William Shatner is, as often noted here before, the master of all media. So, it is no surprise that he has a connection to the biggest story of the week…Balloon Boy, no joke. We have details on that below, plus the latest news from Bill, including video from Big Apple Comic Con.
Shatner denies connection with Balloon Boy Hoax
Last Thursday the nation was transfixed with the live story of an out-of control flying saucer-shaped balloon sailing through the skies of Colorado, reportedly containing a young boy named Falcon Heene. When the balloon landed all were happy to find out that the boy was not actually on board and was later found safe, apparently hiding out in the attic. However, questions started to be asked about the family and whether or not the whole thing was a hoax, and by Sunday the local Sherriff announced that they would be filing charges against the boy’s father Richard Heene for perpetuating a hoax.
What does that have to do with Shatner? Well the story goes that Heene, whose family had previously appeared on the ABC reality show Wife Swap, was determined to get into another reality TV show, and the ‘balloon boy’ event last week was allegedly a publicity stunt to help that goal. The Shatner connection comes from a New York Times article this morning which quotes Vincent LeGrow, a video editor who had worked with Heene on a previous project. Here is the what the article stated:
Mr. LeGrow said Mr. Heene had once spoken with the actor William Shatner about potentially hosting a show. Mr. Heene was the co-host of a show called “The Science Detectives,” and sometimes said he was affiliated with the Science Detective Research Group, though few records exist for the company. Some of the “Detectives” segments now appear on YouTube, alongside Mr. Heene’s theories about U.F.O.’s and civilization on Mars.
For his part, Shatner is downplaying any connection to Heene, giving the same statement to both Radar Online and E! News, saying:
His story is overblown. He’s inflated the amount of contact we’ve had.
Nice pun, Bill.
Shatner say’s no to the Balloon Boy Dad
MORE BILL NEWS
But wait, there’s more from The Shat….
Bill Pitches ‘Sexy’ TekWar Comics
Bill has bi-coastal appearances this weekend. Not only did he show up at the Scream Awards in Los Angeles, but he was also at the Big Apple Comic Con in New York, both signing at the LightSpeed booth, and also promoting his upcoming line of TekWar comic books. Here is video from AP.
Pollack on Shatner (as Shatner)
Over the weekend actor/comedian Kevin Pollack was appearing on stage at the BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas and moderator Guy Kawasaki asked him to talk about his famous impersonation of William Shatner. In the video below, Pollack talks about meeting Bill (and does his best Bill).
A story about a bag of hot air that went up, came down, and now nobody cares?
Irony on line one!
Bill, get a new shirt, dude. That one is awful!
“His story is overblown. He’s inflated the amount of contact we’ve had.”
Laugh Out Loud hillarious! Bill Shatner is so funny most of the time! Allthough I think the ballon story is about as big as him not watching Star Trek XI! The writers can bring him back in Star Trek XII, all they need to do is zap his dead body with some Ray or something they send him into the black hole Spock made to find him! Easy peasy pie!
This whole story with the bad-daddy and his flying balloon is rediculous… And now he’s got publicity, though not exactly the kind he wanted, and his life and family is potentially over. They should reduce this story to a CNN/FOX NEWS footnote. Let the lying pops and crew fade away and try to keep some semblence of their family together. Bill, you da man!
My guess is that Pollack would kill to have had Shatner’s career, rather than one based on imitating him. Sincerest form of flattery!
Kevin Pollack rocks… last thing I saw him in, well, recently that is, was Sci-Fi, er, excuse me, Sy FyFy’s The Lost Room and he was awesome in it. Yes, imitation, even mockery when done affectionately, is the sincerest form of flattery. I mean do the other captains get to be so memorably imitated? Perhaps Patrick Stewart, but he pretty much mocks himself effectively, i.e. American Dad, etc. Shatner may seem like a buffoon to almost everyone these days, but who gets the last laugh? Honestly, sorry Mr. Pine but even down the line, Shatner will be forever Jim Kirk.
@no#6
William Shattner will forever and ever EVER and for the rest of eternity and even in the memories of Spock Prime in the alternate timeline IS Captian James T. Kirk!!! Yes he does mock himself very well and that’s what makes him so good! Live long and prosper William Shattner!
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“I have been and shall always be your friend. Live Long and Prosper.” -Spock – Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…….
