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William Shatner Defends 1986 “Get A Life” SNL Skit After Criticism From Rod Roddenberry

| September 6, 2021 | By: Anthony Pascale 90 comments so far

A late-night comedy skit William Shatner did 35 years ago is once again making news, with Shatner defending himself against criticism from the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.

1986: Shatner, SNL and “Get a Life”

In December 1986—one month after the release of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home— William Shatner hosted an 8th season episode of NBC’s Saturday Night Live . One of the skits, called “Star Trek Convention”—but more often known as the “Get a Life” skit—poked fun at fans at Star Trek conventions.  The skit (which you can see below) was written by SNL mainstay Robert Smigel with help on the nerdy details from SNL staff writers Jon Vitti and George Meyer. It featured Shatner becoming exasperated with the increasingly nitpicky fan questions until he disparaged the fans, saying (in part):

You know, before I answer any more questions there’s something I wanted to say. Having received all your letters over the years, and I’ve spoken to many of you, and some of you have traveled… y’know… hundreds of miles to be here, I’d just like to say… GET A LIFE, will you people? I mean, for crying out loud, it’s just a TV show! I mean, look at you, look at the way you’re dressed! You’ve turned an enjoyable little job, that I did as a lark for a few years, into a COLOSSAL WASTE OF TIME!

Robert Smigel had pitched the idea to Shatner directly; in 2018, Smigel told The Ringer Shatner was sold by the “Get a life!” tagline. “That’s what made him laugh,” he said.

While controversial for some fans at the time, it was embraced by many, who also appreciated the detailed understanding of the Trek lore it included (like references to Yeoman Janice Rand and Leslie Thompson and the episode “The Enemy Within”). Shatner himself acknowledged how he respected Star Trek fans. During his monologue for the show, he said, “I mean they’re truly incredible, and I hope they have a sense of humor about the show tonight, or I’m in deep trouble.”

William Shatner in Saturday Night Live ‘s “Get a Life” skit (NBC via Getty)

2021: Rod Roddenberry weighs in

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter to promote the upcoming Star Trek Day, Rod Roddenberry took issue with the 1986 skit:

I never really appreciated that skit because I think it was demeaning to the fans. I think it was disrespectful, especially for a character who was an open-minded, intelligent leader.

However, he also added, “I don’t condemn it in any way. It’s Saturday   Night   Live,  and it’s all fun.”

On Sunday in response to a tweet from THR about the Roddenberry comments, Shatner responded with “Isn’t presentism just wonderful?” along with an eye-roll emoji.

Isn’t presentism just wonderful? 🙄 #getalife https://t.co/kX6tj5hP7I — William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) September 5, 2021

Shatner followed that up with some clarification, explaining how “presentism” applied today’s value system to moments in the past.

It’s presentism because it applies today’s value systems & beliefs about what is “bullying” & what is “disrespectful” to a time when those were not the values or opinions and nobody was really offended but the mindset people have is that it makes them look intelligent & caring.🤷🏼‍♂️ https://t.co/yIFT8IDGVe — William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) September 5, 2021

1999: Shatner reflects with “Get a Life!”… the book about fans

At the time of the sketch, Shatner actually wasn’t active on the Star Trek convention circuit. The actor had experienced tense moments with some fans; in 1968, one fan even tried to rip his shirt off as he came out of 30 Rockefeller Center. But after appearing at a number of conventions in the 90s, the actor became more fascinated with Trek fandom, leading to his 1999 book Get a Life!

In the book, Shatner explains how he learned he had fans all wrong:

Who were these people? Were they sane? Were they sober? Did they really need to ‘get a life’? To be brutally, humiliatingly honest, that now-infamous ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch was for me, at that time, equal parts comedy and catharsis. I was oblivious to the facts. I bought into the ‘Trekkie’ stereotypes. In a nutshell, I was a dope.

However, in the same book, Shatner says that in 1986, he trusted that fans would not be offended by the SNL skit because it was “SO exaggerated and SO stupid and SO cartoonish.” And he was relieved to learn how Gene Roddenberry reacted to it:

In the weeks to come I do get some criticism for that sketch, but far more praise, from fans, castmates, even Gene Roddenberry, which surprises me. No one was ever more protective of Star Trek’s fans than Gene, and I really expected he might take me to task.

Shatner’s SNL episode came as Gene Roddenberry was developing the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation . Shatner’s  Get A Life! book includes a passage from Richard Arnold retelling how Roddenberry, along with D.C. Fontana, David Gerrold, and Bob Justman, all watched a tape of the sketch together the following Monday. According to Arnold, “We were all in stitches, and no one was laughing harder than Gene.”

A decade after the book, Shatner followed up with the documentary William Shatner’s Get a Life! which also explored the world of Star Trek fandom. In the video below from Comic-Con 2012, Bill talked to The Hollywood Reporter about how that one sketch spawned the book and then the documentary.

After 35 years, people are still talking about this SNL sketch. As Smigel told The Ringer, it “may be the most resonant sketch I ever wrote there.”

Watch the skit

Find more stories about Star Trek history at TrekMovie.com .

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At the very least… I learned a new word today. Thanks, Bill!

Well, nice to see the people who actually came with and wrote it got a pass.

Maybe I should’ve listened to him..

This particular skit could just as easily be done today using a group of a few ridiculously-dressed, enthusiastic Star Wars fans or Marvel fans with one of the actual actors from those franchises, and it would still get the same reaction from me….a bellylaugh overall.

I’ve no issue with Bill agreeing to doing it then, just as I’d have no issue if he’d just done it yesterday. I’d have been more impressed if Bill had actually written the entire thing himself, but he certainly performed it with gusto.

I couldn’t agree more!

It’s no secret William Shatner doesn’t like Star Trek and doesn’t really know anything about it beyond what he needed to know. He’s an actor, he doesn’t need to be a fan. I find that skit funny and I have no doubt there is a truth to it for him.

“It’s no secret William Shatner doesn’t like Star Trek and doesn’t really know anything about it beyond what he needed to know.”

I don’t for a second believe he writes those books that display his name as the author.

“It’s demeaning and disrespectful … but I don’t condemn it in any way and it’s all fun .” These would be categorized as contradictory nonsense statements that are perhaps better left ignored. Also, Robert Smigel is a great American.

Yes, he actually IS condemning it but just to save his own a$$ he tempers it by saying it’s just fun. That way he covers all the bases. He gets to have people talk about him. Complete BS.

I don’t know, it’s nowhere near as demeaning and disrespectful to the fans as the garbage that’s been churned out by Paramount/CBS since 2009

“the fans”. Ignoring all the fans that liked Star Trek 09? Fans that like the new streaming series? Or are they not real fans? If anything, that’s demeaning and disrespectful. Please don’t gatekeep.

Cool Story bro

As a lifelong Star Trek fan, I never had an issue with this skit. It was funny. I have never heard of anybody having an issue with it. Until now.

Well, I didn’t know it was a “skit”… I have taken it as an actual honest comment up until today. And that “misunderstanding” certainly induced a very strong rebellion against that attitude and incresed the intensity of my fanaticism :-) Ironic, isn’t it. The very skit that made me was just that… a joke. But I am utterly grateful for that misunderstanding. I stand by my decisions concerning Trek.

This is truly a deep dive from Shatner. I thought I was the only person reading up weird academic papers on “presentism” — Presentism is  the doctrine that only the present is real . … A presentist thinks that everything is present; more generally, that, necessarily, it is always true that everything is (then) present. Presentism is the temporal analogue of the modal doctrine of actualism, according to which everything is actual.

Another meaning of presentism is closer to what Shatner means: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(literary_and_historical_analysis)

It’s a pertinent point he’s making and elevates the conversation a little. Shatner surprises me sometimes. I never took the skit personally. There are aspects of fandom that I roll my eyes at as well. In any event, he’s a stalwart presence at many conventions and was very kind to me when I got his autograph. It’s not like he really NEEDS to go to these things.

He doesn’t need to go, but I am sure he doesn’t go for his love of the fans.

Sounds like a good concept for a Star Trek story.

“Presentism is  the doctrine that only the present is real .”

Wow, that concept seems to be deeply flawed on many levels. First of all, the present doesn’t even exist. Each and every future moment becomes past in an inconcievable instant. And that very brief moment defies us entirely. Unless you are a trained Jedi :-)

Second, even if you apply a broader sense of “present”: Nothing that is would be if it hadn’t been born by the past. And nothing that is would have any sort of purpose if it didn’t have a future. The present would be utterly pointless.

That is not to say that I cannot accept a certain level of abrogation, for example regarding the retconning of Trek canon or values (e.g. female captains) for giving leeway to creative purposes…

I don’t see why Roddenberry even needed to dredge up a 10 minute comedy sketch from 35 years ago for a fluff piece; it came across as a half hearted attempt to manufacture a little artificial conflict for the sake of attention and I think even he realized it as he was saying it, thus his walk back.

As to the sketch itself, I though it was funny back then and still think it’s funny today. Having attended a few conventions back in the early 1980s, it was also more accurate than some fans may want to admit.

To be honest, I found Denise Crosby’s Trekkies documentaries to be more demeaning, with their long looks at the more outlandish corners of fandom like a bunch of people dressed as Klingons eating at a McDonalds. Now that was eye rollingly cringeworthy.

@ TonyD – I have a sudden hankering to rewatch ‘Galaxy Quest’ all over again now.

It was The Hollywood Reporter which “dredged up” the sketch, not Roddenberry. Did you even bother to *read* the article, homeboy?

And Roddenberry could have easily taken the high road, said that it was 35 years ago, that it was all for laughs and moved on. He didn’t quite do that, now did he. He dredged up tired old arguments about how it was disrespectful, etc., then said inexplicably said it was all good. Talk about a clueless, mealy moused answer to an equally shallow question. Of course, I guess I should expect as much from someone whose only claim to fame is having a recognizable last name and only accomplishment is riding on and profiting from the coattails of others.

Happy, homeboy?

What’s great about that sketch is that it’s still funny today as it was back in ’86. I been seeing this article show up on my feed (gee, wonder why) and I never clicked on it once. Since it made it to TM, I finally did and its much ado about nothing. It’s totally fine for Rod Roddenberry to feel that way but I think most fans enjoyed the joke. And I wasn’t a even a teenager at the time but still a very big fan of Trek then and I thought it was funny. Of course I had no idea 35 years later I would STILL be a fan (I was also a big fan of Knight Rider and The A-team that year too ;)) and here we are! And like Star Trek, SNL is just a TV show too that’s famous for poking fun at everything and yes maybe had a (small) point. And it was really funny.

Oh thanks Tiger2, now I can’t get the A-Team’s theme out of my head!

Sorry about this, but I couldn’t help it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdyYvwcybzg

Yeah the skit, like SNL overall in the 1970s and 80s, was fun to watch and generally harmless. That said, I think Shatner at the time was totally on board with the theme of the skit and it probably also reflected his personal character and opinion of Star Trek and the fans (as I noted in my comments below).

All respect to Rod, but the sketch was funny, and the satire spot-on. It stung because it was true, and still is true.

Look at any long discussion thread about the franchise, especially the newest shows in the franchise, and you will see many people who do, indeed, need to “get a life.”

