It turns out they were waiting for William Shatner's birthday. A week and a half after visiting the Grand Slam convention in Pasadena with a camera crew, Jimmy Kimmel Live finally aired their segment on the experience Wednesday night, featuring comedic interviews with fans, dealers, a red-faced Celeste Yarnall, and the Lake Tahoe professor who is teaching a course in Star Trek this spring.

As previously reported, Jimmy Kimmel came in person to peruse the convention, seeing what funny bits he could come up with, and making sure he was part of the Trivia Competition. The bad news is, they came on Friday, the least attended day of the event (before any Trek celebrities came on stage, leaving the main room looking unrepresentatively sparse). The good news is, Kimmel — a fan himself — did not resort to any mean-spirited mockery to get his laughs.

On the Wednesday night show, after his opening monologue, Kimmel introduced the piece by saying, "Today is a big day — today is William Shatner's 75th birthday... He looks great, he's still winning Emmys on Boston Legal. And to celebrate the birth of America's favorite captain, about three weeks ago [it was actually only 12 days], I went to a Star Trek convention. And here it is, take a look."

The five-minute segment began with a montage of shots from around the convention — including Grace Lee Whitney flashing a Vulcan salute. Kimmel's first interview was with a fan named Lisa Catelani of Rohnert Park, Calif., who talked about meeting DeForest Kelley years ago. (If you're a West Coast convention-goer, Lisa is that lady who always wears glasses in the shape of the current year. She was actually the big star of the evening, because she was also featured prominently in the "Living in TV Land" special about William Shatner in the previous hour on another channel.)

The next bit had Kimmel talking to a dealer about a set of action figures from "Mirror, Mirror." He was particularly focused on the Sulu figure. "Has the action figure changed since he [George Takei] came out of the closet?" Kimmel asked. The dealer replied, "It has not changed a bit, and probably won't." Kimmel added, "It probably won't. But it might?" Then, the camera shows the Sulu figure "beaming" out, and replaced by something more, shall we say, Village People-like.

Then, in the autograph room, Kimmel talked to Celeste Yarnall, who was "Yeoman Landon" in "The Apple." "You played one of the many lovely Captain Kirk girlfriends, right? In real life, which of the Star Trek actors did you find most attractive?" Kimmel asked her. "Well, I actually dated Bill [Shatner]," Celeste confessed. Kimmel came back: "You dated Bill. Is he as wonderful a lover as I imagine he is?" Celeste laughed in embarrassment: "I won't answer that question, but he's a wonderful man." "And lover?" "He's a very loving man." "But not a great lover? Wow, we really learned something about Captain Kirk!"

With a wipe transition that used the Original Series sliding-door sound effect, Kimmel's next interview was with Daryl Frazetti, who, as recently reported, has designed a college course called "The Anthropology of Star Trek." Kimmel poked fun at Frazetti's short stature, and then after Frazetti talked about the class he's teaching, Kimmel said, "I think you're kidding yourself, but you're adorable, I'll tell you that."

Another interview was with a fan dressed as a Klingon, who spoke a few words of the Klingon language to Kimmel. When the fan mentioned, "I've also got arthritis in both my knees," Kimmel said, "What? Oh, I thought you were speaking Klingon again. Well, good luck to you, and I just want say [in a guttural voice] 'Arthritisinbothmyknees.' In Klingon that means my knees hurt."

Then the segment showed Kimmel taking part in the Trivia Competition, successfully fielding the first question, then facing increasingly difficult non-Star Trek trivia, and acting increasingly upset. (See the convention report for more details.) The second time he said, "I just want to say how great it is to be here at the Apollo," they cut to footage of raucous applause from Showtime at the Apollo.

After the Trivia contest Kimmel despondently walked from the stage back into the audience, and sat between a couple of fans he had befriended earlier, named Rex and Elaine Evans, in "First Contact"-style uniforms.

"I was having a really good time — I mean, you guys have made me feel better, but this trivia thing has left the taste of acid in my mouth. I've never been so angry, and disgusted, and really just hurt. I feel like I've been rejected by the Star Trek community," Kimmel lamented.

Remaining between the Evans couple, he continued, "Well, they're bringing somebody out on stage [Robert Picardo], so I think this is a great time to say, Live Long and Prosper, and Beam Us Up, beam us the hell outa here, Scotty." Then, all three brandished the Vulcan salute, and they were "beamed" out of their seats.

Currently this episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live is not scheduled to repeat, but you can keep an eye on jimmykimmellive.net, or your local listings, just in case. Watch for the episode featuring Jamie Lynn Sigler of The Sopranos and Larry the Cable Guy.

By the way, it was the Jimmy Kimmel show where Shatner was convinced he should sell his passed kidney stone as a collectible (related story).