Webster and that Star Trek TNG crossover no one wanted (Part 2 of 2)

   

As I stated before, Webster, the show, was running out of steam.  It was the turn of the decade and newer and edgier shows were coming in thanks to the 90s.  ABC and Paramount weren’t interested in renewing an older series.  Plus, the two leading adult actors were tired at this point.  Syndication was a major cash-making thing during the 80s.  When you had a full season's worth of episodes, you made more money despite it being canceled.

Anyway, they did this crossover with TNG as the cost-saving scheme for Webster.  At this point, Webster was canned, and they just needed to round the series up with a clip show.  You don’t have to pay the two other main cast members and just walk over to the already established TNG set filmed next door.  I also get a kick out of the fact that Star Trek V was also being filmed next to that set.  I don't think Shanter would have Webster on his set.

From watching TNG my whole life, this Webster episode was not written by the TNG staff.  Other than providing the stock footage, extras, actors, and stage, there wasn’t much input from the Trek crew.  Given the problems with the second season, I have to wonder if the TNG producers would have permitted this “crossover”? Plus, Worf is way out of character from his main series counterpart. Worf spent most of his life around humans, he knows what fun is, Webster.

At work, someone asked why Picard was not in this episode. He’d probably give Webster a Picard speech and send him back to the late 80s.  I find it amusing that no one else from the main crew showed up to investigate this annoying kid appearing on the bridge of the Enterprise.   He should be put in the brig for wearing that Cosby sweater. Perhaps, he was a Q or something.

Micheal Dorn probably filmed his TNG scenes and then was asked to do some quick pickup and wraparound shots with Webster.  They threw in established TNG extras to fill in for the main cast and gave some of them lines too.  

Extra Lorine Mendell had a couple of lines.  Mendell was the stunning redhead you always saw in the TNG background.  She was in nearly 60 episodes and in one TNG movie.  Lorine turned out to have a very successful life outside the 24th century.  Lorine, I’d love to give you a short interview about this Webster episode.  Just hit me up in the comment section. 

Two of the other extras have passed away.  Dexter Clay, the tall black guy, was a stand-in and extra for the first two seasons of TNG.  He was everywhere in the background.  Even I noticed he disappeared after the second season.  He even spoke in an episode called A Matter of Honor!.  He passed away in 2017.  Wiki says he left during the third season, but IMDB says S2.  

James G. Becker is the clean-cut white dude who was always in the background.  He was both a stand-in for Frakes and an extra.  The cast and crew called him Ensign Youngblood as a joke, and it sort of stuck.  The fans know him as Youngblood.  Becker would leave Hollywood and become an insurance agent.  I’d freak out if he was my agent.  He passed away from a car accident in 2014. 

It is just crazy that no one from TNG ever talks about this episode.  I can’t even find Michael Dorn talking about this crossover anywhere.  Why is that?  This is a forgotten Trek crossover that no one even knows about but a few people on the web.