Berman wasn’t the one writing or directing, he was the executive producer. which means he also wasn’t producing, he was the one who signed off on other people’s work. Read: he vetoed a lot of good ideas out of fear it would anger the studio. As progressive and intelligent as Star Trek was, he kept it from being so much better.
The writers and the lower producers did what they could. Sometimes sneaking around behind his back to make sure something was shown or said.
For example, Roddenberry wanted an LGBT character as far back as TOS, but it got vetoed by Berman. That would have been incredible for 1960.
I think he also did it when Frakes wanted the non-binary alien he flirted with in one episode to have a male actor instead of a female one, but that also got vetoed.
This comment confused me because Berman didn’t work on Star Trek until The Next Generation. He couldn’t have vetoed anything on the Original Series.
The main source of pushback during the 60s was the NBC executives (despite Lucille Ball and her DesiLu production company championing the series). Star Trek was constantly threatened with cancellation, then moved to a graveyard time slot for season 3, then was finally cancelled due to “ratings.”
Idk much about him, but I keep reading here and there that he was terrible. How did he manage to write Star Trek episodes if he was those things?
People contain multitudes.
Berman wasn’t the one writing or directing, he was the executive producer. which means he also wasn’t producing, he was the one who signed off on other people’s work. Read: he vetoed a lot of good ideas out of fear it would anger the studio. As progressive and intelligent as Star Trek was, he kept it from being so much better.
The writers and the lower producers did what they could. Sometimes sneaking around behind his back to make sure something was shown or said.
For example, Roddenberry wanted an LGBT character as far back as TOS, but it got vetoed by Berman. That would have been incredible for 1960.
I think he also did it when Frakes wanted the non-binary alien he flirted with in one episode to have a male actor instead of a female one, but that also got vetoed.
This comment confused me because Berman didn’t work on Star Trek until The Next Generation. He couldn’t have vetoed anything on the Original Series.
The main source of pushback during the 60s was the NBC executives (despite Lucille Ball and her DesiLu production company championing the series). Star Trek was constantly threatened with cancellation, then moved to a graveyard time slot for season 3, then was finally cancelled due to “ratings.”