#16 "Star Trek: The Next Generation" - Behind The Scenes - Part 1 - a podcast by Bob McCullough & Suzanne Herrera McCullough: Hollywood Film and Television

from 2013-12-04T04:52

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Suzanne starts the episode with a “local’s view” of Oprah Winfrey’s recent

“yard sale” at The Santa Barbara Polo Club just down the road from the

podcast recording studio.

After Bob dodges her questions about “what’s happening with your face?”,

he describes returning to the studio where he was once a “gopher”,

as a writer-producer of Paramount Television’s huge syndicated hit

Star Trek: The Next Generation.

With never-before revealed details of his Rolls-Royce ride and

3-martini lunch with Gene Roddenberry, Bob recalls

the rapid turnover of writers, producers, and executives on ST:TNG,

which became a hugely successful syndicated series hit in spite of

the downward spiral of internal staff and studio politics.

Bob pulls no punches in describing his meetings with members

of the show’s cast, to the point where Suzanne says “What a mess!”

Caught in the middle of what he describes as “Shakespearean complexity”

on the show, Bob reveals the secret of surviving on the staff of

any hit television series.

He then describes his process for writing credible

science fiction in pursuit of the Star Trek vision, and provides

the behind-the-scenes motivation for his script

The Icarus Factor...in which he actually tried to kill off

the captain of The Enterprise!