Humor about Star Trek, In Star Trek, about the stars of Star Trek and the fans of Star trek has always been part of Star Trek. Rod “Needs to Get a Life”

I like Rod just fine. He seems to be a thoughtful, well-intentioned person who cares about Star Trek and his father’s legacy. From what I can tell though, he’s never had to work a day in his life. So I don’t find his criticism of those that are actually in the arena to be particularly credible and am not interested in his opinion.

“From what I can tell though, he’s never had to work a day in his life.”

Unfortuantely, money is the only thing that still keeps me attached to that sort of normality. But I really, really hope that the Solana-Class Starship Etherprice will soon free me from those obligations :-) Bitcoin to the Moon and Cardano to Cardasssia!

We’re shipmates 😀. Sadly the USS Bitcoin struck a quantum filament today. 🥲

Well I mean, MOST rich people don’t have to work a day in their life, but to give them credit most do anyway (if only to make MORE money lol). He has definitely worked, but yes most of it has been around his father’s endeavors. But hey, no different than the Trump kids and people still listen to their opinion too. ;)

actually his dad made him work on TNG as a intern when he was a kid. he never appreciated it until later, a job many would have killed to do.

Working for Star Trek isn’t work! That I would pay money for… I’m talking about your average 9to5 job. And that is still in my way of becoming a full-time geek :-)

Anyway, I hope that’ll have been dealt with around Christmas… But honestly, I shouldn’t post this. The crypto market took a significant dip after my last post. It’s obviously bad karma…

I feel the same about the need to dig up that sketch. Seems like trend-bait. From a very pessimistic perspective – pretensim could be what Rod is doing as an exec for all the new live action shows and how far afield from the original vision they have gone Talk about cashing in on a legacy that until recently he had wanted nothing to do with. The Mission Log podcast is greatness so all due credit there, but even the premise at the time it started was that Rod had no real idea of what the point or meaning of Star Trek was.

This is so interesting on many many levels.

First of all, I didn’t even know this comment back in 1986 was a scripted, exaggerated sketch. I always thought of it as an honest, spontaneous remark.

Second, my lifelong rebellion against that sort of attitude expressed back then, stands tall. Trek is – like any other movie (franchise), literature, architecture etc – a piece of art, one that outlives its creator(s) and persists even beyond my own life. I consider such persistance of vision as superior to the frail and fragile nature of reality… Unfortunately, Nimoy is dead. But Spock lives on forever…

Third, it is isn’t “just” a TV show. It is a TV show and therefore exists, as a TV show. There is no place for “just” in that sentence. For me, sci fi and fanatsy franchises are “my life”.. and Trek is my home soil. I know the content isn’t real, there is no Federation, no Enterprise, no Warp Drive… Doesn’t have to be… because the bridge designs are real, the uniforms, the colors, the musical scores, the SFX, the box office numbers…

Being a “Homo Aspergensis” I can fully immerse in such minute details. The audio-visual tapestry, the music, the money numbers…even a plain and simple list of episodes! And all of that is real… The history of that fiction, that piece of art transcends reality just like Shakespeare, DaVinci or Homer… It will prevail. I cannot understand how any of this can be deemed a “colossal waste of time”…

There are people risking their lives in extreme sports, others live in the woods to be one with nature… I cherish Star Trek trailers, soundtracks, ship models. So what?

To my knowledge, SNL has always discouraged ad-libbing in their sketches, so there was little chance it could’ve ever been spontaneous. Especially when, you know, it’s the punchline.

Oh, and no offense intended, but you might want to lighten up just a little about this stuff. Laughing at the things you enjoy is another level of enjoyment, after all.

What was it Picard said about the space Irish, “Sometimes you have to bow to the absurd.” Something like that. And Star Trek and its fandom has plenty of the absurd.

Really like what you wrote here. Let’s put this another way. Imagine that Zuckerberg participates in a sketch and make comments about how stupid people using FB are. It might be funny (and true), yet it would be disrespectful to his “customers”. Same for Tim Cook participating in a sketch and saying that Apple users are mostly dumb and snob rich people. Again may be funny to some, but very disrespectful. The point here is that the message came not from SNL, but from Shatner, who AFAIK makes a living from ST and its fans. So I agree with Roddenberry. But then, I have stopped admiring Shatner a long time ago. I don’t have to like the actor just because I like the character.

It was all the self-admitted comedy bully writer Robert Smigel’s sentiments. Shatner might have thought the phrase funny, but, according to Seth Myers in an SNL anniversary special, one of the funniest tales told by SNL writers of the era was Shatner was unfamiliar with the US colloquialism and had no idea how to say it properly, so he tried various sorts of dramatic readings of it that had them rolling in the aisles, until Smigel put him out of his misery, showing him how to say it.

He was 100% right. I just have to read some of the essays in the comments section here to feel the same way !

The skit is hilarious, as much today as then. ( Lower Decks shows it has a point.) Galaxy Quest parodied the rabid fans as well.

I have no issue with the skit. I have no issue with Roddenberry having (or not having) an issue with the skit. I have no issue with Shatner having an issue with Roddenberry having an issue with the skit.

Move the f–k on.

Bryant, that’s what I say when I see people crying over silly stuff. “Got an issue? Here’s a tissue!”

I think in the skit there was kind of a nod to the idea of realism vs fantasy and my personal belief is that if you are a science-fiction fan of any kind then yes, some of these fantastic concepts may seem real to you especially if you have a good imagination and there is nothing wrong with this. I don’t think it is a waste of time if you want to spend your time immersed in everything Star Trek. I believe that not everything in life should be based on work or earning money, if being an intense Trek fan makes that person happy, so be it. That is a freedom people should have.

It’s not even that. It isn’t about real world vs fantasy at all for me. The contents of genre shows are ficticious for sure but the shows and movies AREN’T. I do not believe there are Klingons out there or there will ever be a Starship Enterprise going to Warp 9. And even the tech that has exceeded Trek’s predictions doesn’t interest me that much. I haven’t even got a smartphone…

I KNOW it’s a TV and movie franchise and that very fact makes it more accessible to me than reality. In reality people you love die. In reality girls and women have always been far beyond reach. In reality you become old and eventually die. How is that reality preferable to something you can revisit time and again as long as you live?

For almost 30 years I’ve been watching Trek. Not just the movies and TV eps… The actual show is sth. special. But I listen to scores every day, I watch trailers on a regular basis, I love looking at stats or episode lists, collecting ship models, comparing bridge designs and more recently watch Trek-related stuff on YouTube…

All of that matters BECAUSE it is a TV show. If that was reality I’d be scared to death… I don’t want any Klingons or Borg in reality. I even don’t want to upgrade to Trek-like tech. It is the self-contained TV and movie franchise that matters… all its designs, sounds, shapes, actors, music, ep titles, YouTube content and trailers…

None of that stuff is any less real than cars, food or sports… It is part of reality. TOS having 3 seasons and 79 episodes… that IS reality… the contents, stories aren’t but that’s true for every book, every play, every movie ever written unless it’s a historical documentary.

I’m a collector and I’m an Asperger who dwells in numbers, title lists, designs, colors, collector’s items, names and music. I live in my own world and that world is utterly different. I do not perceive time the way you do. I’ve always been here.

Back in 1986, Shatner asked that poor guy if he had ever kissed a girl. Well, I haven’t and I certainly don’t want to. I’m supersensitive, you cannot even touch me without tickling me to death. I cannot connect to people the way you do. I cannot compromise, I cannot share my life with others on an everyday basis. It’s impossible for me to “get a life”…

Yeah, I had to move out of my parent’s “basement” when they died recently. I have my own apartment, Mr Shatner. But still I have been and always shall be a geek, Trekkie, nerd… I am what I am… And I won’t apologize for that…

Rod Roddenberry takes issue with a harmless skit but continues to help Kurtzman destroy his father’s creation as long as he keeps getting paid lol.

Rod only cares about money. The fact that without Shatner the series may not have ever got to where it was.

Because we know that Shatner has been involved with ST for all those years because of his love for the fans….

“Presentism,” Bill? How about “revisionist history”? That skit didupset a lot of fans at the time, but it’s fun to see your ego rewrite the past as if being upset by it was some new phenomenon based on today’s value system. This guy never ceases to prove what an egotistical blowhard he is.

All that said, I never was upset with the sketch, and found it amusing. I can understand how people might not have appreciated their fandom hero mocking them, though. Roddenberry was right that it WAS disrespectful of the fans.

Contrary to Bill though, I actually think this is a case of reverse presentism (pastism?)– a sketch like that would probably play better today. Self deprecating humor, humor that mocks its own audience, is something we see a lot of these days, especially as genre fandom has grown far beyond the small niche, geeky circles.

I watched it when it aired live with a bunch of friends who were huge fans then and are still huge fans now. We all thought it was hysterical. It upset some fans, it didn’t upset the overwhelmingly majority of them. Those who were upset by the skit weren’t in on the joke but became a part of it.

That’s not revisionist history. That’s just the way it was.

Those were the days! When people could still say what they meant and make fun of people, without being canceled or some other BS.

Shatner makes some valid points and I might even agree with him to a very limited extent.

That said, the skit and his recent comments probably also give us some insight into his personal character and the limited way he views the world and the people around us. It is no surprise that none of his TOS co-stars seemed to consider Shatner as a close personal life-long friend.

It is also not a huge surprise that producers and directors have never gone to Shatner to work on anything significant in the Star Trek universe since Generations. Meanwhile Doohan and Takei were both in Berman Trek shows along with Nimoy who was also in the JJ movies. Nimoy seemed to be well respected and genuinely reverred by almost everyone he ever worked with on Trek, I was especially impressed by actors who had limited exposure to Nimoy, like Kim Catrall who is more known for her role in Sex in the City, had nothing but insightful and glowing comments about Nimoy, following his passing.

I am not sure how much of this is true, but supposedly Patrick Stewart took Shatner aside one day. He apparently recommended that he learn to embrace the fact that the TOS show and movies were so reverred by so many people and that is why he eventually started to do conventions and other fan events.

Why did Nimoy decide to do the reboot movies. He walked away from playing Spock in Generations, even refused to direct it. Everyone assumed he was done with the character after Unification.

Shatner was doing conventions well before Patrick Stewart was even cast.

But he had *stopped* doing them (for a long time). Did you read the article, homeboy?

This is such a non-issue on every level. Rod wasn’t even criticizing him, and Shatner did nothing wrong. The villain here is The Hollywood Reporter for trying to turn people against each other.

You’d think Shatner would be smart enough not to take the bait.

Because let’s be honest: this skit DID spur a lot of anger from fans at the time, but similar bits done in the years since–such as when he appeared in Futurama, in an episode that similarly mocked the geekiness of Trekkies–have been beloved by fans. Big Bang Theory spent a decade mocking comics fans, Trekkies, and the like, and it too has become a favorite of those same fans.

This is definitely NOT a case of “presentism” as he seems to think. If anything, attitudes towards this kind of humor have softened over the years and become less offensive.

I watched it as it aired. I wasn’t offended. I suspect Rod said it to get some clicks and a response out of Shatner.

In a way, they are both sons of the same man, yet not brothers at all.

In all likelihood, mission accomplished.

And yet a lot of people WERE offended at the time, even if you weren’t among them. I do recall it riled up some of the Trek fandom back then, even if they were a vocal minority. To say otherwise is simply disingenuous.

I watched it as it aired as well. When Shatner pointed and Lovitz, asked him if ever kissed a girl, and Lovitz drops his head in shame, I howled with laughter. It was funny then, it’s funny now.

