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Professional curmudgeon Harlan Ellison is suing CBS-Paramount in connection with his famed teleplay for the original Star Trek episode, "City on the Edge of Forever", 42 years after its original airing. He's alleging the Big Media company allegedly has failed to pay him for the merchandising, publishing, and other exploitations of his work from inception to present day. The suit filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California also names the Writers Guild of America -- despite Ellison being a 47-year member and twice on its board of directors -- and accuses the guild of failing to act on Ellison’s behalf after numerous requests. You may recall Ellison’s episode because it starred Joan Collins as salvation sister Edith Keeler, the woman Captain Kirk loved and then watched die, andis often ranked among “100 Greatest Television Episodes of All Time”. Also according to Ellison's complaint, CBS-Paramount will not send statements or admit anything is owed.
Harlan Ellison Sues CBS-Paramount, WGA
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Quite a bit of umbrage considering Roddenberry did a rewrite of the script. Also in the filing, one of the pieces of merchandising mentioned is a “talking” Christmas ornament. I’m sure Paramount raked in millions for that alone. Pathetic.
Watch the Harlan Ellison film “Dreams with Sharp Teeth.” The part where he describes this episode and what HE wrote and thought it should be, will be evidently clear that his work is NOT what was immortalized by Star Trek. Ellison shoots himself in the foot (as it pertains to his lawsuit) by describing in detail his version of the episode, which bears NO resemblance to what made it to the small screen.
Harlan’s a bit of a paranoid megalomaniac sometimes. It’s a good way to keep getting free publicity, and he knows it.
Harlan Ellison spoke of his earlier settlement with Paramount over this episode back at a Science Fiction convention I attended in Boston waaay back in ‘82.
He said that he settled the case, but the terms prohibited him from disclosing the amount of compensation that Paramount paid him, something he clearly regretted quite soon.
So, he bought a billboard right outside Paramount’s front gate, and had it say
This Billboard costs $1900 a month,
but I can afford it.
— Harlan Ellison
Give them hell Harlan.
The irony here is that although he received sole writing credit, Harlan Ellison’s story was deemed “unfilmable” by Star Trek producers and was never used. Most believe that it was the late Gene L. Coon who actually wrote the shooting script for “City on the Edge of Forever.”
Good Grief! What is wrong with this guy, is he suffering from terminal PMS? He’s a brilliant writer but geez, look at him crosseyed and he’s liable to rip your face off! Someone get him some Xanax! The only reason I can think of him doing this now is that no one wants to deal with him anymore, all his income sources have dried up and he’s desperate for dough and this looked like his best chance to get some. {Wonder if he invested with Mr. Madoff also, that might explain his actions}
Go Harlan Go.
Make them pay. With interest. Much, much interest.
Now this shows how no one in Hollywood ever learns their lessons. If the folks running Paramount didn’t know that he would fight them tooth and nail over this, they don’t deserve to be running the company.
Getting into a lawsuit with Harlan Ellison is like poking a sleeping badger with a stick. You might survive, but you can easily lose a lot of blood in the process.
I believe he’s only suing the WGA for $1, though, so it’s more about shaming them than trying to get money from them.
Harlon Ellison – working hard to cement his legacy as a kook.
Okay, Star Trek TOS smackdown. Taste of Armageddon, where they go to the planet where the two warring countries fight their war by computer and then people are forced to commit suicide in order to account for the losses is twice the episode City on the Edge of Forever is, with it’s ridiculous “Guardian of Eternity” and Spock building a duotronic computer out of radio tubes. Hell, Patterns of Force, the one where they all go to the Nazi planet, is better.
And I want all the Rice-a-Roni I would have accrued through interest! (with apologies to King of Queens.
Professional curmudgeon sounds about right.
Perhaps this is opportunistic timing, what with the new movie coming out in a couple of months.
Harlan might be a bit pugnacious, but he’s right on the money when it comes to both HIS rights from the Star Trek episode as well as other royalties issues. Have you guys forgotten that he has lobbied on behalf of fellow sci-fi writers that have had ENTIRE novels posted word for word on the net without their permission (including some instances where the publishers themselves turned over electronic rights without even bothering to get the author’s permission first).
Don’t give me this “Roddenberry had the script rewritten so Harlan has no real claim” nonsense. Unless Paramount is going to lobby the WGA to remove Harlan’s sole writing credit from the episode, then it’s pretty pointless for some of you to demean his LEGAL claim by rehashing rumors.
