Excerpt from "The Production Diary of 'The Apple' "
Production Diary
Filmed July 14 (2 day), 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 & 24, 1967.
(Planned as 6 day production, finishing three-quarters of a day over; total cost $205,980.)
Filmed July 14 (2 day), 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 & 24, 1967.
(Planned as 6 day production, finishing three-quarters of a day over; total cost $205,980.)
William Shatner and Keith Andes in NBC press release photo (Courtesy of Gerald Gurian)
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Production began mid-morning Friday, July 14. It was on this day that the United States launched Surveyor 4 to the Moon. It was meant to land there, but exploded during the attempt. Social unrest was also exploding, and doing so all across America. Twenty-seven died in a race riot in Newark, New Jersey. In the next few days, there would be more rioting in Illinois, North Carolina, and Tennessee. And a prison riot in Florida resulted in the death of 37.
A different type of riot happened at a rock concert in Forest Hills, New York, where teenage girls kept chanting “We want Davy! We want Davy!,” marring a performance by Jimi Hendrix, who, remarkably, had been booked to open for The Monkees. The Summer of Love was in full-swing. The Big Mouth, starring Jerry Lewis, was champ at the movie houses. The Dirty Dozen dropped to second position. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” “With a Little Help from My Friends,” and “She’s Leaving Home” were all over the radio. And that meant The Beatle’s pop masterpiece, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, was still the top-selling album in America. |
The melodic tones of Scott McKenzie’s voice was pouring from transistor radios across the country, too, telling anyone thinking of coming to San Francisco to wear flowers in their hair. And Desilu’s boss woman, and Star Trek backer, Lucille Ball, had the cover of TV Guide.
Meanwhile, at Desilu studios, once Marc Daniels finished “The Changeling,” Joseph Pevney spent the remainder of the day on Stage 9, beginning with the delightful Tag scene in the ship’s corridors, then moved on to film the bridge sequences.
Celeste Yarnall was needed in the wardrobe room this day for her fitting. She remembered, “When they first put the yeoman’s dress on me, it didn’t fit, and I said, ‘I’d like it shorter.’ I’d just come back from Europe, and I told them, ‘You know, the girls are really wearing their mini-skirts short in London right now.’ So, Bill Theiss said, ‘Let’s re-cut this for her.’ And another lady said, ‘Well, don’t you think she’s ever going to come back and want that dress?’ And he said, ‘Oh, no, she’s never coming back.’ Well, you know who she was; whose dress they were talking about? Grace Lee Whitney won’t like hearing this, but they re-cut and shortened Yeoman Rand’s dress for me.” (196-3)
Day 2, Monday. Stage 10 became the planet of Gamma Trianguli VI. Set decorator Joseph Stone turned the soundstage into a lush jungle. He had five Emmy nominations awaiting him, and one win. None were for Star Trek.
Meanwhile, at Desilu studios, once Marc Daniels finished “The Changeling,” Joseph Pevney spent the remainder of the day on Stage 9, beginning with the delightful Tag scene in the ship’s corridors, then moved on to film the bridge sequences.
Celeste Yarnall was needed in the wardrobe room this day for her fitting. She remembered, “When they first put the yeoman’s dress on me, it didn’t fit, and I said, ‘I’d like it shorter.’ I’d just come back from Europe, and I told them, ‘You know, the girls are really wearing their mini-skirts short in London right now.’ So, Bill Theiss said, ‘Let’s re-cut this for her.’ And another lady said, ‘Well, don’t you think she’s ever going to come back and want that dress?’ And he said, ‘Oh, no, she’s never coming back.’ Well, you know who she was; whose dress they were talking about? Grace Lee Whitney won’t like hearing this, but they re-cut and shortened Yeoman Rand’s dress for me.” (196-3)
Day 2, Monday. Stage 10 became the planet of Gamma Trianguli VI. Set decorator Joseph Stone turned the soundstage into a lush jungle. He had five Emmy nominations awaiting him, and one win. None were for Star Trek.
Star Trek writer David Gerrold, visiting the set, said,
“As far as the eye could see, green, green and more green”
(Photo courtesy of Fred Walder)
Celeste Yarnall remembered her first day on Stage 10 vividly, saying, “The stage was big; it was a really good size set. The rocks were all papier-mache, of course. But, when that set was lit, what you saw on the screen was what I saw standing there -- amazing colors. It was so beautiful to the eye; to the brain; it was so rich.” (196-3)
The production schedule identified this first area as “Ext. Jungle.” Pevney filmed the episode’s Teaser and first half of Act 1, including the death of Hendorff from the thorn-spewing plant. “The special FX were accomplished very simply,” said Mal Friedman, who played Hendorff. “They stopped camera, put a circular-shaped Styrofoam pad under my tunic, stuck in the thorns, put me back into position, [and] started rolling. Add a puff of smoke and voila, there I was with thorns in my shirt.” (69a) |
David Gerrold, splitting his time between writing the upcoming “The Trouble with Tribbles” and visiting the set, soaking up all he could about Star Trek, remembered, “The set for this episode [required] an orange sky and a green jungle -- not just a little jungle either. The jungle filled the soundstage; more than filled it -- overflowed in every direction. Far off on the horizon, tall palms were waving in the wind, dark clouds scudded the sky. As far as the eye could see, green, green and more green. As far as the second season was concerned, the budget for greenery had been blown.” (73-6)
Those greens alone took $5,040 away from the budget. That would be more than $35,000 in 2013. And that was to rent, not to buy. 