When Bill did originally, we had a different era of Trek and Bill then. However, it was very funny and in no way was it offensive to me as a Trekker. Bill has a great sense of humor and it showed here when he did this. Its true that fans know more about the episodes of (insert Trek series here) than the actors do. Over the years my wife have spoken to a few of actors at the conventions and cruises and they are all amazed at our knowledge. Of course it comes from watching the TV shows and movies over and over again. The actors only see/remember what they shot and few, if any, actually watch the entire episode to gain any knowledge. I had to laugh at the skit photo showing the table of trek collectables… we have that same waste basket. Even a few of the Mego action figures.

Loved that skit when I saw it for the first time in 1986 and still love it now. Great humor.

Hey, Rod…….get a life.

As enjoyable as the Get a Life skit was, the funniest skit in that episode was the long lost alternate ending to It’s A Wonderful Life…

Is that skit online anywhere?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw89o0afb2A

Warp factor 9!!

Trekkies really need a sense of humor.

That’s a tall order.

What does Rod Roddenberry actually Do?

He’s a producer.

That title can mean a bit less than it seems.

He’s an executive producer. Typically that involves handling the business end of a production and not being involved in any creative decisions.

In Roddenberry’s case, it probably means lending his name to the credits of the shows in some shallow attempt to make people think a person from the Roddenberry lineage is still actively involved and then just getting out of the way.

Great to see this story, as it will increase the value of my mint copy of the 45 rpm single of “He’s Dead, Jim” by DeForest Kelley.

The skit is hilarious. Being able to laugh at yourself is something allot more people need to learn now more than ever.

More than ever? I rather quote Kästner again:

„Was auch immer geschieht: Nie dürft ihr so tief sinken, von dem Kakao, durch den man euch zieht, auch noch zu trinken.“

It’s a story guys, you know, fiction? No matter how enjoyable. But it’s not real life!

It was funny then and it’s funny now. People need to lighten up.

Back in ’86 the sketch hit hard, but it’s still pretty funny. Nothing more than Big Bang Theory did every week with “nerds” and sci-fi fans. Have to take issue with the article contending Shatner wasn’t active on the convention circuit — does this refer to that week, month? He did many conventions during the seventies and eighties. He may have slowed down after the success of STIV and the demands of TJ Hooker, though. Also, I wasn’t sure about his feelings for the series, but the Cushman book relates a story concerning the last episode- Turnabout Intruder. The director wanted Shatner to exit the briefing room in a direction suggesting a nonexistent door. Shatner protested there would be complaints because fans knew the ship too well. That and the story about his refusing to use a metal plated Vietnam era walkie talkie as a communicator in STII suggest he did care about the show — as if his high energy performance wasn’t enough.

The only thing that really bothered me about the sketch was the way they referred to the episodes by number. How inaccurate! >;>}

At the time the skit came out, I was 19, in college and had a large group of Star Trek fans at the school; been a fan since first run syndication days for TOS. I can tell you that none of my friends were offended, we all found it funny. Don’t know anyone back then or since that didn’t. Back then we knew how to poke fun at and laugh at ourselves without getting bent out of shape about stuff.

As Rod is at least partially in charge now, getting into a fight with him is *not* a good idea if Shatner wants to be in the next movie…

I’ve seen the sketch before, but I’d forgotten that Shatner was already raising horses in 1986. Four movies must really have turned his fortunes around.

I actually enjoyed the skit quite a bit. The only thing that really bugged me was having the fans use episode numbers. I have never used an episode number and I don’t know anyone who has ever used episode numbers. But that’s just a nitpick. The sketch Was a good sketch from a time when SNL could be funny from time to time. Unlike the last few years were SNL it’s just been complete garbage.

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When William Shatner Told ‘Star Trek’ Fans to ‘Get a Life’

On Dec. 20, 1986, William Shatner took a joking swipe at Star Trek fans during his appearance on Saturday Night Live . Unfortunately, few Trekkies found it funny.

The actor was hosting the late-night staple as part of the promotion for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . The film seemingly proved a belief held among Star Trek fans that only the even-numbered motion pictures were any good. The first feature, 1979’s The Motion Picture , was a disappointment, 1982’s The Wrath of Khan  delivered, 1984’s The Search for Spock  underperformed but the fourth installment was a hit with its tale of Capt. Kirk and his colleagues traveling back in time to save the world by transporting a pair of humpback whales to the 23rd century.

The stage was set for Shatner, who’d been playing Kirk on TV and in film for 20 years by that time, to host SNL on the night of Dec. 20. Writer Robert Smigel came up with what he felt was a strong sketch idea, and, as he reported later, the key line made Shatner laugh. The six-minute sketch takes place at a Star Trek convention, where the attendees barrage Shatner with questions that prove they know more about Trek and the actor’s private business than he knows himself. Taken aback, he asks for silence and tells them he’s lived through the experience for too long. “Get a life!” he tells them, using a phrase that wasn’t yet the conversational staple it later became.

Fan power based around Trek and other shows was still something that TV networks failed to understand at the time. The constant blitz of support letters from Trekkers saved the original series from cancellation in 1968; the development of fan conventions helped encourage studio bosses to bring back the show as a movie series; and the continuing interest – and merchandise profit – would later lead to the launch of The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , Voyager and many other shows, movies and products.

Back then, however, studio execs and even many actors regarded Trekkers with some bemusement, unhappy that the consumers had become aware of their own power and adding an additional link in the uncomfortable relationship among producers, artists and advertisers. That’s why Shatner – and SNL writers Smigel, Jon Vitti and George Meyer – thought the sketch would work, and why “Captain Kirk” was seen telling fans, “You know, before I answer any more questions, there’s something I wanted to say. Having received all your letters over the years, and I’ve spoken to many of you, and some of you have traveled, you know, hundreds of miles to be here, I’d just like to say: Get a life, will you people? I mean, for crying out loud, it’s just a TV show! I mean, look at you – look at the way you’re dressed! You’ve turned an enjoyable little job, that I did as a lark for a few years, into a colossal waste of time!”

Smigel recalled that the unusually long script raised laughs at the read-through stage and at rehearsal, but that he had challenged Shatner to raise his game. “[He] was playing it a teeny-weeny bit jokey,” the writer told The Ringer in 2018. “I was pretty fearless back then about talking to actors if I was certain it would help the end result. Life had not yet beaten me down enough to suggest that some fights aren’t worth fighting.” So he asked Shatner to “play it more serious,” and that’s what happened.

It  was all in jest, or at least mainly – in his SNL monologue, Shatner called his fans “truly incredible,” adding, “ I hope they have a sense of humor about the show tonight. Or I’m in deep trouble.” In a later memoir – tellingly titled Get a Life! – he revealed that it was an important moment in his life. “To be brutally, humiliatingly honest, that now-infamous Saturday Night Live sketch was for me, at that time, equal parts comedy and catharsis," the actor admitted. "I was oblivious to the facts. I bought into the ‘Trekkie’ stereotypes. In a nutshell, I was a dope.”

Some fans – who describe themselves as “Trekkies” rather than “Trekkers” – agreed that the actor had indeed been a “dope.” Among the comments stored at FanLore are a depiction of “Get a Life” as an “uneasy mix of hyperbole, inside jokes, some genuine humor and cruelty.” Another claimed that Shatner himself was being parodied, noting, “I do find that too many professional media/celebrity cons fit that SNL parody. And though I believe Shatner's heart was in the right place, I also believe that he should've had his head examined for appearing in it.” Another fan said a few years after the broadcast that it “haunts us,” adding that James Doohan, who played Scottie in Trek , had “expressed his disapproval of the skit” at a convention “and a large number of the audience loudly agreed.”

On the other hand, one Trekkie said that the script “captured the stereotypical convention and fans, and I laughed until my sides ached.” Another didn't feel insulted but said, “I just want to say, I have a life, and Star Trek has enriched it tremendously!” Someone else made the point that the stereotypical male nerd fan, living a single life in his parents’ basement, “is better off with Trek than without it. ... With Trek , he has friends and a shared vision of what life could be at its best. Without Trek , he's just a lonely fellow stuck in the cellar.”

Intriguingly, it’s the kind of multifaceted discussion that a good (or indeed bad) episode of the franchise might be expected to generate. Smigel later called it “maybe the most resonant sketch I ever wrote there,” while Vitti argued that it represented a turning point in the relations between franchises and their fans. “You’re not really picking on the weak anymore,” he observed about modern-day interactions.

Trek creator Gene Rodenberry’s son Rod, who also worked on the franchise, had his own view on the matter. “I never really appreciated that skit,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021. "Because I think it was demeaning to the fans. I think it was disrespectful, especially for a character who was an open-minded, intelligent leader.” He added: “But I don’t condemn it in any way. It’s Saturday Night Live , and it’s all fun.”

In 2009, when Chris Pine took over the role of Kirk for a new series of  Star Trek movies, SNL paid homage to “Get a Life,” bringing in the original Spock, Leonard Nimoy, and the new Spock, Zachary Quinto, to face hard-line Trekkers of the 21st century with a script that unequivocally nodded toward the power switch that occurred between movie studios and “nerds” since Shatner unwittingly took a bigger risk than he had realized 23 years earlier.

Watch SNL's 2009 'Star Trek' Sketch

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Get a Life!

What a ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch from 1986 can teach us about the ongoing battle between superfans and the people behind the TV and movie franchises that they love

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On December 20, 1986 , one month after the release of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , William Shatner hosted Saturday Night Live . By that point, the actor had been playing Captain Kirk for 20 years. More than anyone else (except maybe Leonard Nimoy), he understood what it was like to live under a discerning subculture’s microscope.

Knowing this, Robert Smigel approached Shatner early in the week with an idea. The writer, who was in the middle of his second season at SNL , pitched a sketch in which the sci-fi icon visits a Star Trek convention. The twist? Instead of warmly greeting the attendees, he’d make fun of them. What sold him on the scenario were three words that Smigel suggested he say to the mostly bespectacled crowd: “Get a life!”

“That’s what made him laugh,” Smigel said. The phrase wasn’t yet the ubiquitous insult lobbed at know-it-alls, but he’d heard it before. Smigel, whose lengthy SNL résumé includes the creation of both the long-running, oft-quoted “Bill Swerski’s Super Fans” and the animated short series TV Funhouse , went as far as calling Shatner’s dork roast “maybe the most resonant sketch I ever wrote there.”

The world never used to care about the opinions of nerds. For decades, fanboys and fangirls weren’t considered important enough to acknowledge, let alone listen to. Then things changed. It’s hard to determine exactly when the flip occurred, but the SNL sketch signaled an impending mainstream shift.

The six-minute segment endures because of what it’s poking: the strange relationship between the diehards and the people behind their favorite television shows and movies. In those days, it was one-sided. Hardcore fans held little sway. Now, emboldened by the internet and their own purchasing power, they’ve gained leverage. As former SNL staffer Jon Vitti , who helped Smigel with the Star Trek sketch, put it: “You’re not really picking on the weak anymore.”

In 2018, fan-spurred conflict has grown exhaustingly intense. Consider: Seven weeks after The Last Jedi premiered to critical acclaim, the Rotten Tomatoes audience score sits at 48 percent. (Alt-right trolls naturally took credit for that dip .) A Change.org petition demanding that Disney “strike Star Wars Episode VIII from the official canon” has more than 95,000 signatures. Several interviews that Mark Hamill gave about his initial dislike of Luke Skywalker’s character arc have been employed to cudgel the blockbuster. And in January, a nauseatingly opportunistic misogynist made and uploaded a “de-feminized” edit of the film to the torrent site The Pirate Bay.

