Gilbert Alexander Ralston (January 5, 1912 – March 18, 1999) was a British-American screenwriter, journalist and author. He was a television producer in the 1950s and a screenwriter in the 1960s. He created the television series The Wild Wild West and wrote scripts for Star Trek, Gunsmoke, Ben Casey, I Spy, Hawaii Five-O and Naked City. He wrote the screenplay for the 1971 movie Willard, which was based on the 1968 novel Ratman's Notebooks written by Stephen Gilbert.
Early life and career Ralston was born in 1912 in Newcastle, County Down, Ireland
In the 1950s he worked as a television producer in the United States. In the 1960s, he worked as a television screenwriter, according to the IMDb website. Willard was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1972 for Best Motion Picture.
He died on March 18, 1999, in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, of congestive heart failure.
Television screenwriter Ralston was a screenwriter for many of the top television shows in the United States in the 1960s. He wrote the script for the 1967 Star Trek episode "Who Mourns for Adonais?", which is a line from Adonais (1821), the elegiac poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley. He also wrote scripts for Ben Casey, Laredo, I Spy, The Big Valley, Gunsmoke, The Naked City, Combat, Hawaii Five-O and The Wild Wild West He also wrote short stories.
The Wild Wild West Ralston helped create the television series The Wild Wild West and wrote the pilot episode, "The Night of the Inferno". In 1997, at the age of 85, Ralston sued Warner Brothers over the upcoming motion picture based on the series (Wild Wild West was released in 1999). In a deposition, Ralston explained that, in 1964, he was approached by producer Michael Garrison, who '"said he had an idea for a series, good commercial idea, and wanted to know if I could glue the idea of a western hero and a James Bond type together in the same show."The New York Times, 8 July 1999
Ralston said he then created the Civil War characters, the format, the story outline and nine drafts of the script that was the basis for the television series. It was his idea, for example, to have a secret agent named Jim West who would perform secret missions for U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.
Ralston's experience brought to light a common Hollywood practice of the 1950s and 1960s, where television writers who helped create popular series allowed producers or studios to take credit for said series, thus depriving the writers of any royalties.
Outcome of court case Ralston died in 1999 before his lawsuit was settled. Warner Brothers ended up paying Ralston's family between $600,000 and $1.5 million.The Wall Street Journal, 15 July 2005
Filmography
Films Year Film Credit Notes 1968Kona CoastWritten by1971The Hunting PartyWritten byWillardScreenplay bybased on the novel Ratman's Notebooks by Stephen Gilbert 1972BenWritten bybased on characters created by Stephen Gilbert 1976Special DeliveryWritten by
Television Year TV series Credit Notes 1952–53Your Jeweler's ShowcaseProducer28 episodes 1952–54Cavalcade of AmericaProducer14 episodes 1953General Electric TheaterProducer12 episodes 1955–57Captain Gallant of the Foreign LegionProducer, Executive Producer37 episodes 1957High Adventure with Lowell ThomasProducer 1961Bus StopWriter1 episode 1961–62Naked CityWriter7 episodes 1961–64Ben CaseyWriter16 episodes1962Route 66Writer1 episodeTarget: The Corruptors!Writer1 episode 1962–63The UntouchablesWriter2 episodes1963Alcoa PremiereWriter1 episodeWide CountryWriter1 episode1964The Richard Boone ShowWriter1 episodeSuspenseProducer1 episode1965Alfred Hitchcock PresentsWriter1 episodeBurke's LawWriter1 episodeGunsmokeWriter1 episodeI SpyWriter2 episodesMr. NovakWriter1 episodeSlattery's PeopleWriter1 episodeThe Wild Wild WestWriter1 episode12 O'Clock HighWriter1 episode1966Combat!Writer1 episodeLaredoWriter1 episode 1966–67The Big ValleyWriter3 episodes1967InsightWriter1 episodeIron HorseWriter2 episodesStar TrekWriter1 episode 1967–68Gentle BenWriter5 episodes 1968Land of the GiantsWriter1 episode1969Hawaii Five-OWriter1 episodeThe Name of the GameWriter1 episode 1971O'Hara, U.S. TreasuryWriter2 episodes 1972NicholsWriter1 episode
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