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Better Late Than Never (2016–2018)

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Better Late Than Never

Henry Winkler, William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw, George Foreman and Jeff Dye start a new adventure in Munich, Germany, where they don lederhosen for Oktoberfest and yodel in the Bavarian Alps.

Henry Winkler, William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw, George Foreman and Jeff Dye immerse themselves in the Viking way of life, then channel their inner ABBA with a little help from Bjorn Ulvaeus during an enlightening visit to Sweden.

Henry Winkler, William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw, George Foreman and Jeff Dye judge a traditional goat beauty pageant and stay in a haunted castle while discovering Bill's family heritage in Lithuania.

Henry Winkler, William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw, George Foreman and Jeff Dye leave their mark on the Berlin Wall and share an emotional remembrance of Henry's family during their stay in Berlin.

Henry Winkler, William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw, George Foreman and Jeff Dye become part of a human tower, join a parade of giants and embrace their artistic sides in Barcelona; and this time, both Terry and Henry get naked.

Henry Winkler, William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw, George Foreman and Jeff Dye learn the art of bullfighting, embark on unique culinary adventures and get kicked out of a monastery in Madrid.

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Henry Winkler

William Shatner

Terry Bradshaw

George Foreman

Fun male-bonding travel reality sends aging stars overseas.

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Road Trip! Henry Winkler and William Shatner Talk ‘Better Late Than Never’ Season 2

Better Late Than Never

• Will These Short-Lived NBC Shows Get New Life on Peacock? (PHOTOS)
• Travel Tips From 3 ‘Better Late Than Never’ Stars (VIDEO)

Never underestimate the power of geezers! The NBC reality series Better Late Than Never —featuring Henry Winkler, William Shatner, George Foreman, Terry Bradshaw and their young guide Jeff Dye on a road trip through Asia—was the unexpected ratings hit of summer 2016. Now the quibbling quintet is back for Season 2, and this time they’re taking on Europe, Russia and North Africa. There will be no end to the hijinks…or the pixilated nudity. We corralled those AARP-tastic icons Winkler and Shatner to give us an exclusive preview.

Shatner, Winkler, Bradshaw and Foreman Trek Through Asia in NBC's Better Late Than Never

You guys are rich. You have seen the world. Why did you put yourselves through this exhausting 40-day trek? Winkler: Sure, we’ve traveled, but not like this! We got to dance flamenco in the streets of Madrid. We rode camels in Marrakesh, then dropped them off at our hotel and got a valet ticket. I even rode a Vespa. Yes, the guy who played the Fonz has never ridden a motorcycle—until now! These are priceless experiences. Shatner: And all we have to do is breeze in and make fools of ourselves. The producers do everything for us. I don’t have to stand around an airport carousel with that frightened look on my face when my luggage doesn’t come out, wondering how many days I can stretch one pair of underpants. It’s somebody else’s problem!

Who’s the most recognized of the group when you’re overseas? Winkler: George, hands down. He was a hero everywhere. Shatner: Most countries don’t know about American football, so Terry was wandering around bereft…with the occasional tear in his eye.

William Shatner on Star Trek's 50th, Trekkers, and Being a Pain in the You-Know-Where

Why can’t you dudes keep your clothes on? Rare is the episode where one of you doesn’t find an excuse to go bottomless. Shatner: Terry is the worst. He loves getting naked. But Henry showed incredible courage in Spain. [To Winkler] Tell the story! Winkler: We go to an art class where the students are working with clay, and I am the nude model. Let’s face it, I am currently carrying the equivalent of another human being around my middle region, but there I am—flashing it all! [ Laughs ] And Bill is giving me instructions: “Pose like an angel! A sad angel!”

In Asia, you tried some pretty scary delicacies, like cow penis. Safe to say the cuisine this season required a lot less nerve? Shatner: Not at all! In Sweden, we ate the fermented herring. Winkler: Oh my God! It smells like they stuffed an entire village of dead people into a can. And then sprayed it with a skunk. And then left it out in the heat for two weeks. Shatner: It was so bad Terry was actually screaming! One of our cameramen projectile-vomited. But, hey, what’s the point of visiting a foreign land and not immersing yourself in the culture? Why go all that way only to eat at McDonald’s?

Better Late Than Never , Two-Hour Season Premiere Monday, Jan. 1, 9/8c, NBC

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Victoria justice talks about her first sex scene, breaking news.

‘Better Late Than Never’ Review: William Shatner, Henry Winkler & Pals’ Waggish Asia Trip A Real Romp

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In the DMZ between the end of the Summer Olympics and the start of Sunday Night Football and the fall season, NBC has dropped in the sometimes surreal Better Late Than Never , which starts its four-episode romp through Asia run on August 23.

Leaving all but the loosest of narrative and structure on this side of the Pacific, the William Shatner , Henry Winkler , George Foreman and Terry Bradshaw-starring reality travel show is, as I say in my video review above, not to be taken seriously but damn entertaining. In fact, in a year where there’s been way too much filler on the Big 4, the one-hour BLTN may be the most watchable network filler of 2016 – which is a feat and a compliment.

Based on the popular South Korean series Grandpas Over Flowers , the Craig Zadan, Neil Meron, Jason Ehrlich, Stephanie Chambers, Alex Katz, Tim Crescenti and Winkler EP’d show takes the two actor geezers and the two athlete geezers and sets them loose for a month. Add Last Comic Standing finalist Jeff Dye as the non-AARP sidekick, plus a lot of meals full of pork vagina and other comic-worthy cuisine as the gang travel around Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Thailand.

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It’s not Anthony Bourdain for sure but amidst the search for Zen, competing egos, an abundance of almost frat-ish stereotypes and more than a dash of bucket listing and the grumpy and mildly ugly American angle, it is undeniably mostly amusing.

Blessed by a short stint, BLTN lingers just on the edge of getting old but manages to pull back. Part of that comes from the relationship between the Star Trek icon and the NFL Hall of Famer and broadcaster, which is an Olympic feat unto itself.

With the combined age of the main participants over 250 years, Better Late Than Never may never see the light of another season after this initial run. But the Universal Television, Storyline Entertainment, Small World IFT and CJ E&M-produced series does deliver on what its promises in a time of year when the expectations are limbo low – and it got Captain Kirk to Japan for the first time which has to count for something.

So, take a look at my video review of Better Late Than Never above and tell us if you’ll be going along for the ride on August 23.

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Better Late Than Never – Season 1, Episode 1

Welcome to tokyo, more like this, cast & crew.

Henry Winkler

William Shatner

Terry Bradshaw

George Foreman

Craig Zadan

Executive Producer

Better Late Than Never — Season 1, Episode 1

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• Seasons & Episodes
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Better Late than Never Season 1 Episodes

• 47   Metascore
• Travel, Reality, Food & Cooking, Comedy
• Watchlist Where to Watch

Five celebrities lean on one another while touring Asian cities sans the usual celebrity comforts of limousines and assistants. Along the way, they're also expected to check off "bucket list" items.