Director Rian Johnson has handled the increasingly toxic backlash with the kind of self-aware openness that only a Star Wars fanatic could possess. While refusing to renounce his vision of the franchise, he’s taken to Twitter to engage detractors. That Johnson is able to stay civil is admirable. But blasters don’t always have to be set for stun . Occasionally, a full-on excoriation can be cathartic.

The 1986–87 season of Saturday Night Live was an important one in the history of the show. The year prior, series creator Lorne Michaels had returned after an extended hiatus . Following a disastrous 1985–86 campaign that raised the threat of cancellation, he fired most of the cast. The producer kept Nora Dunn, Jon Lovitz, and Dennis Miller, and brought on new cast members Dana Carvey, Jan Hooks, Phil Hartman, Victoria Jackson, and Kevin Nealon.

With a bunch of all-time-great SNL performers to write for, Smigel found his groove. In late fall, he devised a funny, well-received sketch featuring Hartman as a much-sharper-than-he-looks version of Ronald Reagan . “Mastermind” played off a question that some Americans were then asking : Beneath his charming façade, was their septuagenarian president still competent? William Shatner obviously wasn’t the subject of that kind of speculation, but he, too, had a well-polished public persona. When the actor arrived at 30 Rock to prepare for his hosting gig, Smigel presented him with an idea that scrubbed off his detached, respectful veneer. That cleanse allowed viewers to see what the (only slightly) fictionalized version of the man behind Captain Kirk really thought of his most dedicated fans.

The star liked the pitch, but there was a small problem: Smigel wasn’t much of a Star Trek fan. Luckily, Jon Vitti was. He’d seen every episode of the original series multiple times. Shatner was one of his childhood heroes. “There is no star as big as a star from when you were a kid,” said Vitti. He geeked out over meeting Shatner, just as he did later when Adam West appeared as himself in a Simpsons episode that Vitti wrote.

Smigel and Vitti, both in their 20s at the time, spent the Tuesday night of Shatner’s week in New York working on the sketch. Vitti’s familiarity with the source material came in handy. He offered up obscure Star Trek details and made sure that the convention sign the audience sees read “Welcome Trekkers,” the term devotees prefer over the pejorative “Trekkies.”

“If it happened today,” Vitti said, “Robert probably would have gone on the internet, picked up the references he needed, and written it himself.” Smigel’s goal was to mock fans’ fascination with minutiae rather than ridicule their physical appearance. “I remember actually asking wardrobe to tone it down a little bit,” he said. “A few less pocket protectors, if possible.” Carvey’s character does end up in an “I Grok Spock” T-shirt, Nealon’s wears a Starfleet uniform, and Lovitz sports a pair of Vulcan ears. Smigel conceded that “they probably came off fairly stereotypical.”

The scene built up to Shatner’s rant. “The whole sketch was written around that moment,” Smigel said. When it was time to come up with the tirade, Smigel consulted George Meyer. Before becoming one of the best Simpsons writers ever, he toiled at SNL . Meyer had the rare ability to transform a hilarious idea into something transcendent. “He could drop three lines in the script,” said Vitti, who also became a prolific Simpsons writer, “and those were the three lines people talked about.” A Meyer gem that made it into Shatner’s diatribe: “You’ve turned an enjoyable little job, that I did as a lark for a few years, into a colossal waste of time!”

After a production assistant passed Smigel and Vitti a typed copy of their sketch, they panicked. While writing it longhand on a legal pad, neither realized how long it had run. Short, unfunny sketches were dismissed and quickly forgotten. But if an overdone dud made it to the episode read-through in the writers’ room, Vitti said, “you could feel the hate.” He recalled even asking coordinating producer Audrey Peart Dickman to pull the sketch before that could happen. But, Vitti said, she calmly told him that it was too late.

It was a wise decision. The sketch got laughs at the read-through and was scheduled to run in a prime slot: right after the monologue. It went well at dress rehearsal, but Smigel thought Shatner hadn’t fully committed to the resentfulness of his role. “Shatner was playing it a teeny-weeny bit jokey,” Vitti said. So before the live taping, the laid-back Smigel gave Shatner a note.

“I was pretty fearless back then about talking to actors if I was certain it would help the end result,” Smigel said. “Life had not yet beaten me down enough to suggest that some fights aren’t worth fighting.” The writer said he asked Shatner to “play it more serious.” In other words: ratchet up the on-screen vitriol.

It wasn’t an easy task for a man who in real life didn’t want to alienate the fans who adored him. In fact, in his monologue Shatner addressed Star Trek aficionados. “I mean they’re truly incredible,” he said, “and I hope they have a sense of humor about the show tonight. Or I’m in deep trouble.”

Playing a comedic version of yourself isn’t easy, but Shatner pulled it off. He even seemed to take Smigel’s advice. When conventioneers ask him to recite the combination of a safe in a particular Star Trek episode and to confirm the number of saddlebred horses he has on his farm, he stops them.

“Before I answer any more questions, there’s something I wanted to say,” he announces from a podium. “Having received all your letters over the years, and I’ve spoken to many of you, and some of you have traveled, you know, hundreds of miles to be here, I’d just like to say … get a life, will you, people?! I mean, for crying out loud, it’s just a TV show!”

Soon Shatner asks Lovitz’s character if he’s ever kissed a girl and continues, “There’s a whole world out there! When I was your age, I didn’t watch television! I lived! So move out of your parents’ basements” — bloggers may have Smigel to blame for the spread of that dig — “and get your own apartments and grow the hell up! I mean, it’s just a TV show, dammit. It’s just a TV show!”

When he finishes his broadside, Shatner leaves the dais only to be met by Hartman’s angry emcee. The two shove each other, Hartman waves Shatner’s contract in front of him, and then the actor returns to the stage, licks his lips, and says in his unique cadence, “Of course that speech was a re-creation of the Evil Captain Kirk … from … um … Episode … um … 37 … called ‘The Enemy Within.’ So thank you and … live long and prosper.”

The clever ending still throws Vitti. After all, “The Enemy Within” was the fifth episode of Star Trek , not the 37th. Minor error aside, the sketch was a hit. The same night, Shatner opened a Star Trek –themed restaurant in a sketch and for another bit resurrected another old role: T.J. Hooker .

In the late 1990s, the actor wrote a memoir centering on his quest to finally embrace the fans with whom he hadn’t truly ever personally connected. In reality, his turn as nerd-bashing Evil Kirk on SNL wasn’t exactly a put-on.

“Were they sane?” writes Shatner, who through a spokesperson declined to be interviewed for this article. “Were they sober? Did they really need to ‘Get a life’? To be brutally, humiliatingly honest, that now-infamous Saturday Night Live sketch was for me, at that time, equal parts comedy and catharsis. I was oblivious to the facts. I bought into the ‘Trekkie’ stereotypes. In a nutshell, I was a dope.”

Shatner called the book Get a Life! In it, he credits the writers of the sketch that inspired the title: Judd Apatow and Bob Odenkirk. The misattribution still makes Smigel smile. “How,” he said, “could he get it that wrong?”

Smigel wasn’t done playfully messing with nerds. “It’s been a lifelong pursuit,” he deadpanned. In 1993, the self-proclaimed Saturday Night Live nerd became the first head writer of Late Night With Conan O’Brien . Four years later, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, the cigar-chewing, Smigel-voiced puppet, made his show debut. In 2002, the foul-mouthed canine famously sniffed around the premiere of Attack of the Clones . At one point, the pooch looks at the many buttons on someone’s Darth Vader suit and asks, “Which one of these calls your parents to pick you up?”

As it turns out, a bunch of costumed Star Wars fans didn’t mind Triumph berating them. “There’s a big overlap between nerds and comedy nerds,” Smigel said. “This was the first time that I had done Triumph where I was sort of surrounded by people who found Triumph really funny.”

In 2008, Smigel brought Triumph to the San Diego Comic-Con. “Nerds. Dorks. Geeks. Mouth-breathers. Loners. Mama’s boys. Noobs. Droids. Druids. Trekkies,” he began a long panel speech . But after thoroughly ripping the audience, he acknowledged — in the most predictably offensive way possible — the power that geeks now wield. “Move over, Jews, the nerds control the media,” said Triumph, whose owner is indeed a Member of the Tribe. “Praise to the nerds.”

Tasteless joke aside, he was right about nerds. They finally had a say. “The explosion of the media and the internet have definitely empowered the quote-unquote nerd,” said Smigel, who knows this from experience. In the early 2000s he was asked to write a comedic Green Lantern script. Warner Bros. envisioned Jack Black as the star. But when Smigel’s draft leaked online, fans revolted. Then the studio went in a … different direction .

“Advertising and the opinion of your local critic used to basically dictate how people responded to the idea of a movie,” Smigel said. “And now it’s so democratic that everybody’s opinion can be heard fairly equally. You can just go to IMDb and read 1,000 opinions.”

On the surface, that sounds nice. But among those mostly innocuous opinions are extremes. Those tend to be amplified. Just look at the ongoing bickering about The Last Jedi . The nasty trolls making noise now are nothing like the gentle Trekkers in the “Get a life!” sketch, which these days would have much more deserving targets.

Smigel, however, doesn’t think a similar premise would induce nearly as many laughs now as it did originally. “I wouldn’t have even thought to write it,” he said. “Anything that reeks of obsession is still funny but it’s certainly not as foreign as it used to be.”

While Shatner was delivering his cathartic rant back in 1986, Smigel decided to do something that he normally didn’t: He stood right next to Lorne Michaels. When the audience applauded, he made eye contact with his legendarily reserved boss. “I remember us sharing a look,” Smigel said. “Just contained excitement.”

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SNL Transcripts: William Shatner: 12/20/86

Author: Don Roy King

Don Roy King has directed fourteen seasons of Saturday Night Live. That work has earned him ten Emmys and fourteen nominations. Additionally, he has been nominated for fifteen DGA Awards and won in 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. View all posts by Don Roy King

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Get a Life! (skit)

Get a Life! was a skit performed on Saturday Night Live by William Shatner .

In it, Star Trek fans are portrayed as immature, nerdish, without social skills, focused on fandom minutia, and objects of disdain. One of Shatner's lines, sick of Star Trek fans asking him what he felt to be inane questions, is to tell them to "Get a life!"

It has become phrase that is now used as a insult to fans, suggesting that fandom is a waste of time and that fans are losers.

