Pike's "woman on the bridge" line

[JonnyQuest037]

If there is any dirt to be found where DeForest Kelley is concerned, just let me know and I will toss my 'heroes' list completely out the fucking window!

I don't know if you'd consider this "dirt," but... At a comics convention I went to last year, Lee Meriwether told a story about how when she was guest starring on TOS, DeForest Kelley pulled the top of her costume forward, looked straight down the front, and asked, "What time is it?"

It was a different time and behavior like that was just considered innocent horsing around. See also Kelley grabbing Majel Barrett's breasts in the TOS blooper reel. Ms. Meriwether told the story with a twinkle in her eye. She was more amused by it than anything.

 

[TrickyDickie]

I don't know if you'd consider this "dirt," but... At a comics convention I went to last year, Lee Meriwether told a story about how when she was guest starring on TOS, DeForest Kelley pulled the top of her costume forward, looked straight down the front, and asked, "What time is it?"

It was a different time and behavior like that was just considered innocent horsing around. See also Kelley grabbing Majel Barrett's breasts in the TOS blooper reel. Ms. Meriwether told the story with a twinkle in her eye. She was more amused by it than anything.

Well, thanks for the info. Yeah, I'm done. I just can't see any excuse for that kind of behavior, especially by someone who is married. I was born in '67, to older parents who did not treat each other very well and didn't have a whole lot of respect for the opposite gender, but I somehow managed to escape all of the negative influences around me. I am very thankful for that, every day. My wife and I have been married for almost 14 years and we love and respect each other just as much today as when we got married. We both treat people of both genders equally and with dignity and respect.

 

[Maurice]

It's perhaps a little tough to expect people in a comparatively unenlightened time with different social norms to conform to our expectations. It's all over the docs of the time. Men were just used to casually infantilizing and/or sexualizing women. There was even a section on "the casting couch" in The Making of Star Trek that was wisely expunged from the published book.

Sadly, we're not as far from that era as we'd like. Even on this board there's been a lot of discussion in the past about how "hot" women on the show are, etc. When the conversation goes to the actors it's almost always about their portrayal, when it goes the actresses, their looks.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I don't know if you'd consider this "dirt," but... At a comics convention I went to last year, Lee Meriwether told a story about how when she was guest starring on TOS, DeForest Kelley pulled the top of her costume forward, looked straight down the front, and asked, "What time is it?"

It was a different time and behavior like that was just considered innocent horsing around. See also Kelley grabbing Majel Barrett's breasts in the TOS blooper reel. Ms. Meriwether told the story with a twinkle in her eye. She was more amused by it than anything.

That's false. It wasn't her top the way I heard it. I can't seem to find my reference, but Lee Meriwether said somewhere (Starlog? The Sci-Fi Channel Special Edition broadcast?) that DeForest Kelley came up to her and pulled down the little square flap on her waistline that looked like a watch fob, and said "What time is it?"

And then Meriwether hid a pocket watch under the flap, and "got him" when he did it one more time. He wasn't being a monster, and she was fine with it.

 

[Methuselah Flint]

Why do we have threads like this? So a group of posters can denounce things and celebrate how much better they are then those "terrible people"?

I don't think anyone thinks it's a good line, it's there, and unless you want to live in a Stalinist reality where things that are no longer in vogue can just disappear and never have existed, you move on.
There will always be someone that doesn't like something.

I was simply looking at it from fan continuity, no more no less.

 

[BillJ]

...and she was fine with it.

Not being "fine with it" could end up costing actresses work. I learned in Kindergarten to keep my hands to myself, seems Kelley needed that lesson.

 

[Marsden]

I was simply looking at it from fan continuity, no more no less.

My apologies.

I wasn't condemning you for starting the thread, it's become something a bit different, especially around pages 3 and on.

 

[Methuselah Flint]

My apologies.

I wasn't condemning you for starting the thread, it's become something a bit different, especially around pages 3 and on.

No need to apologise. That's the thing with threads!

 

[JonnyQuest037]

That's false. It wasn't her top the way I heard it. I can't seem to find my reference, but Lee Meriwether said somewhere (Starlog? The Sci-Fi Channel Special Edition broadcast?) that DeForest Kelley came up to her and pulled down the little square flap on her waistline that looked like a watch fob, and said "What time is it?"

And then Meriwether hid a pocket watch under the flap, and "got him" when he did it one more time. He wasn't being a monster, and she was fine with it.

Thank you for the correction. I wasn't taking notes when I heard her tell the story, so I obviously misremembered the detail of what part of her costume it was.

