A special edition of trade paper The Hollywood Reporter hit the stands and the Internet today to celebrate Paramount Pictures' 90th anniversary, and throughout the issue one fact is unavoidable: The studio owes a huge amount of its success to the vision of the future created by Gene Roddenberry.

"Other than MGM/UA's 40-year-old James Bond series, no franchise has come even close to having the longevity and success of Star Trek," says one of several articles dedicated to the history of the studio that began life in 1912 as Famous Players Film Co., and today remains one of Hollywood's "old guard." (Paramount, in fact, is the only major Hollywood studio that still actually resides, geographically, in Hollywood.)

The final article of the July 2002 special issue is exclusively devoted to Star Trek. The story entitled "Still Boldly Going" begins:

"When then-parent company Gulf + Western Industries dissolved Desilu Prods. into Paramount Pictures in 1967, nobody could have predicted that one of Desilu's less-heralded assets, Star Trek — a sci-fi series limping through its second and penultimate season on NBC — would become Paramount's most profitable franchise. The show has spawned four subsequent series to date, a vocal global fan base, a merchandising giant and a succession of big-screen spinoffs — the 10th of which, 'Star Trek: Nemesis,' is scheduled to hit theaters Dec. 13.

"'We see no signs of the Star Trek franchise weakening,' says Rob Friedman, chief operating officer of Paramount Pictures and vice chairman of the Paramount Motion Picture Group. 'The new TV show, Enterprise, is strong, video sales are strong, and the movies are performing in the $80 million to $100 million range.'"

Another feature titled "Alumni Association — A look behind the scenes at some of the studio's highest-profile endeavours" quotes executive producer Rick Berman:

"When we started developing (Star Trek: The Next Generation), one of the biggest stumbling blocks was casting the main role. The original series had become a cult favorite in syndication. All of the Trekkies were very, very skeptical — who was going to step into the shoes of Capt. Kirk? One of my fellow producers, Bob Justman, who had worked on the original series, went to UCLA and saw Patrick Stewart, who was giving a series of lectures on Shakespeare. Bob was extremely impressed, and he brought Gene (Roddenberry) to see him. Gene was totally opposed to it! He was not interested in a bald British man playing Capt. Picard. Justman said, 'When Gene makes up his mind, don't even try to change it.' But I didn't know Gene that well. As we saw more and more actors — we saw hundreds of them — I said, 'Nobody came close to the bald Englishman.' Finally, Gene agreed to meet with Patrick and agreed that nobody was quite as good. When we had Patrick audition for the studio, Gene asked him to wear a toupee, which he did. Luckily, the head of the studio, who knew Patrick was wearing a toupee, said he was wonderful — but lose the wig!"

In the story "Series Business," Berman talks about being asked to join Roddenberry on TNG, at a time when "relations between Roddenberry and the studio were not particularly harmonious."

In "Ready for Primetime," Berman adds, "At the time, it was a risky enterprise. It was a syndicated TV show, which was relatively unheard of at the time. It was a sequel, and it was science fiction. If you look at the mid-'80s, there weren't a lot of successful sequels."

The Index for this special feature can be found at HollywoodReporter.com.

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