Referenced in Textual Poachers

When Star Trek star William Shatner... appeared as a guest host of Saturday Night Live, the program chose this opportunity to satirize the fans of his 1960s television series. The "Trekkies" were depicted as nerdy guys with glasses and rubber Vulcan ears, "I Grok Spock" T-shirts stretched over their bulging stomachs. One man laughs maliciously about a young fan he has just met who doesn't know Yeoman Rand's cabin number, while his friend mumbles about the great buy he got on a DeForest Kelly album. When Shatner arrives, he is bombarded with questions from fans who want to know about minor characters in individual episodes (which they cite by both title and sequence number), who seem to know more about his private life than he does and who demand such trivial information as the combination to Kirk's safe. Finally, in incredulity and frustration, Shatner turns on the crowd: "Get a life, will you people? I mean, I mean, for crying out loud, it's just a TV show!" Shatner urges the fans to move out of their parent's basements and to proceed with adult experiences ("you ever kissed a girl?"), to put their fannish interests behind them. The fans look confused at first, then progressively more hurt and embarrassed. Finally, one desperate fan asks, "Are you saying we should pay more attention to the movies?" Enraged, Shatner storms of the stage, only to be confronted by an equally angry convention organizer. After a shoving match and a forced rereading of his contract, an embarrassed Shatner takes the stage again and tells the much-relieved fans that they have just watched a "recreation of the evil Captain Kirk from episode 27, 'The Enemy Within.' [1]

Comments by Nichelle Nichols

In a 1990 interview, Nichols ( Uhura ) said:

Nichelle also has strong feelings about Star Trek fans. When asked how she felt about fans wearing Star Trek costumes, she replied, “That’s all wonderful because it’s a celebration. But we should understand that when we dress up and do our pointed ears, it’s no different from any other celebration of something we believe in and love and adore. The ‘get-a-life syndrome’ has no place in fandom, no place whatsoever. That’s for those idiots who don’t know where they’re going, who would like to take our technology for whatever short span of life they have here on earth -- the "ME" generation -- [those are] the people who should 'get a life'! "‘Get a life’ should mean care about one another. ‘Get a life’ should mean not only caring about one another, but caring, projecting, and reflecting the future through celebration. If that celebration means putting on Vulcan ears or wanting to get into communications or any of the areas of celebrating the Star Trek cast, then that’s good — that’s important. To begin to denigrate what was beautiful and wonderful and still is, is to eat out our own guts. If we start playing with that nonsense — it’s like an implosive kind of cancer, and I don’t think it’s funny at all.” [2]

From a Blurb About the Book of the Same Name

From William Shatner's 1999 book:

When William Shatner appeared on Saturday Night Live in 1986 and told Jon Lovitz and a convention hall full of absurdly nerdy Star Trek fans to "get a life," it was all in good fun. After all, anyone who’s been to a Trek convention has seen one or two people who bear a resemblance to Dana Carvey’s Spock- okker , but we all knew Bill was just teasing. Wasn’t he? 'That now-infamous sketch,' Shatner reveals, 'was for me, at that time, equal parts comedy and catharsis…. I bought into the Trekkie stereotypes. In a nutshell, I was a dope.' [3]

A Modern Retelling of Sorts

In May 2009, Star Trek XI stars Chris Pine , Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy appeared on Saturday Night Live and preformed a 3 min 24 sec skit, one that focused on the reception with which diehard Trek fans greeted Star Trek (2009) . It was reminiscent of the 1986 skit. [4]

Fan Response

Some fans found the skit funny, some did not.

[1987]: The... sketch on Star Trek convention attendees was somewhat less hilarious, not because of his talent but because of the script, which was a uneasy mix of hyperbole, inside jokes, some genuine humor, and cruelty. [5]

[1987]: I disagree with your critique in I#112 of the convention sketch. I have been addicted to conventions since I discovered them in Atlanta while I was attending college (c. 1982). I thought the characterizations of the convention members were right on mark. There is always at least one question from the audience regarding some obscure beaming coordinates, or a safe combination, or some other minute detail of some episode. The script captured the stereotypical convention and fans, and I laughed until my sides ached. [6]

[1987]: I thought Bill Shatner's skit on SNL was mildly amusing and I was not insulted by it (SNL treats all subjects that way, and Bill is a consummate actor—he'll play ANY role). I just want to say, I HAVE a life, and Star Trek has enriched it tremendously! [7]

[1988]: One thing I've learned from my exposure to a number of fans is that the infamous "get a life" skit from Saturday Night Live haunts us. At the first convention I went to, James Doohan expressed his disapproval of the skit and a large number of the audience loudly agreed. This surprised me because I had thought it was rather funny. Later in the summer, at another con, I gained more insight into the situation. Diane Carey, the author, was quite seriously exhorting her audience to become involved, to adopt a cause (any one would do), in short, to get a life. I have realized that the stereotypical fan is wrapped up in Star Trek to the exclusion of the real world. I resent having such assumptions made about me. I have "got a life." I have a husband and children. I do volunteer work and have opinions on a wide variety of matters, both political and religious. I do shopping, vote in elections, and change diapers. I do live in the real world, with all its tension and stress That is the reason I am a Trekker. A hobby is necessary for mental health. Star Trek helps me to keep from burning out in all the "important" things I do. It helps me relax. It helps me retain my perspective. It is fun. It is not my religion. I already have a perfectly good religion. (Well, I'm Catholic.) And I suspect that the majority of fans are more like me than the stereotype. [8]

Thanks a lot, Bill! You may remember William Shatner's appearance on "Saturday Night Live". He took some pretty hard shots at Trek fans in a skit that parodied conventions. Some of his arrows aimed true—dealers offering overpriced merchandise to folks who snapped it up, and fans knowing more about the details of the stars' lives than they do. But what struck me the hardest was his line about the 30-year-old fan who lived in his parents' basement and had never kissed a girl. According to Shatner, apparently fans are pretty dependent, immature, messed-up people who try to live their lives vicariously through Star Trek. Anyone who thinks that way about fandom has a remarkable lack of compassion, and has missed the most important things about fandom. True it is that many Trek fans have problems—physical, emotional, social, or financial. So do most people, if they tell the truth about themselves. (Even Spock never found a perfect human.) Trek draws many people who, at some time in their lives, have felt deeply dissatisfied, needy, or even hopeless—about themselves, their families and associates, their work, or the way they see their world going. So we immerse ourselves in Trek. Maybe it starts out as escapist fantasy, but it doesn't end there. Trek shows us an imaginary future, where our crew cares more about each other than themselves, where people are valued for what they are and what they can accomplish, and where humans have left behind the ridiculous barriers of race, sex, geography, and other accidents of birth that currently divide us from each other. It is surely a universe in which there is much to value, and much joy. Having seen ourselves in the mirror of Trek, some of us see fandom as a way-station. Some of us, basically isolated, find that we can form solid and enduring friendships. Through fandom, some of us discover or develop talents or abilities that we might have ignored otherwise, such as writing, photography, drawing or painting, computer skills, or even a sense of humor. Some of us feel accepted and embraced for the first time in our lives by the " Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations " ethic that is the best of fandom. ( don't mean to minimize the downside of fandom. If you've been in it for a while, you know the ugliness too. But that is not what Bill Shatner was talking about.) But according to Shatner, some (or most?) fans get stuck in the fantasy, and never find their way out, never take that fantasy inside and make it a part of their growing lives. Well, I don't know whether there really are fans like that; after all, most of us haven't finished living yet. I do know a few fans who, at least for now, seem to fit the description that appealed to our hero. Do they deserve such contempt? I think not. Not everyone has the same ability, inner resources, and luck, and not everyone can change themselves or the circumstances of their lives. Some people can do all that, but they take a lot longer than others might. Even our hypothetical thirty-year old, living in his parents' basement without benefit of girlfriend, is better off with Trek than without it. With Trek, he has friends, and a shared vision of what life could be at its best. Without Trek, he's just a lonely fellow stuck in the cellar. [9]

[1989]: I do believe that ST fans get an unfair amount of criticism from outside their ranks and I believe some of these know-it-alls could learn a few things from us in how we try to raise honest criticisms about each other through gentle-hearted kidding and by showing some real warmth towards the person of the other point of view in our ranks (or at least some of us do). But. yes, I DO find that too many professional media/celebrity cons fit that SNL parody. And though I believe Shatner's heart was in the right place, I also believe that he should've had his head examined for appearing in it. Instead of getting people to view the phenomenon in a more positive light —and by allowing himself to be a part of the skit—Shatner actually reinforced the negative stereotypes outsiders have about us. You see, either people view ST and ST fandom with open minds or they don't. Yes, we should be able to laugh at ourselves and not take ourselves (or the things we're into) TOO seriously, but I don't think that we have to put up with EVERY put-down or EVERY cheap shot at our expense. The convention parody was a cheap shot at our expense in order to get some cheap laughs, and in spite of the 'with it' attitudes of the SNL cast, I'm afraid that the show's writers are coming across like pompous snobs these days. Still, I separate what they were up to with what Shatner was sincerely trying, to say, though he said it in the wrong way. [10]

[1989]: I'm relieved to hear that others found the "get a life" skit from Saturday Night Live somewhat offensive. Everyone I talked to seemed to be regarding it with good-humored tolerance, which is all very nice, but guys, we do not need SNL and William Shatner, of all people, reinforcing the stereotype that some people have of Star Trek fans. Yes, we all have met people like the ones in that skit, but they are vastly outnumbered by the fans in every conceivable type of job, profession, vocation and avocation. Some of it was funny though, I have to admit. [11]

[1993]: So who invented the word Trekkie'? Surely not a fan. I can quite easily imagine a group of hunters prowling around video stores and book shops, calling out "Here Trekkie Trekkie", blowing into a communicator whistle. I once read somewhere that "we" prefer to be called ' Trekkers '. Despite being infinitely more dignified, it still sounds daft - a hike, anyone? So next time you go to say "I'm a Trekker" or "I'm a Trekkie", instead say "I'm a Star Trek fan and I'm proud of it" and see what the response is. My mind takes me back to the Saturday Night Live sketch set at a Trek convention . All of the people there were the stereotypical fan, as described in my first paragraph. Although sometimes we need to laugh at ourselves (some of that sketch was genuinely funny; some sadly true) it was quite unnecessary for William Shatner to appear and make the comments he did. "Get a life", he said. As fans it's us who gave him a life - a damn good one at that. Surely we deserve some respect from him? At least most of the other stars take the time to talk to their fans at conventions - strange we may be, but we pay their bills and they know it. [12]

[2012]: There was backlash, he backpedalled pretty quickly, but now it still gets lobbed by sub-factions of the fandom at one another. I think it might have hurt fandom's perception in the eyes of the general public a bit. They were always a wacky group, but they were kinda just dismissed with a roll of the eyes. Having one of the stars go off so publicly kinda gave the haters a bit of ammunition to go after any type of fan. It might have also strengthened as a bit as we took the criticism at face value and maybe admitted some of us were a little goofy, but we still remain dedicated to our hobby. [13]

External Sources

• ^ from Textual Poachers
• ^ from Electronic Male (newsletter) #4 (December 1990)
• ^ from a 1999 review of the book Get a Life!
• ^ Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Authority , posted May 10, 2009 (this includes a link to both the 2009 skit, as well as the 1986 skit)
• ^ from Anne B in Interstat #112 (February 1987)
• ^ from Marcia G. W in Interstat #113 (March 1987)
• ^ from Shirley J. F in Interstat #116 (June 1987)
• ^ from Jayne K in Interstat #134 (December 1988)
• ^ comments by Harriet Cooper in the essay "Thanks a lot, Bill!" printed in Almost Anything Goes #3
• ^ from Charles T. Jr in Interstat #145 (November 1989)
• ^ from Interstat #135
• ^ Martin Eade in Constellation #144
• ^ Reddit, permalink , comment by pinkiepieismycopilot
• Perspectives on Fans
• Star Trek TOS Professional Works

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The Son Of ‘Star Trek’ Creator Gene Roddenberry Is Still Not Happy About William Shatner’s Famous ‘SNL’ Sketch

William Shatner only hosted SNL once (with musical guest Lone Justice), but it was a memorable episode for what long-time writer Robert Smigel called “maybe the most resonant sketch I ever wrote there.”

