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Spock's ears used to hurt Leonard Nimoy
The ears were painful and hard to apply.
Something hurt Leonard Nimoy's ears on the set of Star Trek, and it wasn't William Shatner's musical career.
No, it turns out that one of the most iconic pieces of Star Trek iconography was also one of its most painful. The pointy ears that Leonard Nimoy wore as Spock were a total pain in the... ear. At least at first.
Nimoy reflected on the aural assault in a 1969 interview with Florida Today.
"[The ears] were Gene Roddenberry's idea. I hated those things. Aside from the amount of time it took to put them on in makeup, they were painful as hell. Roddenberry promised me if I'd do 13 episodes with them and was still unhappy, he'd write an 'ear job' into a script so I could get rid of them."
Nimoy did as he was told but by the end of those 13 episodes, the ears had become an integral part of the series. Instead of giving the ears the axe, the makeup department devised easier-to-apply prosthetics that were far less painful for Nimoy.
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20 Comments
But I'll bet he could open up cans like Eddie Munster did
It's clear that someone is trying to be creative with photoshop. But pasting the character profiles onto a weird background while leaving a shadow around it, looks very cheap. As part of the total effect of the website is enjoying the lovely Getty and Everett photos, usually taken in their own day. Otherwise, this is an awful lot of merchandise to be wading through.
Thanks to Nimoy and his ears for their sacrifice!
The pointed ears hurt? Any more than the human ears of people who got to listen to Kevin Riley singing "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen"?
🤣🤣
I can imagine how those ears would hurt LN. They would hurt me.
I beg to differ, but Spock certainly did have pointed ears in the first pilot.
Yeah. Googling "Spock the Cage" proves it. I wonder if the mistake was Nimoy's in 1969, or Me-TV's.
Could be either. It seems like people don't remember things as accurately as they think they do. I do remember seeing a photo of Spock that was airbrushed to take the points off his ears. This was to make him seem less satanic looking. I think they were afraid of backlash. But the ears won out!
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Ears to you Spock (Leornard Nimoy) 👂🏻
Cute. 😊
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Interesting article. The curious thing though is if Mr. Nimoy expressed discomfort, why weren't easier to apply prosthetics with no pain developed earlier.
In total agreement.
Re: the MeTV writers, I think what happens is they lift "A" comment from tons of whatever has been written or reported over sixty years, and try to build a story around it. If the writers are being directed, somebody must've suggested, "all you can do is put something out there as if there are generations of new viewers. As if they've never heard this stuff before.
Curiously, the writer contradicts the kind of effect which the headline was trying to make in the first place, in the last paragraph.
"Nimoy did as he was told but by the end of those 13 episodes, the ears had become an integral part of the series. Instead of giving the ears the axe, the makeup department devised easier-to-apply prosthetics that were far less painful for Nimoy." Kind of dilutes the point of the article, doesn't it.
Re: the MeTV writers, I think what happens is they lift "A" comment from tons of whatever has been written or reported over sixty years, and try to build a story around it. If the writers are being directed, somebody must've suggested, "all you can do is put something out there as if there are generations of new viewers. As if they've never heard this stuff before.
Curiously, the writer contradicts the kind of effect which the headline was trying to make in the first place, in the last paragraph.
"Nimoy did as he was told but by the end of those 13 episodes, the ears had become an integral part of the series. Instead of giving the ears the axe, the makeup department devised easier-to-apply prosthetics that were far less painful for Nimoy." Kind of dilutes the point of the article, doesn't it.
As to initial comfort or not, 13 episodes was only half a year. Probably with a tight budget, meaning money usually going into talent and labor salaries anyway. Not necessarily props and set design, until the premise is settled for going forward. If the actors want those jobs in the first place, they put up with almost anything in the interest of steady work!
I read somewhere the Trek budget was so tight people from the effects department went dumpster diving to find items they could use on the sets.
That kind of a "lead" in a story certainly attracts readers. Set design and prop departments have two choices. One, is to create it. And two, is to find it. Bottom line is, they use whatever is the best special effect. And that depends on the script (storyline), meaning degree of exotic versus imagination factor. City on Edge of Forever required familiar yet fanciful props. Most were circa 1930's and garage sale worthy. Yet the mnemonic board was other-worldly, and needed to be literally constructed to approximate an actual build within the context of the era. So the answer is, "dumpster diving" is relative to the purpose. In truth, it's said GR consulted with future thinking innovators, in order to come up with the first "cell phone." Table top PC, Tablet, and medical devices.
https://www.metv.com/stories/early-episodes-of-star-trek-the-original-series-required-dumpster-diving
"The ears were painful and hard to apply." They could have stopped right there because most of the rest of the _short_ article is already well-known (it has been nearly 60 years, after all) and pretty much fluff. MeTV writers usually produce better than this.