Fred Freiberger, 1976

Fred Freiberger (born on February 19, 1915; died March 2, 2003) was an American television producer and script writer. He is best known for his work as producer of the third and final season of science fiction series Star Trek from 1968–1969. He was later contracted by Gerry Anderson and became the producer of the British-made science fiction series Space: 1999 for its second season. He wrote three episodes for Space: 1999 under the pseudonym "Charles Woodgrove" as he had done when writing episodes of the Western series Rawhide. Image File history File links Fred_Freiberger. ... Image File history File links Fred_Freiberger. ... February 19 is the 50th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ... March 2 is the 61st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (62nd in leap years). ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A Television producer oversees the making of television penis programs. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... The starship Enterprise as it appeared on Star Trek Star Trek is a culturally significant science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s. ... Gerry Anderson, born 14 April 1929, is a British producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called Supermarionation. His first television production was the 1957 Roberta Leigh childrens series The Adventures of Twizzle. ... Left to right: Barbara Bain, Catherine Schell and Martin Landau from Space:1999s second season. ... Rawhide was a television western series about cattle drives that aired on CBS from 1959-1966, which starred Eric Fleming and launched the career of Clint Eastwood, who played Rowdy Yates. ...

Freiberger's career began as a writer for film in the 1940s, and by the late 1950s he was working extensively in television, writing Westerns and other genres. In 1960, he became producer of the popular medical drama, Ben Casey, which was followed by a stint as producer of The Wild Wild West during its first season in 1965-66. In 1968, Gene Roddenberry, as a result of differences with NBC, stepped down as showrunner for Star Trek, and Freiberger was hired as producer. The season was derided by critics and fans, was plagued by reduced production budgets from NBC, and was scheduled in the so-called Friday night death slot which resulted in it failing to attain sufficient ratings numbers to continue; it was cancelled in the spring of 1969. Freiberger went on to write episodes for a number of popular early-1970s TV series, such as Emergency! and Ironside before being hired to take over from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson as producer for the second season of Space:1999. Dr. Maggie Graham (Bettye Ackerman) and Vince Edwards as the title character Ben Casey was a medical drama series which ran on ABC from 1961 to 1966. ... The Wild Wild West 1990s VHS release. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Gene Roddenberry Eugene Wesley Roddenberry (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American scriptwriter and producer. ... NBC (an acronym for National Broadcasting Company) is an American television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... A show runner is a person who has had proven success in the television industry, and typically has close ties to executives at various major television networks. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Emergency! was a popular crime drama/medical television series that was produced by Mark VII Limited (Jack Webbs company) and distributed by Universal Studios. ... Ironside (originally broadcast under the name A Man Called Ironside in the United Kingdom) was a Universal television series which ran on NBC from March 28, 1967 to January 16, 1975. ... Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson are most famous as the production team for several futuristic childrens television shows involving specially modified marionettes, a process called supermarionation. Their most famous production is Thunderbirds, which was produced by their production company, originally known as AP Films and later renamed Century 21...

In the pre-production analysis for the second season of Space: 1999, Freiberger pointed out that the first season was too intellectual for his target audiences, and he consequently redesigned the series.

The retooled series introduced the popular character of Maya but failed to generate sufficient ratings for renewal to a third season (although according to the book The Complete Gerry Anderson by Chris Bentley, a third season was anticipated). Freiberger then moved on to produce the final season of The Six Million Dollar Man in 1977-1978 and the short-lived Beyond Westworld in 1980 and, still later, wrote numerous episodes of the 1980s syndicated series, Superboy. The Six Million Dollar Man was an American television series about a cyborg working for a U.S. secret service called OSI. The show was based on the novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin, and aired on the ABC network as a regular series from 1974 to 1978, following a set... Beyond Westworld was a 1980 TV show that carried on the stories of the two feature films, Westworld and Futureworld. ... Superboy was a half-hour, live-action TV series based on the fictional DC Comics character. ...

Freiberger has a somewhat dubious reputation in science fiction fandom, mostly due to his involvement in the final seasons of Star Trek, The Six Million Dollar Man and Space: 1999, all of which were cancelled under his watch. This led to Freiberger being given the nickname "The Series Killer"^{[citation needed]} although it should be noted that he was also involved in the establishment of several other series that lasted for several seasons, such as Wild Wild West and Superboy. Fandom (from the noun fan and the affix -dom, as in kingdom, dukedom, etc. ...

External links

• Fred Freiberger at the Internet Movie Database