a living doing anything else, so he wasn't about to sell real estate or something. The cheaply bought trailer was his transportation and lodging in order to save money. Most of the time he'd set up in the theater parking lot, but once he camped out in the driveway of a fellow actor in the company. When the season ended, he drove back.

That's it. The reason he didn't sell his own property was because he needed to go home to something. Makes sense, right? All of this is in his own book.

 

I believe you a referring to the mid 70s PBS series American Enterprise, which covered the rise of innovation in American industry, bookended with Shatner as a character relevant to the subject.

If memory serves, they were 15 or 30 minute segments, and to be honest, it was one of the most decent, to-the-point productions of Shatner's 70s work.

 

"He also owed a small but dedicated cult following to the police procedural T.J. Hooker."

 

Hey, T.J. was some good work from Shatner. All those running scenes helped him keep in shape too. And Heather Lockyear was around in case your mind wandered.

 

They may have been well-intentioned, but to highschool students, they played out as downright hysterical. i even scripted a parody where I was going to come out looking puffy with my hair combed to look toup-like and explain that while I am kevin martin, in this film I play William Shatner, a once promising stage performer and then short-term TV star now languishing in obscurity.

And that's from somebody who has always liked Shatner -- it was just too much seeing him in those, worse than BIG BAD MAMA by far.

 

Big Bad Mama is the worst.....all prints should be shot straight to the sun. I'll hold on to American Enterprise.