Shatner Gets With The Program On Oprah [UPDATE: Video]

Today, William Shatner boldly went where he’d never been before, The Oprah Winfrey Show. Shatner was featured as one of Oprah’s ‘TV icons’ series. The show also included Happy Days’ Fonzie, Henry Winkler and soap opera singing sensation Rick Springfield (who was also Zac on the original Battlestar Galactica). No big news (besides seeing Shatner using a cane) and no questions about the new movie, but was still interesting to see Shatner in this environment.

UPDATE: VIDEO of Shat on Oprah

Shat’s got a new hip
The Shatner segment began with a retrospective his characters, from Star Trek to Boston Legal. It is unfortunate that during this video montage, Oprah, who utilizes her show to bring more understanding and compassion, chose to present stereotypical images of Star Trek fans. When Shatner did appear, it was to an enthusiastic audience, although many were surprised to see him walk in with a cane. Shatner would explain during the interview that he had his hip replaced about four weeks prior to the show. Shatner began by discussing wife Elizabeth’s (in attendance) and his fascination with Oprah. He admitted to having her show on his TiVo and keeping issues of Oprah his bathroom, which he mentioned was a compliment.


Shatner and Oprah (you can see the cane on the left)

Shatner: I ‘used to be’ Kirk
Shatner talked briefly about Star Trek and Captain Kirk. He said that he “used to be Captain Kirk,” perhaps an indirect expression of regret about not being in the new film. He also said “I guess I am here because I was Captain Kirk. The celebrity it brought me made everything else possible.” It is interesting to compare Winkler’s very positive feelings towards The Fonz to Shatner’s somewhat lukewarm description of his character.

As is her custom, Oprah gave away a free copy of the first season of the original Star Trek on HD DVD to everyone in the audience. She showed a few scenes of the remastered show, telling the audience about the new visual effects and picture quality.


You get a TOS DVD and you get a TOS DVD and you get a TOS DVD

Shatner’s charity and bio
Shatner though showed his charity mindedness, which is one his most genuine and endearing traits. He explained that after passing his kidney stone, his doctor said “I’ve got it.” Shatner replied, “Give it to me. It’s mine!” He was contacted by a gambling website interested in purchasing the stone for display, and Shatner negotiated a price of $75,000. His friends at Boston Legal donated another $20,000, and Shatner donated $95,000 to Habitat for Humanity. The result? A house was purchased for a family in the New Orleans area.

Shatner also talked about his May 2008 book entitled Up Till Now (see related Trekmovie.com story). The book includes a list of qualities he used to hope for in his wife when he was a younger man. When Oprah asked if he ever met a woman with these qualities, he looked at his wife and affirmed that he did marry the ideal woman.

Shatner returns soon to film more episodes of Boston Legal and begins work on his new talk show very soon.

A short clip of Shatner behind the scenes is available on on Oprah’s Youtube channel:


click to see clip (opens new window…Oprah doesn’t like embeds)

“Up Till Now” is available now for pre-order at Amazon

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TOS-R Given away…..LMFAO!!!

So we learned something new today. Shat had a hip replacement four weeks ago!

Owww!

Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|

bit of a pointless givaway really

I’m genuinely puzzled as to why a gambling website (of all things) would want to purchase William Shatner’s kidney stone “for display.”

I mean, I could see a particularly hardcore fan wanting something so strange, and I could see it taking in a fair piece of change at a charity auction … but I can’t quite wrap my brain around a gambling website “displaying” it (or, since they’re a website, even needing to own it in order to display it … wouldn’t a JPEG of it do)? And the gambling angle … did they make a pair of dice out of it or something?

Truly baffled, but glad to hear of the useful and charitable outcome.

Just saw the Oprah YouTube thingie. Rick Springfield a rock legend? Uh, don’t think so.

Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|

Watched the Shat on Oprah….he seemed in an upbeat and friendly mood! I related to his kidneystone story as I have passed stones twice, once in 1980 and again in 2000……a very painful experience on both occasions!

shatners doing a talk show!!! AWESOME!!!

Of course we all know what “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “Star Trek: The Original Series – Remastered” have in common: they are both distributed by CBS Television Distribution.