Season 1 Episode Guide

4 Episodes 2016 - 2016

What's life without five-star hotels, limos and personal assistants?! Okay, so that may be life for most folks, but for many veteran celebrities it's a distant memory—and, thus, explains the concept of this fish-out-of-water reality series, which chronicles the adventures of famed travelers backpacking their way through foreign lands. In this, the first season, that means Terry Bradshaw, George Foreman, William Shatner and Henry Winkler hobnobbing their way through Asia with comedian Jeff Dye. The adventures include, in Japan, navigating Tokyo's labyrinth-like train station and visiting a geisha house in Kyoto; learning dance moves from a K-pop group in South Korea; and celebrating Bradshaw's 67th birthday in Thailand, where they also tour an elephant sanctuary.

Welcome to Tokyo

Tue, Aug 23, 2016 60 mins

The premiere of the reality series that features Henry Winkler, William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw and George Foreman traveling across Asia with Jeff Dye sans the usual celebrity comforts. First up: Tokyo, where they try to navigate the train station; appear on a popular morning show; and visit the top of Tokyo Tower. They also take a karaoke bus trip to Mount Fuji.

Kyoto and Hong Kong: Less Talky, More Sake

Tue, Aug 30, 2016 60 mins

The adventurers stop in Kyoto, Japan, where they visit a geisha house and samurai warrior school. Later, Shatner books them into a top hotel in Hong Kong, where they rent a yacht, have custom suits made and check out an ancient Chinese medicine shop.

Seoul Brothers

Tue, Sep 6, 2016 60 mins

In South Korea, the guys visit a K-pop school, where they learn dance moves from the K-pop band Girls Generation and shoot a music video with them. They also stay at an inexpensive spa; visit the DMZ; and eat at a restaurant that serves live octopus.

A Thai Goodbye

Tue, Sep 13, 2016 60 mins

In the Season 1 finale, the guys visit Phuket, Thailand, where they take part in a water fight before celebrating Terry's 67th birthday. Jeff also takes Terry to get his first tattoo; William and Henry receive a Thai massage; George takes everyone to watch Thai boxing and squares off with William; and Terry is serenaded by a special guest at a birthday dinner. Later, they head to Chiang Mai, their final destination, where they stay at a luxury hotel and visit an elephant sanctuary.

“Better Late Than Never’ Review: Henry Winkler and Pals Travel Light in NBC Show

Comedy remakes South Korean series “Grandpas Over Flowers”

What would happen if you sent your uninhibited grandfather and three of his friends on a seemingly haphazard excursion across Asia? If Henry Winkler , William Shatner , George Foreman and Terry Bradshaw are any indication, there would be plenty of hilarity.

“Better Late Than Never” is a surprisingly delightful (albeit ridiculous) late-summer entry for NBC, which usually does well this time of year thanks to reality staples “America’s Got Talent” and “American Ninja Warrior.” Unlike those offerings, this new series is billed as an “alternative comedy” – in other words, an older-skewing celebreality show – thanks to flashy split-screen editing, rapid scene cuts, current music and situations reminiscent of “Bad Grandpa.” It’s an American remake of the popular South Korean series “Grandpas Over Flowers.”

The premise is simple enough: Winkler, who also serves as executive producer, calls up his three real-life buddies and asks them to go on an adventure alongside the unknown “sidekick” type, Jeff Dye. Over the course of the series they travel to four countries and explore six cities, in which they push each other to go a little further, sleep in ridiculous quarters and experience the local culture.

In the premiere that means heading to Tokyo, where Winkler, still best-known as Fonzie from “Happy Days,” mugs for the local tourists (even though they don’t know him), Shatner takes the guys out for a dinner of pork genitalia, and Dye books the group into a Capsule Hotel – a place where Japanese men reportedly book a stay in a coffin-like room on nights they’re too drunk to go home. It sounds gimmicky and completely set up, but with this bunch it works. These are men who have certainly earned their fame on their own merits, but parlayed it over time into lasting legacies thanks to cheesy album releases, cameos, commercials and the like. None of them are afraid to poke fun at themselves or are worried about not being taken seriously, and that’s where the real fun comes in.

Shatner cracks jokes about Priceline and former athlete/grill-master Foreman can admit he’s too damned old to climb steps to see Mt. Fuji in all its glory. Meanwhile they all ride each other over their respective idiosyncrasies and will do pretty much anything for a laugh. That includes riding a mechanical horse, jiggling around in a vintage weight-loss machine and fighting each other in giant life-sized robots at an after-hours club.

These guys may not be as young as they once were, but they prove you’re never too old to accomplish the things on your bucket list. Sure, there is some concern for their general well-being thanks to challenging treks, a hectic schedule and situations that don’t exactly look comfortable for a 20-year-old to partake in, let alone an octogenarian. But by the end of the episode that becomes one of the jokes, as they ponder who might drop out first. (Current bets are on Shatner, at 85 the oldest of the bunch.)

If you’ve ever dreamed about taking a vacation with your wild and wacky grandfather, this will certainly provide you with all of the motivation you need. But if that isn’t in the cards, “Better Late Than Never” is definitely something you can watch together.

“Better Late Than Never” premieres Aug. 23 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.

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S2 e9 - episode 9, s2 e8 - to the sahara and back, s2 e7 - moroccan wishes and camel dreams.

This hilarious fish-out-of-water comedy/reality show follows cultural icons Henry Winkler, William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw and George Foreman on their greatest adventure yet. Deciding it's Better Late Than Never, these four national treasures embark on the journey of a lifetime, traveling across Asia on their own with no schedule and no itinerary. The only "help" will come from Jeff Dye, a young, strong, tech-savvy comedian with an agenda of his own - who isn't above leading the men off track. Each stop is packed with hilarious cultural experiences, heartwarming spectacles and unexpected twists as our legends take on this unforgettable adventure.

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William Shatner and Terry Bradshaw Interview: ‘Better Late Than Never’

Teamed up for a conference call to support the short but entertaining season one which wraps up on September 13, 2016 at 10pm ET/PT, Shatner and Bradshaw sounded like old friends who could even finish each other’s sentences. However, the Better Late Than Never stars actually weren’t friends before filming the series. During the conference call, Bradshaw and Shatner touched on what it was like to play tourist in Tokyo, Kyoto, Seoul, Hong Kong, Phuket and Chiang Mai with their new celebrity friends and how they quickly bonded while on the road together.

William Shatner and Terry Bradshaw Interview:

Reflecting back when you were a young Captain Kirk, what did you think the odds were that that show would still be famous now? What did you think the odds were that 50 years later you’d be doing a TV show where you climb 800 steps?

William Shatner: “Well, I think the same odds that Terry and I will be icons 50 years from now based on Better Late Than Never . After four shows you know it’s a phenomena and it’s going to last another 50 years. Those would be the odds. We were doing a middling successful TV show for three years, it was canceled and everybody thought that’s it and on to the next thing and then slowly it snowballed. And even while it was rolling down the hill gathering speed and momentum, nobody fully realized it and every one of the movies that I made, six or seven movies, they would burn the sets to have room for some other show because they figured that was the last movie.”

Did you really walk up the 800 steps?

William Shatner: “Terry carried me over the 799th. He staggered up there and said, ‘I’ll help you, buddy’ and I just depended on him.”

Did you know you had something special with this show going into it?

