T.J. Hooker TV Guide article

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The cover of TV Guide from August 14, 1982.

(SALE ALERT! I will sell this TV Guide for $15 plus Priority shipping if you are interested in adding it to your collection! Email me through my blog profile and let me know if you are interested. Once sold, this notice will be removed.)

Snipped from the TV Guide out the week of the premiere.

Premiering on March 13, 1982, "T. J. Hooker" was Shatner's first successful starring role since Star Trek. It's no accident that T. J. is the reverse of J. T., the first two initials of Captain Kirk, as it was intended as an homage to the character and a nod to his many Trek fans.

Below is the two-page-spanning ad for the episode that co-starred Leonard Nimoy, which was aired on Feb. 5th, 1983. Nimoy not only guested in, but also directed the episode, titled "Vengeance is Mine".

I was never actually watched this show more than a time or two, I really only cared about his work as Captain Kirk. But I still collected the pictures and things about any actor on the show whether or not it was directly Trek-related, and it was good to see Bill getting a series again. On the other hand, I do own "Kingdom of the Spiders," "The Devil's Rain" and "Incubus" on DVD because he starred in them, so I suppose I didn't watch "Hooker" mainly because cops shows never did much for me.

And below, more of the self-serving part of this blog, another personal drawing. I know, these matter only to me and no-one else, but they do serve to show my interest and fan efforts, so I post them. This one was done when I was in high school, about the 11th grade, in 1975. I was 16 and living in Ft. Lauderdale, which happily gave me the opportunity to add much to my collection, as more and more Trek-oriented items were coming out. Not all was official; many of the photos and such were unauthorized, and many of the magazines were fan-produced, like the excellent "Trek" and "Enterprise Incidents." I'm telling you, it was a good and exciting time to be a fan living in Florida!

You can see that I was into the Franz Joseph Technical Manual, also!

It was in the same year that videotape came out, and the school's audio-visual department, which naturally I was involved in, acquired a reel-to-reel videotape recorder/player. (I still recall the smell of the videotape!) It was there I made my first videotape of an episode off the air, the second half of "The Menagerie."

Every day for a week, me and some fellow Trek fans would gather in a room off the library and watch that one black-and-white tape. As others saw what we were doing, they joined us, and by the end of the second week we had a packed roomful each lunch period, re-watching that one episode! The fight on Rigel 7 was a popular and exciting scene, as was the laser-cannon assault on the knoll on Talos 4; but the biggest reaction was to the dance by Vina as the Green Orion Slave Girl. Everyone was so into that, cheering, clapping and catcalling! Finally, the library staff made us quit since the crowd was getting too big and noisy. Fun memories.

Since we're talking about "The Menagerie": Above is a clipping (circa 1985 or so) from a video store trade publication, with the Great Bird being presented with the original painting of the beautiful art for "The Cage" poster. I'm fortunate to have a copy of that poster advertising the video release.

Stephen Collins ST:TMP Interview

Star Trek Day: A Flashback to 30 Years Ago!

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Clipped from the Atlanta Journal on Thursday, Dec. 6, 1979.

It was the weekend of the big premiere of the long-awaited Star Trek: The Motion Picture! It was coming out the very next day, Dec. 7th, and the papers were full of items to save. Of course, it would be a full month later before I got to actually see the movie; my stepdad, you recall, was vehemenantly anti-Trek (because I loved it, not because he ever saw it) and he was watching like a hawk to make sure I didn't go see it. I finally went a month later after the heat was off and caught it at a discount theater, after saying I was going by the mall... which I did, I drove right by it on the way!

But not even that could blunt the joy and excitement I felt at the return of the show in movie form, and opportunities abounded for collecting items! Fortunately, I am no longer under such cruel restrictions, and am looking forward to going this Saturday to see the new Trek movie, which has had the kind of excitement not seen since the first movie all those years ago. And the reviews are being much kinder to this one, so we have no doubt that Trek will go on.

Below, since the interview this time was with Stephen Collins, here is a good promo shot of him as Captain Decker. (Since he's wearing that infamous one-piece jumpsuit, be thankful that the picture is only from the waist up.)

(Edited on 10-28-2014: Since the news broke a few weeks ago about the admission that was secretly taped and made public about Stephen's indiscretions toward minors, the comments made by visitors and myself in the comment area below about his "overall decency" now seem misplaced. There is an ongoing investigation, but no charges have been filed yet. This whole situation makes me sad.)

Bonus items: Below, a humorous "newspaper clipping" that was actually from a Mad magazine, from 1977.

Below, a page from a ST coloring book, that came out about 1976 or so. Copy it to your computer and do your own digital coloring, or print it out and let your kids have at it! The art and likenesses were actually pretty good in this series, so I bought them and hid them well, along with my flattened ST:TMP Happy Meal boxes. Most teens would have only had to be worried about hiding a Playboy, right? Not me! A coloring book of ST would have been fuel for a very tense few moments of yelling and berating me for the "childishness" of my hobby, indeed! I think finding a Playboy would have brought him a sigh of relief.

