EXCLUSIVE TO HOLLYWOOD.COM:
The Early Days — Part 2
This is the story of how Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry got involved with the start-up of the Sci Fi Channel …
In December of 1989, Laurie Silvers (co-founder of Sci Fi) and I were having dinner with Isaac Asimov at a charming Italian restaurant in New York City near Isaac’s apartment on the West Side. Isaac was in a great mood and quite a ladies’ man; during the appetizer portion of dinner, he wrote a limerick to Laurie on a paper napkin and handed it to her, telling her how pretty she looked.
But back to the story.
Isaac had just agreed to join Sci Fi’s Board of Advisors, and he was saying to us:
“Not too many people know who I am … you need someone from television. What do you think about Gene Roddenberry? He owes me a favor.”
I replied, “Are you kidding? How do you know Gene?”
“He came up to me after a speech I gave at a science-fiction writers’ convention and told me about Star Trek, a project he was working on but hadn’t gotten on TV yet,” Isaac said. “He asked me if I would look over the scripts and tell him what I thought.”
Isaac told Gene, “Sure.” Isaac reviewed the scripts and immediately suggested to Gene that he make the Spock character half-human.
The rest, as they say, is history.
After dinner, we walked back to Isaac’s apartment where he called Gene and enthusiastically pitched him to join the Board of Sci Fi Channel.
Gene, of course, immediately said yes — subject to meeting Laurie and me.
A few days later, we were on our way to Los Angeles to meet Gene on the lot of Paramount. I’ll talk about that meeting in Part 3.
Mitch Rubenstein
Co-Founder of the Sci Fi Channel
LAST EDITION: The Early Days — Part 1