Terry Bradshaw: “I had no idea that this show would be successful. I mean, there’s so many – I’ve been a part of, I don’t know, four, five, pilots that never made it and yet we got a chance to actually shoot this show. I think while we were doing it I was so hot and miserable and hurting I never gave any thought that this thing would just be more than what it was, four shows, six shows and then you sit around and you go, ‘Well, will it be picked up?’ Who knows that and you just move on. So I know it was fun and I wanted to continue because it was so much fun, but I’m not privy and savvy enough to know what America is going to want to watch. That’s kind of what’s kind of cool about this show.”

William Shatner: “And I agree with that. You just don’t know what America is going to watch. It’s a great phrase. We were staggering around in the monsoon season in East Asia and tripping over each other’s feet and eating each other’s worms and octopus and unshaven and unkempt and miserable at times and joyous at others. We were just fending for ourselves and trying to help each other with no thought of how this is going to sell. And the fact that it is as successful as it is comes as a surprise, certainly to me.”

If there’s a season two, how different do you think it will be knowing what you’re dealing with now versus going into sort of unknown territory the first time?

Terry Bradshaw: “I think it will. As a matter of fact, Bill, I talked to Jeff Dye this morning before I left Dallas and I said if in fact – and I don’t know that we have the second season – but if we do, now that I know Bill and George and Henry and Jeff and the producer and the folks at NBC and I understand, I see now what they’re cutting this thing up to be, the second season will be more exciting for me because I walked into the unknown and I’ve got to tell you, it was so humid and so miserable. All I would want to know is I want to make sure we don’t go south again or go to Asia.”

William Shatner: “Into the snow. We’ve got to go into the snow.”

Terry Bradshaw: “My God! Yes, I was miserable, just miserable.”

William Shatner: “It was miserable. But the danger is now…and I haven’t watched any of the shows so I really don’t know what they’re doing. People have commented and I’ve listened to their comments, but the danger is now that we know what works and what doesn’t work, we’re liable to go and do what we think is working and without the knowledge that the reason the stuff works is because we didn’t know whether it would work or not. Is that obtuse reasoning?”

Terry Bradshaw: “Yes, I mean, they could have said, ‘Look, here’s what we want,’ and our stumbling, bumbling personalities all came together as we tried to figure out what they want, and that will be the same thing here. You can’t contrive this stuff; you can’t make up the dialogue. You just do it and so therefore I think it will be funny. If you haven’t watched any of it, I mean, it’s funny. Seriously funny, it is funny. It reaches my people and my people, as you well know, talk like I do. It reaches them, they love it.”

William Shatner: “Well, hell, I talk like you do and I’m from Montreal. It sounds wonderful and keeping that sort of spontaneous approach is critical and that’s what we would aim for. Yes, exactly.”

You guys really obviously didn’t go to the DMZ but did you really believe that you did? When you found out, how did you react?

Terry Bradshaw: “Nobody told me it was fake.”

William Shatner: “Nobody told me it was fake.”

Terry Bradshaw: “I’m telling you, I was not comfortable in a lot of things we did but that DMZ deal, yes, I mean, you see it and I’m tall, I’m staring this thing down and I’m going, ‘Really?’ I mean, ‘Really?’ I mean, I was a little bit nervous about it and then you know obviously Jeff sticks that (phone over the line). It’s funny. It’s stupid funny.”

William Shatner: “When we got there I thought that was the place. It looks very much like it and when this North Korean officer was talking to us I was looking at his uniform and it was quite worn. It was like the braid was unbraiding, you know, and the elbows. I thought, ‘Wow, it is really a poverty stricken nation.’ And then when it was revealed as a joke, I was put out. I sat down. I thought, ‘I don’t want to be part of this.'”

Terry Bradshaw: “Well, you know, I was mad because I really wanted that story to be real.”

William Shatner: “Yes, we were both upset. We were both upset that it wasn’t real.”

Terry Bradshaw: “Exactly. And when the guy on the other side, the North Vietnamese guy says, what? ‘Go Pittsburgh…'”

William Shatner: “And the fact that some people knew it was real and some of us didn’t, that stuck at me too. I mean, what is the policy? Is the policy to look like an idiot in front of everybody else or to be in on the know? Those are editorial decisions that had to be made, like working it out. Did Shatner and Bradshaw not know and we tell everybody else?”

Was there anything in particular that like you would have liked to have seen left in the show that they had to take out?

Terry Bradshaw: “I thought that the editing was phenomenal and I have not given any thought to, ‘Well where is this scene or that scene?’ […]There’s nothing Bill that you would say, ‘Well, I wish they would have added this or added that.’ I haven’t seen that yet. I’ll have a better understanding or a better answer for you after seeing the next one. Why don’t you watch it? You didn’t watch it, Bill?”

William Shatner: “Well, I don’t watch it Terry because I don’t like the way I look. I don’t like the way…the edit is always somewhat of a disappointment and so I find it better not to look at what I’m doing.”

Terry Bradshaw: “Really? I’m like that about a lot of things but I actually wanted to see how they cut this thing up. God, you’d laugh your butt off it is seriously funny.”

Is there one particular moment from the trip that you both will cherish? Something that you went through that maybe you didn’t expect?

William Shatner: “Well, it was filled with unexpected things; both known and unknown. Probably the best of the moments was between human beings that five people who had no knowledge of each other, maybe some cursory knowledge which may have been curse words, but some little tiny bits and pieces here and there but no depth and then we spend a month in each other’s company and had some really meaningful talks. It was very interesting from that point of view. Getting to know these marvelous people at the top of their business.”

Terry Bradshaw: “There’s two things that I really enjoyed. I enjoyed getting dressed and doing makeup with everybody in the morning because there was more jokery going around, more slapstick comedy. I mean, it was really seriously funny and I enjoyed that part a lot because it’s like we’re all getting dressed together to go to work. I enjoyed that everybody’s loose and cracking jokes. And then Bill touched on the talking part. Bill, do you recall, we had several talks?”

William Shatner: “You and I? Absolutely.”

Terry Bradshaw: “Yes, and the one at the cave.”

William Shatner: “The monks.”

Terry Bradshaw: “The purple cave with the monks and everything. I enjoyed that because one thing about Bill, and I accused him of studying the night before so he knew everything that was going on the next day. I said, ‘How can anybody know this much about monks or Thailand?’ I mean, that man is seriously educated and I tried to pigeonhole him, I tried to catch him, but he always had an answer and me being uneducated about this stuff it sounded good to me, you know? But Bill and I had some really, really good talks and he made a lot of sense about where we were and how this all got started. So I enjoyed that. I especially enjoyed getting dressed, doing the makeup and having fun with everybody. That to me was a blast.”

William Shatner: “And you look good in lipstick.”

Terry Bradshaw: “I do. You know what? I do. Now, you didn’t watch this thing but I actually turned to my wife and I said, ‘I look like I’m retaining a little fluid.'”

William Shatner: “You had to specify what fluid.”

Terry Bradshaw: “Oh my God, man, I looked like a big old blimp in this thing.”

William Shatner: “And that’s one of the reasons I’m not watching it because we had all of that salty food. There was a lot of water… I’d like to think of it as water retention.”

