Almost on TOS......

[Maurice]

22 Stars wrote:

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There is also the unproduced Spinrad script, that was said to be a potential Milton Berle vehicle.... the less said about that the better

I've read the Spinrad script (it's bland), and Berle—who was a fine actor in both comedy and drama—would have been fine in it. I understand Coon changed it, so I can't speak to how good that would have been.

[Captaindemotion]

My Name Is Legion wrote:

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Based on the folks who appeared, I'd guess that UNCLE had a bigger budget for guest cast.

I imagine also that UNCLE was bigger-budgeted. But was there also something of a deliberate decision in Trek not to go for big-name guest stars, the way that, for example, Batman did, so as not to have the stories overshadowed?

(I'm not saying that this is the case, I don't honestly know and am wondering if anyone else knows)

[Christopher]

Captaindemotion wrote:

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But was there also something of a deliberate decision in Trek not to go for big-name guest stars, the way that, for example, Batman did, so as not to have the stories overshadowed?

I've never heard anything to that effect. And they definitely weren't above the occasional celebrity stunt casting (Melvin Belli certainly wasn't cast for his acting talent). Not to mention that some of Batman's celebrity villains did in fact appear in Star Trek, including Frank Gorshin, Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether, and Joan Collins (as well as lower-tier Bat-villains Malachi Throne and Roger C. Carmel).

[22 Stars]

Maurice wrote:

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I've read the Spinrad script (it's bland), and Berle—who was a fine actor in both comedy and drama—would have been fine in it. I understand Coon changed it, so I can't speak to how good that would have been.

I've read it too and characterizing it as bland is generous.

[Captaindemotion]

Christopher wrote:

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I've never heard anything to that effect. And they definitely weren't above the occasional celebrity stunt casting (Melvin Belli certainly wasn't cast for his acting talent). Not to mention that some of Batman's celebrity villains did in fact appear in Star Trek, including Frank Gorshin, Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether, and Joan Collins (as well as lower-tier Bat-villains Malachi Throne and Roger C. Carmel).

Gorshin did occur to me (I'd forgotten about the other Bat-villain appearances). I don't know if Collins was a stunt-cast - was she as well known in the 1960s as she later was?

But I'd say you're right, it wasn't a deliberate policy. It's probably just a happy accident that, all those years later, we're not distracted by big-name stars, simply because the show couldn't afford them.

[Christopher]

Captaindemotion wrote:

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I don't know if Collins was a stunt-cast - was she as well known in the 1960s as she later was?

Pretty well-known, according to Wikipedia. She was a popular pinup model in the UK. 20th Century Fox signed her in 1955 with an eye to making her a rival to Elizabeth Taylor, and she had the starring role that year in Howard Hawks's cast-of-thousands historical epic Land of the Pharaohs. She won several "most promising new star" awards in the late '50s, and was the first or second female lead in nearly a dozen films between 1955 and the time she did "City on the Edge." So yeah, I'd say she was a fairly major name at the time.

Robert Walker, Jr. (Charlie Evans) was also a pretty big name in the day, though largely due to his famous actor parents and his studio-mogul stepfather. He'd made a strong impression in his first two feature roles in 1963, but his film career slowed down after his lead role in Ensign Pulver, which is probably why he was doing TV.

It's worth keeping in mind that TV was a less respected medium than it is today, so there was less crossover of movie actors to TV roles. So if you're talking "big name" guest stars in '60s TV, you're probably talking about either successful TV stars (e.g. Jane Wyatt or Elinor Donahue) or film actors who were past the peak of their big-screen careers. Or people like Ricardo Montalban and John Fiedler who were well-known stalwarts but not (yet) big stars.

[Captaindemotion]

^Wow, I'd always assumed that Collins only became a bigger name with the likes of The Stud and The Bitch in the 1970s and obviously Dynasty in the 1980s.

I suppose Jill Ireland also counts as a fairly big name by the standards of the day.

[Forbin]

Elder Knight wrote:

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Robert Vaughn made a crossover appearance on that Girl From UNCLE episode, which is probably why you remembered it as the other UNCLE show.

That would explain it, all right!

[Sir Rhosis]

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Perf...riginal_Series

[JimZipCode]

22 Stars wrote:

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I've read it too and characterizing it as bland is generous.

Not up to Doomsday Machine? What was it about?

[Maurice]

The story: a man named Theodore Bayne is discovered to have set himself up as a god on a planet, sharing technology (the steam engine, for instance) with the technologically primitive natives. The twist is that the Enterprise crew can't easily remove him without further exacerbating the cultural damage he's started. The plot is a slightly more clever take on the John Gill type character, with a relatively smart conclusion, but the story isn't really that interesting as written.

[emergencyfruit]

Gary7 wrote:

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Hugh Laurie had a test run as Captain before Shatner, but obviously it didn't work out. Rumor has it his biting sarcastic line delivery was just too over the top.




They also gave Russell Johnson (The Professor from "Gilligan's Island") a shot in a preliminary run through of "The Corbomite Maneuver", but they felt he looked too much like Mr. Bailey.




Burt Lancaster gave it a shot, but he couldn't stand the material of the uniforms so he bailed...

I have to say, this is hilarious! Awesome work with photoshop - it looks freakishly plausible! Thanks!

[USS Triumphant]

My Son the Vampire wrote:

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So who was President during that time? Couldn't have been Shatner because he's a Canadian citizen.

Alternate universe, remember? Their United States included Canada.

[AtoZ]

Honestly, they should have found a way to get Lee Marvin on TOS.

A fourth season opener where the Enterprise comes across an old lifeboat, on board in a state of suspended animation, one of the most celebrated Generals of WW3....a heroic is somewhat misunderstood leader that went missing during a climactic battle. From there they could add the unwritten slant....the man had looked into the abyss far too long....and had himself become an all consuming monster bent on victory at any cost....even centuries after the fact.

Something like that.

[Christopher]

^What would you call it? "Space Sprout?"