86 Facts About Gene Roddenberry

1.

In 1964, Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek, which premiered in 1966 and ran for three seasons before being canceled.

2.

Gene Roddenberry then worked on projects, including a string of failed television pilots.

3.

The syndication of Star Trek led to its growing popularity; this, in turn, resulted in the Star Trek feature films, on which Gene Roddenberry continued to produce and consult.

4.

In 1987, the sequel series Star Trek: The Next Generation began airing on television in first-run syndication; Roddenberry was intimately involved in the initial development of the series but took a less active role after the first season due to ill health.

5.

Gene Roddenberry continued to consult on the series until his death in 1991.

6.

Years after his death, Gene Roddenberry was one of the first humans to have their ashes carried into earth orbit.

7.

Gene Roddenberry was born on August 19,1921, in his parents' rented home in El Paso, Texas, the first child of Eugene Edward Roddenberry and Caroline "Glen" Roddenberry.

8.

The family moved to Los Angeles in 1923 after Gene Roddenberry's father passed the civil service test and was given a police commission there.

9.

Gene Roddenberry majored in police science at Los Angeles City College, where he began dating Eileen-Anita Rexroat and became interested in aeronautical engineering.

10.

Gene Roddenberry obtained a pilot's license through the United States Army Air Corps-sponsored Civilian Pilot Training Program.

11.

Gene Roddenberry enlisted with the USAAC on December 18,1941 and married Eileen on June 13,1942.

12.

Gene Roddenberry graduated from the USAAC on August 5,1942, when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant.

13.

Gene Roddenberry was posted to Bellows Field, Oahu, to join the 394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group, of the Thirteenth Air Force, which flew the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.

14.

Gene Roddenberry spent the remainder of his military career in the United States and flew all over the country as a plane crash investigator.

15.

Gene Roddenberry was involved in a second plane crash, this time as a passenger.

16.

Gene Roddenberry was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal.

17.

In 1945, Gene Roddenberry began flying for Pan American World Airways, including routes from New York to Johannesburg or Calcutta, the two longest Pan Am routes at the time.

18.

The plane came down in the Syrian Desert, and Gene Roddenberry, who took control as the ranking flight officer, suffered two broken ribs but was able to drag injured passengers out of the burning plane and led the group to get help.

19.

Gene Roddenberry resigned from Pan Am on May 15,1948, and decided to pursue his dream of writing, particularly for the new medium of television.

20.

Gene Roddenberry applied for a position with the Los Angeles Police Department on January 10,1949, and spent his first sixteen months in the traffic division before being transferred to the newspaper unit.

21.

Gene Roddenberry did his first TV writing for the show, taking actual cases, and boiling them down to short screen treatments that would be fleshed out into full scripts by Jack Webb's staff of writers, and splitting the fee with the officers who actually investigated the real-life case.

22.

Gene Roddenberry became then technical advisor for a new television version of Mr District Attorney, which led to him writing for the show under his pseudonym "Robert Wesley".

23.

Gene Roddenberry began to collaborate with Ziv Television Programs and continued to sell scripts to Mr District Attorney, in addition to Ziv's Highway Patrol.

24.

Gene Roddenberry was promoted to head writer for The West Point Story and wrote ten scripts for the first season, about a third of the total episodes.

25.

Gene Roddenberry wrote another script for Ziv's series Harbourmaster titled "Coastal Security" and signed a contract with the company to develop a show called Junior Executive with Quinn Martin.

26.

Gene Roddenberry wrote scripts for a number of other series in his early years as a professional writer, including Bat Masterson and Jefferson Drum.

27.

Gene Roddenberry continued to create series of his own, including a series based on an agent for Lloyd's of London called The Man from Lloyds.

28.

Gene Roddenberry pitched a police-based series called Footbeat to CBS, Hollis Productions, and Screen Gems.

29.

Gene Roddenberry was asked to write a series called Riverboat, set in 1860s Mississippi.