Terry Bradshaw: “Yes, that’s what I’m going with. As a matter of fact, I still have it.”

William Shatner: “Oh man. It’s awful.”

What’s left to check off from your bucket list?

William Shatner: “Well, my bucket list was to catch a pass from Terry.”

Terry Bradshaw: “Did that.”

William Shatner: “And get in the ring with George Foreman.”

Terry Bradshaw: “And you did that.”

William Shatner: “And to have Henry make me laugh and he told me a great joke so I laughed hard. So the next bucket list is, well, I wrote Terry saying, ‘Imagine us, you and I, Terry with a cigar in one hand and a Cuba Libre in the other,’ and that’s going to be part of my bucket list.”

Terry Bradshaw: “I had never thought about a bucket list. This wasn’t on my bucket list but now I guess I could say that I’ve done a movie, I’ve done a TV show, I’ve done a pregame football show, I played football, I’ve sung, I’ve danced, I’ve done Vegas. What’s next? I haven’t skydived and I’m not going to. Bucket list? Bill and I both are horse competitors. Oh Bill you’ll love this, Tammy won the world in the aged mare at the Palomino World Show this year. How about that?”

William Shatner: “Oh, that’s fantastic!”

Terry Bradshaw: “That’s her first world title.”

William Shatner: “That’s wonderful, Terry.”

Terry Bradshaw: “Yes. My bucket list is way over full. My wife goes, ‘Swim with the sharks!’ She knows I’m petrified of the ocean. I’m not swimming with sharks. No way is that going to happen. I just think I would just like to keep raising really good horses and have world champions that I’ve raised. At this stage of my life that’s it.”

William Shatner: “And avoid kicking the bucket.”

Terry Bradshaw: “Well, you know that was part of our bet on this show was which country will Bill pass away in? And I said Thailand.”

William Shatner: “Making bets as to where I would die…”

Terry Bradshaw: “I thought that would be a ratings grabber right there.”

William Shatner: “I fooled them all. I’m waiting for a pickup. I’m waiting for the second season and we’ll call it, ‘Where Am I Going to Die?'”

Terry Bradshaw: “I mean, seriously if you think about it, if this thing does a second season and Bill is 85 now, if they don’t put us back in the heat in the tropics I think he’s going to be all right. We’ve got to go cold because old people like cold weather, I think. I mean eventually it’s going to happen, right? It’s going to happen.”

William Shatner: “Well, it’s got to put the blood closer to the heart where it belongs.”

Terry Bradshaw: “See there? There he goes being all smart. He said it puts the blood closer to the heart. And my wife just said it freezes up your joints. I know at our age I know there’s a joint that’s frozen pretty good.”

Henry Winkler said you learn a lot about yourself when you travel and you step outside of your comfort zone. What did you both learn from the trip?

William Shatner: “Well, I’m pretty much a loner, very few people get into my life and these guys and the people traveling, and the person traveling with them, these guys got into my life. It got personal and loving and genuine and warm. I admired the experience of the togetherness. I’m sitting at a desk and in front of me is a piece of paper and I’ve been trying to write a song about space and entanglement, and entanglement is a word that’s being used now as the building blocks of nature but entanglement also refers to how we’re all connected. And the five of us got connected on this trip to one degree or another and it was quite an experience.”

Terry Bradshaw: “You can’t spend 34 days together and not work through…if there are issues you work through them because it’s important that you get along. So that experience, that anticipation, that anxiety attack that I had prior to leaving Los Angeles together I’ve got to tell you, was immediately taken away. So I found out that superstars Winkler and William Shatner are real people and I was so thankful for that. And then I knew that this was going to be good. This was going to be good, it was going to be comfortable.

But what I also found out, and I’m really proud of, is that as hot as it was and as humid as it was is that I could literally live the life like an actor putting in such extremely long hours going and showering and going to bed without eating and getting up and starting over. I found out that I have patience and I have a durability about me at the age of 67 when we shot this that I was kind of impressed with myself.”

William Shatner: “Well, that’s great but you know it’s staggering to hear you say that because the rest of us looking at you, this phenomenal athlete who was at the top of his game during those years, better than anyone, maybe the greatest that ever lived is the epitome of endurance and strength and courage and durability. That’s amazing.”

How surprised were you by how quickly you clicked? Have you stayed in touch since the season wrapped up?

William Shatner: “Well, you know, we haven’t. Everybody’s busy and goes on so Terry and I, for example, have a few times communicated by email to say, ‘How are you? What are you doing?’ And Terry comes to Los Angeles and he’ll be doing so more often now that he’s going to be color (commentator) and the Rams have come to Los Angeles. Terry is going to celebrate that with me before it’s too late.

And so, no, we have communicated very little but on my part with the anticipation that now that we know this is working, the show is working, that we will spend more time together. And as a result I will appreciate more emphatically the time I will get to spend with Terry and the others. But I’m looking forward to spending the time. We ate meals together, we’d meet in the morning, walks and the activities that we had to do.”

Terry Bradshaw: “You and I worked out just about every day in the gym. Bill’s got a workout habit. I mean, you’ve got to see this guy. It’s pretty impressive. I never saw Henry in there, but he and I were in there. And Jeff Dye never worked out.”

William Shatner: “No, he’s too thin.”

Terry Bradshaw: “George did. Yes, yes, exactly either that or he was hung over drinking all of that beer. Bill’s right, when we finished… Well, first of all, you heard me say that I wasn’t (real sure) meeting these guys and I was scared perhaps Bill (would) ask me Star Trek questions to see if I was a fan. So my wife actually Googled all of the information and gave me everything I needed to know.”

William Shatner: “That’s hysterical. I didn’t know that.”

Terry Bradshaw: “That’s why I came up with, ‘Beam me up, Scotty.’ I didn’t know that because I didn’t watch the show.”

William Shatner: “And I had to ask people, ‘Was it three or five rings?'”

Terry Bradshaw: “Yes, right. I reminded you of what that was. No, it was we built the relationship and you just don’t know when you put five people together, five total strangers, how is it going to be received. ‘What’s the perception through a television?’ and that is exactly what it was. It was chemistry; it worked. It’s like the pregame show at Fox. You don’t know, but it works. Our friendship grew and grew and grew to the point where we could insult one another, we could make fun of one another, and we could embrace and hug one another.

When Bill did the funny thing about George Foreman on the boat, nobody laughed and he got his feelings hurt and we just told him, ‘Oh god, that’s terrible.’ I mean, he was so serious and so were we, ‘That’s terrible. Sit down, that’s not funny.’ And so you learn these things about people. But chemistry, chemistry is just that – it’s chemistry. It either blends and comes together and everybody says, ‘Oh look, these guys like one another.’ And genuinely if you don’t like one another, it will show. That was not the case. We had a blast, absolute blast, and I’ve got all of these new friends. I’ve got all of these new friends.

It was totally a surprise. I remember I got a call one day from Jimmy Johnson. He said, ‘Boy, you and Shatner really have some funny lines.’ I said, ‘What do you mean by funny lines? Those aren’t lines. We don’t have lines!’ He said, ‘What do you mean? That’s not written?’ I said, ‘No, that’s not written. You can’t write this stuff.’ And that’s the beauty part about this is that there’s some funny people in this thing man, I mean god dang!

