A Brief History
Gene Roddenberry is a famous writer and film and tv producer. He created and began serving as the executive producer of one popular science-fiction television series Star Trek (1966–68), which later made it into a Hollywood movie series and follow-up series.
On August 19, 1921, Eugene Wesley Roddenberry was born in El Paso, Texas. The family shifted to Los Angeles in 1923, as Gene’s father passed the Civil Service qualification and accepted a commission as a police officer there. During his childhood, Roddenberry was an avid reader, with particular interests in pulp magazines and cherished stories, such as those of John Carter of Mars, Tarzan, and the Skylark series by E. E. Smith.
He is known as the “great bird of the galaxy.” He died in Santa Monica, California, on October 24, 1991.
Gene Roddenberry’s cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest. After his death, NASA launched some of his remains into space as part of a mission.
Roddenberry briefly attended Los Angeles City College, serviced B-17 bombers during World War II, and worked as a pilot (1945-49) and a sergeant in the Los Angeles police force (1949-53). He then worked as a television writer, creating scripts for Have Gun, Dragnet, Will Travel, Highway Patrol, and Dr. Kildare
In September 1964, Gene Roddenberry began to promote the thought of Star Trek to producers of television series. Still, the first series did not appear on the general public broadcasting network till September 8, 1966. The series became one of the popular Gene Roddenberry TV shows.
The Star Trek series in order had a fan group known as the “Trekkies.” Despite repeated threats, this large fan group kept the series going till September 2, 1969.
Gene created Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987, and the series aired 178 episodes over seven seasons. Star Trek continues to be one of the most profitable Gene Roddenberry TV shows of all time, its episodes airing in dozens of countries and dozens of versions of their language across the world years after it first premiered.
In 1965, Roddenberry produced two other pilots for Desilu before working on the second pilot for Star Trek: The Long Hunt of April Savage, a western created by Sam Rolfe starring Robert Lansing, with Roddenberry writing and co-writing Police Story, with Fred Coe directing.
Despite receiving little attention after three seasons owing to relatively poor ratings, the series dropped. As repeats continued to show, Star Trek’s fan following (Trekkies) grew as rapidly as the tribbles, the characters at the focus of one of the series’ most adored episodes.
The series quickly became a hit, and it is now one of the most well-known science-fiction movies in history.
Through this series, Mr. Roddenberry took the viewers on a trip into space via Starship, where they got to explore new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and boldly go on where no man has ever gone before.
Gene Roddenberry’s Net Worth
Gene Roddenberry made his estimated $500 million fortune from his creations and many spin-offs. Gene Roddenberry’s Net Worth is mainly from creating the Star Trek film series and other television programs.
Gene RoddenberryNet Worth after inflation includes the expected value of the Star Trek franchise’s future rights, intellectual property, and merchandising, which was worth billions of dollars and box office profits.
The liquid estate, his real estate, financial accounts, short-term assets, etc., was worth around $30 million of Gene Roddenberry’s Net Worth. When adjusting for the present inflation rate, this estimate exceeds $60 million.
Between 1942 to 1969, he was married to Eileen-Anita Rexroat. Majel Barrett was his second wife, and they were married until his death. According to his will, the majority of his estate was in the name of Majel Barrett.
While sharing Gene Roddenberry’s Net Worth through a will, he placed an uncommon clause called an in terrorem clause. It provided that those who chose to challenge the clause would lose their inheritance.
It seems that Gene Roddenberry anticipated a dispute over his estate. Therefore, he included the wording of the clause in hopes of avoiding his family from engaging in drawn-out legal conflicts.
However, Los Angeles County’s Supreme Court finally recognized his wife Eileen’s claim to 50% of Gene Roddenberry’s Net Worth. The terrorem clause added in the will, one of his daughters, Dawn, lost $500,000 when challenged the trust.
