Something like this actually happened in the early days of Star Trek. On the one hand, Leonard Nimoy endured so many cracks about “pixie” and “fairy” that he told Gene Roddenberry he didn’t want to play the role any more. Roddenberry, who thought Spock had a lot to say on the show, finally told Nimoy, “OK, just give me a month. If the heckling doesn’t stop in a month, I will personally write you a script in which Spock gets and ear job and your ears go back to normal.” Nimoy sat across the desk from Roddenberry thinking about it for a few moments, then he burst out laughing. The ears had been put back into perspective.
But that wasn’t the end of it. Robert Justman, an associate producer on Trek, took advantage of the hours of exacting, time-consuming, and painful makeup work to get the ears right on camera, and made Nimoy a proposition: The show would pay for Nimoy to get the ears pointed by a plastic surgeon: No more painful appliances, he could come in for cast call at a normal time, not three hours early just to get the ears put on, they wouldn’t have to make new ears every so often because the appliances wore out; and after the show ran its course, the show would pay to have Nimoy’s ears returned to normal. Nimoy stood there contemplating the proposal, muttering, “Yeah, that might actually save a lot of time…” when Justman couldn’t stand it any more and ROTFL’d. Nimoy stared at Justman in shock; then realized he’d been had.
Something like this actually happened in the early days of Star Trek. On the one hand, Leonard Nimoy endured so many cracks about “pixie” and “fairy” that he told Gene Roddenberry he didn’t want to play the role any more. Roddenberry, who thought Spock had a lot to say on the show, finally told Nimoy, “OK, just give me a month. If the heckling doesn’t stop in a month, I will personally write you a script in which Spock gets and ear job and your ears go back to normal.” Nimoy sat across the desk from Roddenberry thinking about it for a few moments, then he burst out laughing. The ears had been put back into perspective.
But that wasn’t the end of it. Robert Justman, an associate producer on Trek, took advantage of the hours of exacting, time-consuming, and painful makeup work to get the ears right on camera, and made Nimoy a proposition: The show would pay for Nimoy to get the ears pointed by a plastic surgeon: No more painful appliances, he could come in for cast call at a normal time, not three hours early just to get the ears put on, they wouldn’t have to make new ears every so often because the appliances wore out; and after the show ran its course, the show would pay to have Nimoy’s ears returned to normal. Nimoy stood there contemplating the proposal, muttering, “Yeah, that might actually save a lot of time…” when Justman couldn’t stand it any more and ROTFL’d. Nimoy stared at Justman in shock; then realized he’d been had.