Turnabout Actors

[Spock's Barber]

Hypothetical question :

William Shatner and Robert Conrad were both young, talented and athletic actors who seemed to thrive on action in their respective series. In Hollywood, sometimes luck and timing are essential in getting casted in a prime role.

Shatner as Secret Service Agent James T. West

Conrad as Starship Captain James T. Kirk

Would it have worked for both shows?

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Star Trek would have gotten the worse end of that trade, says my reflexive love of Star Trek. Don't change a thing.

I imagine Conrad would have been good as a heroic, cool-guy Kirk, but he might have gone further than that and treated the show as a vanity vehicle. He just strikes me as an actor who was so relentlessly cool and self-assured, that his image had to be a major priority for him. Maybe that means going beyond Shatner's mild competition with Nimoy, and into a more intense conflict.

Incidentally, Conrad was about 2 inches shorter than Shatner, so the difference with Nimoy would have been more pronounced. They would either have to play to that, and say Vulcans are just really tall (like the latex-face alien on Disco), or disguise it. Get Smart went to great lengths to conceal the height difference between Don Adams and Barbara Feldon, and it had to make production more difficult.

Shatner's 1975 series Barbary Coast was strikingly similar to The Wild Wild West. And it wasn't a great a show. Something didn't click. So I don't yearn to see him in TWWW as if that would be his true calling. Star Trek was his true calling.

 

[M'Sharak]

Shatner's 1975 series Barbary Coast was strikingly similar to The Wild Wild West. And it wasn't a great a show. Something didn't click.

Shatner in that one was playing a character closer in some ways to Ross Martin's Artemus Gordon than to James West. Doug McClure wasn't playing a James West-type character, either, so the dynamic was different.

Conrad in WWW was playing sort of a Weird West version of James Bond, which worked well for that show.

Could they have switched places? Probably. Would have been interesting to see how it played out, but it's a safe bet neither show would have been the same as what we know.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Just my opinion but both actors had big egos; I think Conrad’s was just a shade bigger than Shat’s. That could have really affected the cast chemistry in TOS.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Eh, Conrad wasn't nearly on the same level as Shatner, acting wise. He was fine, charming and a lot of fun to watch, but he was a glorified stunt man on The Wild Wild West. His performance never changed. It could have been the character and perhaps he was better suited on other shows like Baa Baa Black Sheep, etc, but he was pretty one-note. Shatner was much more interesting an actor and was obviously more skilled.

Conrad, though, was a much better singer and had true fighting skills rather than simple stage combat (but Shatner's stage fighting was top tier).

I would put Conrad on the level with Guy Williams. Fine, solid 60's TV leading man for an action adventure series, but not a strong "actor."