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John Meredyth Lucas (May 1, 1919 – October 19, 2002) was an American writer, director and producer, primarily for television.
John Meredyth Lucas was born on 1 May 1919 in Los Angeles, California, USA. John was a producer and director, known for Star Trek (1966), Insight (1960) and Mannix (1967). John was married to Patricia Kay Hightower, Patricia Kay Silvera and Joan Winfield. John died on 19 October 2002 in Newport Beach, Orange County, California, USA.
- Producer, Director, Writer
- May 1, 1919
- John Meredyth Lucas
- October 19, 2002
John Meredyth Lucas was born on May 1, 1919 in Los Angeles, California, USA. John was a producer and director, known for Insight (1960), Star Trek (1966) and Mannix (1967). John was married to Patricia Kay Hightower, Patricia Kay Silvera and Joan Winfield.
- May 1, 1919
- October 19, 2002
- Overview
- Credits
- Further reading
- External links
John Meredyth Lucas (1 May 1919 – 19 October 2002; age 83) was a director, writer, and producer. He produced the second season of Star Trek: The Original Series from "Journey to Babel" to "The Omega Glory". Lucas was born into a Hollywood family, being the son of actor Wilfred Lucas and screenwriter Bess Meredyth. His parents divorced when he was 8 years old, and two years later director Michael Curtiz married his mother and adopted John.
Curtiz got Lucas his first job in the film industry, as his personal "translator", interpreting between the director, who spoke broken English with a thick Hungarian accent, and the crew. After working as "dialog director" in four films in the 1940s, Lucas became a screenwriter in 1950, moving to television in 1953. Two years later, he also started directing for television.
Prior to Star Trek, Lucas had been the co-producer of Ben Casey and The Fugitive, two of the most popular television programs of the 1960s. Later, he served as producer, writer and director on many television series, including Insight, for which he received two Emmy Award nominations in 1972 and 1973, and The Six Million Dollar Man (produced by Harve Bennett).
Lucas also worked as writer and director on Mannix, produced by Desilu at the same time as Star Trek. Producer Gene Coon, having a smoke at his office window, often spotted Lucas going to his car, and engaged in small talk with him. After several such accidental conversations, Coon simply asked Lucas if he would like to write an episode for Star Trek. Lucas, a life-long science fiction fan, was thrilled by the offer, resulting in "The Changeling". (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two, p. 178)
Incidentally, Lucas replaced Coon as producer when the latter left the series mid-season 2. Similarly to Coon, Lucas wrote his own scripts, while also doing rewrites on other writers' material during his tenure as line producer. He also served as director on "The Ultimate Computer" and replaced Ralph Senensky for a half-day in directing "Obsession", when Senensky left early to observe the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.
Lucas was not considered to be hired to continue his tenure as the show's producer for the third season, but instead got replaced by Fred Freiberger. However, the producers still assigned him to write and direct episodes for the new season. However, after his first two such endeavours, Paramount executive in charge of production Douglas S. Cramer vetoed his hiring as director for the episodes "The Empath" and "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky", due to Lucas having gone behind schedule and over budget while directing the episode "Elaan of Troyius". (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Three, p. 239)
Writer
•TOS:
•"The Changeling"
•"Patterns of Force"
•"Elaan of Troyius"
•"That Which Survives" (teleplay)
•"John Meredyth Lucas, The Politics of 'Trek", Edward Gross, Starlog, issue 112, November 1986, pp. 32-34
John Meredyth Lucas, who wrote for such classic television series as the original "Star Trek" and such films as the 1950 "Dark City," which marked Charlton Heston's Hollywood...
Nov 6, 2002 · John Meredyth Lucas, writer, producer and director of TV's original "Star Trek" episodes and other shows, died of leukemia in 2002. He was the son of scribe Bess Meredyth and director Michael Curtiz.
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John Meredyth Lucas (1 May 1919 — 19 October 2002) was a writer, director and producer most active from 1950 to the mid-1980s. Like fellow SMDM writer, D. C. Fontana, he is perhaps best known for his work on Star Trek, where he produced many episodes of the second season, and where he was the...
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