Herbert F. Solow

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Herbert F. Solow

Herbert "Herb" Franklin Solow (born 14 December 1930; age 93) was a studio executive serving, originally on behalf of Desilu Studios, on the first and second seasons of the original Star Trek show, Star Trek: The Original Series, officially credited as "Executive in Charge of Production".

As assistant to Vice-President of Programs Oscar Katz, both men were seeking new television properties for their employer and it was to Solow that Gene Roddenberry made his original early April 1964 "Wagon Train To The Stars"-pitch (the in lore famed exact phrase was actually coined by Samuel A. Peeples before the Desilu pitch occasion, not Roddenberry, who had called it "a "Wagon Train" concept", but typically, was by appropriated as his own nevertheless). Desilu picked up the proposition and together with Roddenberry, Solow made the rounds of the television networks to reciprocally pitch the proposition to them, ultimately finding his former employer NBC interested in early May 1964. Prior to this pitch, it was Katz who took Roddenberry to CBS, the network that traditionally aired Desilu's television productions, but Roddenberry botched his presentation on that occasion. Not backed-up on that occasion by Katz (already foreshadowing things to come), Roddenberry was groomed and extensively prepared by Solow for their subsequent meeting with NBC, which represented the last chance to sell the show. (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One, 1st ed, pp. 21-25, 28-32; Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, 1997, pp. 13-23)

Solow was subsequently heavily involved with the studio oversight and marketing to NBC of the two pilot episodes, "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before". While not a science fiction fan, Solow strongly believed in Roddenberry's format, which he considered a more adult counter balance to the somewhat juvenile Lost in Space series of CBS. NBC executive Jerry Stanley later conceded, "It was Herb's tenacity and Herb's presentation that sold the series." After the production of the two pilot episodes and after NBC had in effect ordered the series, Solow had to vigorously defend Star Trek in early February 1966 before Desilu's conservative Board of Executives who, balking at the costs of three expensive series in development, virtually unanimously, save for executive Bernard Weitzman, wanted to proceed with Mission: Impossible and The Long Hunt of April Savage (also brought in for Desilu by Katz and Solow, the former ordered by CBS, and the latter, also produced by Roddenberry, ordered by ABC) only. Katz was also a board member, but was not present as he was already on his way out. Fortunately, Solow – unlike Katz not a board member, nor would he ever be – managed to get the studio head, Lucille Ball, on his side and who, as Chairwoman had the power to overrule her board, which she did by approving the continuation of Star Trek with a mere nod towards Solow, or as author Marc Cushman had put it succinctly, "That was all Star Trek needed. A nod of Lucille Ball." Incidentally, Ball's then husband Gary Morton (usually handling the studio's business and financial affairs) also opposed Star Trek as co-chairman of the board. (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One, 1st ed, pp. 32, 94) One of the other nay-sayers on the board, studio accountant Edwin "Ed" Holly, later conceded, "If it were not for Lucy, there would be no 'Star Trek' today." [1] On 6 March 1966, both Mission Impossible and Star Trek were alloted space on the Desilu facility, while Katz was let go three days later. For all intents and purposes, and contrary to widely held beliefs in Star Trek-lore, this was factually the very first time that The Original Series came exceedingly close to cancellation.

During the production of the two pilot episodes, it was discovered that Katz, who had no prior experience with television production, was unsuited for the position and was subsequently let go. At the start of the production of the regular series and before he had to defend Star Trek for the Board, Solow was promoted into his position instead with the official title "Vice-President of Programs". Unlike Katz, Solow was a very hands-on executive and closely collaborated during his entire tenure on The Original Series with producers Roddenberry and Robert Justman in particular. As he had described in his reference book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story and corroborated by Justman on several occasions (amongst others in the reference book Star Trek Memories), his input was especially required to keep Roddenberry's perceived eccentricities in check and to run interference for him and the upper echelons of the studio and the network. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, 1997, pp. 25-et al.) Solow's primary responsibilities however, were to safeguard the, often tenuous, finances of his employer and it was he, frequently against his grain, who had to inform Justman that budgets had to be dialed down. On the other hand he shared Justman's appreciation of the Star Trek production team, and had no qualms for example, of immediately approving Justman's suggestion of promoting Art Director Matt Jefferies, who Solow likewise held in the highest regard. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, 1997, p. 169) Previously, directly after the production of the second pilot, it was Solow who had managed to get Jefferies (who until then was only allowed to work in Hollywood as set designer) inducted into the Art Directors Union. (Star Trek: The Original Series Sketchbook, p. 114)

