One of the first women I dated right after high school was black and I remember asking my parents what if it went further, how would they feel about it And they said that they would be fine with it but to realize that we’d get a lot of racism directed at us. This was 1980 I’m glad that the world has changed for the better as far as Racism, but we still have a ways to go, keep the faith!
More specifically, it was the first interracial kiss between a Caucasian man and an African-American woman on a prime-time continuing drama series on American network TV. There's a very interesting article on the Agony Booth website explaining this.
I loved this. My parents have the same configuration - my mother is black and my father is white. No problem. (This is in Canada.) By the time this "controversial" show aired, we kids were already of school age. It seems proposterous to me that such heavyweights as government officials would be involved in monitoring this shoot, but the climate of the time dictated (and unfortunately, to some degree, still dictates) it. Bravo to both, to Nichols for indignantly speaking up and especially to (my countryman) Shatner for finding a way around this idiocy and tricking the censors out of cutting the scene. As mentioned, the world didn't end, and it was long overdue. From my family's perspective, it was the most normal thing in the world.
Without question Nichelle in these earlier years was an extremely beautiful woman. Strikingly gorgeous. Her natural dark skin tone complimented her beauty. What normal man wouldn't want to get a "close up" or even grab the slightest manner of an intimate moment with a Woman like that. A Man is a Man. A Woman is a Woman. Forget the color.. Get the Kiss ! !
I get so much pleasure hearing about the TV shows I grew up with, really miss those days. And the enthusiasm in your voice, well I think it's awesome. Thank you 😊😊😊
As a white man married to a beautiful beautiful black women I remember this episode with great fondness. I showed it to our son and daughter and explained the history behind the moment. We happen to live in Richmond VA and ironically Caroline county is next to Richmond where Richard and Mildred Loving took their case all the way to the Supreme Court to overturn the ban on interracial marriage in the U.S. There is only one race and that is human.
That's how things were in the US FIFTY+ years ago. And sadly, it has become all too clear some folks are stuck there!! (Today's date is June 24, 2022. A sad bad mad day for civil liberties). I remember thinking that he didn't really kiss her; and I thought it was because he didn't WANT to kiss her, so they just made it look like he did. I was a kid; what did I know? I didn't even know Shatner was Canadian. How remarkable that both he and Nichelle are still on this planet with us. I hope she is doing well, and is happy. Considering her role in history, we don't know enough about her.
I'm old enough to have watched the original airing of the episode. It was a powerful moment that was disempowered in the next scene where Kirk literally whips Uhurha - under mind control, of course. But I'm glad the story that is continually retold is this version. Far more impactful. I've never heard this version that tells of Shatner's complicity in ensuring the kiss got on air. I have newfound respect for him.
which goes to show, the problem with this scene was NOT the American people, rather it WAS the gov't which is the basis for the majority of the problems in the USA.
The government is way worse today! In the past three years, the social, moral, ethical, values of society in the USA have sunk so low, that I dont know if the country can recover! An example of this down hill trend, is taking young children to be forced to watch drag queen strip shows. Not even the original Star Trek shows would stoop so low as to promote sexual perversions on such young children! Most media today is infected with woke insanity!
@@Drayonis I have friends of assorted skin types! Today, the issues are NOT about black versus white, it's about good versus evil! Would you take your little children to a drag queen strip show that are supposed to be for adults only?!? I would hope that you wouldn't expose your children to behaviors that are totally inappropriate for very young children!!
And yet no one thought anything about a green Vulcan kissing a white woman. Funny, I was 10 when this was first aired it just wasn't that big of a deal. I guess I didn't see a black woman being kissed, I just saw the amazing Lt. Uhura. I miss Nichele Nichols already! Hailing frequencies closed 😥💖
Yet America was complaining how communist China is.......... love your video nearly brought me to tears at the mlk part but it's good to see we had alies way back when it was a real struggle for our ppol. I have subbed on this video alone even though I have watched a few others from you.
I as a trekie at the very tender age of probably six or seven I so remember that kiss, so remember wanting them to be able to kiss, and I so remember the relief that I felt when they did!
The first interracial kiss on network prime time television was Dec. 3, 1961 on CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU? The African American actor involved was Jane White, the daughter of Walter White, one of the founders of the NAACP. It was years before START TREK went into production.
