William Shatner - The Lost Years (1969-1979)

you know ladies and gentlemen we talked about a previous podcast the early years of William Shatner how his efforts in Stratford and in Us Broadway stage and uh different jobs South of his home country of Canada really uh allowed him to break through but what happened to William shner after Star Trek ended we're going to talk about that a little bit and it's kind of kind of freaky although we returned turn to the Captain Kirk role the animated series The mbu award-winning animated series uh in the mid '70s which ran for 22 SE 22 Episodes over two seasons it was kind of rough going for a while now early 70s in the immediate after bat the cancellation of Star Trek in 69 Shatner experienced difficulty in finding employment having become somewhat Typecast as the bombastic James siberius Kirk uh you know he could have went the porn to do uh do green chicks but it was no green porn at the time with very little money and few acting prospects he lost his home and his was for time so poor that he was reduced living in a truck bed camper in a San Fernando Valley which is talked about where he was meeting fans uh while living in a van down in a river uh and it was kind of interesting because he could have went back to Canada and made big money in the growing Canadian TV movie industry but he didn't he refers to as part of his life life is that period a humbling time during which he would take an OD job including small party appearances in order to support her his family now shat filmwork in his phase of his career was limited to such b movies as Roger corman's big bad mama in 1974 the horror film The Devil's reign in 75 the very underrated Kingdom of the spiders in 77 and a myriad of other roles he was also in the real miniseries in Canada on television he made a critically praised appearance as a prosecutor in a 71 PBS anotation of s Levitz play the Anderson trial it was also seen in major parts in movies to people in the horror 37,000 feet he had a starring role too in the western themed Secret agrian Series bar Barber Co during 75 and 76 and appeared as a guest of the week in many popular shows of that decade including Columbo Ironside Kung Fu M impossible the rookies and a $6 Million Man and for some reason ladies and gentlemen he didn't appear at any of the airport movies you would think Shatner as a as a mad bomber would be a typ cast but you know it is what it is now one of the special skills that Shatner was able to offer casting directors was an expertise in a martial art art he was taught American kenp Karate but a black belt Tom bleer who had in turn been trained by the F founder of American Kenpo Ed Parker now to supplicate M's income from acting he played himself as a celebrity guest and a multitude of TV game shows among them beat the clock celebrity bowling the Hollywood Squares Match Game tattle tales and Mike Stokey stmp the Stars his k v in the genre included several visits for $10,000 pyramid and his more generous sequels shows in which contestants attempted to guess a word or phrase with the help of hints from a famous partner shatter's contribution to the pyramid series included a weeklong matchup that pitted him against letter Nemo in event called uh k versus Spock in a 1977 episode he perpetrated a blunder that's been preserved on YouTube at the CL climax of the show attempting to guide his part with the phrase things that are blessed he bured out the word blessed instead of as he intended citing the Virgin Mary his mistake meant that the contestant paired with him was automatically disqualified for receiving what would have been a prize of $20,000 Shatner was so furious at himself or his error that he leapt out of his chair picked it up and threw it out the show's iconic Winter Circle during an archive American TV interview Richard Dawson disclosed that when Mark Goodson was considering whom to employ as a host of The Family Feud he would have chosen shatter but had not been intimidated to awarding the position of Dawson from a threat from Dawson's agent basically said if you don't give me Family Feud I'll up the match game but shatter well Dawson was kind of playing Richard shatter because he was kissing everybody now advertising agencies also played a part in helping a shatter tr's poll Kirk doldrums among the TV commercials for which he was hired were spots promoting uh General Motors old SM brand promis margarine which was pared in skit the bisc Bas superm chain superv value and a equivalent La Blas yes William shatter worked for the wests Kane viewers have became famar with the former hero Starfleet reassuring that had L Blas or did the prices right but by gosh the price is right now after Star Trek was cancelled it acquired a cult following among people watching syndicated reruns of the series and Captain Kirk became a cultural icon