I remember the interuption of Radio and TV that day, and night, KOA Radio skipped an hour of Rush (the niddle of 3 hours) to cover it, And KUSA 9NEWS had to get there chopper upto Fort Collins to give HDTV coverage of the event. I’m sure the other news channels were fighting for air space to get coverage for local and network feeds. Then the next two days hearing all the rumor and fake stories fling about the Denver Media hub.
And now everyone that got fooled is saying lawsuits are comming, because the con job used in hope to get a TV show started. I could most likely make a parrie dog movie on their return to the fields of Rocky Flats and not have to worry about germ warfare toxins.
At least I could milk the tree huggers to make money, and it looks like it will be millions more that this guy will make.
Or even better yet Lightning Storms over Denver filmed from Red Rocks, I’ve see many good ones while being at concerts their. The best one was Jefferson Starship on 7/3/1983, even the band stopped to watch that one. I do not know what bubble boy news there was tonight because I was more interested in in the Broncos going 6 & 0 and proving they are not donkeys as 99.9% of Denver feared they would be this year.
Just goes to show how you can try to tweak the News Media to make a quick buck fooling the Nation, like others have done and with much better production crew that this guy had. First rule do not tell a 6 year old the truth before you lie to the public.
From Denver just East of Red Rocks, feeling sorry for those that feel for the hoax.
opps thats fell not feel, I at least got double letters in the word just the wrong letters.
Pollack’s Shatner is good but his routine about the crew morphing into the personalities of Dudley Moore, Christopher Lloyd, and Peter Falk’s Colombo is the best. And he’s right….he was the Captain of the show.
And oh yeah, I love Shatner.
Of course Shat is behind the balloon escapade. Where do you think they got all the hot air to fill the dang thing?
**Love ya, Bill!!**
2. Ensign RedShirt – October 19, 2009
Bill, get a new shirt, dude. That one is awful!
I think that is one of Bill’s western themed shirts he likes to wear to Equine events.
@ Spckish
NO! Why did they have to cancel an hour of Rush Limbaugh!???!!?!? I really love that guy, he knows what he’s talking about! And Gleen Beck does too! He’s my grandmother’s favorite TV show!
and off subject a bit but RIP Vic Mizzy, 93. May he be in “Green”-er Acres” now.
its PSYIENCE detectives, look it up, everyone keeps reporting this wrong, it’s not a spelling error, its intentional. this guy is a ufo kook and “psyience” has little to nothing to do with actual science
#9 & #14 get a Rush 24/7 membership and you can listen anytime.
17.
I believe that Trekluver was being sarcastic. Hopefully, anyway!
balloon boy could have gotten a better ride from priceline.com!
Slow news day, I guess.
Bill and the Balloon Boy…what has society come to? Talk about a nightmare of a reality tv show…Good grief.
yeh and is everyone as fed up with the media putting goofy cardboard cutout names to everything as I am-you know-balloon boy-bennifer,it seems every story has to be reduced to one or two word titles-they didnt used to do that-
# 19 LOL, great :-D
14, 18: If someone is secure with him or herself – then watching Glenn Beck shouldn’t be a problem. As a writer I like to observe multiple points of view, and the people that express them. I’m conservative on some points, liberal on others. I am not blind to some good points he’s made, but I don’t agree with him on whole. Same with Michael Moore, Michael Savage or Bill Mahr. You’ve can take the best, truest bits from anyone… But in the end you must adhere to yourself.
Up, up and away
In me beautiful, me beautiful balloon
Tha’ world’s a nicer place in me beautiful balloon
It wears a nicer face in me beautiful balloon
We can sing a song and sail along the silver sky
For we can fly – we can fly
Live within Shatner’s copious thigh…
Up, up and awaaaaaay….
In me boo-tiful Bill-oooooon!!!!!
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…
#24 Thank You. With the Obama administration waging a PR war with Foxnews, its obvious many people are afraid to have their world view challanged, including the President of the United States, unfortunately.
Oh, great. We’re talking about politics now.
Hey, anybody here ever see “Danny Deckchair?” This just might be the makings of a sequel.