When I saw this, a several decades ago, I did not see anything usual about it, as I had grown up in Venezuela. I had many mixed race relatives, but my mother's marriage to a non-Catholic American was the more scandalous thing. In the 50s, when my parents would come for vacations to the USA, she kept getting in trouble because she, a white woman, kept using "colored" facilities and sitting in the wrong part of the bus. She just thought, "I like colorful things" so I will use this bathroom, or there are open seats back there, so will sit there, or I am thirsty, I will drink from this water fountain. Did not help when they went to visit my uncle and his wife in Georgia, in the late fifties, were he was stationed. Lol. I can just imagine the situation, because my mother was a strong-willed, self-made woman, unafraid to stand up for herself.
For some reason only white with black is considered interracial. White men had been kissing the heck out of Asian and Mexican women on screen since the early 30’s and no one said anything about it. Joel McRae and Dolores Del Rio in the movie Bird of Paradise (1932) is a perfect example of this. Dorothy Lamour starred with and kissed many white men during her career. If it had been known that she was part Creole she probably wouldn’t have gotten the same opportunities in those days.
First interracial kiss on US TV was in the 50s. The Ed Sullivan Show. Shatner and France Nuyen (Elann of Troyius) acting a scene from The World of Suzue Wong. First interracial kiss on Star Trek was in What Little Girls are Made Of. First Kirk interracial kiss was a mixed race actress in S1. Then there was Mariani...
I am so short how the USA cooperated back back in the day too many agents and government and politics to involved in these TV shows I cannot believe these conspiracy people watched behind the scenes of this one kiss hypothetical are they I'm very shocked when I'm glad it happened and I'm glad it was done I can imagine how the produce of felt or the writer felt that they wanted to progress and may change of the show or politics and government would just too involved in what could be shown to the people
YES,Nichelle was a sexy and gorgeous woman.Gene Roddenberry had her as his girlfriend/mistress ??? Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Gene wasn't a very good person. LOL.
Scary to think men in black for a what a 2 second pause on two peoples mouths with different skin pigmentation ,but shows us how the world was and still can be in different countries /tribes and places // shows the power of what is seen on screen doesn't it/
I just seen the new Elvis movie and in there the Senators and the President were so upset that Elvis would not stop allowing whites and blacks in the same buildings in these segregated states, that they purposely Drafted him into the army to stop it. I know we still have problems today, but the more I research this stuff, the more I am shocked at just how insane it was back then. Actually, it was horrible.
But in the 50s Hispanics we're white...as Desi Arnez was. Mexicans sued to become a minority race in the SW after the Voting Rights bill was signed by LBJ.
@@STho205 don't know about that I never asked them if they wuz white or even identified as white but I do know they look a bit different & speak a different languich, sounds as if they qualify as a different race
@@richardbennett6237 so French and English then....heck Posh English and Highland Scots then. Well that happened a lot earlier. I'll bet Shatner got it on with a French Quebecer way before this.
I was really upset when found out Nichelle's personal assistant and business manager had embezzled funds and property from her. I hope both rot in prison for long time.
I remember when this show was I was 7 at the time my Mom and Dad was kind of shocked over it that this was on the show but they where not mad like some people and I was thinking that Captain Kirk was one lucky dog to get to kiss Uhurha I had allways loved Nichelle Nichols in Star Trek . My parents raised me and my brothers and sisters to have an open minds that is why they loved Star Trek because they crossed a lot of stupid taboos of the time like race walls
It still a problem, ever seen a white guy with a black woman, only racist are the black men and women. Oh wait they are the victims. Never seen more racist than those in black community.
I was in Vietnam, hot sticky dirty dry, the VC shot up our water pig, we couldn't get any fresh water for an other day, I'm waiting have a 60 in my across my legs, a radio is going, were gathering up a team to get water from a bomb crater, I hear DR. Martin Luther King was shot and Killed, I thought is everyone crazy, isn't there enough killing for everyone over here, I shout out, who is Martin L King, I asked three times, no one said a word. Some people were pretty upset over hearing that, made them angry: I never heard of him, didn't know than. back in the day if Nichelle, wanted a kiss I been all over her to do it, she was one hot sweety. rock on sister. oh, I'm white.
