A new post is out today about Star Trek and The Monkees:
http://startrekfactcheck.blogspot.com/2017/02/a-little-monkee-business.html
http://startrekfactcheck.blogspot.com/2017/02/a-little-monkee-business.html
Fact-Checking Inside Star Trek: The Real Story
- Thread starter Harvey
- Start date
Nice column, Harvey. Something that I think should be noted about the Monkees' ratings -- They were always a bit lower than they should have been due to several NBC affiliates not picking up the show. This was the result of some of the Monkees' shenanigans at a meeting of the affiliates at Chasen's restaurant in Beverly Hills before the show premiered. The four Monkees didn't have any instruments with them, so they did impromptu comedy material. This so offended some of the attendees that five key affiliates refused to air the television show. Thus the Monkees program failed to crack the top 25 for its entire run.
Source: The book Monkee Business by Eric Lefcowitz, Chapter 9. The book also states that this incident was reported in TV Guide at the time (Fall 1966).
Fascinating. I bet Broadcasting has affiliate figures somewhere. I wonder how The Monkees compares to Star Trek in terms of NBC affiliates?
EDIT: I've found some affiliate numbers from early in the 1968-69 season, but as The Monkees was cancelled the year before, that doesn't help for an apples to apples comparison.
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TV Guide, Sep 4, 1993 excerpt from Star Trek Memories by William Shatner:
I don't see any resemblance to Davy Jones:
I don't see any resemblance to Davy Jones:
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Harvey, if you want, I can scan in the relevant pages from Monkee Business for your reference.
TV Guide, Sep 4, 1993 excerpt from Star Trek Memories by William Shatner:
I don't see any resemblance to Davy Jones:
Davy Jones might have done a better Russian accent than Koenig.
Beautiful article. Very well done!
Why couldn't the fact that GR's Davy Jones-haired character was a Russian have been a response to that Russian letter?
Because there's no evidence such a letter to Pravda ever existed. It was apparently a Roddenberry fantasy.
If anything, I believe that Chekov was more likely an attempt to mimic the popularity of David McCallum's Illya Kuryakin from The Man from U.N.C.L.E., a young Russian (though English-accented) heartthrob with a Beatle-like haircut (he was actually called "the blond Beatle" by the press). Illya was massively popular with young female viewers, and Chekov was created to appeal to that demographic, and he's also a moptopped young Russian. Coincidence? I doubt it.
There's an interview with Herb Solow over at www.emmytvlegends.org. He speaks
favorably over most of the cast (heaping high praise on Mr. Nimoy), but you can tell he doesn't care for Shatner as he basically said he lost contact with him since the series ended and that's about it.
William Shatner's contribution to "Star Trek" is so large and so immeasurable...I thought it
was ridiculous for Solow to try and minimize what Bill added to the show.
favorably over most of the cast (heaping high praise on Mr. Nimoy), but you can tell he doesn't care for Shatner as he basically said he lost contact with him since the series ended and that's about it.
William Shatner's contribution to "Star Trek" is so large and so immeasurable...I thought it
was ridiculous for Solow to try and minimize what Bill added to the show.
Sure! Thank you.
Solow is a little cranky in that interview, but I don't have a strong sense from his brief comments that he "doesn't care for Shatner." He says Shatner has shown that he's a talented actor in performances both before and since Star Trek, and that "he kind of phoned it in at times" on Star Trek. That's about it.
If I were to asses Shatner's performance on the show, I might do so with a little more nuance than Solow (pointing to the subtlty in Shatner's acting best displayed during the first season), but during parts of seasons two and three, Shatner certainly wasn't at his best.
I said he "doesn't care for Shatner" because he basically says about Leonard Nimoy
that he's in touch with him, he's a great humanitarian, he's a great photographer and director, I mean he rattled off a whole list of accolades and for Bill it was....well, we've lost touch with him.
I assume Solow saw the "Trek" feature films...that feels like a safe assumption. Bill was
so essential to the series and the features. There was no reason to diss or to try and minimize Shatner's contribution.
that he's in touch with him, he's a great humanitarian, he's a great photographer and director, I mean he rattled off a whole list of accolades and for Bill it was....well, we've lost touch with him.
I assume Solow saw the "Trek" feature films...that feels like a safe assumption. Bill was
so essential to the series and the features. There was no reason to diss or to try and minimize Shatner's contribution.
^Has it occurred to you that maybe Solow just... lost touch with him? Why must a neutral comment be interpreted as a negative one?
That didn't occur to me as Bill has been in the forefront of "Hollywood" acting in the 70's, 80's, 90's
and even 00's. He even has headlined shows alongside Tom Hanks and other A listed in local theatre in LA. Maybe Solow retired in the 70's and that's the real reason why.
and even 00's. He even has headlined shows alongside Tom Hanks and other A listed in local theatre in LA. Maybe Solow retired in the 70's and that's the real reason why.
It's a big industry. There are tens of thousands of people in it. No one person in the business can possibly be close to every single other person in the business. And of course there's no automatic overlap between being in the same profession and being in the same social circle. They're two different aspects of life.
You don't have to look for subtexts everywhere. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
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