Every William Shatner appearance…reviewed
Another day, another episode of General Motors Theatre…
On February 22nd, 1955, Shatner appeared in his fifth episode of General Motors Theater (formally CBC Theatre) in less than a year. This time for the episode “Never Say No.”
Continue reading “General Motors Theatre – “Never Say No” (02/22/1955)”
Two of my heroes, Shatner and Rod Serling, together for the first time.
On January 12th, 1955, Rod Serling was a lesser-known television writer, a man who had toiled in relatively obscurity for a number of years churning out script after script (many of them rejected) for anthology radio and television programs.
On January 13th, 1955, Rod Serling was an in-demand sensation, a man whose “phone just started ringing and wouldn’t stop for years!” Serling went literally overnight from being virtually unknown to being one of the most celebrated and lauded screenwriters of television’s golden age and beyond after the anthology series Kraft Television Theatre aired one of his productions titled “Patterns.”
Continue reading “Playbill – “Mr. Finchley Versus the Bomb” (01/19/1955)”
Hello, it’s 1955 calling. Get to work!
According to IMDB, Shatner wasted little time in getting a job in 1955. On only the second day of the year, he was apparently appearing in an episode of Scope, titled “Antiquity 1954.”
Continue reading “Scope – “Antiquity 1954” (01/02/1955)”
1954 ends with a black eye.
Young Shatner must have made quite an impression on the CBC, and especially on the producers of General Motors Theatre; over the course of about six weeks he appeared on the program 3 times, and over the span of eighteen months, he worked on at least 8 episodes. Some of that would certainly be due to Shatner’s unrelenting drive (born of desperation) to scrounge up a job, and some to his fantastic work effort once he got one.
Continue reading “General Motors Theatre – “The Black Eye” (11/16/1954)”
Confusion reigns in this next entry about Shatner’s career.
In a number of recent posts, I’ve made mention of “the haze” that surrounds much of Shatner’s early years as an actor. That haze runs basically from when he graduated from college in 1952 up to about 1960 or so when the air begins to clear and more programs (and information about those programs) begins to appear. Meanwhile, as stated, things are pretty murky at times regarding Le Shat.
And I don’t think any program more exemplifies “the haze” like The Canadian Howdy Doody Show.
Continue reading “The Canadian Howdy Doody Show (Late 1954?)”
So…hazy.
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…
Continue reading “General Motors Theatre – “I Like It Here” (11/02/1954)”
Shatner’s TV career picks up steam.
Just a few months prior to heading to Stratford after being offered a job with the company in early 1954, Shatner packed up his very small car (bought for him by his father who also loaned him a little bit of money) and moved to Toronto, the nearest big city to the small town of Stratford, Ontario. There he got a few jobs with the fledgling CBC television network, on CBC Theatre and (probably) on Space Command. Returning from Stratford’s very successful season after gaining exposure in the Shakespeare Festival, Shatner truly began a habit that he still has to this day…saying “yes” to just about any production that would hire him.
Continue reading “General Motors Theatre- “The Big Leap” (10/05/1954)”
Let’s play catch-up!
As I warned you all in my post on Space Command, we’re entering a very hazy period of time regarding any concrete information on a lot of Shatner’s appearances. This “haze” doesn’t really start to clear until about 1960 or so, when things definitely get more pinned down. In the meantime, new information has come to light that forces me to deviate from my plan to talk about Shatner’s appearance in The Taming of the Shrew for Stratford, and backtrack just a few months to discuss a TV appearance instead.
While doing some research for my next few posts, I ran across an article and radio program about William Shatner for the CBC. The images shown were for a number of productions I had never heard of. I did some more digging, and found a bit more information on these shows on IMDB.
And then I noticed that there were about 8-10 other shows that were also appearing on IMDB that hadn’t been there when I was building my initial Shatner database. So, I spent several hours this morning slotting in all of the information that I could find regarding these appearances. And that information was really, really sparse, but I’ve done what I could. After this post, my next tasks will be to update some of the information in previous reviews, because even little changes can affect the whole of Shatner’s web.
So let’s dive into the CBC Theatre’s, “The Man Who Ran Away” from early April 1954, shall we?
Continue reading “CBC Theatre – “The Man Who Ran Away” (04/06/1954)”
Shatner heads into outer space for the first time! Probably.
All right, folks…we’re about to enter a rather misty period as it relates to Mr. Shatner. For various productions over the next several years (really until about 1960 or so) I’m going to do my level best to present accurate information, with a whole heaping spoonful of informed guesswork on the side.
In doing my research, I’ve found a lot of conflicting information, wrong information, vague information and/or just plain no information regarding some of Shatner’s appearances, his life and the timeline of events in general surrounding Le Shat. When there is uncertainty in the information that I am providing, I will try and call that out as best I can during our journey together.
Case in point, Space Command, a show that I believe did actually exist but beyond that have very little information about other than tantalizing “facts” gleaned from the internet and Wikipedia. Hell, I’m not even sure if the picture above is from Space Command, because the site it was attached to was inaccessible while I was writing this.
Continue reading “Space Command (1954)”
You can’t ask Alice anything anymore…
Although I will usually be reviewing Shatner appearances in chronological order, an exception is made in this case for Go Ask Alice to celebrate the launch of the website. This will probably be the only time I break my chronological rule. Probably.
In 1971, Go Ask Alice, a young girl’s real life diary was published. This anonymous girl (the title is not, as is frequently thought, the diarist’s name but is instead a line from a 1967 Jefferson Airplane song, “White Rabbit”, a thinly veiled drug song about Alice In Wonderland) detailed in the diary her addiction to drugs starting at the age of 15. This addiction soon spiraled out of control and led to her running away from home, becoming a prostitute, and eventually dying of a drug overdose at 17. The book was a sensation, read by a generation of kids and their parents alike and often read in schools for its anti-drug message.
In January 1973, this diary was made into a television movie and shown as part of ABC’s very popular “Movie of the Week” series. The film starred Jamie Smith-Jackson as the now-titular Alice (it was just easier to name the girl Alice for the movie, which both causes and alleviates confusion depending on how you want to look at it) and William Shatner as her oblivious father. This TV movie helped to solidify and magnify the success of the book, reaching an ever-wider audience of parents, teachers and kids with its harrowing true story of teen drug addiction.
Several friends of mine, who could give a shit about Shatner, knew exactly what I was talking about when I mentioned Go Ask Alice the TV movie. They had vivid memories of watching the film in the 1970’s and early 80’s, as it was often re-aired to good ratings and shown in high schools as a cautionary tale. At the beginning of the film, the following text is shown:
This motion picture is based on the authentic diary of a 15 year old American girl. The only alterations have been those necessitated by considerations of length and acceptability for family viewing.
In the immortal words of Simon & Garfunkel, “Hello bullshit, my old friend.”
Continue reading “Go Ask Alice (01/24/1973)”