"First Interracial Kiss on American TV" ........ Pioneering in it's day maybe, but not the first. The first was possibly 17 years earlier with "I Love Lucy"
Exactly! I've been saying for years that it gets worded that way because it may sound more interesting. But they weren't the first interracial kid, they were just the first between black and white. Desi wasn't white, Lucy was and they kissed on TV all the time
Only in America! Even though Dezi was Argentinan, and considered Latin, his skin color on screen was white enough. Plus Lucy and Dezi owned the studio that produced their show and Star Trek!! (DesiLu studios)
@@chrrycola2717 I could be wrong! Either way who ever did it first made a lasting impact on the world. In some states it was still illegal for a white person to marry a black person.
as human i m for, but as hesus (celtic origin born in 834 bc, die on the cross etc etc , and stolen and replace by rome). children lose there culture...... see as white by black, and black by white, you give your kids a hell on earth............ and if the goddess wanted 1 mixed race, she never make 5 different........... white yellow brown black and "red".. (there more then indians, also eskimo"s etc that complete different.............its really betray "god" and his creation.................... thats why there see me as "antichrist"........i have no problem with love so long there no mixed kids that lose culture and will see as a stranger where ever there go on earth , if you believe you know this in your heart, thats why its still a taboo, with reason, ........... its the biggest sin you can do, you give god and the creation the midle finger, by make a race that never had may to born............ thats why only 144,000 will be saved.............. pure bloods...............
@@hydrolito but I found out jar jar wa5 supposed to be a sith lord would've been interesting to see considering he was the biggest f ups in star wars maybe snoke was jar jar just saying who knows
My respect for William shatner just increased about a hundred fold. What a boss play that was.
Shame he's an ableist prick and misogynistic and has been racist too. And this wasn't even the first interacial kiss on TV.
R.I.P. Nichelle Nichols (December 28, 1932 - July 30, 2022)
This is a very, very sad day for all Trekkies. 😢😭
One of the first women I dated right after high school was black and I remember asking my parents what if it went further, how would they feel about it
And they said that they would be fine with it but to realize that we’d get a lot of racism directed at us. This was 1980 I’m glad that the world has changed for the better as far as Racism, but we still have a ways to go, keep the faith!
More specifically, it was the first interracial kiss between a Caucasian man and an African-American woman on a prime-time continuing drama series on American network TV. There's a very interesting article on the Agony Booth website explaining this.
Hooray for William Shatner. He was brilliant! Poor Nichelle. What a freaky time in history.
I loved this. My parents have the same configuration - my mother is black and my father is white. No problem. (This is in Canada.) By the time this "controversial" show aired, we kids were already of school age. It seems proposterous to me that such heavyweights as government officials would be involved in monitoring this shoot, but the climate of the time dictated (and unfortunately, to some degree, still dictates) it. Bravo to both, to Nichols for indignantly speaking up and especially to (my countryman) Shatner for finding a way around this idiocy and tricking the censors out of cutting the scene. As mentioned, the world didn't end, and it was long overdue. From my family's perspective, it was the most normal thing in the world.
Without question Nichelle in these earlier years was an extremely beautiful woman. Strikingly gorgeous. Her natural dark skin tone complimented her beauty. What normal man wouldn't want to get a "close up" or even grab the slightest manner of an intimate moment with a Woman like that. A Man is a Man. A Woman is a Woman. Forget the color.. Get the Kiss ! !
"A Man is a Man..." How very 20th Century, Mr. Joshua. LOL. But I know what you're saying.
I completely agree! 👍🏾👍🏾
Slickest maneuver Kirk ever did since the Kobayashi Maru exercises proving Shatner was a great casting choice!
This was the show and the kiss that changed television forever.
I get so much pleasure hearing about the TV shows I grew up with, really miss those days. And the enthusiasm in your voice, well I think it's awesome. Thank you 😊😊😊
Thank You Vicki!
I enjoy old interviews and sometimes cannot resist, making a video on these stories that I hear. Just like you, I enjoy it :)
As a white man married to a beautiful beautiful black women I remember this episode with great fondness. I showed it to our son and daughter and explained the history behind the moment. We happen to live in Richmond VA and ironically Caroline county is next to Richmond where Richard and Mildred Loving took their case all the way to the Supreme Court to overturn the ban on interracial marriage in the U.S. There is only one race and that is human.