Vulcanista, don’t you wish you were Jessie’s girl?

Rick Springfield has aged less well than the other two gentlemen.

Shat was fun, as always. Nice that he’s giving kudos to his wife.

Legend or not, Rick Springfield looks incredibly good at 58.

I’m sure I’m not the first to ask this, but….anyone know when ST remastered will be available on Blue Ray? Is that the $100,000 question? :)

Mongo no watch Oprah. Something scary about her. Mongo not put finger on it but think it have to do with her being fierce in battle. Hope she on my side for end of things.

With discarded insides Shatner buy house for someone? Mongo keep toenail bits for many years. What think can get for them?

Re: #2. The Vulcanista

Or to rephrase that (and this sounds so bizarre if you say it out loud),

“CAPTAIN KIRK had a hip replaced.”

“Jessie’s Girl” wasn’t a bad song, but it hardly qualified him as a “Rock Legend”. Although his fans may disagree.

kg

Hey, they’ve gotta get rid of those HD-DVDs somehow! I just hope Oprah explained the format’s situation to the audience.

Captain’s got a brand new hip!!!!

Re: #1.

Makes me yearn for the good ol’ days of “First!’

kg

#12 – Mongo is evil…. I just choked on my tea and spit it all over the keyboard, lol

Shat need never worry about his legacy, he’ll always be Kirk. Besides Kirk, he’s been on several other TV series, movies, he’s written several novels… I wished I had a fraction of his talents, heh.

I have an autographed pic of Shatner that I got at a convention several years ago, I think I’ll get it re-framed and hang it proudly on my wall. After all that I have read about him on trekmovie.com over the last couple of months, I have a newfound respect for the guy.

Hope she gave away a bunch of Toshiba A3’s to play ’em on too!!

Just watched Oprah..Shatner’s segment anyway. Shat looked terrific. Hope we see him in the film in the alternate timeline as an older “never was killed” Jim Kirk.

After seeing Mike Nesmith rejoin and tour with The Monkees in the 90’s and after seeing Sean Connery returning to the role of Bond in the 80’s, I’ve learned one thing. Never say never.

And those DVD’s are combos and can play on any standard DVD player. No HD player required.

#16

Sorry. If like, Mongo get new one for you. Maybe like Mongo size one with big buttons for Mongo size hands? Maybe want one Mongo using now? Mongo keep finger nails short too, so keys not very scratched.

Let Mongo know how help.

Shattner doing a talk show, The Family Guy is going to have a field day with that one. Somebody paid 75,000 for his KIdney Stone? My god what is this world coming to.

#6 – since you pased two of them, does that mean we can now call you ‘Stoney’ Ballz?

*RIMSHOT*

Dear oh Dear….. fist we have the Shat on Oprah, then we have Mongo commenting on “the Shat on Oprah”…. now all we need is Yoda commention on Mongo and “the Shat” on Oprah,
Oh dear, oh dear…. I’m late , I’m late…

To those who are not supporting the DVD giveaway: I wonder which one of you will be the first to refuse it if such a giveaway was offered to you. :)

Mongo!! BAWHAHAHA!

Pretty, pretty Mongo.

Ok who will record this and post it somewhere so we can see the shatner part????

LOL…

Even if members of the audience don’t have HD DVD, they can watch the Standard Def versions on the same disc, if I’m not mistaken.

Like jonboc said, the DVD set is a COMBO set meaning you can watch it on your standard DVD player. That’s what I’m doing :-) I just wish seasons 2 & 3 came out before HD died :-(

I’m trying to get a clip off of my DVR box but hopefully Matt Wright can get one up sooner.

ooops – so paramount delayed the trekmovie until may of 2009 by claiming it’s in the same league as star wars and transformers. obviously, star trek will only be in that league once the studio has finally dumbed-down and actioned-up the star trek franchise (which they’ve been eager to do forever).

so, oh, the bad news. the new terminator movie comes out that month! clearly – there IS a franchise that will help sap all the extra $$$$ paramount thought they’d get from audiences for their trek movie.

i’m glad the studio is getting EVERYTHING it deserves for screwing with star trek. perhaps the ghost of gene roddenberry is cursing each of the cheesy moves the studio has done to his creation.