From the other end of the artwork spectrum: below, a lovely painting of Uhura, one of the best I've seen! Source: http://mshindoiart.com/coppermine/displayimage.php?album=2&pos=16

"Let's open hailing frequencies, shugah!"

Ah, Nichelle, your character may be recast, but you can never be replaced, and your beauty never eclipsed by another, nor that red miniskirt filled out better.

Clippings and Cards

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Shatner was ticked that he wasn't allowed to say everyone else's lines in the shot.

Just some odds and ends today, gleaned from the scrapbook and collection cabinets.

See caption above.

Below, a smaller-format card that I got as a premium in something, I don't remember where; I only have a couple. This one is from an alternate take of Kirk's entry onto the bridge in ST:TMP, and frankly one I would have rather seen in the movie.

Kirk's reunion with his old shipmates was made even happier by the tray of breakfast pastries he brought with him.

Below is the first card in the Skybox Star Trek set released in 1993. Keith Birdsong's artwork graced many of them, and the crew portraits are stunning. I'll post more in future entries!

Kirk waxed eloquent about the stars with the beautiful blond passenger he couldn't remember ever having encountered before.

When Kingons Attack!

The Burger King Star Trek campaign is getting underway with the introduction of what may be the funniest promotion ever. The offspring of an "alien encounter" between the Burger King and a Klingon woman (possibly when he showed up one morning in her bed with a breakfast sandwich as he likes to do, but didn't count on the agressiveness of the species), the "Kingons" are here on Earth on a mission to collect all the Star Trek glasses.

The website "Kingon Defense Academy" which has just opened, has a series of hilarious training videos to help earthers learn the tactics of these glass-grabbing aliens: http://www.whenkingonsattack.com/ You have to visit it for a good laugh, I got a real "kick" out of it!

A Starfleet security man demonstrates the weakness of the enemy, involving lots of groin-punching and kicking... which is pretty much the same defense you would use against any human male that attempts to grab your glass.

While it might look like another kind of attack in this screengrab, the Kingon is actually giving the fellow a Warp Five Wedgie, only one of many methods they employ. Others, many of which are known and feared by interplanetary nerds everywhere, are: "Neon Nurple," which involves a painful nipple-twist; "Dozarian Flat Tire," "Gamelan Armburn," "Intergalactic Nerve Pinch," etc.

The Kingons showed up first at the Hollywood premiere of the new Star Trek movie at Chinese Theater on April 30th. The crowd seemed to love them! The trusting, gullible fools, leaving themselves open for attack...

Ingratiating themselves with the fans, it was not yet apparent that their ultimate agenda was to covertly acquire the glasses, which have dilithium incorporated into their molecular structure.

When Kingons Attack... watch your glass!

Enjoy the first in a series of "Kingon" TV ads, which began airing Sunday, May 3rd.

Mike Minor: Illustrating The Future

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1979 was a very exciting year for me and many other Trekkers, with the new movie finally in production. This Starlog cover was the first to feature the new movie, and as the final months crept by it was gratifying to learn that one of the designers on the new film had a history with the TV show as well.

Aug. 7, 1978 Star Trek Report from Starlog

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Scanned from Starlog issue #18 in December of 1978, this article relates the events of the first day of filming on the new movie. Each month Susan Sackett, Gene's assistant, would contribute a column to the magazine keeping fans apprised of the movie's progress, and this insider's view was one of the main ways we Trekkers kept up on the details of how this long-delayed project was coming along month to month.

The photo in the article was too good to pass up using for a captioned humor piece...

Gene tries to convince Bill that he can't pose like that due to the film's "G" rating.

Bonus: Early Mike Minor pre-production painting for the aborted Phase II series before it became refined for ST:TMP.

Below: The crew gets together for the grand opening of the new Star Trek display at the Hollywood Movieland Wax Museum, circa 1978. Sadly, the museum was closed in 2005, and the figures sold off. Read about what happened to the bridge crew here... it's a happy ending with lots of pictures.

Spot the real Bill Shatner and ignore the fact that Nichelle went braless that day.

And finally, below is the first drawing I did of the good captain when I was 15, in 1974. Shatner was always a hard one to get right for some reason, as the many action figure face sculptures will attest.

National Lampoon Magazine's "Detente Trek" comic

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The recent Newsweek issue with the Star Trek cover has an article in it that casts current administration figures in Star Trek roles. But it's been done before: the National Lampoon Magazine ran this political spoof in issue #72, in March 1976. The strip featured the Gold Key Star Trek font and put key figures in the Ford administration in the roles of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Sulu, Chekov and Uhura are still there, though.

This is one gaseous cloud that doesn't smell like honey....

Sadly for the crew, not only are Green Orion enchiladas just as hot and spicy as their women, but the captain can't resist them either.