"These were the men in black. They were watching everyone". A bit of poetic license I'd say
Glad they pulled it off. What BS to make such a big deal out of it.
Yeah times were different back then. And not for the better.
I know. It seems like such a non-issue now. Plus, it wasn't really a true kiss.
That's how things were in the US FIFTY+ years ago. And sadly, it has become all too clear some folks are stuck there!! (Today's date is June 24, 2022. A sad bad mad day for civil liberties). I remember thinking that he didn't really kiss her; and I thought it was because he didn't WANT to kiss her, so they just made it look like he did. I was a kid; what did I know? I didn't even know Shatner was Canadian. How remarkable that both he and Nichelle are still on this planet with us. I hope she is doing well, and is happy. Considering her role in history, we don't know enough about her.
@@shadowlouise Yes. Both the UK and the USA are sliding back into authoritarian rule.
I'm old enough to have watched the original airing of the episode. It was a powerful moment that was disempowered in the next scene where Kirk literally whips Uhurha - under mind control, of course. But I'm glad the story that is continually retold is this version. Far more impactful. I've never heard this version that tells of Shatner's complicity in ensuring the kiss got on air. I have newfound respect for him.
I love how you take on these controversial topics and do so with respect and elegance.
Good job Mr. Shatner! This is a perfect follow-up to your Nichelle Nichols story. Thank you for recommending it.
I am glad that you found it! 😁👍
which goes to show, the problem with this scene was NOT the American people, rather it WAS the gov't which is the basis for the majority of the problems in the USA.
The American people (especially down South) were racist af and still pretty much are in many places.
That's as true today as it was then.
The government is way worse today! In the past three years, the social, moral, ethical, values of society in the USA have sunk so low, that I dont know if the country can recover! An example of this down hill trend, is taking young children to be forced to watch drag queen strip shows. Not even the original Star Trek shows would stoop so low as to promote sexual perversions on such young children! Most media today is infected with woke insanity!
@@sheryldeblinger1863 I have a strong feeling you'd of objected to interracial anything were you alive back then
@@Drayonis
I have friends of assorted skin types! Today, the issues are NOT about black versus white, it's about good versus evil! Would you take your little children to a drag queen strip show that are supposed to be for adults only?!? I would hope that you wouldn't expose your children to behaviors that are totally inappropriate for very young children!!
Love this channel! Always learn something new.
Awesome, thank you!
@@coolquotes1 I came directly here from the awesome Cool Classics video about Nichelle. Name change?
And yet no one thought anything about a green Vulcan kissing a white woman.
Funny, I was 10 when this was first aired it just wasn't that big of a deal. I guess I didn't see a black woman being kissed, I just saw the amazing Lt. Uhura. I miss Nichele Nichols already! Hailing frequencies closed 😥💖
Yet America was complaining how communist China is.......... love your video nearly brought me to tears at the mlk part but it's good to see we had alies way back when it was a real struggle for our ppol. I have subbed on this video alone even though I have watched a few others from you.
I as a trekie at the very tender age of probably six or seven I so remember that kiss, so remember wanting them to be able to kiss, and I so remember the relief that I felt when they did!
Camera guy is clearly the American hero here
The first interracial kiss on network prime time television was Dec. 3, 1961 on CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU? The African American actor involved was Jane White, the daughter of Walter White, one of the founders of the NAACP. It was years before START TREK went into production.
When I saw this, a several decades ago, I did not see anything usual about it, as I had grown up in Venezuela. I had many mixed race relatives, but my mother's marriage to a non-Catholic American was the more scandalous thing. In the 50s, when my parents would come for vacations to the USA, she kept getting in trouble because she, a white woman, kept using "colored" facilities and sitting in the wrong part of the bus. She just thought, "I like colorful things" so I will use this bathroom, or there are open seats back there, so will sit there, or I am thirsty, I will drink from this water fountain. Did not help when they went to visit my uncle and his wife in Georgia, in the late fifties, were he was stationed. Lol. I can just imagine the situation, because my mother was a strong-willed, self-made woman, unafraid to stand up for herself.
