On Sunday March 12, 2006 at 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT, Bill Shatner will host a special documentary on The History Channel entitled “How William Shatner Changed the World.”
The program will take a serious look, along with Bill’s legendary wit, at how scientists are achieving, in the real world of fact, the future as envisioned by STAR TREK and its revolutionary creator Gene Roddenberry.
William Shatner didn’t change the world and if one to go with this logic than Gene Rodenberry did. Oh and by the way, all the scientists that created our modern marvells did help, alittle more than some actor did. William Shatner is just an actor and like all actors who must have thier say in politics should just shut up an ACT.
Your point is an excellent one and worth taking, but in defense of the studio heads, if your pitch to a common, basically non-scientific audience was “How Luigi Galvani Changed the World” or “How John Ray Changed the World,” it would be guaranteed not to get an audience at all.
If you pitched “How Gene Roddenberry Changed The World” then you and I and every other scifi geek on the planet would tune in, but in the ratings game that doesn’t quite make it.
But, if you pitch it “How William Shatner Changed the World” and make him your host as well, you have a much better chance of not only getting the scientific geeks and scifi fans to watch, but everyone else who has ever watched TJ Hooker, Boston Legal, listened to musical free-style poetry, used Priceline.com, loves horses or bought margarine might tune in as well. Using the name William Shatner in any pitch is a guaranteed viewer share.
Then, just as the program did, the real science and those real scientists and technologists behind it, along with Gene Roddenberry’s imagination and influence on those scientific genius’ can be brought to that larger audience raising their scientific awareness just a smidge while entertaining them for 2-hrs too.
great reply mtebes. great reply. I watched it, until the Sopranos started. It was funny. I laughed and enjoyed what I saw. It is going to air again on the 16th. I’ll get to see the rest that I missed.
Can someone tell me the names of the older black and white sci-fi movie clips they showed on the program “How William Shatner Changed the World”? I am a fan of the old sci-fi flicks, and would love to see some of those! Thanks!!
Does anyone know where I can get a copy of the program? Checked online, ebay and with History Channel, but couldn’t find anything.
Thanks!
ya I would love to knwo where to get a copy as well
Merriam-Webster Online defines the adjective “tongue-in-cheek” as follows: “characterized by insincerity, irony, or whimsical exaggeration.”
*Now* watch the documentary, mtebers.