moved and replaced by audience voting. Winners
of the Vocalist, Fashion Model/Spokesperson, and
Comedy categories were awarded $100,000, and the
winning youth performer was awarded $25,000.
Impact Building on traditional variety- and talent-
show platforms,Star Searchcreated the foundation
for reality talent shows such asAmerican Idol,So You
Think You Can Dance,Dancing with the Stars, and many
more.Star Searchalso gave several notable celebrities
their breaks in show business, including Drew Carey,
Ray Romano, Dennis Miller, Rosie O’Donnell, and
Sinbad.
Further Reading
Craig, Michael-Dante.The Totally Awesome 80’s TV
Trivia Book. Lincoln, Nebr.: Writers Club Press,
2001.
Mansour, David.From Abba to Zoom: A Pop Culture En-
cyclopedia of the Late Twentieth Centur y. Riverside,
N.J.: Andrews McMeel, 2005.
Rettenmund, Matthew.Totally Awesome 80’s: A Lexi-
con of the Music, Videos, Movies, TV Shows, Stars, and
Trends of That Decadent Decade. New York: St. Mar-
tin’s Griffin, 1996.
Sara Vidar
See also America’s Most Wanted; Cable television;
Comedians; Infomercials;People’s Court, The; Sitcoms;
Soap operas; Talk shows; Television.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Identification Science-fiction television series
Creator Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991)
Date Aired from September 26, 1987, to May 21,
1994
A sequel series to the originalStar Trek,Star Trek: The
Next Generationrevitalized the franchise, creating a de-
mand among American audiences for additional television
series, movies, merchandise, and tie-in fiction set in Gene
Roddenberr y’s idealized future.
Set approximately eighty years after the events of the
originalStar Trektelevision series,Star Trek: The Next
Generation(known to fans asST:TNG) introduced
viewers to a new crew and a new USSEnterprise.Inan
unusual step, Paramount producedST:TNGin first-
run syndication, selling the series to local television
stations on an individual basis. This way, even if the
show failed after the initial thirteen episodes, the
studio could recoup some expenses by bundling the
episodes with the original series, which still did well
in rerun syndication.ST:TNGdid not fail, however.
In spite of lukewarm early critical reception and ini-
tial resistance from some fans, it became highly suc-
cessful, airing in over two hundred markets simulta-
neously.
Perhaps the biggest adjustment forStar Trekfans
was the introduction of an entirely different style of
captain. Instead of James T. Kirk, an action-oriented
ladies’ man, Captain Jean-Luc Picard was an older,
balding Frenchman played by classically trained Brit-
ish actor Patrick Stewart. Other significant changes
included a female security chief, a Klingon bridge
officer, a blind crew member, and an android who as-
pired to become more human. Overall,ST:TNGen-
compassed a more sophisticated blend of optimism
and realism than the original show had. It intro-
duced the Borg, one of theStar Trekfranchise’s most
interesting alien villains, as well as the Holodeck, a
representation of a virtual reality system that was fea-
tured in many episodes and helped influence the
public imagination of the possibilities of virtual real-
ity during the decade. The show appealed not only
to science-fiction fans but also to viewers who did not
typically watch science fiction, in part because it
placed increased emphasis on female and minority
characters.Impact In 1994, stunning the show’s fans, Para-
mount endedST:TNGat the conclusion of the sev-
enth season, citing several reasons: The studio had
always planned on only seven seasons, a significant
number for television programs hoping to be sold
into perpetual syndication. Paramount also wanted
the cast to begin making feature films based on the
series. The studio did not want to price the series out
of the rerun syndication market by having too many
episodes, and it believed the show had reached its
maximum profitability.
In spite of its cancellation, the overwhelming of
success ofStar Trek: The Next Generationled to an un-
precedented revitalization of an old franchise into
something relevant for both old and new genera-
tions of viewers. It showed that there was room in the
Star Trekuniverse for countless new characters, alien
species, and situations, and it paved the way for addi-
tional television series—Star Trek: Deep Space Nine;
Star Trek: Voyager; andStar Trek: Enterprise—as well asThe Eighties in America Star Trek: The Next Generation 913