Line #8 Creator/GeneRoddenberry


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5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gene_roddenberry.jpg]]
6	''[[caption-width-right:350:The strength of a civilization is not measured by its ability to fight wars, but rather by its ability to prevent them.]]''
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8	->''"During his speech he said something like, 'One day we'll be able to go out, get any movie we want, put it in our television and watch it at will.' I remember thinking, 'My God, how does he know these things?'"''
9	-->-- '''Creator/RaphaelSbarge'''
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11	Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry (August 19, 1921 - October 24, 1991), aka [[FanNickname "The Great Bird of the Galaxy"]], was a [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks USAAF bomber pilot]], ex-cop, freelance scriptwriter, and creator of possibly the single most influential franchise in the history of television, ''Franchise/StarTrek''.
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13	Roddenberry had intended to be a commercial pilot after WWII and even spent some time as a co-pilot with Pan-Am until 1947, when a fire on the ''Eclipse'' resulted in the Clipper crashing in the Syrian desert, killing fourteen people; Roddenberry, the only surviving crew member, aided in the rescue of the 19 survivors before retiring from his job the following year. Upon discovering television, Roddenberry correctly intuited that the new medium would be in need of writers. Already a published author of stories and poetry, he decided to change careers and enter into television writing.
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15	At a friend's suggestion he joined the Los Angeles Police Department to gather experience and perspectives of which he could make use. At the same time, ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'' creator Creator/JackWebb was instituting a policy of buying stories from LAPD officers to be turned into scripts. Roddenberry began writing his fellow officers' accounts into more polished treatments in exchange for half the money paid to the officer. While his treatments weren't written in screenplay form, Roddenberry learned a lot about the process. By the time he left the LAPD he had successfully sold scripts to many of the dramatic shows of the period, including ''Mr. District Attorney'' (to which he made his first script sale, in 1953), ''Gruen Guild Playhouse'', ''Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre'', ''The Kaiser Aluminum Hour'', ''The Naked City'' and ''Chevron Hall of Stars'' (where he sold his first science fiction script, in 1956).
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17	He later became a regular writer for both ''West Point'' and ''Series/HaveGunWillTravel'', winning a Writers' Guild Award for an episode he penned for the latter show. [[note]] While he regularly claimed he had been the show's head writer, it didn't actually have one - as one of its producers (and a friend of Roddenberry's) Don Ingalls stated, "If anyone was the head writer, it was the story editor."[[/note]] While continuing to write freelance for other shows, Roddenberry moved into production, creating and producing the Marine Corps series ''The Lieutenant''. And after ''The Lieutenant'' came the creation that would carry him for most of the rest of his life: ''Franchise/StarTrek''.
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19	Between the end of the original ''Star Trek'' and the first of the ''Star Trek'' movies, Roddenberry produced a number of films and television pilots, including the 1971 theatrical release ''Film/PrettyMaidsAllInARow'', ''Genesis II'' (1973) and ''The Questor Tapes'' (1974).
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21	After 1979 and ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'', virtually all of Roddenberry's creative energies were applied to ''Franchise/StarTrek''. Between all the movies, TV series, and video games, he held a wide variety of posts, but until his death in 1991 he was still the final creative authority for the Trek universe, and known to fans as "The Great Bird of the Galaxy". During this time, presumably, he also developed the concepts that would later reach television audiences as ''Series/EarthFinalConflict'' (in 1997) and ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' (in 2000). These were shepherded into existence by his by-then-widow, Creator/MajelBarrett, who was also deeply influential in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' and contributed to every incarnation of the franchise until ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery''.
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23	Gene was a well-respected man, but not always well-liked. In many ways, his life and career reflects that of his British counterpart, Creator/TerryNation -- except with even more stories of outlandish and self-destructive behavior. He tomcatted around Paramount Studios; he screwed writers and composers out of their royalties; most importantly, Gene was stubbornly convinced that he always knew what was best for ''Franchise/StarTrek'' -- which, after all, he had created -- and had a tendency toward the autocratic when it came to his staff. This uncompromising attitude led to [[CreativeDifferences tremendous flareups]] between him and Paramount, which clinched [[GodDoesNotOwnThisWorld his removal from the Producer's chair]] after ''The Motion Picture''. While he still held creative freedom over ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', Gene's recreational drug cocktails did his brain no good, and his health was in serious decline; by the end of the first season he had managed to alienate almost all long-time creative partners, including famed original series writers D.C. Fontana and David Gerrold (one ex-colleague told Creator/HarlanEllison the reason Roddenberry was cremated was so nobody could piss on his grave). In general, though, many others regarded him as a friendly GentleGiant of a man who had a remarkable and optimistic vision of the future.
