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Richard Keith "Rick" Berman (born December 25, 1945 in New York, New York, USA) is an American television producer. He is most famous for his work as the executive producer of the Star Trek series from The Next Generation onwards and since Gene Roddenberry's death being seen as head of Star Trek production at Paramount, whether in film or television. He is also very controversial among Star Trek fans, many of whom criticize his handling of the shows.
Work in television
Berman graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1967 with a B.A. in speech. From 1977 to 1982, he was the senior producer of The Big Blue Marble for PBS. His work won an Emmy for Outstanding Children's Series. Between 1982 and 1984 he was an independent producer. He worked on various projects, including What on Earth, an informational series for HBO, and The Primal Mind, a one-hour award-winning special for PBS.
Berman joined Paramount in 1984 as director of current programming. He oversaw such popular shows as Cheers and MacGyver.
Work in Star Trek
In 1987, Berman was selected by Gene Roddenberry to help him create Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG). As Roddenberry's health declined, Berman took over more and more of the daily production of the show.
Berman went on to executive produce and co-create Deep Space Nine (DS9) with Michael Piller, Voyager with Piller and Jeri Taylor, and Enterprise with Brannon Braga. He is also responsible for the production and receives a story credit on the four TNG movies: Generations (1994), First Contact (1996), Insurrection (1998), and Nemesis (2002).
He was initially involved in developing a Star Trek XI based on a script written by Erik Jendresen, the idea was short lived and within weeks of appearing on IMDB, was removed. J. J. Abrams is now part of a team developing what is to be Star Trek XI. With J.J. Abrams now taking over Star Trek on the big screen and no TV series in production, Rick Berman has reportedly left Star Trek.
External links
- Rick Berman — profile at startrek.com
- Rick Berman — profile at Global Episode Opinion Survey
1945 births | American television producers | Jewish-American businesspeople | Living people | People from New York City | Star Trek behind the scenes | Star Trek script writers
"Rick Berman"