Re: In Defense of Fred Freiberger

On Mon, 6 May 2024 14:46:02 -0700
anim8rfsk <anim8rfsk@cox.net> wrote:

Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net> wrote:

Last week I created a video claiming that Fred Freiberger was
responsible for the demise of such shows as "Star Trek", "Space
1999", "The Six Million Dollar Man" and others, but was he? We'll
re-examine that today!
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqn_DJdZQGw 

 
Man was an incompetent menace.
 

I recently saw a quote from Shatner where he defended Freiberger,
saying he did the best he could with a severely reduced budget.

Maybe Shatner wrote the IMDB article on Freiberger which says:

===========================================================
Because of a planned European vacation, he then spurned an offer by
Gene Roddenberry to produce Star Trek (1966) from the onset. However,
in 1968, he took up the option to produce the show in its final season.
By then, severe budgetary cuts (which resulted in many 'bottle show'
episodes and lower quality scripts), the exodus of top creative talent
and the take-over of Desilu by Paramount all had detrimental effects on
a series which (despite its ever-loyal following) had not seen an
increase in ratings since season one. Freiberger often butted heads
with writers and directors and was criticised for overemphasizing
action at the expense of character development. In the end, many people
laid blame for the cancellation of "Star Trek" firmly at Freiberger's
feet. Not everybody, including William Shatner and Robert H. Justman,
agreed. Moreover, NBC's unreasonable re-slotting of "Star Trek" to the
Friday 'hour of death' (10 P.M.) was definitely a chief contributing
factor to the show's demise.

After "Star Trek", Freiberger managed to get Space: 1999 (1975) to be
picked up for a second season. He created new characters (dashing Tony
Verdeschi and shape-shifting Maya, played by Catherine Schell) in an
effort to boost ratings. He also penned three episodes himself under
nom de plume Charles Woodgrove. However, the series did not survive and
Freiberger's subsequent unhappy association with the final season of
The Six Million Dollar Man (1974) put him again in the public mind as a
scapegoat, earning him in some quarters the unkind, and certainly
undeserved sobriquet 'the series killer'.

The first interracial kiss on U.S. television (between Kirk and Uhura
in the episode "Plato's Stepchildren") took place on his watch, though
the praise went to Roddenberry who was not in any way associated with
the episode.
===========================================================

Let me stress that *I* am not taking sides here! I'm just providing a
contrary view which may or may not be reasonable.

--
Rhino