30.

Gene Roddenberry considered moving to England around this time, as Lew Grade wanted Roddenberry to develop series and set up his own production company.

31.

Gene Roddenberry created a second pilot called 333 Montgomery about a lawyer, played by DeForest Kelley.

32.

Gene Roddenberry discussed an idea about a multi-ethnic crew on an airship traveling the world, based on the film Master of the World, with fellow writer Christopher Knopf at MGM.

33.

The department withdrew its support after Gene Roddenberry pressed ahead with a plot titled "To Set It Right" in which a white and a black man find a common cause in their roles as Marines.

34.

Gene Roddenberry decided to write it as science fiction, and by March 11,1964, he brought together a 16-page pitch.

35.

When Gene Roddenberry pitched Star Trek to MGM, it was warmly received, but no offer was made.

36.

Gene Roddenberry then went to Desilu Productions, but rather than being offered a one-script deal, he was hired as a producer and allowed to work on his own projects.

37.

Gene Roddenberry's first was a half-hour pilot called Police Story, which was not picked up by the networks.

38.

Gene Roddenberry took the Star Trek idea to Oscar Katz, head of programming, and the duo immediately started work on a plan to sell the series to the networks.

39.

Gene Roddenberry hired Dorothy Fontana, better known as DC Fontana, as his assistant.

40.

Gene Roddenberry had worked with both Roddenberry and Barrett on The Lieutenant, and once Roddenberry remembered the thin features of the actor, he did not consider anyone else for the part.

41.

Gene Roddenberry was determined to make the crew racially diverse, which impressed actor George Takei when he came for his audition.

42.

Gene Roddenberry worked on several projects for the rest of the year.

43.

Five days before the first broadcast, Gene Roddenberry appeared at the 24th World Science Fiction Convention and previewed "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

44.

Gene Roddenberry was immediately concerned about the series' low ratings and wrote to Harlan Ellison to ask if he could use his name in letters to the network to save the show.

45.

Gene Roddenberry corresponded with science fiction writer Isaac Asimov about how to address the issue of Spock's growing popularity and the possibility that his character would overshadow Kirk.

46.

Gene Roddenberry often rewrote submitted scripts, although he did not always take credit for these.

47.

Gene Roddenberry's work rewriting "The Menagerie", based on footage originally shot for "The Cage", resulted in a Writers Guild arbitration board hearing.

48.

The script won a Hugo Award, but the awards board neglected to inform Gene Roddenberry, who found out through correspondence with Asimov.

49.

Gene Roddenberry began to communicate with Star Trek fan Bjo Trimble, who led a fan writing campaign to save the series.

50.

Gene Roddenberry cooperated with Stephen Edward Poe, writing as Stephen Whitfield, on the 1968 non-fiction book The Making of Star Trek for Ballantine Books, splitting the royalties evenly.

51.

The last episode of Star Trek aired 47 days before Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission, and Gene Roddenberry declared that he would never write for television again.

52.

In 1972 and 1973, Gene Roddenberry made a comeback to science fiction, selling ideas for four new series to a variety of networks.

53.

Gene Roddenberry was asked to produce four more scripts for episodes, but before production could begin again, CBS aired the film Planet of the Apes.

54.

NBC ordered 16 episodes, and tentatively scheduled the series to follow The Rockford Files on Friday nights; the pilot launched on January 23,1974, to positive critical response, but Gene Roddenberry balked at the substantial changes requested by the network and left the project, leading to its immediate cancellation.

55.

Gene Roddenberry was not involved in a third reworking of the material by ABC that produced Strange New World.

56.

Gene Roddenberry began developing MAGNA I, an underwater science-fiction series, for 20th Century Fox Television.

57.

Gene Roddenberry gave up after four years; the series never even reached the pilot stage.

58.

In 1974, Gene Roddenberry was paid $25,000 by John Whitmore to write a script called The Nine.