And yes, now that you've mentioned that kicker where she got him back, I recall her saying that, too. As I said, the way she Meriwether told the story, it was more playful than anything, at least by the standards of the time. And yes, those standards often included actresses staying quiet and not saying anything when they were harassed or mistreated. I'm not saying it was right, I'm just saying that that was the way it was. And considering that Lee Meriwether was Miss America 1955 and had come up through the pageant circuit, I'm sure she'd had to put up with & fend off much worse than that. You don't survive in Hollywood without being made of sturdy stuff.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

There was even a section on "the casting couch" in The Making of Star Trek that was wisely expunged from the published book.

That's certainly news to me. Can this section be read anywhere? How did you learn about it?

 

[tomswift2002]

Heck, they had three women; Colt, Number One (who "is different"), and the officer sitting at the station with the printer at the front of the bridge, who apparently is very different, since Pike forgot he'd been standing right next to her five minutes before Colt showed up.

I’ve wondered if that woman at the printer was actually a man who liked cross dressing and Pike knew that it was a man, hence why he doesn’t seem to notice or refer to her.

 

[uniderth]

Sadly, we're not as far from that era as we'd like. Even on this board there's been a lot of discussion in the past about how "hot" women on the show are, etc. When the conversation goes to the actors it's almost always about their portrayal, when it goes the actresses, their looks.

It would be interesting to analyze if that division is more or less prevalent in men vs women. Do men focus more on looks of actresses than women, or do women, or is it the same?

As a heterosexual man, for actresses I can comment on their attractiveness and their portrayal. While for actors I can only comment on their portrayal, because as I'm not attracted to men I cant comment on their attractiveness. That could also be a large source of the division you have observed.

 

[Marsden]

I rarely comment on the attractiveness or lack thereof because it seems very superficial to me. I just move on to the next post.

It seems redundant anyway, has there been any unattractive people on TV, it's built into the system. Look at the Big Bang Theory, they are supposed to be nerdy and whatever but look at the actors when they are out on a talk show or in a photo shot. Unattractive people aren't allowed.

Look at Gilligan's Island, F-Troop, Andy Griffith, any of those shows. For the potential pilot, Assignment Earth, they got Robert Lansing and Teri Garr.

 

[Tenacity]

It seems redundant anyway, has there been any unattractive people on TV, it's built into the system.

Attractive would seem to be the default position, casting someone who would be considered unattractive is a deliberate choice.

 

[Nyotarules]

Attractive would seem to be the default position, casting someone who would be considered unattractive is a deliberate choice.

The audience is fickle, we want to see pretty people on the screen whether tv or movies

 

[Pauln6]

The audience is fickle we want to see pretty people on the screen whether tv or movies

I want to see pretty people but I don't want to see nothing but pretty people.

I love Robert Wise's Andromeda Strain. I watched a remake that was full of late twenties and early thirties beautiful scientists with relationship issues who were inexplicably at the top of their professions despite their youth. What a soulless turd that was.

 

[cooleddie74]

In the 1970s Elliot Gould was a sex symbol. That tells you a lot about how Hollywood has embraced the idea of "pretty people" over the years. Frankly you're more likely to meet and know an Elliot Gould type than you will a Brad Pitt type but both are considered sexy depending on which decade you were in or your current age(or both).

 

[Maurice]

My point being that women are sexualized and marginalized in our culture in a way that men have generally not been, so we shouldn't go around congratulating ourselves on how far we've come considering how far we have to go.

 

[Maurice]

That's certainly news to me. Can this section be read anywhere? How did you learn about it?

It's in a typed draft of the book @Harvey ran across. Its not anywhere public.

 

[T'Bonz]

My point being that women are sexualized and marginalized in our culture in a way that men have generally not been, so we shouldn't go around congratulating ourselves on how far we've come considering how far we have to go.

As a woman, remembering my youth in the 1960s, we've come a LONG way. Young girls can do things that we couldn't when I was a kid. Adult women too.

Yes, there is still room for improvement. But I'm pleased that today's ten-year-old girl can play with so-called toys for boys, play BASEBALL instead of softball (because the former was for boys and the latter for girls), and not be limited in attired. Boys didn't have much in the way of clothing restrictions, but at least in the late 1960s, it was mandatory for girls to wear a dress or skirt to school, even if it was neg -20 out. Oh, you could wear pants TO school in winter, but it was obligatory to remove them in the bathroom/cloakroom once you got to school.

I was elated when I could wear blue jeans. No more dresses, slips, having to be very careful with certain movements because of course, the dresses were mini, and I mean mini.

We HAVE come a long way.