For some reason only white with black is considered interracial. White men had been kissing the heck out of Asian and Mexican women on screen since the early 30’s and no one said anything about it. Joel McRae and Dolores Del Rio in the movie Bird of Paradise (1932) is a perfect example of this. Dorothy Lamour starred with and kissed many white men during her career. If it had been known that she was part Creole she probably wouldn’t have gotten the same opportunities in those days.
Sammy Davis Jr. kissed Nancy Sinatra before this according to some other sources, and a British show had more than one before that.
First interracial kiss on US TV was in the 50s. The Ed Sullivan Show. Shatner and France Nuyen (Elann of Troyius) acting a scene from The World of Suzue Wong.
First interracial kiss on Star Trek was in What Little Girls are Made Of.
First Kirk interracial kiss was a mixed race actress in S1.
Then there was Mariani...
What was the first kiss between black man and white woman?
Thanks
No problem
Star Trek, exactly!
Hi there! Lovely to find more from you. Please let us know if you have any other channels.
This channel's gonna go viral.
Mark my words
I am so short how the USA cooperated back back in the day too many agents and government and politics to involved in these TV shows I cannot believe these conspiracy people watched behind the scenes of this one kiss hypothetical are they I'm very shocked when I'm glad it happened and I'm glad it was done I can imagine how the produce of felt or the writer felt that they wanted to progress and may change of the show or politics and government would just too involved in what could be shown to the people
What a goddess. I bet it was Wood City on that set.
Nichelle Nicholes just passed away at 89, 7 - 31- 2022
To me , they looked like they didn't kiss since the way Shatner looks at the camera looks fake but still the hype and Nicole was a beautiful woman .
YES,Nichelle was a sexy and gorgeous woman.Gene Roddenberry had her as his girlfriend/mistress ??? Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Gene wasn't a very good person. LOL.
@@powerbad696 You need to watch the Cool Classics video about Nichelle, and how it all began. You won't be disappointed.
@@shadowlouise I just may at that.
@@powerbad696 ua-cam.com/video/9ZjS9QYpPPA/v-deo.html
Never noticed he had his eyes crossed. I thought he was looking up, angrily
Terrible times, great maneuver countering government paranoia over nonsense.
I guess Jim Brown, and Raquel Welch was the second then, it's strange because I've always known about this, bit thought it was yeats after.
Scary to think men in black for a what a 2 second pause on two peoples mouths with different skin pigmentation ,but shows us how the world was and still can be in different countries /tribes and places // shows the power of what is seen on screen doesn't it/
I just seen the new Elvis movie and in there the Senators and the President were so upset that Elvis would not stop allowing whites and blacks in the same buildings in these segregated states, that they purposely Drafted him into the army to stop it. I know we still have problems today, but the more I research this stuff, the more I am shocked at just how insane it was back then. Actually, it was horrible.
... but I thot TeeVee's first inter-racial kiss was filmed in the 1950's with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz ... ?
Yeah and I also think Captain Kirk kissed an alien in an earlier episode too.
Maybe the alien qualifies as the first interspecies kiss?
But in the 50s Hispanics we're white...as Desi Arnez was. Mexicans sued to become a minority race in the SW after the Voting Rights bill was signed by LBJ.
@@STho205 don't know about that I never asked them if they wuz white or even identified as white but I do know they look a bit different & speak a different languich, sounds as if they qualify as a different race
@@coolquotes1 First interspecies kiss 💋 on TV was between Timmy and Lassie.
@@richardbennett6237 so French and English then....heck Posh English and Highland Scots then.
Well that happened a lot earlier.
I'll bet Shatner got it on with a French Quebecer way before this.
Nichols was real hot back then , her face and body was amazing.
William had no problem with it and I wouldn't either .
Shirley Temple danced with Bill Robinson also called Bojangles in the nineteen thirties.
I was really upset when found out Nichelle's personal assistant and business manager had embezzled funds and property from her. I hope both rot in prison for long time.
technically the second interracial kiss .. the 1st was that 1961 film " Flame in the Streets "
Nichelle: Bill's crying so much that he got fat on all that good LA Living. I better kiss him.
Bill: Mm ... mmm . . . MMMM!
