Roddenberry's lyrics

No, I don't forgive Roddenberry. It was a scummy thing to do. The fact that the lyrics stunk on top of that is immaterial.

 

He didn't do anything to me, so it's not my place to forgive or not forgive him.

But he certainly didn't have trouble stepping over people to line his pockets, so I certainly don't respect that aspect of him.

 

Read Courage’s interview above. It was part of the deal he had signed. He didn’t harbor a big grudge. He scored for season three.

 

My earlier attempt is free, though it fails on the other counts.

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/what-if-gene-roddenberry-was-still-alive.141464/page-6#post-4999011

 

Exactly. Both are hummable and recognizable when hummed.

Indeed.

 

It's not Roddenberry's fault. He didn't create the loophole - the asshat lawyers did that. GR only exploited the loophole.

The real fault lies with the mere fact that it worked at all - that it could be possible to get money from writing lyrics that you know will never be heard. Logically, GR shouldn't have seen one red cent from that. But because of the Fucking Lawyers(tm), he did. Blame them, not GR.

 

Were it not for Gene, we wouldn't be having this conversion. It's Gene's fault for choosing to exploit the loophole. No one held a phaser to his head and made him do it. It was his choice.

 

BS. He still chose to do it. He was an adult man. The responsibility is his.

I never cease to be amazed at how some people will bend over backwards to forgive Roddenberry anything.

 

Thinking about this some more, I'm sure that clause about the writer or co-writer being paid even if their lyrics weren't used was originally made to protect the writer. If it wasn't in there, what would stop some unscrupulous producer from saying, "Well, let's just not use the lyrics. Then we won't have to pay that person"?

Unfortunately, there's always going to be somebody--or several somebodies--who's looking to exploit the system to make a quick buck for themselves at the expense of someone else.

 

Have to agree, GR was capable of some truly awful behavior, to both men and women– a creative genius with feet of clay, to say the least. After I read Susan Sackett’s Inside Trek, and Yvonne Fern’s Gene Roddenberry: the last conversation, my admiration for him was forever diminished. The song royalties grab was just one more instance of his ‘enemy within.’

 

Grabbing a share of the publishing was common. All throughout the industry. I think I’ve given multiple examples upthread. Stories are legion, in fact. He is far from a monster in this regard. Not saying it’s right.

 

Yeah, I don't buy for a minute the notion that this clause was inserted into Courage's contract without Roddenberry's knowledge.

 

I was surprised that Courage continued to write theme music for a number of Trek episodes after the lyrics scam, even in the third season.

 

Me, as well. I wonder 1) if he had a contract to work the show after he wrote the theme, or 2) if the scam didn't become obvious for a while.

 

From what I’ve read, Courage wrote incidental music for “Man Trap” “Naked Time” and “Mudd’s Women” before being alienated from Roddenberry and replaced as composer....then came back to score music for 3rd season episodes “Enterprise Incident” and “Plato’s Stepchildren” as a favor for Robert Justman.

 

Does the Lost in Space theme have lyrics?
Does John Williams share the Star Wars theme residuals with George Lucas?

So did Courage get kicked off Star Trek because he was angry (at least for a time) about GRs lyrics or did he quit?
Look maybe Courage forgave GR in the end. Maybe he's not the sort of person who carries a grudge unlike myself. Maybe he made more money off Star Trek in syndication than he ever thought he would so half of what he should get was 100 times what he thought he ever would get for a 3-Season TV show.

 

by 1977 composers were more aware of this king of shenanigans, it’s unlikely they kept happening until then (that said, I’m aware of a big copyright scam that ran from 1968 until it was discovered in 2014, so never say never…).

Also, when I took a dig into SIAE’s (the Italian then monopolist copyright agency) database in 2012 I was surprised to discover plenty of misattributed pieces, with people supposedly getting royalties instead of the original composers…Bottom line: if you are at least a moderately successful composer either you get a good team of lawyers specialising in copyright or you WILL get ripped off big time.

 

You're assuming a lot there. Why should we assume any of that if Courage never made any statements to that effect? Because it makes us feel better?

 

This seems like such a Gene thing to do. With all of the horrid stories that have come out about the man, I sort of love him and hate him at the same time now.. love him for creating Trek, and hate for, well, take your pick I suppose.

The sad thing is that he probably isn’t even in the top 100 all-time list of abusive Hollywood assholes.

 

This is fascinating- had no idea this had lyrics!!