Bill, you didn’t know this I don’t think (but) I would come in in the morning and the first thing I would say to Henry Winkler, I’d go, ‘Whoa! Aaaaay!’ And the first day he stopped me and he said, ‘Let me just ask you something. Are you making fun of me or do you really like that?’ I said, ‘Are you kidding me? I’m wanting you to do it. I absolutely love it. No I’m not making fun of you.’ So then he would go, ‘Whoa!’ I only did two, ‘Beam me up, Scotty’ and Bill says, ‘Okay, enough of the beam me up.'”

William Shatner: “I’d rather go, ‘Whoa!’ I’ll do whoa.”

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Better Late Than Never: Cancelled; No Season Three for NBC TV Show

by Jessica Pena, July 16, 2018

It looks like the vacation is over. Recently, Jeff Dye confirmed that NBC has cancelled  Better Late Than Never after two seasons.

The reality show follows Henry Winkler, William Shatner, Terry Bradshaw, and George Foreman as they travel the world with both help and misdirection from tech-savvy comedian Jeff Dye.

On Twitter, Dye revealed NBC has decided not to renew  Better Late Than Never . The series wrapped its second season in February with an average rating of .91 in the 18-49 demo and 4.819 million viewers. That’s a nearly 40% drop in ratings from season one.

See Dye’s tweet below:

Updated with tweets from Winkler and Foreman:

For the time being “Better Late Than Never” is over. We are very sad 😢 — Henry Winkler (@hwinkler4real) June 3, 2018

Better late Than never has made; a better person of me: 4,new friends and a better world. But all done for a while https://t.co/n7pCgV8r5S — George Foreman (@GeorgeForeman) May 23, 2018

What do you think? Have you seen  Better Late Than Never ? Are you sad it’s been cancelled?

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I absolutely loved Better Late than Never. I really wish it had not been canceled! I watched all of these guys growing up and I just loved all the crazy adventures they got into. I also enjoyed seeing so many different parts of the world. I would do anything to have them all back again. They made a great & interesting team.

BLTN Show was one of my absolute fav. I rarely watch anything “reality”. Those guys had the GREATEST CHEMISTRY, and their “off the top off their heads” comedy had the timing of Big Ben! I’m 68 and have many disabilities, so I watch TV sadly almost nonstop. I don’t understand what their target group was but I do know their ages (excluding Jeff) & mine are extremely similar. Guess what there are a zillion nursing & senior living homes that are full of TV watching ppl, Seniors like myself We need much more real comedy & less swearing, R rated …  Read more »

Better late than never was genius, we couldn’t get enough, who picked those 5 guys together? Just loved it

Sure wish they would bring Better Late Than Never back. We still talk about episodes and have a good laugh. If your cheeks didn’t hurt at the end of the show from laughing there was something wrong with you.

This series was a breath of fresh air. Clean fun… what a concept. Who’s bright idea was it to cancel this show? Perhaps it’s time to revisit bringing this back!

Henry Winkler, William Shatner, and George Foreman to travel to Asia for new reality series

If you’ve ever daydreamed about the Fonz hanging out with Captain Kirk, or wished that you could see Terry Bradshaw do kabuki theater with George Foreman, or are familiar with who Jeff Dye is, then has NBC got a show for you. The peacock network has just announced that Bradshaw, Dye, and Foreman will join Henry Winkler and William Shatner on a reality travel show that will send the men on a trip through parts of Asia.

NBC optioned the rights to the show , called Better Late Than Never (and not, sadly, The A-ged Team), last fall. It’s an adaptation of the reality show, Grandpas Over Flowers, which sounds like something off the worst menu on earth , but was actually a surprise hit in South Korea. Storyline Entertainment owners Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who worked together on The Bucket List , got the series order and have brought on veteran reality TV producer Jason Ehrlich ( The Bachelor ) to executive produce alongside Winkler.

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The no-frills travelogue show will have the five men getting around sans assistants , with only their wits (and a production crew). They’ll travel to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Hong Kong, Kyoto, Seoul, and Tokyo to immerse themselves in the cultures and peoples (but hopefully not too much). There’s a potentially competitive element to the show, as they’ll also be expected to cross items off their very own bucket lists. And if getting a show on NBC at their respective ages and career stages isn’t on those lists, well, then we don’t know what.

Production begins in August and while there’s no way to know if the shows’ schedules will overlap, we’re kind of hoping there’s a crossover episode in which they run into fellow silver fox Anthony Bourdain, who’s been on the road to Parts Unknown for the last two years.

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‘better late than never’: tv review.

Henry Winkler, George Foreman, William Shatner and Terry Bradshaw head to Asia for semi-scripted amusement in NBC's adventure reality series.

By Daniel Fienberg

Daniel Fienberg

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If you’re like me, you watched a lot of NBC ‘s Olympics coverage, grumbling all the way about Bob Costas ‘ diminishing interview skills, Al Trautwig’s sexism and Team USA basketball’s lack of a distributing point guard. And if you’re like me, you saw a lot of commercials for Better Late Than Never without quite figuring out what the series was supposed to be or who it was actually supposed to be for. And if you’re like me, you had to weather a night of Adobe Flash issues before being able to watch a screener for the show ahead of its premiere.

If you’re not like me on the latter count, allow me to tell you what Better Late Than Never is, even if my answer for whether or not you should bother watching it yourself isn’t more than an unenthusiastic, “Shrug, but it was less offensive than I worried it might be.”

Air date: Aug 23, 2016

Actually, I can’t tell you exactly what Better Late Than Never is, not at its core. The gimmick begins with Henry Winkler declaring “I’ve got a great idea …” and subsequently getting on the phone to three of his friends — George Foreman, Terry Bradshaw and William Shatner . He tells them, “We’ve worked hard all our lives and I think we deserve a little fun.” He then spins a globe and lands nebulously on Asia as a destination. Deciding they need one more person, Winkler calls comedian Jeffrey Dye, whom he describes as “that guy who always calls me for work.” Before you can say “Delta product placement,” they’re all flying to Tokyo, where they begin a four-country, six-city, 30-day jaunt around Asia, having a once-in-a-lifetime experience before it’s too late.

Granted, nobody is going to watch Better Late Than Never thinking it’s a docuseries or classifying it as reality television, just as nobody’s going to believe that Winkler randomly coordinated travel for lifelong buddies Foreman, Bradshaw and Shatner based on the spin of a globe or that Winkler remembered and invited Dye along because of past job solicitations. But the question of where reality ends and scripted television begins in Better Late Than Never is one on which I can’t begin to speculate.

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Are these four men actually friends? I have no clue. They make no reference to any shared history or experiences together. In confessional segments, Shatner and Winkler talk together and have an easygoing chemistry, Bradshaw is by himself and Foreman I don’t think does any confessional interviews, which mirrors the sandwich grill maestro’s easygoing attitude within the show. Is Dye there just to provide generational contrast and occasional improvisational zingers? Is he a glorified travel coordinator, as Winkler seems to imply? Or is he hosting and instigating general mischief, as he himself seems to imply?