I had an interesting experience with Mr. Ellison, when I decided not to option one of his pieces. No big deal, enjoyed the story, but it ultimately didn’t fit with what I wanted to do creatively, so I advised his agent “thanks, but no thanks.” End of story, or so I thought. Months later I got an expletive laden rant on my voicemail from him demeaning me, my company, my intelligence and “people like me.” As a great fan of his writing and a person who would have loved to do something with him, I was a bit surprised.
I guess his work now falls in the “wait until I can deal with estate instead” category!
Signed,
John Doe
(now in the Federal Development Exec Protection Program, in Yuma, AZ… I mean, Kansas City, damn it…)
Anyone can see the actual complaint (PDF), as well as press release (in two file formats), at harlanellison.com/heboard/unca.htm. No need to speculate on the particulars.
Here is a section of the allegations that seems meatier than the Christmas-Tree-ornament argument:
“In another instance, Paramount licensed to Simon & Schuster/Pocketbooks—one of its sister corporations—the right to base a series of books on the City teleplay (the Crucible series) that make use of all the key aspects of that teleplay including the so-called Guardian of Forever entity specific only to that episode and, pivotally at the core of all three books, Ellison’s creation of Sister Edith Keeler and the significant question of the impact of her life or death on the course of events, plus unique time-travel concepts and singular themes, plot points, mood, an entire storyline set in the era of America’s 1930’s Great Depression, and pacing—all present in the City teleplay. Simon & Schuster/Pocket Book used references to the City episode in marketing materials developed to promote and sell the books. No one reading the books would have any doubt that they were reading a work fundamentally derivative of the ideas, expressions and concepts contained in the City episode, and would probably not otherwise purchase the books. Paramount, through its licensor and sister company, Pocket Books/Simon and Schuster carefully and, Ellison asserts, with flagrant intent, purposely avoided any mention of Ellison anywhere on or in the trilogy though his WGAW-Award-winning authorship of City is universally acknowledged.”
Even if his script was substantially rewritten—and I remain amazed by Ellison’s decades-long ire toward the people who dared edit his precious script, who (other than story editor D. C. Fontana) are long dead—it really was probably unfilmable as written, despite winning the WGA-West award in that form; I’ve read it.
By the way, he is suing WGA for one dollar only, plus acknowledgment that it could’ve done better in defending his asserted rights.
This is just research for his new book “Paycheck on the Edge of Whenever”
>>>with it’s ridiculous “Guardian of Eternity”
FAIL Alert.
It is “Guardian of Forever.”
And it is “its,” not “it’s.”
Try again, lame-ass Paramount Suit Monkey.
Well, he’s got a shot — he did force that thief Cameron to settle for stealing THE TERMINATOR.
Ellison is looking to have his cake and to eat it too. He complains for years that his original teleplay was ruined by Roddenberry, accepts an award for the script (that wasn’t made into the episode), writes a book about how much better his script was (“The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Teleplay that Became the Classic Star Trek Episode”), reaches a reaches a settlement with Paramount on the episode (that he hated), and now sues for lost profits.
Do you think the timing of Ellison’s claim has anything to do with the timing of the new Star Trek movie coming out? Hmmmmm…..
I’m a huge Harlan Ellison fan and a huge Terminator fan. I’ve read the story he claims the film was based on. Personally, I don’t see the connection.
Roddenberry didn’t re-write any scripts–he wasn’t a writer.
Ellison’s story was unfilmable because of cost, not concept.
@ 398:
You might not, but the court certainly did.
I’m a little embarrassed that I screwed that up, but you gotta admit it’s a pretty subpar, Manny Coto-level storyline. Then again, he did that awesome 2-part Enterprise where they go back in time and discover that the Dominion is helping the Axis in WW2.
And I’m writing from my dubbing room at Sony, you insensitive clod!
Given that this is Paramount vs. Harlan Ellison, I tend to think Ellison’s got a genuine beef. Depends on what the contract says. If Par is supposed to provide accounting info, and won’t, you have to wonder. It wouldn’t be the first time Paramount was on the wrong side of contract law with a writer.
I wish I could put my hands on the books “The Glass Teat” and “The Other Glass Teat,” Ellison’s scathing columns on television, particularly L.A. television, during the 1960s. Deliciously mean and apparently rightly so. I’m not originally from L.A. but I think they ran in a pre-L.A. Weekly era counter-culture rag. They were on the reading list for a film and TV college course I took.