Star Trek is, like, super-liberal. Don’t you Rushies realize that? I’m curious…what about Star Trek could Rush Limbaugh fans possibly like? Other than the fact that it was produced in the U.S., and the U.S. doesn’t make mistakes, I can’t think of anything. Humans are totally secular in the show and capitalism has been abolished on Earth. The Star Trek society seems to be the perfect example of what conservates hate. And oh by the way…I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone pay McCoy or Crusher for a lifesaving operation or treatment. Perhaps they get the bill later?
28: I’m certainly not a Rush Limbaugh fan, but I have to take issue with your “Humans are totally secular in the show” observation.
Do you recall the original series episode “Bread and Circuses,” for example? It’s revealed at the end that the residents of the planet are (spoiler alert) worshipping “The Son of God.”
In “Who Mourns for Adonais?” Kirk tells Apollo that the multitude of Greek gods are no longer necessary because humans like the one they have.
There have been book length studies on Star Trek and religion. The Trekverse is liberal: yes, purely secular: no.
^29. On the whole Star Trek’s story themes are very anti-faith, at least anti-faith in anything other than human potential. There are moments like you describe but I think those occurred inconsistently and in spite of Roddenberry, who seemed driven to tell and retell a story of enlightened humans defeating something that implicitly or explicitly represents a god or a religion and thereby achieving the freedom to reach humanity’s fullest potential. Religion is consistently portrayed as an immature developmental stage.
30 Roddenberry is ONE of the founders of Star Trek. He didn’t create Klingons, the Prime Directive, the United Federation of Planets, or Khan Noonien Singh. You’ll have to thank Gene Coon, US Marine, for those, along with the show’s anti-war episodes, like A Taste of Armageddon and Let That Be Your last Battlefield—and all that from a writer who fought in two wars.
Contrary to what many may think, Star Trek’s enduring success was actually due to the influence and collaboration of a whole bunch of talented people, though Roddenberry gets credit for just about everything by those who don’t know any better.
Star trek was the collaborative vision of a group of people who did not all feel the same way about every issue.
#18, 28. These comments so perfectly typify the largest hypocrisy of liberalism: All is acceptable except conservatism. They preach tolerance for all views and values, except conservatism. As a life-long Reagan Republican and Star Trek fan since the 1960’s, I’m sorry that you feel there is no place in Trekdom for me.
In fact, the “religious” episode mentioned above, Bread and Circuses, was written by BOTH Gene Coon AND Gene Roddenberry.
ANYONE BEEN TO APPLE.COM LATELY??? YOUR IN FOR A NICE SURPRISE……..
I think with some people, what it all comes down to is a sadly un-Trek-like view: If I don’t like, agree with or understand another person or point of view – they must hate it. But whether anyone likes it or not, it’s the right of the people to say, think or do whatever they want to. I want that right to continue, I don’t want it taken away by the Left or the Right or any of the rich, power hungry etc. If I don’t dig a person (usually based on observation of their character,) I avoid them – that simple. If I want to chime in on a topic, I will… I don’t care for hours of bickering though. To each, their own; y’know…? No one is absolutely right on anything. Who knows.
Since Political talk is not liked here, I could go into long essay reply’s but to keep my posting status I will not.
As for #14) Trekluver for all syndicated network shows the Radio Station that leases re-broadcast rights, are not required by law to re-broadcast what they receive, but retail inteligence you broadcast what you want and when you want. Apparently the KOA staff valued the importance of the story so it had higher broadcast value. Who now’s if they broadcast it at a later time. The tape delay the show 2 hours and Saturday afternoon they have a 15 hour block and do the whole week over.
As for buying a subscription, tell SSDI welfare to pay me an extra $25 a month so I can buy it, but from these feds I have a better chance of winning every states lotterys for that week or month. And there is other ways like Cheyenne Wy. and Colorado Springs stations. but both those do it on a live basis, Plus I can find copys of the downloaded show around the Net, just they are not live.
As for Star Trek being libeal biased, in ways it is but in other ways it is not. In Space you are indirectly dependant on who and what got you out their. But the things it has that liberals do not like is freedom, moral values based on personal values. Those are the biggies and I could point out more but that would go to political.
And I’ve gotten Newt interested in the DSN two-parter about the horrors of a welfare state. The story was about Early 21st century sociaty in Californa being puppets of the feds so they get food and work. Remember the Gimmies from the episode Past Time, and the Commander, Dax, and the Doc being sent back in time because their Transporter beam crossed a Interstellar time strand.