It’s one thing to know that this spontaneous vacation for men ranging in age between 67 and 85 is based on a South Korean format, so its spontaneity is limited. But with three credited writers, including Emmy winner Carol Leifer and Jackass veteran Paul Greenberg, and prolific scripted and unscripted director Troy Miller ( Arrested Development ), I can’t begin to tell you whether anything that happens in the one episode I’ve seen was actually off-book. It’s not an Anthony Bourdain travel show, but is Better Late Than Never just a fully scripted Grumpy Old Men Go to Japan ? I’m guessing that it was more the latter than the former, but it feels more like the former than the latter.

Better Late Than Never begins with a worrisome voiceover intoning “Asia … land of exotic beauty,” threatening an almost colonialistic view of the continent. But in a world of Orientalist TV stereotyping that inflicted two seasons of I Survived a Japanese Game Show on us (I actually liked the first season), this show’s worst offense is that it’s simply prone to easy cultural cliches . In the first episode, the gang stays at a capsule hotel, visits and is horrified by a yakitori restaurant, sings karaoke and participates in some wacky hijinks on a Japanese morning show.

Is it a fetishization of modern Japanese life? Yes. Is it a fetishization of modern Japanese life in which actual Japanese people are almost entirely absent other than Randomly Naked Guy at Hotel and Woman Who Explains They’re Eating Chicken Vaginas? Yes. The second point is really damning, since once you’re scripting everything, you might as well add a local tour guide character capable of educating the visiting dignitaries, rather than just having facts explode onscreen in big text blocks, arriving fast and vanishing just as quickly. That plays into an editing rhythm that even this critic, raised on the MTV-infused ADHD cutting of the 1980s , would describe as frantic. A young, female local guide would have eliminated a daunting number of my issues. Oh well.

The guys are mostly enthusiasts for their new experiences, or at least willing participants. The occasional exception is Bradshaw, who comments on the shortness of the Japanese people, demands french fries with his local meal and gets hastily drunk and yells in the streets. He also forces Shatner to ask for a translation of “ugly American” and earns his description as being the show’s version of an out-of-touch grandfather who says inappropriate things.

I think Bradshaw may also be bitter that of the four stars, he’s the one least likely to get recognized on their journey, and least likely by a wide margin. Foreman is quiet, but game for anything, and as his buddies talk about how thrilled and scared and perplexed they are to be in Tokyo, the former pugilist doesn’t mention that he actually had two fights in Japan, so he probably isn’t quite as awed by the proceedings. Winkler embraces his continent-spanning familiarity and happily takes pictures even with people who think he’s Alan Alda , while Shatner is genuinely introspective in a way that’s occasionally disarming.

In one conversation about mortality and new experiences while enjoying a very peculiar tasting menu at the exclusive, expensive Ne Quittez Pas, I got a glimpse of a less contrived, possibly more authentic version of this show that might actually have been good, but probably wouldn’t have been as hook-y for NBC. That better show is also on the fringes of a scene in which the four men help one another climb 800 stairs for a better view at Mt. Fuji.

Mostly, though, Better Late Than Never is about making jokes about pixelated naked guys, fighting in giant robots, chortling at Bradshaw singing and giggling about famous people eating gross parts of the chicken. It’s definitely not the lowest common denominator version of this show and I was relieved by that, but its aspirations are limited.

Basically, if you’ve ever wanted to hear Winkler ask “The whole vagina is on a stick?” I recommend NBC’s Better Late Than Never .

Premiere date: Tuesday, 10 p.m. ET/PT (NBC)

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Watch Better Late Than Never

• 8.6   (2,437)

Better Late Than Never is a reality travel show that follows four legendary stars from four different fields; William Shatner, Henry Winkler, George Foreman, and Terry Bradshaw, as they embark on a hilarious and exciting adventure across various countries around the world. The show premiered on NBC in 2016 and ran for two seasons until 2018.

The premise of the show involves the four stars who are all in their 70s and 80s, traveling to various countries to explore new cultures, try new foods, and engage in extreme sports and other activities. They embark on this adventure with their younger companion, Jeff Dye, who serves as their tour guide and the voice of reason.

The show is a unique blend of travel, comedy, and an exploration of different cultures, as the group visits places they have never been before and tries new things they have never done. They engage in activities such as taking flamenco lessons in Spain, learning the traditional Japanese tea ceremony, and performing a Bollywood dance routine in India.

The stars' camaraderie and humor are a constant feature of the show as they tease and poke fun at each other while trying to overcome obstacles and challenges in each country they visit. Their different personalities shine through as they interact with locals and experience different cultural practices. William Shatner, for example, is often seen as the prankster of the group, while George Foreman provides the muscle and Terry Bradshaw provides the comic relief.

The show is not just a travelogue, however; it also explores the various issues facing each country they visit. The stars visit orphanages and engage with locals about issues such as child labor and poverty in India. They also learn about the history and politics of the countries they visit, such as their visit to South Korea, where they discuss the ongoing tensions between North and South Korea.

Despite their age, the stars are not afraid to take risks and engage in activities that some might consider too extreme for people their age. Whether it's bungee jumping in New Zealand, skydiving in Los Angeles, or white-water rafting in Cambodia, the group proves that age is just a number and that it's never too late to try something new.

The show's format is simple and straightforward, with each episode featuring a new location and set of activities. The stars often split up and pursue different activities, which keeps the show interesting and varied. Jeff Dye, as the group's youngest member, plays a crucial role in leading the group and making sure they stay on schedule.

One of the show's highlights is the sense of wonder and amazement that the stars often express as they experience new things, such as their visit to the Great Wall of China or their attempt to learn the art of ninja in Kyoto, Japan. Their joy and excitement are infectious, and it's hard not to feel inspired by their sense of adventure and willingness to embrace new experiences.

Overall, Better Late Than Never is a heartwarming and hilarious travel show that showcases the joys of travel, adventure, and lifelong learning. The chemistry between the stars is undeniable, and their ability to laugh at themselves and each other is a refreshing change of pace from more serious travel documentaries. If you're looking for a fun and entertaining travel show with a lot of heart, Better Late Than Never is definitely worth watching.

• Genres Comedy Reality Travel
• Cast William Shatner Henry Winkler George Foreman Terry Bradshaw Jeff Dye
• Channel NBC
• Premiere Date August 23, 2016
• IMDB Rating 8.6   (2,437)

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‘Better Late Than Never’ Star Henry Winkler Shows Us What He Did on His Summer Vacation

Delicate work.

These hands have been making traditional candies in Kyoto for 60 years. (Photo: Instagram)

Henry Winkler is on a trip that definitely doesn't involve a motorcycle. The former Fonzie is backpacking through Asia with an unlikely posse — William Shatner, George Foreman, Terry Bradshaw, and comedian Jeff Dye — for the new travel-themed show Better Late Than Never .

Ahead of the premiere of the NBC reality show, we handed over our Instagram account to Winkler, who showed us some of the things he has now checked off his bucket list.

