In 1966, veteran film and television actor William Shatner deigned to take a role on a network Science Fiction program called “Star Trek”.
In only seven years The Shat would find himself unemployed, divorced, paying unyielding alimony and living on Tuna Salad (or was it fruit, I can’t find his autobiography right now). Desperate, the ex-Brothers Karamazov star made some extra cash reprising his iconic role, now made famous through syndication, as a two dimensional Hanna-Barbera cartoon.
In Seven Years, Bill would have weathered such disasters as Kingdom of the Spiders and Big Bad Mama. As well as the ill-fated television show Barbary Coast, which found the venerable performer donning costumes and going undercover to…..as IMDB says: “A government agent and a casino owner in San Francisco join together to expose an extortion scheme cooked up by a Confederate Army officer.” Star Trek the motion picture was just behind him and Hooker was 2 years away, but Bill tried his hand at adult themed IMPORTANT films like The Kidnapping of the President:
In Only Seven Years, Mr. Shatner was sitting pretty. Star Trek 4 was a monster hit, rakin in over 100 million, T.J. Hooker had just ended a strong 4 year run on network television. Seems like everything was rosy for our hero. And the toupees just keep getting better!
1994 was a watershed year for our hero. The TekWar books were behind him, raking in more dough, as novels and a syndicated television show. His equestrian life was in full blossom. He divorced Marci (his costar in those Promise Margarine commercials) and he died. Well, the legend he created. Captain Kirk was killed in the first Next Generation movie, Star Trek Generations. In a wholly uninteresting, defeated death scene, so very unlike Spock’s death in Wrath of Khan, The Shat was ready to move on. MTV appearances were on his docket, self parody, comedic performances on the horizon, Shat was settling into his latter days well. His mid-60’s showed no sign of slowing him down.
In only seven years, Shatner would not disappoint his legions of fans, taking whatever he could find, like Osmosis Jones and American Psycho 2. He would prove that Star Trek 5 was no fluke as he would direct one of the worst direct to video crapfests, Groom Lake. But, he was really just setting us up. Because just 7 years after once again relegated to Star Trek related projects (video games this time) Bill would turn around and win the first of 2 emmys for his hysterical portrayal of Denny Crane on The Practice. Between himand James Spader’s turn as Alan Shore, ABC would spin them off to Boston Legal, handing The Shat ANOTHER emmy, and his fourth nomination the next year.
At 76 years old we can only wonder what lies in store for Bill in ’08.
Denny Crane is the shiznit and Bill Shatner is the best, Boston Legal is my fave show and Shatner is the comedic genius glue that holds the show together. Spader is awesome also but no Bill, no show.
Man, I love Barbary Coast when I was a kid. I still have the theme somewhere.
I remember an episode of the Twilight Zone that Shat was in. He could really play a psycho. Please don’t ever let him or Leonard Nimoy sing.
This most likely has been around the ‘Net and back, but I fondly remember William Shatner’s commercials for WebTV, which contained “Shat Chat”.
Maybe “Shat” is a common nickname for him, but it always makes me think of what I left in the toilet bowl after relaxing after a large meal.
I always fantasized some IT guy being extremely irritated by Bill, and suggesting “Shat Chat” as a subversive title. It’s wonderful that it made it into a commercial.
Bill prolly didn’t even get it. Hell, he can’t pronounce “sabotage” after all.