And Rush as spent many hours talking about the values of Star Trek giving the public dreams of something but a horror of a Dark Evil future. He may have watched it but has never stated so. But the talks about it he has viewed many episodes over time.
My worst fear is our current President Mr. O’buma claims to be a fan, and actions he is doing may in ways be just as destructive to the US and the world as the 1990’s Atomic wars of Star Trek fame that created the ideal liberal run world.
The flaw in that view is repression hinders creative thoughts and in such a status just like after a war the imagination is hindered. The only way to know the real answer is to be around in a Century and see some results.
Things are happening as I predicted in 1986, When Science is no longer interested in Genitic toys, we shall venture into Nano tech and sub-atomic’s, after starting in that area, on to the moon and mars, then the solar system. In 86 I did not see the Net bubble but understood it after my head injury, could have gotten rich but others could mot see what I was saying and they had control of my money, I did not. They would not let me invest in Netcom or Google because they were still in the WW II frame of mind.
They did not comprehend that tech would go far beyond what a field of grain or a building could make. And many think my idea of terrorism is a result pf mammal lack of free space. And if we do not venture of this blue marble we will all become Zombies from strains of Rabies (which all mammals get with the lack of free space to conquer.
#35 AMEN!
@18
Yes I am a Rush fan and a Gleen Beck fan! I prefer to take advice from people that research what they say before they say it! Can’t understand how you liberals like people like Keith Oberman and good o’l Lezbian girl Rachel Maddow!
@28
I beg to differ! Star Trek is by far not liberal! All of the shows and movies depict people working problems out like civilized people who cared for the preservation of their races! Librals only care about them selfs! Take Obama for example, he wants health care but all the polls on ALL news networks say about 75% of the population doesn’t want healthcare reform. In the end Obama is still pushing for it! That’s wrong and even the president of BET TV now regrets voteing for him and she’s black! Star Trek is utopia based conservatism, in history it is a known fact that in conservative governments allow more advancements in technology than libral ones! And just so you know, one of Rush Limbaugh’s commercial breaks say: “Rush Limbaugh, Risistans is Futile!” I can’t blame him for loveing Star Trek, and the Borg!
@34
Yes! Apple also endorsed the new iTunes and iPod Touch features with Star Trek Pictures depicted on them!
@28
Also take The Prime Directive, at all costs Starfleet must preserve pre-warp cultures. All liberals want to do is want us to depend on them so when they have everybody they bring us to our knees! Germany sound familliar to you? Barack Obama liberalism has turned into Communistic Socialism! You know it’s bad when Chicago is eliminateed in the first round of olympic voteing! And you know it’s REALLY bad when SNL starts makeing fun of the guy they practically endorsed not even a year ago!
Check out the Scream Awards Oct 27th Broadcast on Spike, as Shatner steals the show.
Accepting the award for the New Star Trek film… Yep its true,,,
Shatner then tells Abrams (in the audience) that he’ll call him, no you call me…
(Rolls eyes.) Why does it always come down to this particular shouting match?
But just to clarify one point:
“Star Trek” wasn’t anti-religious. Most of the episodes that questioned regimentation , monolithic institutions and groupthink were anti-COMMUNIST, not anti-church. That was Roddenberry’s main concern (not a liberal one, either).
And you know, guys, I don’t think anyone here is saying you have to be a lefty to be a Trek fan.
Now, can we PLEASE get back to discussing big balloons and bad parenting? Or at least “Danny Deckchair”???
Remember…Gene Roddenberry did receive an award from the American Baptists for extolling Christian values in Star Trek (documented in Arnold’s biography)!
I think the discussion above shows that Trek brings us together around common values or dreams we all have–we just happen to disagree on the means of reaching those ends.
Trek has offered views of almost every type of political/religious/economic philosophy and has even contradicted itself on occasion–even culturally (i.e., ST4 makes fun of the “colorful metaphors” while ST5 shows Kirk making full use of them–I guess he could have learned to love them along the way).
I, for one, enjoy intelligent debates about our differences (just as they did on many episodes of Trek–else the shows would have been pretty boring all the time) but we lower ourselves when we resort to name-calling, insulting, etc. without keeping our discussion rational (okay…so maybe Bones got away with the name-calling but I find that happens most often between people who already know and respect one another to the point they can do that). As observed, we can certainly learn things from one another when the discussion is done well.
One other observation, even in Trek there are certain absolutes (such as the Prime Directive) that while Kirk bent a few times (usually because of an even higher absolute as he saw it) was still a guiding force or principle much like liberal or conservative principles that to some extent are mutually exclusive so it is false to claim a completely tolerant worldview no matter how open you think you are. Starfleet was also modeled after the military which requires certain “absolutes” or else all discipline breaks down–so again, it becomes a matter of agreeing to those absolutes (and in Trek, it was the conflict with those absolutes that created the drama) as a “society” and those who disagree will be the ones who are “wrong” or “outcasts” in that society. In America, we have the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution which explicitly states that there are certain absolutes our country was based upon and the rest is working out those absolute in our community as citizens. Trek (and science fiction in general) is great at helping us think how we can work together when we have shared values based on certain absolutes (or how it falls apart when we don’t)–but again, I think we often share more common values then we realize but merely disagree on how those work out in practice (or maybe we find out how inconsistent we are with those values!).
For these reasons, I think Trek has always appealed equally to a wide spectrum of people–from warmongers to peacemakers, from secularists to spiritualists, from socialists to capitalists, from scientists to psychologists, and so on because we all hope for a better future in the here and now and perhaps in the by and by.
anyhoo, about this balloon kid…..!! lol
@42
In the case of the prime directive, it was writen by Captian Archer and the rest of the Coalition of Planets at the Federation Charted signing ceromony. Then most cultures where still pre-warp so by The Next Generation era we find most are no longer pre-warp in the Alpha Quadrant. The most clasic case of “Truely” breaking The Prim Directive was when Voyager was in the Delta Quadrant. They interfeared with cultures that while had been exposed to the Borg were still pre-warp. They broke it almost every episode and yet Janeway was promoted to Admiral! (which I think she diserved) But in Kirks case he was demoted to Captian after hijacking a Starfleet Vessel?!!?!?! Sometimes it contradicts itself in the differt generations of Star Trek as is grows old in advanceing space. Eventually if they ever got out of the Milky Way Galaxy then the Prime Directive would be back at a point where it would be fully inforced, I believe.
Star Trek is as liberal as it gets. The “Prime Directive” is a reaction to good old colonialism, which is advanced western civilizations occupying and profiting from less advanced cultures for generations.
At its most liberal, it was Q dressed as Oliver North in “Farpoint” getting a reprimand from Picard then flashing to a drugged soldier, implying our society could only entice people to fight unpopular wars through narcotic addiction.
As for religion, it’s true Roddenberry didn’t want to go near it, but the show constantly touched on themes of helping those in need and self-sacrifice for a greater good. Love thy neighbor.
@44–Your examples highlight the fact that Trek is above all, fiction–as such, the writers were more concerned (usually) with telling a good story and/or getting across their worldview of morality/ethics/etc. Thus, if it served their purpose to contradict some other episode(s) or premise of Trek then that is exactly what they did.
Amazingly, the “canon”ites are probably akin to conservatives in Trekdom since they insist upon a “strict” interpretation of what has gone before in Treklore. Of course, what makes this amazing is that some of these same people might otherwise consider themselves “liberals” in the real world and object to applying this same philosophy to constitutional law. :)
The only reason that kid wasn’t in the balloon was because he was glued to his radio listening to Rush Limbaugh. Thank God for Rush.
#28 Riker’s Dad: Dr. Crusher hands out her bill after the director yells CUT!
#28 A perfect example of fantasy vs reality. The Nick movie “Drake & Josh Go Hollywood”. The little sister “Megan” ends up getting on the wrong plane and the airline puts her up in the nicest hotel in town until they can get her a flight. As she enjoy the luxuries of the hotel she comments “WHY DOESN’T EVERYONE LIVE HERE ALL THE TIME”. The answer of course is the same reason Dr’s Crusher and McCoy don’t send out billing statements. In the real world things have to be paid for, in fantasy (Star Trek or whatever) doctors don’t have to worry about getting paid. I guess the Federation just prints more money the way Obama does.
The range of this discussion is astounding. To date it has included balloon boy, Rush Limbaugh, conservatism, liberalism, religion, Drake & Josh and William Shatner.
Now I know why I visit the site daily. Where else can you get this diversity?