Gorshin--Emmy nom?

[alchemist]

I checked my records (i.e., several newspaper and magazine articles from 1969, e.g., the LA Times, TV Guide, the Seattle Times, etc.) that covered the 1968/1969 Emmy Awards for Star Trek and the four categories for which it was nominated. FWIW, none of them mentioned Frank Gorshin.

411

 

[Therin of Andor]

My understanding is that Gorshin was hesitant to take the role on Star Trek but met Martin Luther King at a fundraiser and King pleaded with him to do it.

But it was a half-hearted plea.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Once a bad piece of data gets into print, the error tends to perpetuate itself.

My favourite:

Joan Crawford played The Devil in "Batman" TV series. For a long time, I used to think I'd somehow missed a key episode. Joan Crawford in "Batman"? Then I found an explanation. John Crawford had played the Bookworm's goon, Printer's Devil. These typos, frequently cross referenced in numerous articles and early books, were supposedly first created on a sideshow trivia vending-machine's trading card.

Ha! Just found a (dead) site listing John as "The Devil", assuming he was a major villain!
http://ctva.biz/US/SciFi/Batman.htm

Here, in Australia, we had a bomb go off in "Number 96", our most popular prime time soapie in the 70s, killing four characters. Arnold Feather, a character who was nearby at the time, survived - and many articles still report that he lost a leg in that blast. In fact, Arnold lost his leg to a parcel bomb storyline several years earlier.

Other articles still report how the guy's leg seemingly grew back. But they combine two correct factoids to reach that bizarre conclusion: the producer thought the limp that the actor had cultivated (and maintained) was slowing up scenes and wanted him to "lose the limp", and the character's long-lost twin brother, Chook Feather, had turned up. So, of course, some fans and TV critics distinctly remember the actor wearing shorts in some later episodes!

 

[Tribble Herder]

I'll pass that suggestion on to Captain Robert April, so he can include a small section in the new Concordance.

Nah, that's definitely fodder for a separate book.

 

[EEE]

My understanding is that Gorshin was hesitant to take the role on Star Trek but met Martin Luther King at a fundraiser and King pleaded with him to do it.

But it was a half-hearted plea.

That is so bad, you should actually be subjected to actually viewing/re-viewing every episode of Lost in Space consecutively while being sleep deprived.

 

[Maurice]

Well, since a lot of sites copy from Wikipedia, I decided to try correct this error by starting there. I changed the entry to note that:

He also had a memorable role in the 1969 Star Trek episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" as the bigoted half-whiteface, half-blackface alien Bele (contrary to popular rumor, Gorshin was not Emmy nominated for this role*).

...where the * is a Reference to the Emmy's webpage for Gorshin. My experience is that if you just change it without noting the error, people change it back. If you can cite why it's an error, it tends to stick.

I also took the opportunity to flesh out his career listing.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

^ Hopefully the parenthetical remark won't get deleted for not citing support for the nomination being a popular rumor nonetheless (at least until its had its intended effect)!

 

[Kamdan]

I want Mythbusters to tackle the MLK story, too…

"I'm sorry, Ms. Nichols, Dr. King can't come to the phone. He's in with Mr. Cosby congratulating him on breaking down the racial barries with three conescutive emmy wins."

I'm sure MLK praised Cosby and Greg Morris for Mission: Impossible, but Star Trek was more notable for portraying a future with his ideals and it was different to have a black woman in that role. Just ask Whoopi Goldberg how it influenced her. Has it been changed and embellished over the years, yes it has, but I think the basics are the same with Nichols wanting to leave and having MLK tell her what a large contribution she was making, even if that part wasn't that large.

 

[Tribble Herder]

The large part being whether or not she ever talked to Dr. King at all.

 

[Christopher]

Anyway, it's not even remotely the sort of topic Mythbusters covers, unless there's a way they can make a robotic MLK and Nichols and crash them into each other at high speed...

 

[Maurice]

^ Hopefully the parenthetical remark won't get deleted for not citing support for the nomination being a popular rumor nonetheless (at least until its had its intended effect)!

Citations added. I am nothing if not thorough.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

^ That should do it!

 

[Greg Cox]

Our work is done.

 

[Tribble Herder]

It's Miller Time!

 

[Christopher]

Now, if we can just convince IMDb to stop claiming Victoria Vetri played Isis...

 

[Greg Cox]

Now, if we can just convince IMDb to stop claiming Victoria Vetri played Isis...

Has anybody ever just asked Vetri whether she played Isis?

I mean, I know she's in prison and everything, but doesn't that make her easier to find?

 

[Tribble Herder]

It's possible she's the one who started the rumor in the first place...

 

[Christopher]

It's possible she's the one who started the rumor in the first place...

No, we know who started it. The first suggestion of it was on this fan webpage, and the author explains why he arrived at that belief. He acknowledges that it's not a sure thing and that he's never gotten any confirmation or refutation from Ms. Vetri, but nonetheless some sites, notably IMDb, have irresponsibly reported it as fact.

Besides, Mrs. Rathgeb, née Vetri, had a pretty successful career in her own right in the '60s and '70s. I doubt she'd feel the need to pad her resume by claiming to have appeared in a 30-second non-speaking cameo in a Star Trek episode.

 

[Harvey]

Somebody could always look at the daily production reports in the Robert Justman papers at UCLA. They should list every actor involved. Has Vetri gone by any other names?

 

[Maurice]

Somebody could always look at the daily production reports in the Robert Justman papers at UCLA. They should list every actor involved. Has Vetri gone by any other names?

This looks like a job for...