In the 1986 sketch, referred to as “16th Annual Star Trek Convention” on the invaluable website SNL Archive , Shatner tells die-hard Star Trek fans at a convention to “get a life” and that “it’s just a TV show. I mean, look at you. Look at the way you’re dressed. You’ve turned an enjoyable little job I did as a lark for a few years into a colossal waste of time.” Shatner turned “get a life” into a book and a documentary and the sketch is a classic (Alan Siegel’s article for The Ringer is a great read ), but even 35 years later, the son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry does not find it funny.

“I never really appreciated that skit because I think it was demeaning to the fans,” Rod Roddenberry told the Hollywood Reporter . “I think it was disrespectful, especially for a character who was an open-minded, intelligent leader.”

Although now in vogue with enormous mainstream popularity, comic and sci-fi cons were once an easy target to bash nerds (a term now worn as a badge of honor). So Shatner using SNL to poke fun and perhaps further ostracize the group was disheartening, Roddenberry says, adding, “But I don’t condemn it in any way. It’s Saturday Night Live , and it’s all fun.”

Maybe the Futurama parody is more his speed. #JusticeForWelshy

(Via the Hollywood Reporter )

• Cast (current)
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December 20, 1986 S12E8 #221

Cold opening ballad of the mute marine, sketch 16th annual star trek convention, sketch christmas party sweeney sisters, show t.j. hooker little blue riding hood, musical performance "shelter", weekend update, sketch star trek v: the restaurant enterprise, sketch look at that, miscellaneous christmas memories, sketch it's a wonderful life, musical performance "i found love", film the true life story of frankie toussaint, musical performance "zat you, santa".

The 'One SNL a Day' Project

A project where I review one SNL episode a day, in chronological order

December 20, 1986 – William Shatner / Lone Justice (S12 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING “Ballad Of The Green Berets” variant lauds mute Marine Ollie North (host)

— Funny idea, and I love the melody of the song. — I like how the lyrics are explaining all the important details of the Oliver North story, which in hindsight provides full context for any future viewers (like me) who wouldn’t have much familiarity with the story. That ages this cold opening better than some other overly-topical things SNL has done over the years, though as much as I’m enjoying this cold opening, I’m sure it hit even harder with viewers in 1986. — I got a good laugh from the “What a great plan!” lyric. — Good bit with Shatner holding his hand up as if to speak, only to remain mute. STARS: ***½

OPENING MONTAGE — Nice touch with the theme music briefly being interrupted early on with a snippet of “Joy to the World” before the regular theme music continues. — There used to be some SNL fans that claimed comedian Kevin Meaney is credited as a one-episode-only featured player in this episode, but nope. In the live version I’m reviewing of this episode, and in all the rerun versions I’ve seen, he’s credited as a special guest.

MONOLOGUE (no synopsis available)

— This was very short before he segued into the related next sketch. The jokes in this monologue weren’t really working for me, so it’s probably a good thing that they transitioned out of this early. STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)

16TH ANNUAL STAR TREK CONVENTION at a Star Trek convention, host tells loser attendees to “get a life”

— Some laughs from Dana and Jon making fun of Kevin for getting a trivia question wrong. — All the little details throughout this are a funny and probably accurate recreation of a Star Trek convention. — And there goes Shatner dropping the legendary “Get a life, will you people?” bomb. — Great cutaway to Jon looking down in disappointment when Shatner asks “Have you ever kissed a girl?” — Shatner’s harsh reality check to the Star Trek fans is a riot. — I like the fight between Phil and Shatner in the background, leading to Shatner playing off his whole “Get a life” speech as a recreation of evil Captain Kirk from a Star Trek episode. — Overall, a true classic. STARS: *****

CHRISTMAS PARTY at a party, Liz & Candy Sweeney sing a Christmas medley about bells

— First time a Sweeney Sisters sketch has begun with either of the sisters already present in the scene, instead of both of them being introduced into the sketch by someone. — Nothing much to say about the overall piece, but the medley was fun as usual, had a great Christmas spirit feel, and featured the usual solid interplay between Jan and Nora. STARS: ***½

T.J. HOOKER “Little Blue Riding Hood” features the cop on a car

— Fun visual of Shatner on the hood of the driving car. — Shatner’s dialogue sounds strangely muffled so far in this sketch. — Okay, Shatner’s dialogue is now sounding clearer. — Funny bit with him reading the license number with his foot. — I like the way this is escalating, with it now being dusk outside as a still-on-the-hood Shatner is writing a sentimental letter. — Boy, that is one fake-looking snow backdrop. — An overall decent sketch, though I was expecting it to be a little stronger. STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE musical guest performs “Shelter”

WEEKEND UPDATE describing Ronald Reagan’s prostate surgery makes ALF uncomfortable

— LOL at the audience reaction to the brain tumor joke about CIA director William Casey. — Al Franken makes what I believe is his first appearance of the whole season, despite receiving no credit in the opening montage tonight (nor does he receive one for any other episodes this season). — A lot of laughs from Al wincing, squirming, and making a variety of other uncomfortable sounds and gestures while going into explicit detail about the surgical prostate procedure. STARS: ***½

STAR TREK V: THE RESTAURANT ENTERPRISE Khan (DAC) tries to shut it down

— Very funny concept for a Star Trek parody. — I liked Dr. McCoy’s “For god sake, Jim, be careful!” when Captain Kirk is simply heading to a table. — First time I’ve spotted Kevin Meaney tonight, this time in a non-speaking role as a choking victim. — Kirk: “Dr. McCoy, this man needs medical attention.” McCoy: “Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a– Oh, oh, sure.” — First time Akira Yoshimura has reprised his role as Sulu since SNL’s original Star Trek parody in season 1, starting a decades-long running gag. — Hilarious how so many mundane restaurant issues are being treated so dramatically by the Star Trek crew. — Very memorable part with Captain Kirk pointing out how Sulu has put on weight. — Dana is freakin’ hilarious as Khan. — I like Dana’s Khan stopping in the middle of his rant to also question Sulu’s weight. Also, something about Yoshimura’s monotone delivery of his explanation “We all get older, Khan” always amuses me. — Kevin as Spock: “Would you do me the very great honor of eating my shorts?” STARS: ****½

LOOK AT THAT! narcissistic (host) admires his physique in front of the mirror

— Shatner’s really funny in this with his self-admiring in the mirror. — Overall, a simple but fairly charming sketch. STARS: ***

CHRISTMAS MEMORIES KEN relates the dark side to his classic Christmas experiences

— Kevin: “Over the river and through the woods… that’s the way my grandmother used to drive.” — I’m loving the increasingly ridiculous things he misses about Christmas. — Not sure the “Save your receipts” joke at the end worked for me — Overall, a solid and a very quintessential Kevin Nealon piece. For some reason, I’ve always kinda considered this a sister sketch to Steve Martin’s Holiday Wish sketch from two episodes earlier, to the degree that I sometimes misremember this Nealon sketch as being performed in front of a dark background while he sits in a chair, like the Steve Martin sketch. STARS: ****

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE lynch mob attacks Potter (JOL) in lost ending of It’s A Wonderful Life

— Good to see Dana’s hilarious Jimmy Stewart back. — Kevin Meaney in another small role, only this time, he gets an actual line. Strange that they would bring him in as a special guest to just play bit roles all night. Why not give him a stand-up segment? — Phil’s voice as Uncle Billy is cracking me up. — Love the dark turn this has taken with the whole town angrily coming after Old Man Potter. — If you listen, Dana can be heard muttering “Why, I oughta pound you” when tipping Old Man Potter out of his wheelchair, which is starting to become a go-to phrase of his in these black-and-white sketches. — LOL at the reveal that Potter’s been faking his crippled state. — This is getting even funnier now with Potter being replaced with an obvious dummy as the beatdown starts to get particularly brutal. — I like the citizens randomly breaking out into “Auld Land Syne” while Potter’s beatdown is still occurring. — Overall, this sketch was freakin’ priceless. A true SNL classic. STARS: *****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE musical guest performs “I Found Love”

THE TRUE LIFE STORY OF FRANKIE TOUSSAINT Frankie Toussaint (Griffin Dunne) pays for others’ job dissatisfaction

— Random Griffin Dunne-starring film. — I like Tom Davis as the doctor casually explaining there were things he should’ve done to save Dunne’s friend’s life, but didn’t because he was simply distracted by other ambitions. — I like the way this is quickly escalating, with all the cuts to subsequent scenes. — Overall, a good film and featured a strong performance from Griffin Dunne. I used to joke to myself that SNL cast Dunne in this film as an apology to him for the crappy episode they gave him when he hosted the previous season. Who knows, maybe there’s some truth to that. STARS: ***½

BUSTER POINDEXTER Buster Poindexter [real] performs “Zat You, Santa?”

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS: — A very strong and memorable episode, and one of my personal favorite Christmas episodes the show has ever done. The quality was very consistent with solid sketches throughout the whole night, two sketches were all-time classics (Star Trek Convention and It’s A Wonderful Life), and William Shatner was a fun and very game host.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Steve Guttenberg): — a big step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW: We enter 1987, with hosts Joe Montana and Walter Payton

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13 replies to “december 20, 1986 – william shatner / lone justice (s12 e8)”.

A joke I always crack up at in It’s a Wonderful Life is when Potter, after being revealed as faking his crippling, says “Hold on, I can explain that.” I also didn’t notice until a recent viewing that the extras are very, very bad at coordinating the singing of “Auld Lang Syne” (or more accurately Phil Hartman is bad at this).

The Mute Marine melody is the Ballad of the Green Berets song, right?

I’m 90 percent sure the Mute Marine song is to the tune of the Ballad of the Green Berets (which makes it that much funnier in my opinion).

Wasn’t “Get a Life!” a Robert Smigel piece?

Man I love that “It’s a Wonderful Life” parody…so good. It really addresses the frustration I think many movie-goers had that the actual film never shows Potter getting his just desserts for what he did.

I agree that Kevin Meaney’s appearance in this episode is baffling. Does anyone know the story about his appearance in this episode? Did he do a stand-up routine or have a larger role in a skit that ended up getting cut in dress rehearsal?

If you look back at Season 11, there were almost no short films aside from several commercial parodies and the 2-3 filmed pieces in the season premiere. I believe that was a conscious decision on Lorne’s part, as he had criticized Ebersol’s SNL for relying too heavily on pre-filmed/taped segments.

Season 12 brought back the short films, but they were mainly outside acquisitions and not in-house productions. When Schiller’s Reel returned in Season 14, the show started to refocus on developing short films in-house.

How are you able to watch these episodes? AFAIK, most of the stuff from 1980 to the late 2000s is no longer available for streaming. I would LOVE to watch the Griffin Dunne sketch!

For some reason, Kevin Meaney’s “I Don’t Care” song popped into my head today and I also wondered: what happened with his appearance? Seems like the show was pretty packed, and I can’t find a reason it would have run long, so was he cut after dress and given a few extra roles as a consolation? Given the choice, couldn’t they have cut Buster (since he’d been on the show many times)? Was Meaney in the good nights? Someone out there must know what happened.

Man, Dennis cringes so obviously and openly after that awful Kit-Kat joke. I get the feeling he was not a fan of those cheap photo gags.