This is the episode where Kirk and Spock go back in time and restore earth’s history. In doing so, it causes Harlan Ellison to lose his mind.
Go, Harlan, Go!
Paramount, like ALL the studios, robs people blind (especially the poor writers) then falls back on the ever popular slogan, “So sue us.” They hit you with a paper blizzard from their councel, hoping to outlast all you smart folk out there. (translation: hoping that you either A) run out of money to carry the lawsuit forward over many years, or B) you die before the end of the appeals process. If you win AND are still alive, the execs don’t give a shit. As one Warners counsel told me about the plagiarism lawsuit of Superman III involving Barry Taff & Ken Stoller many years ago, “So what? We’re indemified.” The insurance company pays, not the studio. Ha ha ha.
Paramount’s execs are pretty stupid in not knowing the man they are dealing with in this case. Harlan is absolutely ferocious in his tenacity to get his rights, money, etc. — unlike most others writers & actors.
- He will never give up.
- He’s got everything, evidence-wise, he needs (I’d bet a house on this)
- He has no fear of being blacklisted; he’s a working novelist & essayist & can always be published.
- He won’t be bullied or cowed into submission by their litigators.
I remember him saying, “Do I hold grudges? I’m still working on ones from 20 years ago.”
But back to Paramount. He sued them a long time ago in a very bitter piece of action & won. He will win again; make no mistake. He will take those Paramount execs by the balls & utterly humiliate & destroy them in court. You don’t think so? You don’t know Harlan, kid.
These Paramount morons don’t have any idea of the ride they are in for, and I applaud Harlan for making a show of this in public (oh, he will).
Harlan, burn their asses!
I’m not a fan of Harlan Ellison’s version of City, and I applaud that they had the courage to change it to fit the series and weathered all his rants…
… but all of that… and most of what is on this thread is besides the point.
The way television and film and copyright works is that if you create a character or a concept, you own it and you have to be paid a fee by a company trying to exploit it. We all know damn well that Paramount doesn’t allow companies to exploit the name of Star Trek without paying them a fee for their ownership rights. And it doesn’t matter if the name is Sherlock Holmes, James T. Kirk or Homer Simpson or the Daleks — if you use someone else’s creation you have to pay a fee for the use. Even if it’s in the same series, if you use a character in episode 12, written by author B, who was created in episode 3 by author A, then you have to pay a fee for the use. No matter how much Gene Coon or Roddenberry changed City, they didn’t change the concept of the script, they didn’t change the name of the Guardian of Forever to the Ring of Time, and they didn’t change Edith Keeler’s name to Jane Smith, her job description, what she did, what she meant or any of those things. Or even that Spock made the future viewer from radio tubes and such. That’s why Harlan got his sole credit, it was mostly his ideas. From what I can remember from reading Harlan’s story, the big change in the concept was that Harlan had Kirk ready to sacrifice the universe for love and wouldn’t let her be killed and Spock had to step in and do it. Which is a grand concept for a one-off story, and may have been why he won his award, but it’s a lousy ending for an ongoing series. The writing staff changed it so the hero of the show, Kirk, ACTS HEROICALLY, and sacrifices the only true love of his life for the good of the universe, so that you get at the end:
Kirk, eyes squeezed tight against the sight of what he’s done.
McCoy: Jim, do you know what you’ve done?
Spock: He knows, Doctor, he knows.
So if Paramount now wants to make books or whatever off the parts of that episode that were clearly Harlan’s creation, or toys or whatever, they have to pay him. After all, the Paramount suits didn’t have the foresight to think up the Guardian of Forever.
@ Luzid:
No, the court did not. The production company and distributor reached a settlement with him, so the matter was never adjudicated.
I remain unconvinced that he would have prevailed.
This whole thing will probably be settled out of court and, of course, all parties involved will be unable to divulge the specifics … so who cares? It’s not like the outcome of this case is going to change how Paramount does business nor will it cosy anyone their job.
More power to Harlan.
People forget that he has left money on the table rather than participate in studio nonsense.
Years ago, he was hired to be the head writer on the CBS revival of TWILIGHT ZONE (after the 1980s writers strike, when they were in a revivial frenzy).
