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PEOPLE & ARTS Friday 30 November 2018

Star Trek's interracial kiss 50 years ago heralded change

By JESSE J. HOLLAND Throughout the ensuing
Associated Press decades, interracial
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was relationships with black and
the kiss heard around the white actors became more
galaxy. prevalent on television,
Fifty years ago — and only spanning multiple genres.
one year after the U.S. From comedies like "The
Supreme Court declared Jeffersons" and "Happy
interracial marriage was Endings," to dramas such
legal — two of science as "Parenthood," ''Six Feet
fiction's most enduring Under" and "Dynasty," and
characters, Captain James back to sci-fi with the short-
T. Kirk and Lieutenant Nyota lived "Firefly."
Uhura, kissed each other The trend is still not without
on "Star Trek." its detractors. In 2013, a
It wasn't romantic. Sadistic, Cheerios commercial
humanlike aliens forced the featuring an interracial
dashing white captain to couple and their daughter
lock lips with the beautiful drew thousands of racist
black communications comments online.
officer. But the kiss between Historians have noted
actors William Shatner that interracial kisses
and Nichelle Nichols in between blacks and
"Plato's Stepchildren" would whites happened on British
help change attitudes in television during live plays
America about what was as early as 1959, and on
allowed to be shown on This combination photo shows actor William Shatner on the set of ABC's "Boston Legal" in subsequent soap operas
TV and made an early Manhattan Beach, Calif., on Sept. 13, 2004, left, and actress Nichelle Nichols attending an all- like "Emergency Ward 10."
statement about the star tribute concert for jazz icon Herbie Hancock in Los Angeles on Oct. 28, 2007. In the U.S., interethnic kisses
coming acceptance of Associated Press happened on "I Love Lucy"
interracial relationships in a between the Cuban Desi
United States still struggling from Southern television public and the TV industry of the news — was escapist Arnaz and the white Lucille
with racism and civil rights. stations, showrunners at that time almost without fare and not willing to Ball in the 1950s and even
The kiss between Uhura and filmed the kiss between comment, said Robert deal with the raucous on Star Trek in 1967 with
Kirk "suggested that there Shatner and Nichols — their Thompson, a Syracuse atmosphere in the 1960s, Mexican actor Ricardo
was a future where these lips are mostly obscured by University professor of Thompson said. Montalban kissing Madlyn
issues were not such a big the back of Nichols' head television and popular "It was so hard for television Rhue in the "Space Seed"
deal," said Eric Deggans, — and wanted to film a culture. in the 60s to talk about the episode.
national television critic second where it happened "It neither got the backlash 1960s," he said. "That kiss and Other shows like
for National Public Radio. off-screen. But Nichols one might have expected that episode of Star Trek is "Adventures in Paradise"
"The characters themselves said in her book, "Beyond nor did it open the doors an example of how every and "I Spy" featured kisses
were not freaking out Uhura: Star Trek and Other for lots more shows to now and again television in between white male actors
because a black woman Memories," that she and do this," Thompson said. that period tried to kick the and Asian actresses, and
was kissing a white man ... Shatner deliberately "The shot heard around door open to those kinds of Sammy Davis Jr. kissed
In this utopian-like future, flubbed lines to force the the world started the representations." Nancy Sinatra on the
we solved this issue. We're original take to be used. American Revolution. The Gene Roddenberry, Star cheek on a December
beyond it. That was a Despite concerns from kiss heard around the world Trek's creator, and his team 1967 episode of her
wonderful message to executives, "Plato's eventually did ... but not had more leeway because televised special "Movin'
send." Stepchildren" aired without immediately." he was writing about the with Nancy."
"Plato's Stepchildren," blowback. In fact, it got This was a world where future and not current life, Whether another kiss came
which first aired on Nov. 22, the most "fan mail that interracial marriage had just experts said. first doesn't really matter.
1968, came before Star Trek Paramount had ever become legal nationwide. "Setting Star Trek three "For whatever reason, that
morphed into a cultural gotten on Star Trek for In 1967, the year before hundred years in the future one between Captain
phenomenon. The show's one episode," Nichols said "Plato's Stepchildren" allowed (Roddenberry) to Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura
producers, meanwhile, in a 2010 interview with aired, the Supreme Court focus on the social issues seems to be the one that is
were concerned about the Archive of American struck down nationwide of the 1960s without being marked as the milestone,"
one of the main episode Television. laws that made marriage direct or obvious," Shatner Thompson said.
elements: Humanlike aliens Officials at Paramount, the illegal between blacks and said in his book "Leonard: It stands out because it
dressed as ancient Greeks show's producer, "were just whites, between whites and My Fifty-Year Friendship had a profound effect
that torture the crew with simply amazed and people Native Americans, Filipinos, with a Remarkable Man." on viewers, Nichols said in
their telekinetic powers and have talked about it ever Asians and, in some states, A later episode entitled 2010.
force the two USS Enterprise since," said Nichols. "all non-whites "Let That Be Your Last "The first thing people
crew members to kiss. While inside the show things Only 3 percent of newlyweds Battlefield" highlighted the want to talk about is the
Worried about reaction were buzzing, the episode were intermarried that folly of racism by showing first interracial kiss and
passed by the general year. In 2015, 17 percent of a generations-long battle what it did for them. And
newlyweds — or at least 1 in between two people from they thought of the world
6 of newly-married people the same planet who differently, they thought
— were intermarried, thought each other to be of people differently," she
according to a Pew subhuman - one was black- said.q
Research Center analysis skinned on the left side and
of U.S. Census Bureau data. white on the right, while the
Most television — outside other was the opposite.