Related: 'Better Late Than Never' Sends William Shatner, Henry Winkler, Terry Bradshaw, George Foreman on a Riotous Far East Road Trip

In addition to sharing snaps of the breathtaking scenery in Japan and Korea, Winkler gave us a peek at the culture he and his motley crew came across on their cross-Asia trek. The Happy Days star also showed us that it's never too late to chill with a cobra , hang with a monkey , get kissed by an elephant , and, perhaps most important, be part of a K-pop band .

Click through this slideshow to see all of Winkler's photos, but be advised: He had a way cooler summer vacation than you did.

Better Late Than Never airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on NBC.

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William Shatner Discusses Acting, Fate, and His New Documentary

It seems as long as people have been watching television, William Shatner has been on it. Shatner's first television credit was in 1954 on the Canadian version of The Howdy Doody Show . While a trained theater actor and also a movie star, television has been where Shatner has shined. Most famous for the role of Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek: The Original Series , he has also had starring roles in T.J. Hooker and Boston Legal . Shatner has also appeared in some of the most famous television shows, from The Twilight Zone and Columbo up to Psych and The Bang Theory . It is hard to imagine television without William Shatner, and we don't even want to think about that.

The actor is still going strong, having recently voiced the role of Keldor in Masters of the Universe: Revolutions . But Shatner's latest project is a personal one. The documentary William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill has arrived on VOD. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe ( The People vs. George Lucas ), the documentary is a deep dive into Shatner's career, as told by Shatner. Viewers are given an insight into his thought process, as only Shatner could explain. MovieWeb had the honor to sit down and talk with Shatner about how the documentary came to be.

I had a weird career. I don't recall more than a moment or so here and there thinking, 'Oh, I hope I work.' I think sometimes I thought, 'Well, I can always go back to Toronto,' when I was in New York looking for work, but I never did.

He provided insight into his experience with acting, his personal history with future Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered co-star Christopher Plummer, and what Shatner would say to his younger self (and what he thinks his younger self would say to him).

Why Make a Shatner Documentary Now?

You can call me bill.

Release Date March 22, 2024

Director Alexandre O. Philippe

Cast William Shatner

Rating PG-13

Runtime 1h 36m

Main Genre Documentary

Writers Alexandre O. Philippe

Studio(s) FilmFrog, Falling Forward Films, Legion M

William Shatner has been featured in many documentaries but has never done one centered on his life. Why now? Well, it was the people involved in the project that finally convinced Shatner to open up. "Over the years, people would come up and say, 'We'd like to shoot a documentary about you,' and I didn't. I wasn't enthralled with the idea ," said Shatner. " First of all, it's admitting, you know, when you see this, I'll be dead . In addition to that, I didn't know the people as it wasn't the right time, but I didn't feel like it." He added:

"And then Legion M came up to me, these three guys and Legion M, two really, and they said, 'We're Legion M, we are financed by fans who own a piece of the company, and you won't get paid until they get paid,' and it sounded intriguing."

Why Star Trek Producers Didnt Want William Shatner Playing a Villain

The addition of well known documentarian Alexandre O. Philippe also enticed Shatner, who didn't just want it to be a retelling of his life. "So I took a chance. I didn't have any prearranged ideas of how a documentary goes. I was born, you know, in 1930 — I didn't want to do that," explained the actor. "So we started talking and this is the result."

The results have paid off as William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill was released in theaters on March 22, 2024, and earned positive reviews from critics. As of this writing, the movie has received an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and 71% on Metacritic. The film is a great insight into the mind of Shatner and is a must-watch documentary not only for fans of Star Trek but also for anyone interested in one of the most famous and enduring actors in history.

The Business of Becoming an Actor

An actor known across generations for different roles, it's hard to imagine Shatner as anything but an actor. " It never occurred to me to say, 'I'm going to be an actor, '" said Shatner, but he did say how his father tried to convince him to get another job:

"The only time I said that was graduating high school, going to college, and I said, 'I want to be an actor', and my father said, ' Well, no, you can't be an actor. Don't be an actor. Why don't you just take some business classes? Maybe you'll join me in his small clothing business.' I said, 'Okay, I'll take some business classes,' and I failed them."

That business course did pay off, though. "A summer theater had opened near McGill University, which is where I was, and I went to the lady who was running the theater and said, 'Can I be a part of the company?' and she said, 'No, the company is all filled up, but I do have an opening for an assistant manager.' And I said, 'Well, I'm taking business courses,' so I became a business manager until I lost tickets. So she said, 'You're fired as an assistant, but you're hired as an actor.'"

William Shatner Reveals His Biggest Star Trek Regret: 'I Failed Horribly'

Christopher plummer's kidney stones gave shatner his big break.

Shatner later served as the understudy for Christopher Plummer on a production of Henry V . Despite only being two years older than Shatner, Plummer had already gained a high reputation in the acting community. Shatner talked about Plummer's status when he served as his understudy.

"Christopher is also a Montrealer. Chris was a couple of years older than I was, but it made a huge difference because I was going to school for the time that he was free and acting, and in Montreal, Chris Plummer was the name. He was in his early 20s or late teens, but he had become a popular actor in Montreal. Classical. I don't know where he learned to do the classics, but he was elegant. An incredibly talented, upper-crust Canadian actor who could do English very well, he was very princely ."

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While serving as Plummer's understudy, a medical condition of the older actor's would throw Shatner into the spotlight. "We were a week into the opening of Henry V when Chris had kidney stones and he had to go to the hospital," explained Shatner. "A week into the opening they ask 'Bill, can you go on?' And I said, 'Can I go on?' I didn't even know the names of some of the actors, let alone the choreography of the play. And they said 'but could you go on?'"

"The critics were still in the theater. The critics didn't arrive on opening night, but during that opening week, they would come in from all over the world. Chris had received great notices, and I was asked to go on. In my idiocy, like the rest of my life, I went, 'Oh, sure.' I went on and didn't screw up and got great notices. "

Shatner and Plummer would share the screen decades later in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . It all seems to have worked out in the end. Shatner feels blessed for all of this and gives some insight into it all. " Something that has taken care of me all these years: Fate. "

What Would William Shatner Say to Young William Shatner?

What would William Shatner now say to his 30-something younger self when he was on Star Trek: The Original Series ? It sounds like the plot of an episode of Star Trek . In fact, in 2009's Star Trek , Zachary Quinto's Spock meets the older (and original) version of himself, played by Leonard Nimoy. Yet, it is an interesting question for someone to ponder, as we change constantly. Even in the manner of 10 years, someone in their 30s might feel different about who they were in their 20s, while some of us feel like our younger selves would not recognize the people we have become.

Anyone who watches You Can Call Me Bill will know Shatner is a deeply introspective man , so when posed the question, he had a rather relatable answer most people can probably identify with.

"Well, my 30-year-old self, I'm wondering whether I can support my family, the financial worries of being an actor. But I didn't fret, I didn't toss and turn at night. I never got beyond $1800 in the bank, and I had three kids and a home. So, I would probably say that to the 30-year-old from this vantage point. 'You're right not to be overwhelmed with worry. You're right to take it in your stride and just keep plugging away and people will find you to offer you work,' is what I would have said, and I probably did say it to myself."

As for any advice for actors? " Once you've learned the words, you're pretty much free ," said Shatner.