Shatner, in good spirits before the explosion which further damaged his hearing (Courtesy of Gerald Gurian)
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After shooting the scene where Spock, standing next to Kirk and McCoy, tosses away a rainbow-colored rock, the production abruptly stopped. DeForest Kelley recalled, “There was a big explosion that blew up in front of us, and the special effects man had placed TNT into it. That’s what it sounded like. It was a terrible explosion, and the three of us absolutely went deaf with it.” (98-1)
The moment was captured on film. Watch when the rock Spock discards explodes. Shatner puts his hand to his ear as the concussion hits and the three stars nearly fall over. Ever the professionals, they remained in character for the couple seconds needed to complete the shot, despite the shock and the stabbing pain in their ears.
“The explosions were immense,” said Celeste Yarnall. “They didn’t give us cotton for our ears. I don’t remember anyone yelling ‘Fire in the hole!’ I just remember stuff going off around us. And, being on a soundstage, there was a lot of reverberation. It was horrific. It really was. I remember a lot of yelling about ‘This is way too much!’” (196-3)
Kelley said, “We went to a Hollywood doctor’s office and it was a pretty big shock when the three of us [in costume] walked in!” (98-1)
Less funny was the aftereffects. Two decades later, Kelley admitted, “I have a constant reminder of that show; a constant ringing in my ear.@ (98-1)
Yarnall acknowledged that Kelley was not alone, saying, “That’s when Bill Shatner had his ears damaged, and they’ve rung ever since. He got tinnitus from that.” (196-3)
Shatner actually got tinnitus from an explosion during the production of “Arena.” The condition was now worsened, substantially.
Day 3, Tuesday. Pevney continued shooting the Jungle Area, finishing Act I and nearly all the scenes from Act II scripted for this setting. The action included Spock getting shot with thorns, the landing party discovering they could not beam up, and the death of the second red-shirt (Kaplan) who was struck by lightning and went up in a puff of smoke. With all the special effects and the injuries, Pevney was one-half day behind.
Day 4, Wednesday. Pevney finished with the “Ext. Jungle” set. A short move put them into the “Clearing” where he quickly captured all the sequences needed from this area, including the death of the third red-shirt, Mallory, by one of those land-mine rocks. This resulted in another casualty among the cast.
“I had to lobby director Joe Pevney for that scene,” recalled Jay Jones, who played Mallory. “He was a dear man and refused to let me do it. He felt it was too dangerous. I held out. I said, ‘I don’t want to do this stunt the Mickey Mouse way.’ He finally said okay. Well, I was wrong. I got hurt.
“There was a ‘jumper trampoline’ buried in the ground. When I hit the trampoline, the explosion was supposed to go off. Well, the timing had to be perfect, and it wasn’t. The special effects guy was a hundredth of a second too late. I was directly over it when the blast hit. In the episode, you can see me literally blown toward the camera. The force hit me in the stomach, burned my side, blew the skin off my rib cage and impacted all of this dirt into my sinuses. I couldn’t open my eyes or breathe. They rushed me to the hospital emergency room.
“They had filmed the explosion from another angle as well, and it was incredible. I looked like a human fireball. It wasn’t used because NBC felt it was too violent.” (93b)
The company kept working. Next up, the crew’s encounter with Akuta, then a move to the interior “Guest Hut” for various scenes from Acts III and IV.
Representatives from NBC Standards and Practices were on set, watching like hawks. Gene Coon had snuck some sex talk into the script. It was something no one on family-hour network entertainment shows talked about in 1967. But Kirk talks about it in that hut. He wonders what would happen if one of the Feeders of Vaal were to die in an accident; how would they go about creating a replacement? Yeoman Landers is put in the hot seat, asked to speculate. Looking flustered, she says, “But these people … if they don’t know how … what I mean is … if they don’t seem to have any natural … I mean … How is it done?” Spock says, “It is reasonable to assume that they would receive the necessary instructions.” McCoy interjects, “From a machine? That I’d like to see!”