#24

Mongo nails look good. Mongo not read girl6 in long time. Glad to see. girl6 still make stories? Mongo like read those.

Yep, that’s what I did too — watched the standard DVD side of Season 1.

Time for feast.

@ Mongo

Thank you, Mongo. You’re such a sweet boy.

girl6 is writing a naughtypretty story about the three days after Psi 2000 and will post it for Mongo in a few days.

I just watched Bill on Oprah. He looks good and is moving pretty well for a 76 yr old guy who had hip replacement a month ago. I got a paper cut and whined for a week.

Chris Pine may be playing Kirk, but Shat will always be the real deal whether he’s in the film or not.

Denny Cane!

#34 Moogie Shatner is a great actor and he did define role of Kirk , there is no question that Chris Pines has some very large shoes to fill indeed. and Shatner was first in that role and thats something that no one can ever take away from him.

Shatner is a joke now, I’d rather see Koenig in the movie instead.

The greatest, never be another like him!!!

Convention pics of the obese Klingons were rather disturbing.

No wonder they’re giving the HD sets away…. they have to get rid of the inventory somehow! I predict any and all HD movies wioll be dirt chaep soon.

I’m glad the movie didn’t come up. It was a very tasteful segment. I’m also glad there was some emphasis on charity, particularly toward the still devastated New Orleans area.

I was surprised to hear of the hip replacement, but I guess it is not surprising at age 76.

6

Harry I’m with you buddy.

A week after my 40th birthday last year, two weeks before the birth of my first child, I passed a kidney stone. Put me on the ground. Most debilitating experience I’ve ever had. Took me down brother. A week after that I saw Shatner at a convention and I spoke to him in the autograph line even though we were advised not to. He said to me, “Drink a lot of water. Drink a lot of water.”

My five minutes of glory (or seconds) with Shatner. He spoke to me at least.

My wife said “Oh now they give away that box set, you could have saved $180!!”

The Shat is VERY bitter! Everyone knows it and most important so does HE!!! He regrets the decision he made for Generations, now! Well, maybe next movie, Bill. It is Nimoy’s time NOW!!!

37

You bite your tongue.

#43 “The Shat is VERY bitter! Everyone knows it and most important so does HE!!”

..uhhh….yeah…boy…he sure was bitter sitting next to Oprah talking about a kidney stone he sold for $75,000.00! lol

Clearly you didn’t see the interview.

I don’t think it would be bad taste to sell his hip bone. I really think there are people who’d pay half a million for that. I really do. I think it was closer to bad taste for him to try and describe his movements in the bathroom. Oprah quickly steered clear of that. I still think somebody would buy that hip.

a kidney stone for $75K… bought a house for Habitat… damn! I’m pretty sure my kidney stones wouldn’t buy an empty shell for a hermit crab.

As odd a thing to sell for that kinda loot as it might seem, I think it’s spectacular that Shatner did it. Who knew a little chunk of calcium oxylate was worth more than it’s weight in diamonds? :-)

I’m getting tired of the Shat bashing too. He always will be the Captain Kirk that created and made the role what we expect it to be, no matter how many incarnations there may come to pass. Had things worked out differently, we might have had an old Jeff Hunter to pine over (no pun intended) not being in this movie.

#29: The real kicker is the idea that Star Wars and Transformers somehow share a league to begin with. It’s a bit like saying “It’ll be big … like the planet Jupiter or that shopping mall down the highway!” Both things are “big,” sure, but …

#45 Bitter about not being in the MOVIE not his personal finances, my fellow trekkie. Clearly, you did not see my point of view. This is what this site is about our opinions. Sounds good.
It seems everyone holds on to your every word, takes it and runs with it, my goodness. Ha HA! That is hysterical. Then try to put you down accordingly. I know I did not SEE the ENTIRE interview, jonboc.

Although I would love to see Kirk Resurrected from his pittiful demise in Generations, Trek 11’s mission is to bring Star Trek back from its own demise.