Gene Roddenberry takes credit for everything.

[EnriqueH]

Richard Arnold definitely has an agenda, but on the flip side of the coin, Joel Engel also came off like someone with an agenda.

I don't know Engel, I don't know anything about the man aside from the fact that he authored his Roddenberry biography, but he CLEARLY came off as someone who had a certain disdain for his subject.

Which is why I believe reading both is a must. One is positive, the other negative.

The truth, or reality, is probably somewhere in the middle of both.

 

[mos6507]

Not having worked in "Hollywood".... Is gene's behavior so unusual? Yes, based on everything I've read in this thread he was an arse, but I suspect quite a lot of Hollywood types are of the same ilk.

A while back I read Richard Walter's screenplay book and he talks at some length of how he got robbed of his credit for a lot of what wound up in the final script for American Graffiti. With stories like this it eventually becomes a matter of he-said-she-said. Very hard to reconcile different opinions. His advice to up-and-coming writers is to write off episodes like that as part of the business.

Also, watch through Roy Huggins Archive of American Television interview and you'll really get a taste for the underbelly of showbiz, mostly due to the behavior of network/studio executives. Roy wound up muscling his way through more aggressively because he felt that's the only way he could keep himself from getting screwed.

That being said, it doesn't seem like Gene was an ass to everyone. He did seem to bend over backwards to get the original cast back together for TMP. Also, despite outsiders' opinion of him screwing over Sandy Courage, the two of them seemed to maintain a cordial relationship. Ultimately these are matters between the individuals involved. It's up to them to decide how much this or that crossed a line. Witness L'enfant terrible Harlan Ellison's way of handling the collaborative process on City on the Edge of Forever, for instance, and you realize that a certain amount of give-and-take is a good thing.

 

[Elder Knight]

^ Have there been any reforms in the industry to prevent that sort of abuse regarding tacked-on lyrics?

I certainly hope so, or else Bill Murray could abscond with half of John Williams' royalties for the Star Wars theme for his lounge singer lyrics ("Star Wars ... Gimme those Star Wars ... Nothin' but Star Wars ...") to it on Saturday Night Live, if the Roddenberry Precedent remains valid.

Actually, Murray was a better lyricist, relatively speaking.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Actually, Murray was a better lyricist, relatively speaking.

Absolutely.

Nick the Lounge Singer was brilliant.

To those who don't know what the heck we're talking about (sans original video):

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53DQgbj2mIc[/yt]

 

[Maurice]

A while back I read Richard Walter's screenplay book and he talks at some length of how he got robbed of his credit for a lot of what wound up in the final script for American Graffiti. With stories like this it eventually becomes a matter of he-said-she-said. Very hard to reconcile different opinions. His advice to up-and-coming writers is to write off episodes like that as part of the business...

I can't speak to that particular claim, but the WGA does have rules about how credit is awarded, if it's true that Walter didn't create the story (his script was based reportedly based on Lucas/Huyck/Katz treatment), even if he did several drafts, if it was so massively rewritten that the majority of the material was deemed to not be Walter's, he wouldn't receive credit. Is his Graffiti draft in the book?

 

[plynch]

Tacking lyrics onto an instrumental and calling it a somg when it is never sung, is crummy. But my understanding is that was a known contractual possibility beforehand, and GR availed himself of it. That said,

Sharing publishing rights was super-common in the music industry. If someone famous wanted to record your song, you'd agree to share the songwriting 1/2 of the royalties (1/2 goes to the publisher); or agree that their publishing company would get the publishing rights and that 1/2 of the royalties.

Dolly Parton stood up to Elvis when he wanted to record "I Will Always Love You" and of course wanted a share of the songwriting credit (and royalties). She said no, and they still tell the story on the RCA studio tour in Nashville, it was so rare. Jerry Reed managed it too, but he was a minor star in 67/68 and Elvis loved his material and wanted to do it even w/o grabbing some royalties. This was back in the day when a songwriter could retire from a hit song's singles sales.

What GR did was entirely within keeping of the protocols back then: sharing, stealing, demanding credit and royalties of those who need the break.

As someone who is attempting to place some music I've run the scenario in my head. If an artist or producer offered me a placement and wanted a cut, my answer is "Done." Ya gotta get started somehow.

As Sondheim wrote in Sweeney Todd, the history of the world, my sweet, is who gets eaten and who gets to eat.

 

[Elder Knight]

It's not always disreputable, either. "Lara's Theme" was Paul Francis Webster adding lyrics after the fact to Maurice Jarre's music for Doctor Zhivago in 1965. However, that move had commercial success, so a share of the rights made sense to all concerned.