Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!news.arc.nasa.gov!fxgrp!news From: mholtz@sactoh0.sac.ca.us (Mark A. Holtz) Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.info Subject: From EchoNews: Star Trek Still Making Money Message-ID: <1991Jun17.064424.7012@fxgrp.fx.com> Date: 17 Jun 91 06:44:24 GMT Sender: trek-info@dweeb.fx.com Reply-To: mholtz@sactoh0.sac.ca.us Followup-To: rec.arts.startrek Organization: Sacramento Public Access Unix Lines: 91 Approved: griffith@dweeb.fx.com NOTE: This is from the FidoNet news conferences. Everything from this point forward is from Fidonet. . . . Number: 380/400 [Star Trek] Date : Mon 10 Jun 1991 7:51p (08 Jun 91 22:00:56) >From : Allan Finkas To : All Title : Trek article The following appeared in our local newspaper Saturday, June 8th. The story concerns the 25th anniversary of Star Trek. I'd give credit to the author, except none was listed... Anyways, here it is: STAR TREK STILL MAKING MONEY "Silver anniversary for television series" LOS ANGELES (Reuter) - "Beam me up, Scotty." Twenty-five years after the television show Star Trek made its debut, that phrase still makes Trekkies beam, just as the show continues to provide a healthy revenue glow for producer Paramount Pictures. But the phrase - which refers to moving characters hither and yon around the galaxy from the starship Enterprise - was never actually said on the long-running series, whose 25th birthday was celebrated Thursday. Variations were said several times a show, usually by Captain Kirk, first officer Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy to the perpetually hassled engineering officer Mr. Scott, whose transporter always seemed to malfunction just as a hideous alien was closing in. Paramount honored the show's creator, former airline pilot Gene Roddenberry, and the anniversary Thursday by naming a new building on its Hollywood lot after him. Star Trek made its debut in September 1966 and lasted 79 episodes over three years on NBC. After that, Star Trek was relegated to midnight television rerun status. But some fans said their influence forced Paramount to produce the five Star Trek films with the first released in 1979. A sixth film is to be released in December. Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home mae the most money, with US gross box office revenues of about $110 million. All five films together have grossed about $400 million worldwide at the box office. Trekkies, as the show's stalwart fans are called, have helped spawn an entire culture, not to mention hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues. Retail sales of Star Trek products, including publishing, have topped $500 million. On the small screen, the science fiction series made a comeback in 1987 when Paramount released Star Trek: The Next Generation on first-run syndication. The second series has now surpassed its predecessor, with more than 100 episodes filmed. An animated series was on television briefly. "Paramount has paid me more money than I think I deserve, and made more for themselves than I think they deserve," Roddenberry said at the dedication of the building bearing his name. "Are you there, Mr. Scott? Beam me up!" --- ConfMail V3.3 * Origin: The Bit Bucket, Regina, Sask., Canada (306) 352-3236 (1:140/31) -- New signature tomorrow. /\ UUCP: ames att!pacbell! \ \/ pyramid sun!pacbell! -=> sactoh0!mholtz /\ ucbvax!csusac! / \/ INTERNET: mholtz@sactoh0.SAC.CA.US -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Griffith /--OO--\ | Two great powers are on our side: the power of griffith@dweeb.fx.com | Love and the power of Arithmetic. These two are BEWARE BATS WITHOUT NOSES! | stronger than anything else in the world.