I don't think he was getting much in syndication fans of the show so-called trekkies and trekers began organizing conventions where he could meet L mining enthusiasts buy Star Trek merchandise enjoy question answer sessions with the members of the shows regular and supporting gas many of the actors who AC Creed the Enterprise became frequent gasi of tra included now in the mid '70s noting the growing appetite for Star Trek Perot began pre-produced the sequel show Star Trek phase 2 in which she planned to present new younger actors alongside the stars in the original series of course it didn't work out but this led to the Star Trek the myad of Star Trek sequels and of course TJ hooker but uh his period after uh Star Trek was quite interesting ladies and gentlemen because uh no no one can can understand what might happen until it happens and we're going to go over some of the roles he did after Star Trek and if you can remember them you're better than me because I uh uh I was wondering again why he he didn't really show up the CBC and you know H his own um shows on there because that's where Leslie neelon got his start that's where uh Lauren Green got his start James Duan he's coworker uh with Star Trek and uh you know it's it's it's it's kind of weird how it works ladies and gentlemen because uh you never know where you going to end up we know leard Leonard Nemo showed up on Night Gallery as a director and actor he showed up on Mission Impossible didn't like it uh very much but uh you know it is it is what it is so we're going to look at the the different roles he was part of before Star Trek uh and this I have to include this one the kidnapping of the president of 1980 disaster in the coast lineer 1979 of course the real movie Crash the original TV movie Little Women the miniseries the third Walker the bastard TV series how to West was W TV series 2 episode of course the William sh music video for Rocket Man the Oregon Trail land and no return Kingdom of the spiders test testimony of two men the miniseries Columbo for one episode the T level a whale of a tale barbery Co for 14 episodes The Devil terrain a very underrated movie you can find it perilous voy voyages the lives of Benjamin Franklin the miniseries the rookies policewoman Amy Apprentice police story Star Trek the Animated Series police surgeon he played two episodes Kodiak Petrelli the collaborators Kung Fu uh if you can find the episode is it's quite a performance seeing kerine and chat of course big bad mama he onon four episodes of ironide playing numerous characters the $6 Million Man the very underrated magician impulse pray for the wild cats Indi indict and convict pioneer woman with Joanne pett manx a h 37,000 ft Barney B Jones goass Alice incident on dark Street the Bold ones and new doctors nor Corin presents Marcus WBY on Marshall coun Law two episodes Mission Impossible two episodes Hawaii 5 at six cents the hounded of Baskervilles the people now with the six cents of course people it was in a Night Gallery package a lot of people thought shner was on Night Gallery he wasn't so the people Cades County menad law vanished the name of the game the FBI Swing Out swed land the Anderson trial Medical Center par Paris 7,000 Soul Survivor uh he was two episodes of Virginians and of course Star Trek and he was also in the movie The esorts of happy chance he uh was one episode of CBS Playhouse in ' 69 uh White kamanche off to see the wizard Insight uh and gun smoke and of course let's not talk about iubus uh movie crappy heavy so William shatter was always a was a working actor like any Canadian actor you don't stop working so he really didn't disappear after Star Trek he just basically was in the reads waiting for Roddenberry to to go everybody in the big screen uh is he been typ cast as Kirk no but the thing is has he been typ cast as William Shater yes he's the best William Shatner actor out there he is William Shatner so there's other people that act like William Shatner and you know you are Don Johnson and people like that like Don Johnson and different actors the Shatner you know I am the star and you're buying me and people are in on joke William Shatner if anything I don't even consider him an actor I consider him William shat he's playing himself so how can you be actor if you're playing yourself he will be the first 100y old actor in Hollywood that's has a loss he's buy uh besides of of course that lady actually come to think of it her hero the guy that used to be on S elsewhere was he 100 when he act was still acting possibly but it' be the first Canadian actor be 100 years old and be an active actor I think that's happening so that's the story of William shatter postar Trek and prear Trek that makes any sense if you like what you're doing here with our Star Trek podcast let us know with a like comment subscribe or share bye