The original episodes ran for only three seasons in the late '60s. But when "Star Trek" went into syndication in the '70s, its new audience would launch it into the stratosphere.
"It was a big hit for us," says Ellen Adelstein, owner, along with her late husband, Gene, of KZAZ-TV, Channel 11, which ran "Star Trek" repeats for years.
In 1981, Gene Adelstein decided to run a 24-hour "Star Trek" marathon — the first in the country, says Ellen.
In conjunction with that, she and Gene asked "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry to pick his favorite episodes to include in the marathon.
Roddenberry did them one better. He invited them to his Beverly Hills home for an interview that would also be televised during the marathon, as well as for Ellen's show, "Talk It Over."
"We took the little remote truck that we used for all the basketball and football games to L.A.," says Ellen, who conducted the interview on June 16, 1981.
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Wearing oversized glasses not seen since disco died, Ellen sat next to Roddenberry — dressed in a leisure suit — and asked him how he got into writing science fiction. Once the head writer for TV's "Have Gun, Will Travel," Roddenberry likened that show's hero, Paladin, to a science-fiction character.
Science fiction, he said, liberated "Star Trek's" story lines. Television was heavily censored back then, he told Ellen, particularly when dealing with sex or religion. But setting the stories on strange planets with "polka-dotted" people in them allowed him more latitude.
"I always knew this interview was special," says Ellen. Still, after it aired, the tape sat on the shelf for years.
Occasionally, she would look at other interviews done with Roddenberry, who died in 1991. "None was as good as mine. I thought, 'Gee, I really have something here.' "
In 2004, she sent a clip of the interview and a letter to Roddenberry's son, Rod, who was only 17 when his father died. She heard nothing back.
And then fate intervened. Her daughter, Ilysha, who was living in Los Angeles, had married a professional magician who was able to get Rod Roddenberry, a magic buff, into the Magic Castle, an exclusive club for magicians and their friends.
From there, a friendship blossomed. One night after dinner at her house, Ilysha popped in a VHS copy of her mother's interview with Gene Roddenberry.
"Rod was almost moved to tears," says Ellen. Not long after, he invited her to show the interview in his booth at a couple of "Star Trek" conventions.
With permission from Rod Roddenberry and help from all three of Ellen's children, the interview was digitally remastered into DVD.
Running about 1 hour and 20 minutes, it includes an introduction by Rod Roddenberry, as well as a brief interview he gave to Ellen.
It's now marketed under Beshert Productions. "In Yiddish, that means, 'It was meant to be,' " says Ellen.
"Gene Roddenberry: Up Close and Personal" can be ordered for $19.95 at www.roddenberryinterview.com.
