Star Trek: The Experience to end
Star Trek: The Experience is ending after an 11 year run at the Las Vegas Hilton on September 1st, 2008. The interactive ride contained elements from the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager.
Chad Boutte, Operations Manager and Director of Marketing, said in a press release, “Hailing frequencies open. We’d like to thank all the fans and friends of Star Trek, whose constant and amazing support we’ve enjoyed throughout our tenure at the Las Vegas Hilton. As we boldly go into the futures that await, know that we take your love of Star Trek: The Experience with us. We share the memories of time spent in the most unique place in the Galaxy, and we carry those memories into our futures with us. Live long, and prosper. Hailing frequencies closed.” He said it in this fashion because he’s a big nerd.
Appearing in the ride was Jonathan Frakes as Commander Riker, Levar Burton as Geordi LaForge, Robert Picardo as the Holographic Doctor and Kate Mulgrew as Admiral Kathryn Janeway. The ride was in two parts: the Klingon Encounter and Borg Invasion 4-D, the latter of which was added in 2004.
Having been to the ride twice in the past ten years, it was a lot of fun. Still, these are trying economic times and Star Trek doesn’t quite have the popularity it once did. I will always treasure the Spock Teddy Bear I picked up at Star Trek: The Experience, as well as the Wil Wheaton-autographed Wesley Crusher photo. I’m only kidding about one of those.
LOL: The Many Faces of Rainn Wilson in Entertainment Weekly
In this weeks issue of Entertainment Weekly, Office star Rainn Wilson (The Rocker) did a photoshoot as Xena: Warrior Princess, MacGyver, Pauile Walnuts from The Sopranos and Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Check out the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly for the full photos. EW.com has a video from the Xena photoshoot.
Was Sex and the City really better than Star Trek: TNG?
Another week, another list issue of Entertainment Weekly.
I’m not sure what to make of all of these lists. We do them here too, but it seems to me the more giant lists that are done the more meaningless they become. This EW issue is “The New Classics,” the 1000 best TV shows, movies, books, and music of the past 25 years. Since this is a television blog, I won’t get into their book, movie, and music picks (but if I can just say as a side note, they pick both Clueless and The Naked Gun before L.A. Confidential?!), but let’s talk about their TV choices.
And argue about those choices in the comments, of course.
First, that headline: yes, they really do pick Sex and the City before Star Trek: The Next Generation. SATC comes in at number five, while ST: TNG comes in at number 24. Now, there are those who say that I shouldn’t pick this example out of the article because SATC was a woman-oriented half hour about relationships and sex and fashion and ST: TNG was a male-oriented hour about aliens and exploding starships. Fair enough, but this is a numbered list and they want you to see these in this order. It’s their choices, and they decided to put each show in a certain place, so I think the example is fair.
Also note that SATC comes before Lost, Arrested Development, The Office (both versions), 30 Rock, Everybody Loves Raymond, Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Larry Sanders Show, NYPD Blue, The West Wing, NewsRadio, Oz, Deadwood, and dozens of others.
In fact, here’s a list of shows that didn’t even crack the top 50: Battlestar Galactica, NewsRadio, Everybody Loves Raymond, MST3K, The Office (US version), and The Golden Girls.
Some of the choices are predictable yet accurate: The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Friends, The X-Files, and Buffy all made the top ten, and the issue overall is one of those fun issues to read while you’re eating or on the toilet. But it’s also going to cause a lot of TV fans to slap their heads in a “what are they thinking?” sort of way.
(The issue does have a funny pictorial: Rainn Wilson dressed up as classic TV characters, including Xena, MacGyver, Jean-Luc Picard, and Paulie Walnuts.)
TV Obits: Justman, Mullany, Myers, Altman
A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.
- Robert H. Justman: He was a producer on the original Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Other shows that Justman produced include Mission Impossible, The Adventures of Superman, Search, MacGruder and Loud, and Then Came Bronson. He was also a production manager on the original Outer Limits. He died of Parkinson’s Disease at age 81. (Oddly, this is the third Star Trek veteran to die in the past few weeks.)
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Mitch Mullany: He was a stand up comic who starred in the WB series Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher. He also hosted the ABC reality show All American Girl and appeared in Hangin’ With Mr.Cooper and The Wayan Brothers, as well as the films The Sweetest Thing and The Breaks. He died of a diabetes-induced stroke at age 39.
- Farlan Myers: He was a composer who not only wrote commercial jingles for companies such as Hunt Foods and Ford Motor Company, he also wrote the theme song for Our Miss Brooks. He worked for over 60 years in the entertainment business, from ad agencies to television to film. He died at age 89.
- Sophie Altman: She created the classic game show It’s Academic, which pitted high school students against each other in a test of knowledge. Altman’s show ran in Washington, but several other cities around the country have adapted the show and made their own. She died at age 95.