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25	He was married to Majel Barrett from 1969 until his death in 1991. They had one son, Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry, Jr., who has taken up the mantle of an Executive Producer in various more recent entries into the Star Trek franchise.
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27	'''Industry Positions:'''\
28	Member of the Writers Guild Executive Council\
29	Governor of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences\
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31	'''Honors:'''\
32	Doctor of Humane Letters from Emerson College in Boston, Mass.\
33	Doctor of Literature from Union College in Los Angeles\
34	Doctor of Science from Clarkson College in Potsdam, New York\
35	(All honorary degrees)
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37	First writer/producer to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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39	----
40	!!Related tropes:
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42	* AuthorUsurpation: ''Star Trek'' has overshadowed all of his other works.
43	* BurialInSpace: After his death, Roddenberry wanted to be launched into space. Roddenberry's ashes were part of the payload of the ''Peregrine'' Moon lander in 2024--though due to a fuel leak on the way to the moon, the lander was set off course and burned up over the Pacific Ocean on January 18.
44	* HeAlsoDid: In addition to being the creator and a writer of the most progressive science fiction show of its time, Roddenberry also produced and wrote ''Film/PrettyMaidsAllInARow'', a 1971 BlackComedy starring Rock Hudson as a football coach who beds and murders various female students.
45	* HumansAreSpecial: His idealism regarding human potential is so legendary at this point that "Roddenberry Idealism" is an actual term used to describe series that paint humanity as having/being capable of achieving emotional and philosophical greatness to the point that children will instantly accept the death of a parent without shedding a tear in grief. This famously caused some considerable conflict with films producer Harve Bennett and writer-director Creator/NicholasMeyer: Bennett felt that Gene had forgotten that ''TOS'' had its fair share of conflict and violence, while Meyer summed it up thusly:
46	-->"He was a utopian, he believed in the perfectibility of man. I don’t."
47	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: While Roddenberry was known to be a lecher with substance abuse problems, and briefly became a HeManWomanHater following a spectacularly messy divorce in 1968, most sources indicate that he did genuinely strive to do better as difficult as it may have been for him personally.
48	* KickedUpstairs: Although he continued to provide feedback and guidance to the writers and producers until his death, the studio ultimately removed him from any direct control over the franchise after the tepid reception to ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'', handing such authority to Harve Bennett for the rest of the ''TOS'' films. His official title became "Executive Consultant," but he retained no real power over the direction of the series until the first two seasons of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' (which he didn't actually want to make, but was manipulated into by his lawyer, Leonard Maizlish).
49	* MoneyDearBoy: He was rather infamous for finding every little way possible to pocket some extra money from ''Star Trek'', from writing lyrics for the main theme so he could get [[NominalCoauthor co-composer credit]] to starting his own memorabilia company then writing a scene of Spock exalting [[TheMerch a Vulcan symbol, IDIC, that was easily made into a pin or necklace]].
50	* NominalCoauthor: He wrote lyrics to the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' ThemeTune, [[ForgottenThemeTuneLyrics never used on the show, and never intended to be used on the show]], so he could lay claim to some of the royalties. The tune's composer, Alexander Courage, was new to contract law at the time and signed away his right to not have lyrics. Needless to say, Courage was ''not'' happy, and never forgave him.
51	* RuleThirtyFourCreatorReactions: He found the whole thing to be ''hilarious.'' Pre-Internet, where FanworkBan was the norm, he famously told his lawyers to chill because there was no way some mimeographed K/S slash zine would be mistaken for official merch and [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity the notoriety was free advertising]]. ''Star Trek'' became one of the few fandoms where one could more or less operate openly, which is why so many FanficTropes can be traced back to Star Trek in some form.
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Context Creator / GeneRoddenberry