Halfway through the pre-production of the second season of The Original Series Desilu was sold to the conglomerate Gulf+Western, formalized on 27 July 1967, which choose to merge their acquisition with the hitherto relatively small television department of their subsidiary, Paramount Pictures, to form Paramount Television. While most former Desilu executives were let go, Solow was asked to remain in the employment of the new owner, which he agreed to by becoming "Vice-President of Programs Paramount Television", answerable to his new boss, Paramount Television President John T. Reynolds. Nevertheless, Solow found himself increasingly dissatisfied with the more businesslike approach Gulf+Western financial executives wanted to impose on the production of the television series he was responsible for, including Star Trek, which in practice resulted in ever increasing budget cuts and near obligatory creative meddlement. It was therefore that Solow choose to tender his resignation just prior to the slated start of the regular production on the series' third season. Solow's departure had consequences for Roddenberry as well, as the latter was now no longer able to maintain his position and, and though he was still officially "on staff", he was effectively superseded by Fred Freiberger. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, 1997, pp. 365-et al.)

Per Hollywood union rules, studio executives are formally not entitled to official production credits, as they, as overhead, are not supposed to be involved with the actual creative aspects of productions, they being the purview of producers as highest factual operation managers. Yet, Solow, together with his successor for the third season, Douglas S. Cramer (displayed on the penultimate end title credit card of each regular episode) and Star Trek: The Motion Picture's Lindsley Parsons, Jr., hold the rare distinction of becoming the only Star Trek-affiliated studio executives receiving one, that of "Executive (Vice President) in Charge of Production", displayed in the former two cases on the penultimate end title credit card of each regular series episode, whereas a fourth studio executive, Bill Heath, held the credit of "Post Production Executive" for the Original Series' first season.

How intimate the working relationship between Solow and Justman was during the former's tenure on The Original Series, was exemplified when Justman, responsible for selecting the stills over which the end credits were to be projected for the regular series run, decided to perform an in-joke on his superior, "My favorite one was the one I finally chose for Herb, the last credit prior to the closing Desilu logo. This was the only credit I never changed as long as Herb ran the Desilu operation. I used a close-up of Balok, the monster from "The Corbomite Maneuver", lit, enchantingly, with color washes of angry red and bilious green, and positioned his credit, "Executive in Charge of Production," so that it appeared just below the creature's wildly glaring eyes." Received in good nature, Solow nevertheless, managed to deprive Justman his chuckles, as the latter ruefully clarified, "I thought it a fitting tribute, as did Herb, who thanked me profusely, thereby depriving me of some heavy-duty gloating. I still have the original credit, and display it, in my office at home, suitably framed in the cheapest, junkiest black frame I could find." (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, 1997, pp. 194-195)

In 1973, Herb Solow repeated what he had done for Gene Roddenberry in 1964 by arranging, and taking him to, a meeting with then Paramount President, Frank Yablans, to pitch his first idea for a feature film, tentatively called "The Cattlemen". The idea was based on the story outline called "A Question of Cannibalism", one of the twenty-five earliest Star Trek story outlines developed in 1964 as back-up for the original pilot episode "The Cage". Yablans was interested, but, very much aware of Roddenberry's Original Series reputation and of his utter failure as producer to control the antics of director Roger Vadim for the 1971 movie Pretty Maids All in a Row in particular (which caused the movie to run over-time and over-budget, and for which Solow had actually hired Roddenberry as script writer and producer in the first place), emphatically refused to have him serve as producer, only willing to hire him as writer. Through his attorney Leonard Maizlish, Roddenberry countered with demanding a hitherto near-unprecedented US$100,000 writer's fee (which he had actually received for Pretty Maids, courtesy Herb Solow), which Yablans dismissed as unacceptable and subsequently trashed the entire proposition. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, 1997, pp 420-421)

When Solow published the Inside Star Trek: The Real Story reference book in 1996 together with the by him highly valued Justman (with whom he co-produced and hosted the subsequent book-based documentary), he voiced a far more critical view on the series' creator, Roddenberry, than was hitherto commonplace. While he liked Roddenberry on a personal level and had emphatically endorsed his Star Trek creation, willing to overlook some of his personal fallacies, he most definitely took a dimmer view on Roddenberry's other fallacies, notably his tendencies for self-promotion – corroborated by Justman and, at a later stage, by Spock performer Leonard Nimoy, albeit in far more subdued wordings – which according to Solow took the form of spin-doctoring Star Trek history by claiming credit where credit was not due, redacting actual events for personal gain through manipulating information dissemination to Star Trek fandom and even accusing him of "absconding" Desilu property, most conspicuously unused shot footage, for the purpose of selling these through his company Lincoln Enterprises at Star Trek conventions. In regard to setting the record straight in a more even-keeled manner where NBC's role in the cancellation of the Original Series was concerned, Solow later remarked, "I only took him to a meeting with me once. Once was enough...Gene set about making NBC the heavy, the villain with regard to everything: schedule, ratings, program practices (censor), publicity, etc., thus playing to the fans. He felt that the fans were more important than the network. He cast himself as god and NBC as some demonic force from the other side...The networks (I use the plural as they all speak to each other) felt differently...Gene went ahead and created a villain (NBC) with the help of fans – people with a financial interest in fandom." (NBC: America's Network, p. 212) In turn however, it was his debunking of Bjo Trimble's famous "spontaneous" fan letter writing campaign that saved Star Trek for a third season as being surreptitiously orchestrated by Roddenberry, that earned Solow the particular wrath of the more puritanical elements of Star Trek fandom, and thereby becoming the "heavy" as far as they were concerned [2], one of them going truly overboard by calling Solow a "self-aggrandizing, wannabe vulture". [3]

