Star Trek's Interracial Kiss
Rerun: Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Lt. Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) embraced and kissed on "Plato’s Stepchildren"; an episode of ‘Star Trek’ broadcast on 22nd November, 1968 - just a year after the Supreme Court declared interracial marriage to be legal. However, despite popular belief that this was TV’s first interracial kiss, it wasn’t. It wasn’t even the first interracial kiss on TV featuring William Shatner… In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly examine just how slowly attitudes to ‘mixed marriage’ were shifting in the United States; compare this iconic Trekkie moment to homoerotic frat-boy YouTube videos; and reveal how the actors concerned deliberately sabotaged ‘the wide’ so their kiss would be screened coast-to-coast… Further Reading: • Kirk and Uhura kiss on ‘Star Trek’ (Paramount Television, 1968): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lThvEsP5-9Y • ‘'Star Trek's' interracial kiss 50 years ago boldly went where none had gone before’ (NBC News, 2018): https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/star-trek-s-interracial-kiss-50-years-ago-went-boldly-n941181 • ‘Nichelle Nichols on filming the first interracial kiss on American television’ (Archive of American Television, 2010): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hKKkGhEDoU ‘Why am I hearing a rerun?’ Each Thursday and Friday we repeat stories from our archive of 800+ episodes, so we can maintain the quality of our independent podcast and bring you fresh, free content every Monday-Wednesday… … But 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴members get an additional full-length episode each Sunday! Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices