William Shatner: Star Trek Costar Complaints Are “Nonsense” + Preview Of Bill On ‘Psych’

st100On Friday William Shatner was a guest on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight. Topics ranged from politics to his latest book, but there was a good amount of talk of Star Trek where Bill talked about how his history is "like a cape" and how he does care about the "enmity" some of his Trek co-stars have carried all these years. Watch video clip of the interview below, plus preview of Shatner on the next episode of Psych.

 

Shatner: Star Trek like his "cape" + Costars "enmity" is "nonsense"

When Piers Morgan got around to talking about Star Trek he asked Shatner if he was "sick of it." Bill said no, noting:

SHATNER: …to me it’s like a cape that’s following me. I don’t know — how did the king get to be crowned? You know, or was it the queen that was wearing the long cape? I mean, someone has got to be lifting it. …It’s there. It’s behind me and it’s part of why I’m here essentially.

Morgan also pressed Shatner on how many of his Star Trek co-stars have been critical of him…

MORGAN: Were you surprised that they all started piling in — he stole all my great scenes. He nicked my best lines?

SHATNER: They didn’t have great scenes. They didn’t have good lines. There was nothing to nick. But I was shocked. I was interviewing. And I said, well, thank you. Great interview. Good night.
They said, well, wait a minute, don’t you want to know how much we despise you? What are you talking about? I thought I was loved.

MORGAN: Do you care?

SHATNER: I care that somebody in this world dislikes me. And I care that the enmity has carried over to the point of where we’re talking about it. It’s absolute nonsense.
I mean, we’re going to die. Go out the way you came in, with a little innocence. You know? It’s ridiculous.

Watch the full Star Trek discussion:

Shatner on Psych This Wednesday

On Wednesday November 30th William Shatner appears on the USA comedy drama Psych. In the episode "In For A Penny" Bill plays the father of Detective Juliet O’Hara (Magie Lawson). Here is a promo and a clip with Bill.

Thanks to Hollywood2NY for YouTube clips

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Here we go again!

Unfortunately, because the interview is on CNN, and by the despicable fraud Piers Morgan, no one will see it.

The “they” who said, don’t you want to hear about how we all hated you was Nichelle Nichols. And she wasn’t hawking a book; she was being interviewed by Shatner for HIS book! So why would she make something like that up?

Frankly, although I love the Captain, I can’t stand the man playing him and I’ve had a grudge against him since 1967. I won’t bore you with why. Suffice it to say, nothing he has done since has dissuaded me from my initial opinion, one I share with George Takei and the late James Doohan. I just don’t like the man, either!

Well, before we start with the bashing …

He was asked the question, he didn’t bring it up. He answered pretty straightforward – he pointed out just how rediculous it is for parties to drag this out.

He recognizes his and his costar’s mortality. It’s time to let it go while there’s still time.

It reminds me of a documentary I watched on YouTube last night about the death of Andy Gibb at age 30. He was estranged from his older brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb (AKA The Bee Gees). They all admitted they hand words with their younger brother the day he died and they regretted they had not had the chance to end on a happier note.

I hope this story has a happier ending.

Regards.

^ Actually she was hawking a book. Beyond Uhura came out shortly after she was interviewed by Shatner, with Takei’s, Doohan’s and Koenig’s all following shortly thereafter.

Not saying Shatner is holier than thou, but, at the same time, I do sometimes wonder why the others are always reated as if they are angels. Indeed, I have met all them quite a few times and while Nichelle is absolutely delightful, Takei, although a thoroughly nice guy, seems a bit full of himself, and Koenig and especially Doohan, could be rather gruff to talk to.

I really feel i should apologise for Piers Morgan. What a slimey sod he is. Thanks for taking him off our hands, America, but honestly, what were you thinking?

Deforest Kelley didnt despise him. He and Nimoy became great friends with the shat. come on piers do your research mate.

I think this story of the cast hating him has ballooned over the years. Its old hat. Move on.

BTW The Shat looks great……Shat for Prime Minister.

Greg

United Kingdom

THis is getting old….okay so yeh apparently people like to continue to rub in their sentiments. Okay enough already, you’ve voiced your opinions get over it! Despite all that, Star Trek worked for what it was. I liked every single actor. I’ll miss them someday. I already miss some.

#6

Didn’t Jeremy Clarkson deck Piers Morgan a few years ago?
Can’t say I blame him.

I always find it interesting that Deforest and Nimoy never said these things about Shatner. When you work as a lead on a network show you essentially have no life-Shatner was regularly taking the full brunt of the workload, while the rest of the cast (other than Deforest and Nimoy) had only a few lines. it’s not like he spent oodles of time with them over the three seasons the show was on.

Are you best buds with everyone you work with? Cut the man some slack.

He never had a bad word to say about them before they started in on him. I’m sure thy weren’t perfect either.

Who’s the one with class here?

Nimoy seems to be a good and intelligent man and Shatner is one of his closest friends… I trust Nimoy opinion of him, and De never said anything against the Shat… Thats enough for me.

#5

James Doohan was not gruff to talk to. I met him and he was the nicest of all the cast, bar none. I think sometimes he actually wanted to be Mr Scott. He loved fans and loved the show. He was a great guy. Let’s not say something that was not true. Meeting him was one of my fondest memories of the cast.

Why can’t the guy just admit that he has been a total a-hole over the years to much of the Trek supporting cast and apologize for it.

@10. Hey Einstein, when you have a a-hole who is leading your football team, he is not going to be an a-hole to the lead RB and WR, but if you are an offensive lineman, TE, or kicker, you are going to get treated like crap. This is exactly how it worked in Trek with Shat and the supporting cast.

Agree BBTA~~ I don’t need to know who was mad at who and why. The actors all worked on screen together nicely. Wish they could get past their differences because life is too short. But we as the audience don’t know the entire story from both parties.

I will say say one thing regarding this Shat interview. It looks like Shat is finally laying off Taco Bell and Mickee-Dees — he is looking pretty good in contrast to some other appearances the past couple of years (e.e.the pink tee-shirt where his gut looked like a Horta has attached itself to his midsection).

9. Vultan – November 20, 2011 – Yep Clarkson = LEGEND, just thought I’d put it out there!

I think the resentment to Shatner may have come from him stealing the few good lines the supporting cast were given. Supposedly, any of the original scripts that would have Uhura or Scotty saying a key line to move the story forward, Shatner would go to the director and insist that such an important line SHOULD be spoken by the Captain, being the leader and all. Pure selfishness in wanting to be front and centre at all times. Now that Shat is old rich and fat, he appears to have mellowed a bit, but the same egocentric behaviour is strongly evident.

Walter Koenig is the one I met three times and each time he was…well…not nice.

I watched the interview a few nights ago and I thought it was great.

Piers Morgan told the Shat that he loved Star Trek. Real cool! :)

If the series had run longer or Phase II had happened, the four supporting actors would have seen their characters develop more because the writers eventually would have been reaching deeper into the barrel (also Nimoy would have been mostly absent from Phase II).

@4

“It reminds me of a documentary I watched on YouTube last night about the death of Andy Gibb at age 30. He was estranged from his older brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb (AKA The Bee Gees). They all admitted they hand words with their younger brother the day he died and they regretted they had not had the chance to end on a happier note.”

I remember that whole Andy Gibb thing. The one thing about that that I remember was that Victoria Principle, whom he was dating at the time,….and in her prime I might add,….told him it was either drugs or her. He chose drugs. Wow!

As to Shatner and the rest of the cast being hurt or feeling slighted, …I’ve heard him say in the past he’s sorry if he hurt them. In even went on to say he may have been single minded in his protection of his character and furthering the show. These days it seems he doesn’t even want to mess with it and doesn’t even try that route. I understand that. It’s over and done. Obviously that wasn’t good enough for some.

@21. Exactly! Which it why it was such a travesty that Shat would not attend Jimmy Doohan’s funeral.

Its interesting to note that the two cast members who did not hate Shatner were the two main co-stars who’s acting, presence and stroke would have ensured they remained top-billed.

So is it just a coincedence that the ones who hate him are the ones who weren’t top stars? I think those whiners fail to understand that Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley were the stars of Star Trek. The others were supporting cast members and if they didnt get top lines and top scenes it’s just the way it was, especially in the movies when you dont have enough time to devote to the bit players.

@23 “Its interesting to note that the two cast members who did not hate Shatner were the two main co-stars who’s acting, presence and stroke would have ensured they remained top-billed.”

I’ll mention this one more time: when you have a a-hole who is leading your football team, he is not going to be an a-hole to the lead RB and WR, but if you are an offensive lineman, TE, or kicker, you are going to get treated like crap. This is exactly how it worked in Trek with Shat and the supporting cast.

I’ve met Mr. Doohan and he was a fun and great guy to be around. Most of what I know about the cast was by him. And he wasn’t badmouthing anybody back in the day.

That was in the early 70’s and he was speaking at a local Jr College. Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley were the big three and the stories revolved around them. I find the complaints and stories about Shatner by the cast to be annoying and really, I’m sure Shatner didn’t much care about the supporting cast, he wasn’t on camera with them as much as it seemed. But he was the point man in the series with all the lines, time on set, etc. It’s classless for the continuing complaining. I’ve seen recent interviews him him and he’s not the same guy he was as a young man.

The main thing is: do we really have a good movie coming up and are they going to serve beer in engineering?

The way I see it, even by Shatner’s past admittance, he was kind of a jerk to them. In their positions, I too may have been rather mad. BUT . . . unless there is something so terribly mind-numbingly awful he did that they are not mentioning, it may be time to let it go.

Really.

How many deckades does it take before one drops a grudge against someone being an egocentric attention-whore? How many of us have worked with/for someone like that? Are we going to need to publicly denounce that person for the next 50 years?

Shatner has already admitted he didn’t always treat people right. I don’t know what more he could do for them — build a monument or statue commemorating the tragic loss of the extra attention they could have gotten?

Just sayin’ . . .

@26. But that’s the problem, his supposed contrition is really a series of smart-ass like quips and thinly veiled sarcasm that continue to demean the supporting cast today. If I really believed he was sorry than that would be a different story.

Just sayin ‘. . .

Shatner’s a jerk. So what? Everyone that worked with him got paid. I’ve worked with a lot of jerks. I lived. I don’t want to hang out with the guy, I just like Star Trek.

Shatner is spot on. Outside of Himself Kelly and Nimoy the rest were glorified extra’s. The show never revolved around them.

How many extras get a well paid 40 year run?

Shatner has nothing to be sorry about and these guys really do need to move on. For goodness sake there are real issues in the world but all these guys can think of is Shatner is more popular than they are.

@28 “Shatner’s a jerk. So what? Everyone that worked with him got paid. I’ve worked with a lot of jerks. I lived. I don’t want to hang out with the guy, I just like Star Trek.”

I don’t disagree with this statement. It’s some of the other fans here who fawn all over him and drink the Shat Kool-Aid that bother me.

@29 “Outside of Himself Kelly and Nimoy the rest were glorified extra’s. The show never revolved around them.”

By omission here, you infer that its OK to give him a free pass to treat everyone like crap except Nimoy and Kelly. Sorry, but I don’t agree with that.

…years of subsequent fan adulation and convention appearances, sitting high atop the Trek pedestal, apparently has an unusual side effect of making supporting cast members forget that their names were in the closing credits, not the opening credits….if they were even there at all.

I wonder if the wonderful character actor who played Otis on The Andy Griffith Show hated Andy Griffith and Don Kmotts for getting the lions share of dialog? Or if the guy who played Hop Sing in Bonanza went to his grave fuming over all the lines Lorne Green had? I kinda doubt it.

31.

Yes, but on the other hand, I highly doubt Lorne Greene treated Hop Sing like shit!

Yeah, Shatner is no saint, but let’s be honest here, without him, “Star Trek” wouldn’t be what it is today. It was Shatner who gave his character that special something that has made Captain Kirk one of the giant icons in all of sci-fi.

I can see why Takei, Koenig, Doohan and Nicholls might not love the man, but its been 45 years. Time for all of the still living cast members to make peace.

On the other hand, there is absolutely no excuse why Garrett Wang should be telling everybody how much he’d like to punch Shatner in the gut. Wang needs to realize that had it not been for the Shat, he’d be working at McDonald’s right now instead of being an emcee/usher at Star Trek conventions.

I guess no matter how often someone apologizes for any hurt they may have caused, there will be some who will never accept it. They are in love with being able to hate someone and receiving an apology would mean that they would have to lighten up a bit so they just twist and turn instead. Never were truer words spoken than “Haters gonna hate”.

I will strenuously attempt to ignore this thread from now on. So sad, sad, sad.

I like William Shatner and I also like Captain Kirk. Shatner is a funny, active and fascinating man. Kirk is it, too. May both of them live long and prosper.

#9 yes he did indeed, Vults. I’d have paid good money to watch that!
Morgan is a mean spirited individual. When he was the Editor of paper over here he posted a paparazi outside a guy called Ian Hislop’s house for day after day simply because Ian mocked him on a TV panel show (Have I got News for You). He really makes my skin crawl.

#22 bullshit. Where is it written that you must attend an ex-work colleagues funeral. Indeed, where is it written that you must get on with colleagues at all? It is of course nice if you can, but its highly unlikely that you will get on with everybody.
If Bill had gone to Jimmy’s funeral the likes of you would have been calling Shat a hypocrite.
Besides, I thought that Bill and Jimmy and Walter patched up their differences on the Generations set?

Well, CNN has recently fired Joy Bahar. One can only hope Piers Morgan goes next.

@30 “By omission here, you infer that its OK to give him a free pass to treat everyone like crap except Nimoy and Kelly. Sorry, but I don’t agree with that.”

That’s a silly thing to say. There is no evidence he did treat anyone like crap. You pretend to know more than you do.

@38. Agreed. Piers Morgan is a clown. Replacing Larry King with Piers Morgan is akin to the replacement this year (due to injury) of Peyton Manning with Curtis Painter for the Colts in the NFL.

Not sure why people think that DeForest Kelley didn’t have a problem with Shatner.
News flash, people: DeForest Kelley stopped talking to Shatner for a number of years after Shatner laughed in Kelley’s face over the accidental death of Kelley’s beloved dog. That’s the kind of guy Shatner is.

And isn’t it interesting that whenever he’s asked this question, he always conveniently forgets that he and Jimmy patched up their differences before Jimmy died.

One other thing: this has somehow got to be about “stealing the lines”. That’s just one symptom of the man being a jerk. If someone you work with is a dislikeable control-freak manipulative sh*t (and yes, I’m working with one right now) then whatever you say to try to explain to someone else why you dislike them always comes across as something petty.
It’s not about the lines. It was never about the lines. It was about the way Shatner was and is.

@33 “On the other hand, there is absolutely no excuse why Garrett Wang should be telling everybody how much he’d like to punch Shatner in the gut. Wang needs to realize that had it not been for the Shat, he’d be working at McDonald’s right now instead of being an emcee/usher at Star Trek conventions.”

Garrett Wang couldn’t hold up William Shatners jockstrap. Wang is probably the single worst actor EVER to play a regular character on a Trek series…and he thinks he is a big deal…LOL

@39 “There is no evidence he did treat anyone like crap. You pretend to know more than you do.”

Huh??? There is significant evidence — have you not been exposed to an of this history??? Check out just one example here in how poorly Shat treated Doohan in his last days:

https://trekmovie.com/2010/12/09/george-takei-william-shatner-refused-to-appear-on-stage-with-james-doohan-at-farewell-con/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD3HwsFc7bY

DEPLORABLE !!! And this is just one instance…there are numerous instances out there as “evidence”…do I really need to cover the entire history of this here again?

@42 “Not sure why people think that DeForest Kelley didn’t have a problem with Shatner. News flash, people: DeForest Kelley stopped talking to Shatner for a number of years after Shatner laughed in Kelley’s face over the accidental death of Kelley’s beloved dog. That’s the kind of guy Shatner is.”

Jesus Chris, that is horrid!!! This is a new one I hadn’t heard, and I thought myself to be an expert on Shat’s bad behavior. You learn something new every month though when you take on the burden of going against accepted populate beliefs and really get down to the details of researching the true behavior of pop culture icons who are worshiped by so many through rose-colored glasses.

“It’s not about the lines. It was never about the lines. It was about the way Shatner was and is.”

Yep! Chasco, I hereby award you a pair of genuine “They Live” sunglasses. Harry Ballz and I found these years ago, and through wearing them, you can see Shat for what he truly is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inZUDMGJsKo

“Not sure why people think that DeForest Kelley didn’t have a problem with Shatner.
News flash, people: DeForest Kelley stopped talking to Shatner for a number of years after Shatner laughed in Kelley’s face over the accidental death of Kelley’s beloved dog. That’s the kind of guy Shatner is.”

Well I’ll just have to take your word for it. Certainly contradicts Shatner’s love for dogs and horses.

All I know is that DeForest only had good words for Shatner like the joking at seeing him in Generations. Shatner at the conventions I’ve been to only had good words for De.

Good to see Bill so happy, is that a new toupee.

Since Star Trek is something of a religion to us, is not to be surprising that any little gesture is multiplied by the infinite. At the end of the day, they are just regular people.

I thought De Kelley had a Chihuahua that accidentally died by running into a sprinkler? It was too bad that his dog died, but honestly, that is a bit funny!

And I don’t know whether Kelley stopped talking to him for years – I think it was shorter than that.

As far as the Doohan’s last convention incident – yes I’m sure Shat is not a nice guy, and he also has a strong fear of death/illness etc. so I’m sure that was behind some of his behaviour. But the whole story is from Takei after all, using it for publicity, so who knows exactly what happened.

Ultimately Shatner was probably a big a$$hole but everyone is benefiting from it now with the publicity etc., so I don’t see what the big deal is.

1 – Harry, it’s just like Einstein said… if you could build a telescope powerful enough, you could see backwards in time, and someone would be bitching about Shatner.

The gang of four (or five) were not the only ones who had a problem with Shatner. Read “Captain’s Logs” and pay attention to what the directors said about Shatner counting lines to make sure that he had the most.
Read about his bullying of the directors and about his self-importance. Nimoy was no saint either, writing memos and going behind everyone’s back to speak to the producers directly about his character. One director goes so far as to blame the demise of Star Trek on these two stars, who would rip a script to shreds in order to make sure their character came out on top. They could no longer get good scripts. And Gene Roddenberry was not around to control them.

It’s not a pretty bedtime story, kids, but it’s probably closer to the truth than what the stars say about the situation now.

Also read “Inside Star Trek” to get a view from the producer’s angle.
And lastly, if you haven’t OD’d on Star Trek history read Harlan Ellison’s prolix introduction to his original teleplay for “City on the Edge of Tomorrow.” In that book, he describes how Shatner initially stroked then bullied the writer into giving him more lines.

Look, I’m not interested in everyone “just getting along.” I couldn’t care less about feeling good about the actors themselves. The only thing that matters is the work they left behind. That is the art. How that art was made, and how it ultimately fell apart is far more interesting than a bunch of old men kissing and making up.

Long Live The Shat!.

I believe there is enough blame to go around for everyone involved (“it takes two to tango”).

Shatner may or may not have tried to reconcile with his co-stars but that all should have remained amongst themselves. They all can take some blame for this topic continuing after 40 years unless they have simply run out of things to talk about and/or know it will get attention each time it is brought up.

After 40 years I am also sure that everyone’s memories are being revised, exaggerated, or embellished with each telling. And let’s not even begin to talk about how the media itself propagates and adds its own “details” each time they report on this.

I do think some of the stars have been jealous of Mr. Shatner–after all, who has consistently worked in the spotlight over the years? If his co-stars were equally talented actors then you would have thought they would have done more headlining roles over the years. I do not intend to demean or belittle any of the stars and what they have contributed to the world of Trek in their iconic roles but just making a couple of observations.

One thing is obvious here–Roddenberry’s vision of the future might still be further away then anyone thinks if even people who had the opportunity to live and breathe in his “world” cannot get along better. Maybe we all have something to learn here about how hard (or impossible?) the world of Trek is to live out in our present (and perhaps DS9 was closer to this reality of all the series?).