William Shatner On The Mike Douglas Show 1969 Part 2 Of 2

[CatspitProductions]

I have to give him credit here for trying to create performance art on talk TV. This was a lot more cerebral than his audience of that day could handle. And today he gets so much flack for this stuff but he is a really good actor now and then. Come get some Catspit~! ☠

[11111111jws]

the best shatner i've ever seen :)

[joebri]

THIS IS FREAKING AMAZING.

[PC3900]

Hard to believe, but a few months after this, ST was cancelled and Shatner was soon doing dinner theater to survive and at times living in his pickup. Glad he later got rich for his work.

[Substantive64]

TORTURE!!!!

[silvereagle2061]

In "Free Enterprise" he wanted to do a musical version of Hamlet.

[sebs42]

He's overacting Hamlet.

[aculturemind]

@sebs42

Most people overact Shakespeare. But then, there seems to be this idea of theatre that seems very similar to old harpsichord recordings of Bach. I prefer Glenn Gould on piano.

[GNeuman]

Wonderful, wonderful, Shatspeare!

[28stads]

He was so attractive back then! So he sang like that even back then. hahaha

[at90percent]

I guess techically he's rapping not singing.

[phoenixraven999]

Shatner performing Hamlet = WIN

[sedativechunk]

It's William Shatner in his prime during Star Trek! Sometimes I wish someone could go back in time and tell them to do 7 seasons of the show!

How is this classified as singing, anyway? It sounds like Kirk doing an episode of Star Trek on crack.

[discoder]

Ex! Ell! Ent!

[Monstermack40]

his show aired exactly two weeks after my sister was born

[gompth1966]

The Shat is the greatest singer of all time!

[marcparella]

Now I know why I needed therapy for all these years. I was 6 years old when this was on TV and it must have had a very strong impression on me. Oh why didn't Irwin Allen call Shatner instead of Roddenberry.

[biathcw]

Iriwn Allen, eh--pardon?

[marcparella]

@biathcw You didn't get the joke. Irwin Allen had four science fiction shows in the 60s. All of them had better ratings than Star Trek, but none of them since the 60s has ever developed a corpse of fans like Star Trek. I mean, come on, do you know who Gary Conway is? Shatner lucked out with Star Trek and life would have been much different if Irwin Allen called first.

[biathcw]

I knew of the shows, not specific ratings though, a generation too soon. Thanks.

[ishtarg8]

Was Shatner on drugs at this point?

And where can I get some of them?

[GreatEmerald1]

It's ironic that he says "Enterprises of great pitch and moment" in the speech :D It was even made into an eBook and a comic of TNG.

I imagine how this could have fitted into Star Trek TOS...

Door opens in the middle of the speech, and Mr. Spock states: "This is highly illogical! That person no longer exists!" XD

[mikemaccafan]

@GreatEmerald1

He also says something about "the undiscovered country!" Very cool indeed :D

[EmpireLS56KW]

I think William Shatner is fine actor not star but an actor. Tom Cruise is star not an actor. I mean can you see Tom Cruise, doing Shakespeare? LOL

[ArtistinMO]

Most people make a lot of fun about Shatner's career cos they only know him from TV but he started out on the stage in Shakespeare and earned his stripes in theater. Read his autobiography, Up Til Now.  Interesting. Really!

[babyinblack]

lol ohh the drama!

aha william shatner's awesome :)

[pixiepqueen]

pity about the sync but a great vid!

[SunnyDaleSlayr]

Weed,money, and fine women. Plus the world loves the guy. Wouldn't you be smiling like he was here? Big Bad Bill baby. Wooo.

[onisynn]

William Shatner  ROCKS!

[EmpireLS56KW]

Is the sound out of sync or is Bill, miming the words that he wrote for the recording? (When I was 35, I was playing captain Kirk chase hot girls on the show) lol.

[sharcnet1]

Looks like they stole the chairs from the Galieo 7 shuttlecraft.

[dhogan1999]

This was a different time in television and in society. The truth was, for that time period, pretentiousness such as shown there was hip. This was art. It is easy to look back now and find it dated and cheesy. Overall though, I think it holds up rather well.

[LazlosPlane]

You make it sound like a thousand years ago. It wasn't. It may have been a bit superficial because, after all, what can you say in 11 minutes on a daytime show?

I was there. I watched these shows. For pretentiousness nothing beats popular culture of today, besides which it is vapid, empty, devoid of meaning, and a celebration of all that is vulgar and juvenile.

[tiberiousss]

@LazlosPlane There was plenty of emptiness back in 69. The drug culture, free love, and the destruction of values and morals which was replaced with sleeping around. And a war that did see thousands of Americans die. A pop culture that instead of showing youth there was more to life than drugs, drugs became their life. How many thousands of kids didn't make it through the 60's due to this unpretentious self serving culture. Yeah, Great times in 1969.

[LazlosPlane]

@tiberiousss Yes, there was. I'm not saying there wasn't. It was God awful, for so many reasons. But the crap that had it's "birthing" in the 60's did not become entrenched in the culture, annihilating everything else, until the late 70's. Since then, it's been a childish, vulgar, nightmare.

[tiberiousss]

@LazlosPlane Your joking right? everything you see today is either directly or indirectly the result of what took place in the 60's. Our culture evolves like anything else. Failing to recognize that what has happen in today's culture is a result of what took place in the past is a being a bit short sighted. You can blame the hippie movement for the vulgarity you see in today's culture. Period end of story.

[brendanpr21]

It seems more open friendly any honest then any talk show I see today.

[dorothyandtoto39]

I can watch him for hours!

[newt0830]

phasers on kill

[ClassicShowbiz]

Post the whole epsiode if you can.

[bradondo]

William Shatner + Microphone + background music = The Genius of Cheese! It's always amazing to me that he actually believed himself to be "hip." It's one of these situations, I think where if someone believes in something hard enough it actually (sort of) becomes true... Thanks for posting this luminous gem of seventies self-absorption!