59.

Gene Roddenberry neglected to inform Leonard Nimoy of this and instead, to get him to sign on, told him that he was the only member of the main cast not returning.

60.

Gene Roddenberry had been promised five full seasons of the new show but ultimately, only one and a half were produced.

61.

Vociferous fan support led Paramount to hire Gene Roddenberry to create and produce a feature film based on the franchise in May 1975.

62.

In 1980, Roddenberry submitted a treatment for a proposed sequel about the crew preventing the alien Klingons from thwarting the assassination of John F Kennedy.

63.

Gene Roddenberry was given a bonus of $1 million in addition to a salary to produce the series, and celebrated by purchasing a new Rolls-Royce for $100,000.

64.

Paramount was already concerned about the original cast not returning, and fearing fan reaction if Gene Roddenberry was not involved, agreed to his demand for control of the show.

65.

Gene Roddenberry rewrote the series bible from an original version by David Gerrold, who had previously written The Original Series episode "The Trouble with Tribbles", and The Animated Series follow-up, "More Tribbles, More Troubles".

66.

Creatively, Meyer clashed with Gene Roddenberry, who felt that having the Enterprise crew hold prejudices against the Klingons did not fit with his view of the universe.

67.

Gene Roddenberry's guys were lined up on one side of the room, and my guys were lined up on the other side of the room, and this was not a meeting in which I felt I'd behaved very well, very diplomatically.

68.

In contrast, Nimoy and Shatner's memoirs report that after the screening, Gene Roddenberry called his lawyer and demanded a quarter of the scenes be cut; the producers refused.

69.

Gene Roddenberry wrote the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

70.

Previously, Gene Roddenberry worked intermittently on The God Thing, a proposed novel based upon his rejected 1975 screenplay for a proposed low-budget Star Trek film preceding the development of Phase II throughout 1976.

71.

At the time, Gene Roddenberry wanted to remain in an open relationship with both women, but Nichols, recognizing Barrett's devotion to him, ended the affair as she did not want to be "the other woman to the other woman".

72.

Barrett and Gene Roddenberry had an apartment together by the opening weeks of Star Trek.

73.

Gene Roddenberry had planned to divorce Eileen after the first season of the show, but when the show was renewed, he delayed doing so, fearing that he would not have enough time to deal with both the divorce and Star Trek.

74.

From 1975 until his death, Gene Roddenberry maintained an extramarital relationship with his executive assistant, Susan Sackett.

75.

Gene Roddenberry was raised a Southern Baptist; however, as an adult, he rejected religion, and considered himself a humanist.

76.

Gene Roddenberry began questioning religion around the age of 14, and came to the conclusion that it was "nonsense".

77.

Gene Roddenberry was critical of how the public looked at certain religions, noting that when the King David Hotel bombing took place in 1946, the American public accepted it as the action of freedom fighters, whereas a car bombing by a Muslim in Beirut is condemned as a terrorist act.

78.

Brannon Braga said that Roddenberry made it known to the writers of Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation that religion, superstition, and mystical thinking were not to be included.

79.

Gene Roddenberry arrived in the building with his staff and began to travel up to the ninth floor in the elevator.

80.

Gene Roddenberry suffered cardiopulmonary arrest and died in the doctor's office shortly afterwards.

81.

Gene Roddenberry's will left the majority of his $30 million estate to Barrett in a trust.

82.

Gene Roddenberry left money to his children and his first wife Eileen.

83.

In 1992, some of Gene Roddenberry's ashes were flown into space, and returned to Earth, on the Space Shuttle Columbia mission STS-52.

84.

In 1985, Gene Roddenberry was the first television writer to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

85.

Berman said that while he never discussed the ideas for the series, he was given a blessing by Gene Roddenberry to pursue it.

86.

Gene Roddenberry was credited for Star Trek during the nominations for two Emmy Awards, and won two Hugo Awards.