Herb Solow is married to Yvonne Fern Solow and it was with her that he has co-authored a subsequent Star Trek-related book: the 1997 Star Trek: The Original Series Sketchbook.

In the Errand of Fury book series, Colonel West is on the staff of an Admiral Herbert Solow, named after after the executive.

Career outside Star Trek

Herbert Solow got started in show business in an inauspicious fashion, starting in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency in New York City shortly after his graduation from Dartmouth College in 1953. After his promotion to the position of talent agent in 1956, Solow moved to NBC as Program Director of California National Productions which included managing the NBC Film Division. In 1960 Solow was transferred to Los Angeles, shortly before NBC, responding to government regulations dissolved the NBC Film Division. Solow then joined CBS as Director of Daytime Programs for the West Coast, and then subsequently returning to NBC a year later as Director of Daytime Programs.

He left his NBC Daytime Programs position and joined Desilu Studios in early 1964, hired by Oscar Katz as his assistant and who was urgently charged to find new television properties to develop, as the studio found itself in dire straits with only one property, The Lucy Show, left in production at the time. Appointed Vice President of Programs a year later, Solow personally oversaw the development, sales, and production of Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, the western series The Long Hunt of April Savage – which, while ordered by ABC network, was not further developed as a series after its pilot episode – and, at a later stage, Mannix. Katz and Solow were arguably a bit too successful in their original assignment, as the small, ailing studio found itself at the start of 1966 suddenly confronted with the development of three new series at once, and which is why the studio's Board of Directors, fearing, not entirely unfounded, that the studio would financially overstretch itself, wanted to forgo on the further development of Star Trek initially, the notion eventually nixed by Lucille Ball. Ironically, the fears of the Board were somewhat allayed when ABC canceled April Savage, before production of the regular series was slated to start.

After he had quit his job at Paramount Television, Solow joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as Vice President of Television Production, overseeing the development and series production of Medical Center, The Courtship of Eddie's Father (produced by and co-starring James Komack), and Then Came Bronson (produced by Robert Justman and Robert Sabaroff).

After this, Solow was appointed Vice President of Worldwide Motion Picture and Television Production for MGM. It was during this stint that he hired Roddenberry to write and produce the theatrical film, Pretty Maids All in a Row, based on the novel by Francis Pollini and directed by Roger Vadim. The film featured James Doohan, William Campbell and Dawn Roddenberry in the cast. Other films made under his helm included Robert Altman's Brewster McCloud (1970, with Sally Kellerman, William Windom, Rene Auberjonois, John Schuck and Bert Remsen), Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point (1970, with Paul Fix and Lee Duncan), Kelly's Heroes (1970, with Perry Lopez, Tom Troupe and David Hurst), The Strawberry Statement (1970, with Kim Darby and Bert Remsen), Alex in Wonderland (1970, with Dick Geary) and The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971, with Harry Basch, James Sloyan and directed by James Goldstone).

In 1973, he left MGM to become an independent filmmaker and formed Solow Productions. He co-created and produced the television series Man from Atlantis. He was also involved in the production of the English movie Brimstone and Treacle. His last feature film production was Saving Grace, co-starring Edward James Olmos.

Solow is a member of the Writers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America and serves on the Foreign Film, Documentary, and Special Effects Committees of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is currently an independent writer-producer and also lectures on television and film production.

Upon his retirement from the motion picture industry, Solow and his wife, parents of three daughters, were by 2005 living in south-west Wales, UK, where he was a part-time lecturer at the media department of the then University of Wales, Lampeter, returning to Malibu in 2009. During her time at Lampeter, Solow became Writer-in Residence and learned Welsh. (Carpe Articulum, Literary Review, Vol. 3, Issue 3. pp. 24-55)

Bibliography

• Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, 1996 - Co-author
• Star Trek: The Original Series Sketchbook, 1997 - Co-author

Star Trek interviews

• "The Little Program That Could: The relationship between NBC and Star Trek", Chapter 12: NBC: America's Network, August 2007, pp. 209-222
• Star Trek: The True Story, 2013

External links

• Template:IMDb-link
• Herbert Franklin Solow at Wikipedia