- Rick Berman
:"For the lobbyist, see
Richard Berman ."Richard Keith "Rick" Berman (bornDecember 25 ,1945 in New York, New York,United States ) is an Americantelevision producer . He is most famous for his work as the executive producer of theStar Trek series from ' onwards and essentially succeededGene Roddenberry as the head of the franchise, until the cancellation of ' in 2005.Work in television
Berman graduated from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1967 with a B.A. in speech. From 1977 to 1982, he was the senior producer of "The Big Blue Marble " forPBS . His work won anEmmy for Outstanding Children's Series. Between 1982 and 1984 he was an independent producer. He worked on various projects, including "What on Earth ", an informational series for HBO, and "The Primal Mind ", a one-hour award-winning special for PBS.In 1984, Berman moved from New York City to Los Angeles, where he joined Paramount as director of current programming. He oversaw such popular shows as "
Cheers " and "MacGyver ".Work in "Star Trek"
In 1987, Berman along with producer
Maurice Hurley was selected byGene Roddenberry to help him create "" (TNG). Initially, he had supervising producer duties shared withRobert H. Justman . After Justman changed to consulting producer duties, Berman was promoted to co-executive producer. As Roddenberry's health declined; Berman took over more and more of the daily production of the show, and was promoted to executive producer in its third season, following the departure of Maurice Hurley. Berman wrote the 4th season episode, "", and the 5th season episode, "". In its final year, "The Next Generation" became the first ever syndicated television show to be nominated for the Emmy for Best Dramatic Series.Berman went on to executive produce and co-create ' (DS9) with
Michael Piller , ' with Piller andJeri Taylor , and "" withBrannon Braga . He is also responsible for the production and receives a story credit on the four TNG movies: "Generations" (1994), (1996), (1998), and "Nemesis" (2002).During his tenure, Berman received criticism for his approach to dramatic musical scoring [cite web | url=http://www.soundtrack-express.com/osts/startrektv.htm | title=Next Generarion Music | author=Soundtrack Express | date=1998 | ] .
Ron Jones [cite web | url=http://www.memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Ron_Jones | title=Ron Jones | author=Memory Alpha | ] , a composer who worked under Berman, noted that "Ricky Berman always considered music an intrusion, a necessary evil. I now can relate to the poor composers that were brought up before Stalin for being too creative. They were made to apologize for thinking out of the Party line." [cite web | url=http://www.startreksoundtracks.com/interview-ronjones.html | title=Ron Jones Interview | author=Star Trek Soundtracks | date=December 19, 2002 | ] Expanding on this critique, Star Trek writerDavid Weddle noted that he believed that the "moribund aesthetics of Rick Berman" were the "constrictions that slowly strangled the franchise." [cite web | url=http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2005/04/a_season_1_batt.html | title=David Weddle interview | author=Chicago Tribune | date=April 2005 | ]He was initially involved in developing an eleventh "Star Trek" movie based on a script written by
Erik Jendresen ; however, whenGail Berman (no relation) took over as president of Paramount Pictures, Jendresen's script was shelved [cite web | url=http://www.syfyportal.com/news422489.html | title=Star Trek XI Is Down, But It Is Not Out | author=Michael Hinman | date=April 12, 2006 | work=SyFy Portal | accessdate=2007-09-24] .J. J. Abrams is directing the eleventh "Star Trek" feature film, which is scheduled for a 2009 release. As he is not involved in the film, and as no TV series is currently in production, Rick Berman has left "Star Trek".References
ee also
*
List of Star Trek production staff External links
* [http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/creative/69089.html Rick Berman] — profile at startrek.com
* [http://www.geos.tv/index.php/credits?PersonID=383 Rick Berman] — profile at Global Episode Opinion Survey
*
* [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Rick_Berman Rick Berman] atMemory Alpha
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