Star Trek Journey
In 1964, Gene wrote a script for the science-fiction series named Star Trek. He tried to sell the series for several years before signing a three-year contract with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s Desilu Productions. Lucille Ball, the head of Desilu, was unaware of the script due to the complex writing but was involved in making it to shooting.
The crew created a second pilot that introduced most of the characters we know and like today, including Captain Kirk, played by William Shatner. The series’ first premiere was on September 8, 1966.
The initial commitment by NBC was for six-episode episodes, which later expanded to sixteen episodes. After premiering, the show went on air for 79 episodes over three seasons.
The plot takes place in the twenty-third century, and a mysterious spaceship threatens to evaporate the seas and suffocate the atmosphere, posing a threat to the whole Earth.
Admiral Kirk and his fellow crew need to travel back to 1986 San Francisco to restore humanity. They come upon a planet filled with punk, pizza, and exact change buses, unlike anything they’ve ever seen in the galaxy’s furthest reaches. The series was directed by Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, DeForest Kelley, and others.
Star Trek Awards
The Star Trek series was created and launched by the American creator and filmmaker Gene Roddenberry. It originally aired on September 28, 1987, and concluded on May 23, 1994, running for two seasons. The 3rd series in this franchise is the 2nd sequel of Star Trek: The Original Series. It is inspiring for numerous works, comic books, and video games.
It received many awards and recognitions, including nineteen Emmy Awards, two Hugo Awards, five Saturn Awards, and a Peabody Award.
Star Trek was nominated for the Academy Award for “Best Effects, Engineering Effects” three times (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek, and Star Trek Into Darkness), but did not win any of them (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek, and Star Trek Into Darkness), and excelled in the Emmy Award television counterpart.
The first half of the clippings were taken for the Star Trek: Enterprise mirror universe, the opening title sequence of the two-part episode ENT: “In a Mirror, Darkly,” “In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II.”
Six films from the Star Trek franchise get nominated for 15 awards, with Star Trek IV garnering four nominations. Star Trek became the first Star Trek film to receive an Oscar.
Other Work
During his period in the LA police department, Gene Roddenberry became the technical advisor for a new television series adaptation of Mr. District Attorney created under his stage name, “Robert Wesley.”
After retiring from his police service, Gene Roddenberry took over as writer of The West Point Story and wrote ten scripts for the season, about a third of the total episodes. Gene Roddenberry’s TV shows have become so popular over time.
While working for Ziv in 1956, he had an idea for a series set aboard a cruise ship, Hawaii Passage, but he did not help them, as he wanted to have complete creative control and wanted to become a director.
Gene Roddenberry wrote the draft for what he later called Star Trek in 1964. It became a massive success with several spin-offs. After the success of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry went on numerous subsequent projects, all of them failing.
His former Desilu studio head Herb Solow created the screenplay for Roger Vadim’s, tepidly received 1971 MGM film, Pretty Maids, which starred James Doohan, William Campbell, and Dawn Roddenberry in the cast.
During the period 2000 to 2005, Gene Roddenberry Andromeda came, which gets telecasted on the CBS channel. The Gene Roddenberry Andromeda series combined elements of hard science fiction and drama, tackling social and environmental issues, including the abuse of drugs, death, corruption, and criminal politics.
The series was formally titled Gene Roddenberry Andromeda and used to be known as Andromeda. If you are a Space movie lover, you must check out the 50 Best Space Movies.
Wrapping Up
Mr. Roddenberry, who had always thought of himself as a storyteller, wrote the original series and a draft of the plot template for future writers. It included character information, the spaceship and its devices, the 23rd century, and the precepts of great space, where they all went.
The original “Star Trek,” as Mr. Roddenberry explained in an interview, was technologically primitive but designed with high vision and inspiring as it described people and their relationships.
Sticking with the sci-fi theme, Roddenberry worked as a writer/producer for Genesis II, Planet Earth, and The Questor Tapes. On September 4, 1986, Roddenberry became the first writer/producer to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In October 1991, after six weeks of illness, he died. Gene Roddenberry’s cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest.
