^It wasn't exclusively Roddenberry speaking, though he was the main speaker on the album. There were interviews with others like William Shatner and Mark Lenard (in character as Sarek).
Desilu
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I don't think Gene is unique in assuming credit for what other people under him contributed to the project. I think we can think of similar situations. For example didn't Eddison take credit for creations that other people under him had invented?
About the development of the Kinetoscope:
I think he and Tesla also had such problems.
About the development of the Kinetoscope:
Wiki on the development of the Kinetoscope
I think he and Tesla also had such problems.
Oh, Thomas Edison stole credit from all sorts of other people. He wasn't an inventive genius so much as a marketing genius. Ditto Walt Disney, who built himself up as the sole auteur responsible for the achievements of many brilliant artists working under him.
And then there's Bob Kane, the so-called "creator" of Batman. He really contributed only the barest prototype of the idea that Bill Finger then developed into the character we know as Batman, and signed his name to art that was frequently or usually drawn by the "assistants" at his studio -- and then he negotiated a contract that forbade DC from ever acknowledging Finger or anyone else but himself as Batman's creator, so that to this day every Batman production is required to have "Batman created by Bob Kane" and nobody else. (Although to be fair, Finger himself largely cribbed the plot of the first Batman story from a Shadow pulp novel. Comics back then were an overlooked, disposable medium, so imitation was rampant. Superman was largely a knockoff of Doc Savage. The original Green Lantern was a thinly veiled retelling of Aladdin.)
And then there's Bob Kane, the so-called "creator" of Batman. He really contributed only the barest prototype of the idea that Bill Finger then developed into the character we know as Batman, and signed his name to art that was frequently or usually drawn by the "assistants" at his studio -- and then he negotiated a contract that forbade DC from ever acknowledging Finger or anyone else but himself as Batman's creator, so that to this day every Batman production is required to have "Batman created by Bob Kane" and nobody else. (Although to be fair, Finger himself largely cribbed the plot of the first Batman story from a Shadow pulp novel. Comics back then were an overlooked, disposable medium, so imitation was rampant. Superman was largely a knockoff of Doc Savage. The original Green Lantern was a thinly veiled retelling of Aladdin.)
I stand corrected. I've not heard it since the 70s.
^I've had the album since I got it as part of the TMP 20th-anniversary set, which would've been 15 years ago now, but I've never listened to it in its entirety. I've been thinking of getting around to that soon, now that I have it uploaded onto my phone.
Well they copped the "Man of...." tag and the Fortress of Solitude from Doc, but I don't find too much similarity in the characters. Batman, with his lifetime of training and gadgets is closer to Doc Savage in my opinion.
Doc Savage heavily influenced both characters -- not surprisingly, as he was one of the biggest pulp heroes. And of course his first name was Clark. (And The Shadow's real first name was Kent.)
The influences mentioned in that article are mostly ripping off Doc Savage plots and gimmicks in Superman stories. Superman himself, alien raised on Earth with superpowers who used them to fight crime and has a double identity, isn't very similar to Doc Savage, a wealthy man, trained almost from birth to be the peak of mental and physical perfection who fights crime from his skyscraper HQ with the help of his assistants, using various gimmicks of his own creation.
Batman and The Green Hornet can also trace their lineage back to Zorro and The Scarlet Pimpernel -- wealthy society figures who don a disguise to fight crime and injustice while keeping their true identity a secret.
Of course the characters evolved in different directions, but it's well-established that Doc Savage was one of Siegel and Shuster's main inspirations. Just because an idea evolves away from its initial inspirations doesn't mean those inspirations weren't there.
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