Is that George Coe making his final appearance (uncredited) on the show as a judge in the “Get A Life!” sketch?

https://tvline.com/2015/07/20/george-coe-dead-saturday-night-live-original/

Such a shame that William Shatner is kind of a dick, nowadays. Especially going off on some kinda transphobic rants on twitter.

Merry Christmas! Here’s my review of the musical performances.

Shelter — Pretty good song that has a bit of a country/blues vibe to it, and uplifting lyrics. Good choice for SNL, as this band was somewhat obscure at the time and could have really benefited from the high profile exposure (they ostensibly didn’t, their album Shelter peaked at 65 on the Billboard chart, lower than their previous…maybe it would have been lower without this appearance though). — I don’t have a whole lot else to say about the performance, it was just a solid rendition of a pretty good song. Maria McKee was perfectly charming on vocals and guitar. STARS: ***1/2

I Found Love — Maria ditches the guitar for this faster number. Nice energy by the band here. — Not sure I’m liking her rapid-fire ranting between verses or her extremely frenetic dancing during the outro. Did she gulp 5 cups of coffee or something between songs? STARS: ***

I’ll pass on a review of Buster Poindexter since he’s pretty much part of the SNL house band in this season.

Something I noticed while watching this episode: in the Sweeney Sisters sketch, Kevin’s character is addressed as Bill – which I think means he is reprising his character of “Instant Coffee” host Big Bill Smith.

The Sweeney Sisters Christmas medley in this episode is AMAZING 😆😆 one of their best sketches.

they took advantage of a funny host and made a funny episode. It was nice they put him in several sketches instead of just one or two. Overall solid except the over-long Griffin Dunn mini film. It wasn’t funny and it dragged down a good episode.

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• Cast & crew

William Shatner/Lone Justice

• Episode aired Dec 20, 1986

William Shatner hosts this episode, and Lone Justice and Buster Poindexter are musical guests. The cold opener is a parody of "The Green Berets" involving former Colonel Oliver North(Shatner... Read all William Shatner hosts this episode, and Lone Justice and Buster Poindexter are musical guests. The cold opener is a parody of "The Green Berets" involving former Colonel Oliver North(Shatner). William Shatner's "infamous" monologue involves his first attendance at a recent Star T... Read all William Shatner hosts this episode, and Lone Justice and Buster Poindexter are musical guests. The cold opener is a parody of "The Green Berets" involving former Colonel Oliver North(Shatner). William Shatner's "infamous" monologue involves his first attendance at a recent Star Trek convention, where he tells Trekkies to get a life. Liz Sweeney (Nora Dunn) sings a med... Read all

• Paul Miller
• Andy Breckman
• A. Whitney Brown
• E. Jean Carroll
• Dana Carvey
• Phil Hartman
• 4 Critic reviews

Top cast 36

• Trek Convention Announcer …

• Weekend Update Anchor …
• Themselves - Musical Guest

• Self - Bandleader

• Buster Poindexter
• (as Buster Poindexter)

• Self - Host …

• Self - Announcer

• Priest ('The True Life Story of Frankie Toussaint' sketch)
• Self - Lone Justice Keyboardist
• (uncredited)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia William Shatner used his famous line from the Star Trek convention sketch, "Get a Life!", as the title for his memoir.

William Shatner : [at a Star Trek convention] You know, before I answer any more questions there's something I wanted to say. Having received all your letters over the years, and I've spoken to many of you, and some of you have traveled... y'know... hundreds of miles to be here, I'd just like to say... get a life, will you people? I mean, for crying out loud, it's just a TV show! I mean, look at you, look at the way you're dressed! You've turned an enjoyable little job, that I did as a lark for a few years, into a colossal waste of time! I - I mean, how old are you people? What have you done with yourselves?

[pointing to a man wearing Spock ears]

William Shatner : You, you must be almost 30. Have you ever kissed a girl?

[the man hangs his head in shame]

William Shatner : I didn't think so. There's a whole world out there. When I was your age, I didn't watch television, I lived. So move out of your parents' basements, and get your own apartments, and grow the hell up! I mean it's just a TV show, damn it. It's just a TV show!

Charlie : Are - are you saying then we should pay more attention to the movies?

William Shatner : No! That's not what I'm saying at all! Hey, you guys are the lamest bunch of - I've never seen - I can't believe these people - I mean, I really can't understand what's...

[Shatner walks off stage and argues with the emcee. They start to shove each other]

Second Emcee : Uh... that was William Shatner, ladies and gentlemen. Uh, I'd like to remind you Trekkers that we have some fine refreshments from all over the galaxy... Coke, Diet Coke, Bubble Up, Orange, I believe. We...

William Shatner : [the emcee waves the contract in front of Shatner who comes back on stage]

William Shatner : Of course that speech was a recreation of the Evil Captain Kirk from episode - um -

[emcee whispers]

William Shatner : 37. Uh... the name -

[emcee whispers again]

William Shatner : "The Enemy Within".

[the crowd applauds]

William Shatner : Yeah, yeah, yeah. So thank you and - and Live long and prosperous. So everybody, set your phasers on stun 'cause this convention's ahead warp factor 9. Y'know? Right! All right. Warp factor 9.

• Connections Edited into Saturday Night Live: 15th Anniversary (1989)
• Soundtracks Ballad Of The Mute Marine Performed by Phil Hartman and choir

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• December 20, 1986 (United States)
• United States
• Official Site
• Studio 8H, NBC Studios - 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
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• Runtime 1 hour 30 minutes

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Why William Shatner's SNL Performance Outraged Star Trek Fans

William Shatner is not known for taking himself particularly seriously. Sure, he may have tearfully waxed philosophical after returning home from a first-of-its-kind tourist space flight in 2021, but in general, his public image is one of snark and self-deprecating humor. In his later career, in particular, the Canadian-born actor has leaned into "being William Shatner" as the source of his comic schtick, as KQED reports. Writer Gabe Meline described him as "the king of overacting for no apparent reason," who performs his staccato delivery — which appears to have developed as a caricature rather than organically — even when carrying on daily conversation.

Back in 1986, however, Shatner, with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, committed a rather legendary act of Failure to Read the Room. Appearing on "Saturday Night Live," Shatner performed a sketch poking fun at the obsessive fandom accompanying the " Star Trek " franchise. While the sketch killed at Studio 8H, the "Star Trek" community was less than appreciative at one of its key subjects of fandom was poking fun at it. To this day, some people are still rather salty about it.

Shatner called "Star Trek" fandom "a colossal waste of time"

Back in 1986, Shatner appeared as a guest host on "Saturday Night Live." At the time, the original " Star Trek " TV series had been off the air for decades, but the franchise still lived on in movies, and Shatner was right in the thick of it, reprising his role as Captain James T. Kirk on the silver screen. And while these days obsessive fandom over popular culture franchises is a mainstream part of daily life, back in the 1980s it was a new and strange thing that wasn't as fully understood and accepted as it is now. It was in this context that the show's writers developed a sketch in which Shatner would portray himself, appearing at a "Star Trek" convention, to greet the fans.

The writers of the sketch "Get a Life!" appear to have started off on the wrong foot even before the actors and extras took the stage, as you can see by the sketch's name (per Screen Rant ). It got worse from there. Shatner then made fun of the fans, asking them if they'd ever kissed a girl and telling them that they'd turned "just a TV show" into a "colossal waste of time."

The sketch was well-received by the studio audience, and by the audience (as well as critics) at home. However, within the "Star Trek" community, the reaction was, and remains, decidedly mixed.

Gene Rodenberry's son certainly isn't feeling it

It is, of course, impossible to say who was the most upset by the "Get a Life!" sketch, but one contender may very well be Rod Roddenberry, the son of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry. As Screen Rant reports, he thought the sketch was "demeaning" to the fans. "I think it was disrespectful, especially for a character who was an open-minded, intelligent leader," he said.

As for "Star Trek" fans, it seems that most have come down on the side of the sketch being all in good fun, although there are a few holdouts who agreed with the junior Roddenberry's take. According to a companion Screen Rant report, after Roddenberry's comments came to light, the debate about the sketch moved to Twitter, where the consensus was that the sketch was hilarious, although a few sided with Roddenberry.

Shatner, for his part, did the most William Shatner thing possible with the whole controversy and turned it into the title of a book, releasing "Get a Life!," inspired by the sketch, in 1999, per The Ringer .

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William shatner’s notorious ‘snl’ skit disappointed ‘star trek’ creator gene roddenberry’s family.

It's been nearly 35 years since the James T. Kirk actor told fans to "get a life" in a segment mocking Trekkies.

By Ryan Parker

Ryan Parker

Former Senior Reporter

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The son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry did not see the humor when William Shatner told Trekkies to “get a life” while hosting Saturday Night Live in December 1986.

In the infamous skit, Shatner plays a version of himself at a Star Trek convention where the diehard costume-clad fans ask detailed questions about Capt. James T. Kirk and the episodes. “Get a life, will you, people,” an exasperated Shatner said amid the ribbing. “For crying out loud, it’s just a TV show. I mean, look at you. Look at the way you’re dressed. You’ve turned an enjoyable little job I did as a lark for a few years into a colossal waste of time.”

In an interview to celebrate the beloved franchise turning 55 this month (the series premiered on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966), Rod Roddenberry, producer of several Star Trek projects and son of the legendary sci-fi franchise creator, told The Hollywood Reporter that while some found the moment to be hilarious, he found it surprising and, to a degree, mean-spirited.

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“I never really appreciated that skit because I think it was demeaning to the fans,” Roddenberry told THR . “I think it was disrespectful, especially for a character who was an open-minded, intelligent leader.”

Although now in vogue with enormous mainstream popularity, comic and sci-fi cons were once an easy target to bash nerds (a term now worn as a badge of honor). So Shatner using SNL to poke fun and perhaps further ostracize the group was disheartening, Roddenberry says , adding , “ But I don’t condemn it in any way. It’s Saturday Night Live, and it’s all fun.”

The younger Roddenberry does not know what his father thought of the moment, explaining, “Dad passed away when I was 17. I was a young, immature kid who did not have those kinds of conversations with him.”

It was fans who made the creator’s son a fan of Star Trek with their stories of inspiration, he says in admiring how special the group is to the family. “They were my introduction to Star Trek . They’re the ones who came up to me and said, ‘ Star Trek inspired me. And because of Star Trek , I am now a teacher, a doctor, whatever the case is, and I owe that to Star Trek .’ At the time, I was watching Knight Rider — and Knight Rider didn’t do that for me.”

Of course, in the decades that followed, Shatner embraced the fandom with open arms, going so far as to write a book in 1999 titled Get a Life! , which favorably recounted his experiences with fans and conventions. He then in 2012 made a documentary under the same title, which dug further into the deeper meaning of the conventions and Star Trek fandom. For years, Shatner has appeared at several conventions a year spread across the country and globe.

Roddenberry notes his father “went through a lot of struggles with Star Trek, ” with the original 1960s series only running three seasons and the first film in 1979 not being a big as expected. But the creator loved seeing fans at conventions.

“He didn’t go to many, but he would come out onstage and fold his arms and scan the room with a smirk on his face, nod his head and say, ‘Yup. Just the way I planned it.'” Roddenberry says. “He really appreciated the fans. The show was in syndication in the ’70s. And it was like-minded young people in the era of the Vietnam War and social injustice who agreed with his future. So, he always gave them credit for bringing Star Trek back.”

