As I mentioned in my last post, Shatner began working in earnest at the CBC after his first year at Stratford, for the 1954-55 TV season. His roles at this time were mostly small ones, and because most of these productions were filmed live (and because they were made so long ago), there are often no available prints to view, nor any photographs from the programs to be found. The good news is that I will be able to post about these appearances pretty quickly. The bad news is that I have very little information on them, and what I do have should be considered suspect at best.
Case in point, “I Like It Here”, another episode of General Motors Theatre that aired about one month after the last episode that Shatner was in, “The Big Leap.” I have found no pictures and no plot information on this episode…only a date and a partial cast list on IMDB. We can only assume that Shatner did appear in this, and that he picked up his $35 dollar check a couple of weeks later!
Without further ado…
Shatnerweb’s Rating:
Unknown – Not Viewed
Shat Level: Unknown – Not Viewed
Shatner’s Web
It’s time to detail all of the connections between “I Like It Here” and other Shatner appearances!
Austin Willis appeared with Shatner just a few weeks previously for the General Motors Theatre episode, “The Big Leap”, and then would again shortly in a 1955 Playbill episode written by Rod Serling, “Mr. Finchley Versus the Bomb.”
This is the first time that David Gardner worked with Shatner, but he would do so again in just a few short weeks for another episode, “The Black Eye.” In 1955 he too joined the Stratford company, appearing in at least three plays with Shatner during the ’55 and ’56 seasons of the festival. He would also travel to Broadway to appear in the short-lived run of Tamburlaine the Great, and then one more time with Shatner in the film version of Oedipus Rex.
Jospehine Barrington previously appeared with Bill earlier in the year, for CBC Theatre’s “The Man Who Ran Away.”
Finally, Les Rubie also appeared in the General Motors Theatre episode, “The Big Leap” and would do so one more time in the upcoming episode, “Forever Galatea.”
The writer of this episode, George Salverson, is also credited as a writer on a 1957 episode of Kraft Television Theatre in the USA that featured Shatner entitled “The Discoverers.”
Although I assume the same producers were there for episodes covered to date of General Motors Theatre, I can’t say for certain. It does look like Sydney Newman was the executive producer for this episode and probably for the series itself until he left for England. Probably his most famous creation? Doctor Who, in 1963. Before that though, he would go on to act as producer or supervising producer in the Shatner-featuring CBC/General Motors‘ episodes “The Man Who Ran Away,” “Billy Budd,” “Forever Galatea,” “Never Say No,” “The Black Eye,” and “The Coming Out of Ellie Swan.” He was also supervising producer of The Canadian Howdy Doody Show when Shatner would have appeared on it.
Further Studies
Check out some more history on the CBC here.
Read up on General Motors Theatre here.
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