They started off strong with an adaptation of Ellison’s “Shatterday,” about a guy who accidentally dials his own telephone number – and hears himself at home, answering it. A great, under-rated performance by Bruce Willis.
Harlan resigned in protest over an episode about an airplane hijacking. He wanted to have the hijackers all be from some mideastern jihad (this was years before 9/11 or the first attack on the World Trade Center). CBS decided to make it a coalition of hijackers representing the FALN, Chinese mobsters, etc.
In other words, as Harlan saw it, CBS was afraid to OFFEND TERRORISTS. So he quit.
Harlan Ellison. An original spirit, a fresh voice, an undying iconoclast.
This isn’t news. It’s only news when Ellison DOESN’T sue someone. He sues everyone. According to Ellison, he invented everything since the beginning of time, and anything remotely genre related is a rip off of his work.
And he’s NEVER been appropriately paid for anything in his life.
Lame-thetic Ellison… lamethetic…
If Harlan devoted the same energy to thinking and writing that he does to fighting and bitching, he’d be the best-known, best-loved writer in America and richer than Croesus to boot.
>>>you insensitive clod!
Hey, better than a FAIL Know-It-All.
@398 and others: Some history is in order here. Cameron HIMSELF stated in an interview with magazine Cinfantastique that Terminator was damned well VERY INFLUENCED by Harlan Ellison’s Outer Limits episode, Soldier. When Cameron was reviewing the Q&A galleys, he specifically asked CFQ to delete that. Someone at CFQ rightly ratted him out for it and thus Ellison had a case STRAIGHT FROM CAMERON’S OWN YAP. It was Slam-Dunk. THAT is why they settled. They had ZERO defense. ZERO.
“You still don’t get it, do you? He’ll find them! That’s what he does! It’s ALL he does! You can’t stop him! He’ll wait for them! He’ll reach down their throat and tear their f**kin’ hearts out!” Few people are so fueled by pure principle as Harlan. He fights the fights that other authors are too afraid, too poor, too corrupted, or too myopic to fight themselves. Although it’s better to have others die for their own sins, H.E. has often (such as versus AOL) jeopardized his own future so other creators might have one. In re: Paramount, a deal is a deal, and if the WGA has failed to enforce their own MBA, they add to the problem. Sometimes you have to sue people when sending them a dead gopher won’t do the trick.
It’s a moot point. All Paramount has to do is spin this out 5-7 years (waaay easy to do), knowing that by 2015 Ellison will either be 1)Dead, 2) Completely Senile, or 3) Broke. Then they settle with his estate. While the City on the Edge of Forever was one of the best Trek episodes, it’s funny that you never hear anything about the estate of Theodore Sturgeon suing Paramount, and he effectively created half of what we know about Vulcan society & customs. Then again, Ted wasn’t a class book Narcissist. Hmmm–maybe someone should sue him for all the advances from different publishers he took for the non-existent LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS?
Harlan!
I KNOW you’re reading this!!!
We met years and years ago on a TV episode you wrote. We ran into each other through the years and always shared a laugh. You were crazy then and – thank God – you’re still crazy now! Go for it!!!
P.S.
If you have a couple of extra tickets to the afterlife let me know!
This is PAST history, time to move on.. Just get a job Harlan – if you still can!
This guy is just looking for some cheap money to get!
I thought the “Outer Limits” episode that most resembled “The Terminator” was “The Man Who Was Never Born” from the first season wth Matin Landau. I heard the show’s creator, Joseph Stefano, say the same thing in a radio interview. You know, it also resembles “City on the Edge of Forever.”
Paramount, like most corporations, is all about making money. They believe that they own every concept, name, plot, and character that is used in any movie, episode, and show that they own. But the reality is that they didn’t create the concepts, names, plots, and characters that they are exploiting. It was the individual writers. Harlan has fought for the rights of writers for his entire career. If you’re not a writer then I’m sure this sounds like it’s meaningless, trivial, and petty. But Harlan is out there fighting a noble fight. Paramount has made over a billion dollars with Star Trek. They can’t cough up a small chunk of change that is actually owed to the guy for his ideas. Give me a break! But the reality is that Paramount believes they own them and can do anything they want, anytime they want.
Harlan’s not a big fan of Roddenberry but how much of the millions in profit Paramount made from the new movie do you think they gave to Roddenberry’s estate? Little or nothing would be my guess.
Thanks Harlan. I appreciate your fight and wish you luck. Kick their @sses.