A 4K UHD collection of the first four Star Trek films — Star Trek: The Motion Picture (theatrical edition), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (theatrical and director’s editions), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home — will be released by Paramount on Sept. 7.

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Three decades on,   Star Trek   legend William Shatner has reflected on his controversial  Saturday Night Live  sketch which famously mocked the actor's devoted fans. Shatner played the role of star-ship captain James Tiberius Kirk in the original  Star Trek  series across its three season run from 1966 to 1969. Revolutionary at the time,  Star Trek  would go on to redefine the sci-fi genre, inspiring several films, sequels and spin-off series, as well as millions of fans around the world.

However, one of Shatner's most famous  Star Trek  moments didn't come from the show itself, but from when the actor hosted  SNL  on December 12th, 1986. In one sketch, Shatner was presented as appearing at a  Star Trek  convention where he was beleaguered by nerdy fans. Shatner proceeded to lecture the 'fans' on the sadness of their love of  Star Trek,  famously claiming  "Get a life!"  The sketch did not sit well with real-life  Star Trek  fans who felt insulted and betrayed by someone who owed his career to the show he was mocking. The sketch was met with equal disapproval by Rod Roddenberry , the son of  Star Trek  creator Gene Roddenberry, who has since described the skit as  "demeaning."

Related:  Star Trek Brings Back An Obscure Version of Spock

Speaking to  Yahoo News , Shatner reflected on his time on  Star Trek  55 years later. He also discussed the infamous  SNL  sketch stating that he understands why some fans were hurt, but simultaneously defended the jokes stating that they were never intended to insult them. You can read Shatner's full statement below:

"I understood [the controversy], but I also understood that it was so amusing that most people would laugh, which they did. Some people didn't, and I'm sorry. But it was meant in fun. And I advise you to laugh."

While the sketch may have been intended in good humor, that doesn't detract from its rather hurtful nature, so it's understandable why fans felt insulted. The humor of the sketch is rooted squarely within its mockery of 'nerd-culture,' which feels all the more outdated to today when 'nerdy' topics like  Star Trek  or comic books are openly embraced by mainstream society. The sketch was likely funny to non- Star Trek  audiences at the time, but today it's hard to see it as anything other than mean-spirited, especially when there have been so many more nuanced parodies of  Star Trek  since, which serve to both satirize and pay homage to the series.  Star Trek writers   even do it themselves now with the likes of  Lower Decks .

Where other  Star Trek  stars have remained involved in the franchise in some capacity or another - the late Leonard Nemoy reprised his role as Spock in two of the   reboot films and Kate Mulgrew is set to return as Captain Janeway from  Voyager  in the upcoming  Prodigy  series - Shatner has remained notably absent. He has since stated that he would only return if he was offered a substantial role, which is somewhat understandable. Still, it seems as though the actor is somewhat checked out from the  Star Trek  franchise, but at least he understands why his  SNL  proved controversial at the time and has offered something of an apology.

More:  Every Reveal From Star Trek Day 2021

Source:  Yahoo News

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'Star Trek' Creator's Son Calls William Shatner's 'Get a Life' 'SNL' Skit 'Disrespectful' to Trekkies

"Get a life, will you, people," William Shatner told Trekkies (die-hard Star Trek fans) in a now-infamous 1986 Saturday Night Live skit

Glenn Garner is a form writer-reporter who worked heavily with PEOPLE's Movies and TV verticals. He left PEOPLE in 2023.

William Shatner will always be known to Trekkies (die-hard Star Trek fans) as Captain James Tiberius Kirk.

But the two-time Emmy Award winner, 90, once made a joke on live television at the beloved sci-fi show's expense that didn't quite land with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's family.

Gene's son Rod Roddenberry, who's also produced several projects for the franchise, called out Shatner over a Saturday Night Live skit, in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter .

In the December 1986 SNL episode, the actor took questions at a fan convention. "Get a life, will you, people," he proclaimed in the now-infamous sketch.

"For crying out loud, it's just a TV show. I mean, look at you. Look at the way you're dressed," Shatner continued on the skit. "You've turned an enjoyable little job I did as a lark for a few years into a colossal waste of time."

Although he never knew what his father thought of the skit, as Gene died when his son was only 17, Rod did not like how it portrayed fans.

"I never really appreciated that skit because I think it was demeaning to the fans," Rod told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the original show's 55th anniversary. "I think it was disrespectful, especially for a character who was an open-minded, intelligent leader."

" But I don't condemn it in any way. It's Saturday Night Live, and it's all fun," Rod added.

He admitted that he wasn't immediately a fan of his father's show himself until he met some devoted Trekkies.

"They were my introduction to Star Trek . They're the ones who came up to me and said, Star Trek inspired me. And because of Star Trek , I am now a teacher, a doctor, whatever the case is, and I owe that to Star Trek .' At the time, I was watching Knight Rider — and Knight Rider didn't do that for me," he told THR .

Shatner, despite the skit, embraces the franchise's many fans. He even used the SNL catchphrase as the title of his 1999 nonfiction book Get a Life! , for which he did research at fan conventions, before exploring the fandom even further with the 2012 documentary of the same name.

The actor did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

RELATED VIDEO: William Shatner Reveals He Has 'Never Watched' an Episode of Star Trek: 'It's All Painful'

The Golden Globe winner revealed on People (the TV Show!) that he's never seen an episode of his star-making series. "I have never watched Star Trek ," he said in March. "There are many episodes I don't know, there are some movies I don't know."

"I directed one of the movies — No. 5 — I had to watch that one," Shatner added of 1989's Star Trek V: The Final Frontier .

"But it's all painful because I don't like the way I look and what I do."

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‘Star Trek’ Conventions: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘Trek’ Fan Gatherings

Even Star Trek captain William Shatner has poked fun at Star Trek conventions, those assemblies of eager fans that take place in dozens of cities around the world each year. But his famous Saturday Night Live Trekkie-mocking sketch aside (see below), Shatner would also be among the first to credit the audience of the Trek universe with ensuring that there is a Trek universe.

As Trekkies gather this weekend at Star Trek : Mission New York to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Gene Roddenberry-created sci-fi TV classic, we offer up a few facts you might not have known about Trek conventions, and how vital they’ve been to the series’ ability to live long and prosper.

1. The first official Star Trek convention was held Jan. 21-23, 1972, at the Statler Hilton hotel (now named Hotel Pennsylvania) in New York City. The gathering was started by a group of Trek fans who pooled their money and rented the hotel’s ballroom, expecting just a few hundred fellow Trekkies, as they would later be called, to come and share their Trek love. Instead, roughly 3,500 people showed up to see guests like the series’ creator, Gene Roddenberry, author and professor Isaac Asimov, and original series writer D.C. Fontana. In the wonderfully fun, now out of print 1975 book Star Trek Lives! by Sondra Marshak, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, and Joan Winston (used copies are available at Amazon.com, Half.com, and other used book stores), Winston — one of the original organizers of the first convention — devotes a whole chapter to the event, which included a costume contest, screenings of Trek episodes and a blooper reel, and, thanks to a surprisingly generous loan, more than 4,000 pounds of space-related exhibits directly from NASA.

Related: Ranking 50 Years of ‘Star Trek’ Series Premieres

2. It was during the 1972 convention in New York that most fans first learned what the “T” in James T. Kirk stood for: Fontana revealed that his middle name was Tiberius. In Star Trek Lives! , Joan Winston wrote that most fans at the convention thought the “T” stood for “Tomcat,” because of Kirk’s many romances.

3. Winston, who was on the set for what turned out to be the filming of the original series’ final episode, went on to help organize the first five conventions. She wrote Star Trek fiction, edited a ’zine devoted to Star Trek: The Next Generation character William T. Riker (played by Jonathan Frakes), and became a celebrity herself among Trekkies. When she died of Alzheimer’s disease in 2008, the New York Times ran an obituary , declaring her a “superfan” in its headline.

4. By 1974, the third Star Trek convention in New York drew 15,000 fans, according to The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years , a must-read by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman that came out this year. Six thousand more had to be turned away, and the conventions became such well-attended events that they began to spring up in other cities, like Los Angeles. The Equicon Trek gathering in L.A. in 1973 was co-organized by another fan heroine, Bjo (Betty Jo) Trimble , who shepherded the fan-letter-writing campaign that prompted NBC to green-light a third season of the original series, ensuring that there would be enough episodes to send Star Trek into syndication, where it cemented its status as a cult favorite.

5. In his 2016 book Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man , William Shatner credits the early fan conventions, which came after the original series’ 1969 cancellation, with keeping “the franchise alive and [leading] to the movies and the various TV series.”

6. Not that he was always that supportive of the fan gatherings. In a 1986 episode of Saturday Night Live , Shatner, as host, played himself in the sketch “Trekkies.” Facing a crowd of diehard fans, whose questions got a little too obsessive and specific for him, Shatner becomes frustrated and tells the Trekkies they need to “get a life,” move out of their parents’ basements, and realize Trek is only a TV show. After a scuffle with the convention host, Shatner returns to the podium and tells the relieved fans he was just paying homage to the “evil Kirk” from the episode “The Enemy Within.” But after years of being lukewarm, at best, about the conventions, the Emmy winner redeemed himself with his 1999 book Get a Life! , in which he took his convention appearances more seriously, interviewing his cast mates, convention organizers, and fans, and developing an appreciation for them as he finally began to understand their devotion to the Star Trek universe.

7. The first official Star Trek convention Shatner attended: the fourth one , in 1975, at the Americana Hotel in New York. “Did I mention that the first — and last! — notes of the musical scale are do?” Shatner wrote in his 2008 memoir Up Till Now: The Autobiography . “The money they offered me to attend this convention was… Do I dare? Yes, I do! Out of this world!”

Related: ‘Star Trek’ Flashback: Writer David Gerrold Talks ‘Tribbles’

8. The first unofficial Star Trek convention, known as “Star Trek Con,” which some fans insist was less convention and more just a simple gathering, took place in New Jersey on March 1, 1969, before the original series was canceled. Nearly 300 people gathered at the Newark Public Library, where, for a $0 admission fee, they viewed slides from the series set, sang folk songs — “filk” music — inspired by the show, heard a lecture about the science of Trek , and, of course, held discussions about why they loved Star Trek so much.

9. Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine producer Ronald D. Moore (also the executive producer on Outlander and Battlestar Galactica ) on the influence of Trek fan conventions, from The Fifty-Year Mission : “In the pre-Internet era, and being from a little town in central California, I didn’t have access to any of the stuff that was going on with Star Trek , so I had no idea what was happening out there in fandom. My knowledge of Trek in the ’70s was fairly limited to Starlog magazine. … That’s where I realized there were Star Trek conventions. … It was just this TV show that I loved, that I didn’t even know anyone else liked but me. Then I read there were these conventions and these people out there who did love the show, and that the actors went.”

10. There’s no Star Trek convention in space (yet), but there is one on water. Star Trek : The Cruise , the first official fan cruise event for the series, leaves from Miami in January 2017, and will sail for six days and six nights to Cozumel, Mexico, and Nassau in the Bahamas, with William Shatner, Jonathan Frakes, Robert Picardo, Marina Sirtis, and John de Lancie among the cast members on board. The bad news: It’s already sold out. The good news: You can join a waiting list, or start planning for 2018’s Trek cruise, hosted by George Takei.

Star Trek : Mission New York runs Sept. 2-4 at the Javits Center in New York City.

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