Seeking lost 1970 Star Trek short film
- Thread starter ZeroG
- Start date
- Status
I thought Roddenberry sold his interest in the show to Paramount in the 1970's?
No, I don't think so. The way I heard it, it was almost the other way around. Paramount offered to sell their share (the lion's share) of Star Trek to GR in the early '70s, but he didn't have the cash. And it was a very modest asking price.
But GR never gave up his share of the property, and after his death there was a successful lawsuit by his first wife to get a settlement out of it, as her piece of the pie. Somebody correct me if necessary.
Yes, around 1976 or so -- I guess Paramount didn't ask for much back then.
I have been looking everywhere, scanning old local commercial from the 70's thru the 80's but I can't seem to find it anywhere... I would love to see it again, or just know that it still out there somewhere, anywhere to see one last time and to save forever.
My comment was in reference to the OP.
Roddenberry never owned Star Trek, his production company was owed some percentage of the profits made from it (which is perhaps what the ex-wife pursued). You are correct that Paramount offered to sell it to him for a paltry sum that he couldn’t afford. It seems that if he owned any piece, he wouldn’t have been shut out of the post-TMP TOS movies.
With regard to having Rod Roddenberry as an exec producer on Discovery, I think that was just to add an air of authenticity by having the Roddenberry name attached to the project.
Obviously I've never seen the paperwork, but if you are owed a percentage of the profits, then for all intents and purposes, you own that percentage of the intellectual property. It doesn't give you control.
At the outset in 1966, William Shatner owned five percent of Star Trek as part of his contract. Gene Roddenberry's contract must have given him more of the show than Shatner got. And of course Desilu owned the largest share. That would be my understanding.
In his books, Shatner talks about how payments after his divorce from Gloria Rand at the end of TOS wiped him out financially. I guess the percentage from Trek wasn't much at the time. Roddenberry's divorce at the same time wasn't settled until years later.
http://variety.com/1993/biz/news/roddenberry-ex-wife-wins-trek-suit-103957/
Roddenberry (through Norway, basically a shell corporation), Shatner, NBC, and Desilu each had a share of profit participation in the show. Through Hollywood accounting, the show didn't go into profit until the 1980s (and probably only went into profit then because Roddenberry and Shatner sued Paramount for their share).
Desilu (later Paramount, later CBS) always controlled the underlying intellectual property.
How does that apply to the animated series? It was copyrighted by Filmation and Norway; I think Paramount only distributed it, and I'm not even sure that was true in the original run. (I saw it in its original run, but I was five, so I don't remember studio logos.)
No idea. There's not much primary source material about the animated show available archivally, and I'm far from an expert on the subject.
I was just reading my first printing of Star Trek Log Two and this discussion came to mind. FWIW, the back cover says, “Star Trek: another fantastically successful series from Paramount Television.” The copyright is 1974 by Paramount Pictures Corporation.
Get off my LAWN!!, OK so it's not really my lawn, but I like looking at it ,so GET OFF! however, I was 5 during TOS's original run..but I do remember studio logos..
How couldn't you, they were so annoying..
Of course I remember the existence of studio logos in general -- I just mean I don't remember first-run TAS vividly enough to be certain whether its original broadcasts had Paramount logos at the end.
- Status
Similar threads
- Poll
