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Do you remember the TV movie that united Andy Taylor, Captain Kirk, and Mike Brady?
Here's a story about Mayberry, the final frontier!
To say, "They just don't make 'em like they used to," is the understatement of the century. Of course, they don't! For starters, they don't have the star power that was available back in the day. While there are plenty of actors today, many of whom are talented, there are far fewer stars. You'll buy a ticket to see these types regardless of what kind of movie they're in. Hardly any actors today will move the box office sight unseen.
Case in point: Pray for the Wildcats, a 1974 ABC Movie of the Week installment with more star wattage than NASA and General Electric combined. The story was about Sam Farragut, a mean, evil business executive willing to do whatever it takes to get out on top. That might not sound like a typical Andy Griffith role, but the actor elevated the part with great aplomb, nimbly playing against type in a stellar performance.
Now, Star Trek fans might find the name "Sam Farragut" quite interesting. If you'll recall, Captain Kirk mentioned once or twice that he had one sibling, a brother named Sam. And... Wait a minute, wasn't the USS Farragut Kirk's first assignment back when he was a Starfleet lieutenant? Coincidence or not, Shatner joined the cast of Pray for the Wildcats as Warren Summerfield, a down-in-the-dumps ad executive who just got laid off. He's having an affair, and you'll never guess whose wife it's with!
Rounding out the primary cast of characters is none other than Brady Bunch patriarch Robert Reed, starring here as Paul McIlvain, an inattentive husband who's not even suspicious of the time his wife spends with Shatner. Together with Marjoe Gortner's Terry Maxon, Reed, and Shatner agree to a wild motorcycle adventure at the behest of Griffith's sociopathic ad executive.
The made-for-TV movie was praised for its use of actors against type. Audiences loved seeing Griffith as a bad guy, something which he hadn't really done since 1957's A Face in the Crowd. Shatner, too, departed from his authoritative, immodest Captain Kirk to great reviews.
The movie was a topic for discussion in a 1990 interview between Shatner and shock jock Howard Stern. When pressed for details about a possible dalliance with Angie Dickinson, Shatner claimed the two never worked together! Towards the end of the segment, a bolt of memory struck the former Captain, who remembered the project but not the title. He did, however, refute any claim that a real-life relationship paralleled their onscreen affair!
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