Gene Roddenberry is one of the most iconic figures of television in history. The screenwriter passed away in October 1991 at the age of 7o, but his impact on the small screen industry only keeps growing.
Roddenberry is remembered best as the creator of the Star Trek franchise, although he also worked on multiple other films and TV shows. He was directly involved in the creative and production work for Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Today, the franchise has grown to be such a behemoth as to be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Star Wars, Law & Order and Mickey Mouse, among others. Over the years, spin-off Star Trek shows have included Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise.
There are currently four different Star Trek iterations on air as well, namely Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy and Strange New Worlds.
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The franchise has also branched out to the big screen, with the most recent installments being a reboot trilogy that starred Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk between 2009 and 2016.
Who Was Gene Roddenberry Before Star Trek?
Gene Roddenberry was born in 1921 in El Paso, Texas. His parents moved to Los Angeles about two years later when his father got a job with the city’s police department. The young Roddenberry would come to follow in his dad’s footsteps by working at the LAPD, where he also kick started his screenwriting journey.
Roddenberry studied police science at Los Angeles City College, and later joined the military before eventually securing a job in the newspaper unit (later Public Information Division) of the Los Angeles Police Department.
While working for the police, he was recruited as a technical advisor for a TV show called Mr. District Attorney, for which he also eventually became a writer. He also wrote episodes for the shows Highway Patrol and I Led Three Lives.
With the writing work seemingly going steady, Roddenberry decided to quit the police force and focus on it full-time. He would go on to write for shows such as Bat Masterson, Jefferson Drum and The Lieutenant.
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It was in The Lieutenant that he would, in fact, work with future Star Trek legend Leonard Nimoy for the first time.
What Made Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek So Successful?
Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek: The Original Series debuted on NBC in September 1966. The first season of the show consisted of 29 episodes, with every single one of those said to have cost around $190,000 to produce. Adjusted for inflation, that would translate to approximately $1.7 million today.
It may be difficult for modern Trekkies to believe, but The Original Series (TOS) was not as much of a hit during its broadcast tenure as it has since become. In fact, NBC considered the ratings not good enough to renew the show past a third season in 1969.
It wasn’t until the series moved to syndication in the early ‘70s that its popularity began to skyrocket. In 1986, TOS was officially named the most popular syndicated TV series. With a growing clamor for more of the Star Trek world, The Animated Series and a number of films were born through the ensuing two decades.
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Beyond the significant investment and brilliant story-weaving by Roddenberry, Star Trek was also deemed to be revolutionary, particularly for how it accommodated characters of color in its unprejudiced world.
How Rich Was Gene Roddenberry When He Died?
Gene Roddenberry had battled with substance abuse for a good portion of his adult life, which led to a number of health complications as he began to grow older. In 1989, he suffered a stroke that left him confined to a wheelchair. About two years later, he died from a heart attack in his doctor’s office in Santa Monica.
At the time of his death, Celebrity Net Worth estimates that the legendary producer’s total assets were valued at around $500 million. The equivalent of that amount today would be $1.1 billion.
Roddenberry had been married twice in his life: to Eileen-Anita Rexroat between 1942 and 1969, and later to actress Majel Barrett. Although he remained married to Barrett for the rest of his life, he was also romantically involved with fellow writer Susan Sackett for the 15 or so final years of his life.
Roddenberry’s son Eugene ‘Rod’ Roddenberry carries on his father’s legacy today, as he serves as executive producer on all current Star Trek franchise shows on television.