William Shatner has lived a life most people can only dream of. He has been to space, and that only ranks in the top five coolest things he has ever done. While some might not treat him as seriously as his acting idols like Marlon Brando or Laurence Oliver, it is hard to argue that William Shatner's commitment to keep working, no matter what, has made him an icon that will live on for years to come.

It's not hard to imagine that in 60 years, Captain Kirk will still be an inspiration to many, or that people will still be trying a William Shatner impersonation. From the iconic interracial kiss from Star Trek: The Original Series to performing a spoken word version of "Rocket Man," Shatner is not just a part of pop culture history but history in general.

William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill is available for purchase on VOD on April 26, 2024.

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Paul Auster, postmodern author behind ‘The New York Trilogy’ and ‘Smoke,’ dies at 77

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Paul Auster, the bestselling postmodern author, noir novelist and screenwriter behind “Smoke,” “Lulu on the Bridge” and “The Inner Life of Martin Frost,” has died. He was 77.

“The New York Trilogy” and “4 3 2 1” author’s death was confirmed Wednesday by his literary representatives at Carol Mann Agency, according to the Associated Press. No details about his death were given and representatives for the agency did not immediately respond Wednesday to The Times’ request for comment.

The New York Times reported that Auster died Tuesday evening at his home in Brooklyn from complications of lung cancer. The writer had been diagnosed with cancer in 2022.

Auster, who also enjoyed a rich career as a poet and memoirist, became a fixture of the Brooklyn literary scene. He was known for his “metafiction” and for drawing attention to the artifice of storytelling. Although his commercial success in the United States was modest, he was deeply admired abroad and he was awarded several prizes during his prolific career, including the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature, the Prix Médicis étranger, an Independent Spirit Award and the Premio Napoli. He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

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“Listen, money’s important. Everyone cares about money. And when you don’t have money, money becomes the overriding obsession of your life,” he said on the “ Bat Segundo Show” in 2008. “I wrote a whole book about that … ‘Hand to Mouth.’ And the only good thing about making money is that you don’t have to think about money. It’s the only value. Because if you don’t have it, you’re crushed. And for a long period in my life, I was crushed.”

Referred to as “the dean of American postmodernists” and “the most meta of American meta-fictional writers,” Auster’s body of work boasted more than 30 books since he began publishing in the 1970s. He crafted fiction that hinged on reality but also challenged the definition of it. His breakthrough 1985 novel, “ City of Glass ,” combined hard-boiled detective fiction with existential inquiry and featured a character called Paul Auster. Its 1986 follow-ups, “Ghosts” and “The Locked Room,” comprised Auster’s famed “New York Trilogy.” His 1994 fable, “ Mr. Vertigo ,” featured literal flights of fancy; and his 2008 work “ Man in the Dark” created dreamscapes that conjured parallel visions of modern-day America, according to Times contributor Malcolm Forbes .

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His work imposed a sense of irreality on his readers, and his oeuvre was replete with writers and themes revolving around the elusiveness of human nature and the insufficiency of language to investigate the matter, according to one Times review .

“You’re just somehow in what the words are saying,” he told KQED in 2009, “but you’re not even thinking about the words anymore.”

Paul Benjamin Auster was born on Feb. 3, 1947, in Newark, N.J., and grew up in a middle-class Jewish home. His father was a miserly penny-pincher and his mother, who was about 13 years younger, was a spender. The marriage ultimately ended in divorce. Auster’s uncle, translator Allen Mandelbaum, left several boxes of books in storage for his nephew to read while he traveled to Europe and young Auster developed an interest in writing, literature and poetry.

Auster once joked that he became a writer after a fateful meeting with baseball great Willie Mays as a young boy. After missing out on getting Mays’ autograph because he didn’t have a pencil, the future scribe said he always made sure to keep a pencil or pen in his pocket “because I didn’t want to be caught unprepared again.” He famously worked without a computer, preferring to write with a typewriter and stay off the internet to avoid emails.

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Paul Auster: computer, no; cigars, yes

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Aug. 21, 2008

In his early 20s, short-form writing like poems came easily to him but he struggled with longer work. He published his first book, a collection of poems titled “White Spaces,” in 1980, and followed it up with his first memoir in 1982, “The Invention of Solitude,” which reflected on his father’s death. In an interview with Louisiana Channel , he said he must have written 1,500 pages of aborted novels and manuscripts, which he considered his apprenticeship in “how to put sentences together.” Writing became “instinctive” over time, but he never considered himself a fast writer. He believed that a good day of work could produce one typed page — “two pages is great, three is a miracle” that happens four times a year.

“The hard work is in trying to make it look easy,” he said.

His longest and most ambitious work of fiction was his 866-page novel “4 3 2 1,” which was published in 2017 and was a finalist for the Booker Prize . Although not traditionally a writer of “doorstoppers,” Auster’s book told the story of Archie Ferguson, a character mirroring the author himself in a four-part narrative. It catalogs the ordinary existence of four parallel Fergusons in the post-World War II era in exhaustive detail, imagining each version’s shifting fate based on differing circumstances.

Auster’s other works included the nonfiction compilations “Groundwork” and “Talking to Strangers”; a family memoir, “The Invention of Solitude”; the novel “Leviathan”; and the poetry collection “White Spaces.” In 2021, he chronicled the life and work of 19th century author Stephen Crane in “Burning Boy.” His most recent novel, 2023’s “Baumgartner,” told the story of a widowed professor haunted by mortality and was considered a late-career triumph that cut back on his usual “postmodern pyrotechnics.”

Several of his works, including his 1990 novel “The Music of Chance,” were adapted for the screen and Auster was behind the camera for a number of them. Harvey Keitel starred in the 1995 drama “Smoke,” about a Brooklyn cigar store and its various patrons played by William Hurt and Giancarlo Esposito. Working as a screenwriter, Auster embellished his short story that originally appeared as a Christmas Day op-ed in the New York Times, employing “the film medium as an extension of his literary art,” according to the Los Angeles Times’ review . The film won him the Independent Spirit Award for first screenplay.

He re-teamed with “Smoke” director Wayne Wang later that year and they co-directed the sequel, “Blue in the Face,” which brought back Keitel and Esposito and also starred Lou Reed, Mira Sorvino and Madonna. He is also credited on the screenplay for Wang’s 2001 romance “The Center of the World.”

Auster wrote and directed the 1998 mystery drama “Lulu on the Bridge,” which again starred Keitel and Sorvino and was nominated for the Un Certain Regard prize at the Cannes International Film Festival. He wrote and directed the 2007 comedy “The Inner Life of Martin Frost,” which explored the art of writing and starred David Thewlis, Irène Jacob and Michael Imperioli.

Auster is survived by his wife, fellow author Siri Hustvedt, and daughter Sophie. His son Daniel Auster, whom he had from an earlier marriage, died from a drug overdose in 2022 after struggling with drug addiction and after being charged with second-degree manslaughter of his infant daughter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Nardine Saad covers breaking entertainment news, trending culture topics, celebrities and their kin for the Fast Break Desk at the Los Angeles Times. She joined The Times in 2010 as a MetPro trainee and has reported from homicide scenes, flooded canyons, red carpet premieres and award shows.

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