Roddenberry’s Lost TV Pitch 7 Years Before Creating Star Trek Uncovered

7 years before creating Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry pitched a TV series about Sam Houston, and his first-ever pitch document is explored by the Roddenberry podcast Gene-ology. Before producing Star Trek‘s first unaired pilot, “The Cage,” which he pitched in 1964, and Star Trek: The Original Series, which premiered in 1966, Gene Roddenberry spent the mid-to-late 1950s as a successful TV writer. While still working as an LAPD police sergeant, Roddenberry wrote scripts for Highway Patrol and Mr. District Attorney (under his pseudonym Robert Wesley), and 10 episodes of The West Point Story.

In 1957, Gene Roddenberry pitched The Man From Texas, a historical-based TV series about Sam Houston. Gene-ology: A Roddenberry Podcast, hosted by Earl Green and Norman C. Lao, uncovered and explored The Man From Texas, the earliest TV pitch by Gene Roddenberry that there are records of in the Roddenberry Archives. It’s a fascinating glimpse at Roddenberry’s desire to oversee his own TV series about an American icon whose life was an unbelievably true story. You can listen to the episode of Gene-ology below:

​​Gene-ology is also delving into the two unproduced scripts of The Man From Texas written by Gene Roddenberry. The episode about the first ​screenplay, “Destiny and the Raven,” can be heard below:

You can also download each episode of Gene-ology from the Mission Log Podcast website at this link.

Source: Mission Log: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast, Roddenberry Archives