The moment was captured on film. Watch when the rock Spock discards explodes. Shatner puts his hand to his ear as the concussion hits and the three stars nearly fall over. Ever the professionals, they remained in character for the couple seconds needed to complete the shot, despite the shock and the stabbing pain in their ears.
“The explosions were immense,” said Celeste Yarnall. “They didn’t give us cotton for our ears. I don’t remember anyone yelling ‘Fire in the hole!’ I just remember stuff going off around us. And, being on a soundstage, there was a lot of reverberation. It was horrific. It really was. I remember a lot of yelling about ‘This is way too much!’” (196-3)
Kelley said, “We went to a Hollywood doctor’s office and it was a pretty big shock when the three of us [in costume] walked in!” (98-1)
Less funny was the aftereffects. Two decades later, Kelley admitted, “I have a constant reminder of that show; a constant ringing in my ear.@ (98-1)
Yarnall acknowledged that Kelley was not alone, saying, “That’s when Bill Shatner had his ears damaged, and they’ve rung ever since. He got tinnitus from that.” (196-3)
Shatner actually got tinnitus from an explosion during the production of “Arena.” The condition was now worsened, substantially.
Day 3, Tuesday. Pevney continued shooting the Jungle Area, finishing Act I and nearly all the scenes from Act II scripted for this setting. The action included Spock getting shot with thorns, the landing party discovering they could not beam up, and the death of the second red-shirt (Kaplan) who was struck by lightning and went up in a puff of smoke. With all the special effects and the injuries, Pevney was one-half day behind.
Day 4, Wednesday. Pevney finished with the “Ext. Jungle” set. A short move put them into the “Clearing” where he quickly captured all the sequences needed from this area, including the death of the third red-shirt, Mallory, by one of those land-mine rocks. This resulted in another casualty among the cast.
“I had to lobby director Joe Pevney for that scene,” recalled Jay Jones, who played Mallory. “He was a dear man and refused to let me do it. He felt it was too dangerous. I held out. I said, ‘I don’t want to do this stunt the Mickey Mouse way.’ He finally said okay. Well, I was wrong. I got hurt.
“There was a ‘jumper trampoline’ buried in the ground. When I hit the trampoline, the explosion was supposed to go off. Well, the timing had to be perfect, and it wasn’t. The special effects guy was a hundredth of a second too late. I was directly over it when the blast hit. In the episode, you can see me literally blown toward the camera. The force hit me in the stomach, burned my side, blew the skin off my rib cage and impacted all of this dirt into my sinuses. I couldn’t open my eyes or breathe. They rushed me to the hospital emergency room.
“They had filmed the explosion from another angle as well, and it was incredible. I looked like a human fireball. It wasn’t used because NBC felt it was too violent.” (93b)
The company kept working. Next up, the crew’s encounter with Akuta, then a move to the interior “Guest Hut” for various scenes from Acts III and IV.
Representatives from NBC Standards and Practices were on set, watching like hawks. Gene Coon had snuck some sex talk into the script. It was something no one on family-hour network entertainment shows talked about in 1967. But Kirk talks about it in that hut. He wonders what would happen if one of the Feeders of Vaal were to die in an accident; how would they go about creating a replacement? Yeoman Landers is put in the hot seat, asked to speculate. Looking flustered, she says, “But these people … if they don’t know how … what I mean is … if they don’t seem to have any natural … I mean … How is it done?” Spock says, “It is reasonable to assume that they would receive the necessary instructions.” McCoy interjects, “From a machine? That I’d like to see!”
Shatner and Kelley, running lines while on Stage 10
(Courtesy of Gerald Gurian)
Day 5, Exterior Village set (Courtesy of Gerald Gurian)
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Broadcast Standards wanted to see, too, and see that the naughty business was handled discreetly.
Yarnall said, “They were really concerned. They didn’t want it thought that I was spending too much time in this hut with these four or five men. It was explained to them by the producers that this is the 23rd Century; that men and women are equal; there’s no reason for concern. But it didn’t matter. This isn’t the 23rd Century. This is 1967. And this is American TV. So they had some changes made, and some good moments were left on the cutting room floor.” (196-3) Even with the dreaded network censors on his set slowing things down, Pevney held at one-half day behind. Day 5, Thursday. Pevney filmed all the Ext. Village sequences as seen in Acts III and IV, constituting the first time all the villagers were seen together. Makeup artists Fred Phillips and his team had their hands full. All of the “Feeders of Vaal” wore body makeup to color their skin copper. Yarnall said, “I remembered how they said they wanted to save me for something more exotic. I was thinking about that when I saw those other poor girls, itching in the grass skirts and all that body makeup, and those wigs, so miserable and uncomfortable. And David Soul -- he was pretty itchy, too, painted copper with the body makeup. They’d have to go to lunch in all that, walking into the commissary. And I remember thinking, ‘Thank God I can just wear this cute little mini!’” (196-3) Next up: the fight. Yarnall said, “None of us were singled out as not being capable. I participated in a fight scene. It was very good for the liberated spirit of today’s woman because, I think, we were treated as equals. The show was progressive that way.” (196-2) The female Yeoman survived the fight. Marple, the last of the red-shirts did not. And, with this, “The Apple” marked the highest body count of Enterprise men-in-red to date. |
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Later in the day, Pevney filmed “Ext. Flowery Area” for the little bit of romance between Chekov and Yeoman Landon. Celeste Yarnall recalled, “Walter was very nice. But I had a particular problem at the time. Something had happened when I was in Europe; I used a cosmetic on my nails that had caused a serious nail infection. And when I got back to the States, it got worse and worse, and, right before the filming, I’d gone to a dermatologist and he literally drilled my nails from the nail bed out! So in every shot, you’ll see me hiding one hand -- I believe the right -- because I had no nails, and I wasn’t allowed to cover it up because there was a tincture that had been painted on my nails to try to kill this infection. So you’ll see me folding |
Celeste Yarnall hiding the nails on one hand
(Unaired film trim courtesy of Gerald Gurian)
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my arms a lot. Now, when I’d guest star
on a show, the first person besides the director I like to make friends
with is the Director of Photography, which in this case was Jerry
Finnerman, a wonderful man. I told him about my problem and asked if there was any way he could be sure to photograph me so that the hand with no nails would stay hidden. And he said, ‘Don’t worry, just concentrate on your performance, I’ll make sure we never see it.’ Now, it comes time to do the kiss with Walter. And I need to keep that hand down. So I have to lean in a certain way. But he’s trying to lean in a different way. [Laughs] Typical man, trying to lead.” (102-13)
Day 5 brought a challenge for the makeup department -- 10 copper-skinned natives (Courtesy of Gerald Gurian)
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Koenig recalled, “I was feeling rather flattered by the aggressive way she grabbed hold of me until I realized that she was positioning my body so that it is her face that dominates the camera frame. I guess that’s what you call the tricks of the trade.” (102-13)
Yarnall added, “I didn’t know at the time that he hadn’t been told about my hand and the reason why we were positioned as we were. So he’s wanting me to turn a certain way, but I couldn’t, and this meant his head was blocking mine from the camera. And I’m trying to go against this, and he’s trying even harder to get me to do it his way.” (196-3) Things went smoother next as Makora (David Soul) and Sayana (Shari Nims) mimicked the kiss they just witnessed. Later, for this same camera set-up, Pevney filmed Akuta showing the other Men of Vaal how to kill. Prop master Irving Feinberg needed a few plump melons for this. |
Day 6, Keith Andes about to smash open one of Irving Feinberg’s special Farmers’ Market melons (above); and Day 7 (below), filming Vaal
(Courtesy of Gerald Gurian)
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“I went to the Farmers’ Market and bought seven beautiful and expensive Persian melons,” Feinberg recalled in a 1968 interview for fanzine Inside Star Trek, issue #4. “The proprietor proudly informed me that their flavor was as great as their price. I left him in a state of shock when I told him that I wasn’t going to eat them, I was going to smash them. When I returned to the studio, I had these melons painted to change their outer appearance. In order to change their inner appearance, I injected a vegetable dye into their interiors with a hypodermic needle. This made them look properly disgusting when they were smashed.
“He was funny, that prop man,” said Yarnall. “He was so protective of those props. I remember when I would take a break and sit down in a chair off set, he’d run over and want his phaser back. He wasn’t going to lose sight of it. It was like he only had one of them.” (196-3) David Gerrold echoed Yarnall’s words, recalling, “I got my hands slapped by Prop Man Irving Feinberger [sic] for touching a hand phaser.” (73-6) Feinberg collected his props as Pevney finished filming, three-quarters of a day behind. Day 6, Friday. More of the Village set was shot and Pevney was still behind. Not helping matters, he also had to shoot pick-up scenes for “The Changeling” on this day. Day 7, Monday, July 24. All scenes involving the godhead Vaal were shot, ending with Kirk telling the out of work Feeders of Vaal that they were free to find their own way in life … including finding out about sex. Pevney needed the entire day, wrapping the episode in six and three-quarters days. |
All those lightning bolts and phaser beams ran the optical effects bill up to $35,160. The total hit, from start to finish, was $205,590. In 2013, this comes to nearly $1.5 million.
With “The Apple” pricing out at $20,590 over the studio’s per-episode allowance, the Second Season deficit grew to $137,441 … or nearly one million in 2013’s deflated dollars. Desilu was bleeding out.
With “The Apple” pricing out at $20,590 over the studio’s per-episode allowance, the Second Season deficit grew to $137,441 … or nearly one million in 2013’s deflated dollars. Desilu was bleeding out.
