What's the production history of Assignment: Earth?

[gomtuu20]

I never caught that before. Thank you.

 

[ToddPence]

I might be wrong, but I think "Assignment: Earth" is the only TOS episode to credit a guest star in the opening credits.

 

[euphorik]

...I'm curious if any of the behind the scenes books (Solow & Justman's, Whitfield's, Shatner's?) discuss the story behind the production of this pilot/episode, and what the plans were (if there were any) for a full series. Were they running out of filmable scripts at the end of the season? Was a series bible ever created? Any other scripts? Anything?

the most extensive collection of surviving materials detailing the development and production of "assignment: earth" is part of the roddenberry collection in the UCLA Libraries Special Collections. There is an online finding aid for this collection, the link for A:E related documents is here

http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=tf5z09n9vr&chunk.id=c02-1.8.7.2.8&brand=oac

 

[Robert Treat]

You might also wish to check out Memory Alpha

 

[CoveTom]

Wow, anyone read that excerpt from the interview with Teri Garr? She's really quite fond of us Trek fans:

Teri Garr appeared in "Assignment: Earth". However, Garr responds, "I have nothing to say about it. I did that years ago and I mostly denied I ever did it." She does admit that she would have been in the TV series that the episode was a pilot for, but it didn't sell. "Thank god," she says with genuine relief. "Otherwise, all I would get would be Star Trek questions for the rest of my natural life—and probably my unnatural life. You ever see those people who are Star Trek fans? The same people who go to swap meets."

 

[Jeri]

Well, it appears she has been to swap meets.

 

[Marc_Seven]

the most extensive collection of surviving materials detailing the development and production of "assignment: earth" is part of the roddenberry collection in the UCLA Libraries Special Collections. There is an online finding aid for this collection, the link for A:E related documents is here

Thank you very much for this reference. I'm the guy with the Assignment: Earth website. Is there any way I can access the info online, or do I have to make a trip to UCLA sometime in the future? And what's the policy? Do I have to be an academic? Can I photocopy materials?

I've been good about only commenting on and describing source materials, not putting them up online. Seems like this would be the be all and end all on the actual making of the episode.

And FWIW, that interview with Garr from Starlog is a good number of years ago now. I think she had a poor experience and was taken advantage of. Her more recent autobiography is much more neutral.

Thanks for the discussion.

Scott Dutton
http://www.AssignmentEarth.ca

 

[Gary7]

Thinking back on sci-fi TV of the late 1960's and early 1970's, I think Assignment: Earth could have been a good one. What we saw in the ST episode was just a teaser... And if Lansing had more time, the Gary Seven character would have developed into a kind of space-age James Bond, American style. I think he had more personality than Moore anyway (who wouldn't appear as Bond until 1973 anyway). And certainly there was some good potential with Teri Garr.

Yes, there was already a time travel based series going on at the time, "The Time Tunnel", created by Irwin Allen. But I think Assignment: Earth would have been at a much higher quality level. The Time Tunnel production values were cheesy and the acting was ultra campy. Maybe Time Tunnel would have continued targetting the younger audience and Assignment: Earth would have cornered the teen-adult segment.