So Speilberg was the AD on that shoot?
I remember when this show was I was 7 at the time my Mom and Dad was kind of shocked over it that this was on the show but they where not mad like some people and I was thinking that Captain Kirk was one lucky dog to get to kiss Uhurha I had allways loved Nichelle Nichols in Star Trek . My parents raised me and my brothers and sisters to have an open minds that is why they loved Star Trek because they crossed a lot of stupid taboos of the time like race walls
Gorn would be more likely to bite his face than kiss him.
I had to throw that pic in there. I just couldn't resist 🤣
@@coolquotes1 Star Trek Enterprise had faster Gorn.
This is the most important moment in television
I think those men are from the FCC
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤WOW
So stupid that it was a problem, serioisly.
It still a problem, ever seen a white guy with a black woman, only racist are the black men and women. Oh wait they are the victims. Never seen more racist than those in black community.
I was in Vietnam, hot sticky dirty dry, the VC shot up our water pig, we couldn't get any fresh
water for an other day, I'm waiting have a 60 in my across my legs, a radio is going, were gathering up a team to get water from a bomb crater, I hear
DR. Martin Luther King was shot and Killed, I thought is everyone crazy, isn't there enough
killing for everyone over here, I shout out, who is Martin L King, I asked three times, no one said a word. Some people were pretty upset over hearing that, made them angry: I never
heard of him, didn't know than. back in the day if Nichelle, wanted a kiss I been all over her to do it, she was one hot sweety. rock on sister. oh, I'm white.
"First Interracial Kiss on American TV" ........ Pioneering in it's day maybe, but not the first. The first was possibly 17 years earlier with "I Love Lucy"
Exactly! I've been saying for years that it gets worded that way because it may sound more interesting. But they weren't the first interracial kid, they were just the first between black and white.
Desi wasn't white, Lucy was and they kissed on TV all the time
Latino/Cuban is not a race, what are you talking about.
@@Pfirtzer I did not know that. Google confirms what you said. "Federal policy defines “Hispanic” not as a race, but as an ethnicity"
The men in black " Interesting " ;
YOU RUINED IT ❗EVERYONE WANTED THEM TO HAVE A PASSIONATE EMBRACE & LONGER LASTING KISS
SEXIEST KISS EVER
Is this Geek to Freak?
Bingo
Lucy and Desi kissed on TV all the time.
Interracial doesn't mean black and white.
Only in America! Even though Dezi was Argentinan, and considered Latin, his skin color on screen was white enough. Plus Lucy and Dezi owned the studio that produced their show and Star Trek!! (DesiLu studios)
@@2cool2bstupid i thought desi was cuban ?
@@chrrycola2717 I could be wrong! Either way who ever did it first made a lasting impact on the world. In some states it was still illegal for a white person to marry a black person.
Hispanics count as White unless they don't depending on the message being pushed by however is talking about it.
Bullshit, it was going to be Spock and Ahura but Shatner wanted to be first to kiss her on screen. We did it first in Britain anyway.
as human i m for, but as hesus (celtic origin born in 834 bc, die on the cross etc etc , and stolen and replace by rome). children lose there culture...... see as white by black, and black by white, you give your kids a hell on earth............ and if the goddess wanted 1 mixed race, she never make 5 different........... white yellow brown black and "red".. (there more then indians, also eskimo"s etc that complete different.............its really betray "god" and his creation.................... thats why there see me as "antichrist"........i have no problem with love so long there no mixed kids that lose culture and will see as a stranger where ever there go on earth , if you believe you know this in your heart, thats why its still a taboo, with reason, ........... its the biggest sin you can do, you give god and the creation the midle finger, by make a race that never had may to born............
thats why only 144,000 will be saved.............. pure bloods...............
Star Trek was cutting edge, now it's just stupid.
Still better than modern star wars though
@@jasonwalker79 Ewoks would clobber the tribbles. Not sure about Jar Jar Binks.
@@hydrolito lol 😆 thats a good one I think the star trek equivalent to jar jar binks is Wesley crusher
@@hydrolito but I found out jar jar wa5 supposed to be a sith lord would've been interesting to see considering he was the biggest f ups in star wars maybe snoke was jar jar just saying who knows