History Film / ChaosOnTheBridge

* AmoralAttorney: Leonard Maizlish is described as being this. Hired to enforce Roddenberry's vision (so he could avoid being screwed over by Paramount again as he had been done on the Original Series), he went so far as to rewrite scripts behind the writers' backs (which was a violation of WGA rules). By the second season, he was banned from the studio, but he somehow managed to sneak back in. Roddenberry's personal assistant Susan Sackett describes him as an "unsavoury character".

* AmoralAttorney: Leonard Maizlish is described as being this. Hired to enforce Roddenberry's vision (due to avoid being screwed over by Paramount again as he had been done on the Original Series), he went so far as to rewrite scripts behind the writers' backs (which was a violation of WGA rules). By the second season, he was banned from the studio, but he somehow managed to sneak back in. Roddenberry's personal assistant Susan Sackett describes him as an "unsavoury character".

** David Gerrold thought to himself upon seeing him by an open window:

!!Tropes:

It was a time marked by frequent creative clashes and struggle for control over the show's direction between ''Franchise/StarTrek''[='s=] creator Creator/GeneRoddenberry, Roddenberry's infamous lawyer Leonard Maizlish, writer/producer Maurice Hurley and the general writing team, and Paramount Studios. At the receiving end of all this was the cast of the show, who at times had to try their damnest to ride off the storm.

* AmoralAttorney: Leonard Maizlish is described as being this. Hired to enforce Roddenberry's vision (due to avoid being screwed over by Paramount again as he had been done on the Original Series), he went so far as to rewrite scripts behind the writers' backs (which was a violation of WGA rules). By the second season, he was banned from the studio, but he somehow managed to sneak back in. Roddenberry's personal assistant Susan Sacker describes him as an "unsavoury character".

* ExecutiveMeddling: [[invoked]] A frequent frustration discussed by members of the writing team for the first and the second season, was that both Roddenberry, Maizlish, and Hurley would often interfere with their work. Roddenberry would issue the occasional ExecutiveVeto, Hurley was employed to enforce Roddenberry' vision, and Maizlish was infamous for at times straight up sneaking into offices and stealing scripts, both complete and in-complete, and rewriting them -- in blatant violation of the Screenwriter's Guild's rules -- according to what he claimed was Roddenberry's wishes.

''Chaos on the Bridge'' is a 2014 documentary, written, directed and hosted by Creator/WilliamShatner, which takes a look at the rather difficult rebirth of the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' Franchise on TV during the late 1980s, after the silver screen success of ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''. It does this by way of exploring [[TroubledProduction the turbulent production and writing issues]] during the first two and a half seasons of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', during the years of 1986-88, before the show finally managed to [[GrowingTheBeard probably find its footing]] with its third season.

''Chaos on the Bridge'' is a 2014 documentary, written, directed and hosted by Creator/WilliamShatner, which takes a look at the rather difficult rebirth of the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' Franchise on TV during the late 1980s, after the silver screen success of ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''. It does this by way of exploring the [[TroubledProduction the turbulent production and writing issues]] during the first two and a half seasons of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', during the years of 1986-88, before the show finally managed to [[GrowingTheBeard probably find its footing]] with its third season.

* KingOnHisDeathbed: Gene Roddenberry was not in his best health when production on ''The Next Generation'' started, and he steady deteriorated both mentally and physically as the show went on, eventually dying during the production of Season 5. The film openly questions at several points how much control Roddenberry actually had over some the more controversial creative decisions in the early seasons, before his bad health lead to him getting KickedUpstairs, and how much it of was due to the people around him taking advantage of his weakening condition and trying to assert creative control with the excuse that they were only trying to enforcing his wishes.

''Chaos on the Bridge'' is a 2014 documentary, written, directed and hosted by Creator/WilliamShatner, which takes a look at the rather difficult rebirth of the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' Franchise on TV during the late 1980s, after the silver screen success of ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''. It does this by way of exploring the [[TroubledProduction the turbulent production and writing issues]] during the first two and a half seasons of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', during the years of 1986-88, before the show finally managed to [[GrowTheBeard probably find its footing]] with its third season.

-->David, go do it, go push that bastard out of the window, they'll give you a medal!

It was a time marked by frequent creative clashes and struggle for control over the show's direction between ''Franchise/StarTrek''[='s=] creator Creator/GeneRoddenberry, Roddenberry's infamous lawyer Leonard Maizlish, writer/producer Maurice Hurley and the general writing team, and Paramount Studios. At the receiving end of all this was the cast of the show, who had times had to try their damnest to ride off the storm.

It was a time marked by frequent creative clashes and struggle for control over the show's direction between ''Franchise/StarTrek''[='s=] creator, Creator/GeneRoddenberry, Roddenberry's infamous lawyer, Leonard Maizlish, writer/producer, Maurice Hurley, the general writing team, and Paramount Studios. At the receiving end of all this was the cast of the show, who had times had to try their damnest to ride off the storm.

''Chaos on the Bridge'' is a 2014 documentary, written, directed and hosted by Creator/WilliamShatner, which takes a look at the rather difficult rebirth of the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' Franchise on TV during the late 1980s, after the silver screen success of Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome. It does this by way of exploring the [[TroubledProduction the turbulent production and writing issues]] during the first two and a half seasons of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', during the years of 1986-88, before the show finally managed to [[GrowTheBeard probably find its footing]] with its third season.

''Chaos on the Bridge'' is a 2014 documentary hosted by Creator/WilliamShatner, which takes a look at the rather difficult rebirth of the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' Franchise on TV during the late 1980s, after the silver screen success of Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome. It does this by way of exploring the [[TroubledProduction the turbulent production and writing issues]] during the first two and a half seasons of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', during the years of 1986-88, before the show finally managed to [[GrowTheBeard probably find its footing]] with its third season.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Creator/PatrickStewart relates the story of how his agent predicted that ''The Next Generation'' probably wouldn't last for much more than a season.

* TroubledProduction: [[invoked]] The subject of the documentary is the early seasons of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''.