Time to retire the myth…
Yes, Star Trek was ahead of the curve and very progressive (in some areas). But contrary to popular opinion, this wasn’t one of them. The interracial kiss between William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols was not American television’s first.
In fact, there have been a number of “interracial kiss” moments, in American and British TV. Even William Shatner himself, central to this myth, could set you straight, because he was involved in a similar incident a decade before Star Trek. And even that wasn’t the first.
Have a taste of truth, from Wikipedia:
I Love LucyThe 1950s American television programme I Love Lucy broadcast multiple instances of real-life husband and wife Desi Arnaz, a Hispanic male, and Lucille Ball, a woman of North European ancestry, kissing. However, despite Arnaz and Ball being frequently described as an “interracial couple”, “Hispanic” is generally understood to be a catchall indicating persons of a Latin American, Spanish, or Filipino cultural background, as opposed to a race. Arnaz was usually considered to be a white male of Cuban ancestry.
The Ed Sullivan Show
In a 1958 episode of The Ed Sullivan Show, France Nuyen (French-Vietnamese) and William Shatner kissed during a scene from the then current Broadway production of The World of Suzie Wong. (They later re-enacted that moment in the Star Trek episode “Elaan of Troyius,” aired in December 1968— Trekipidian Steve.)
In the Sea Hunt episode “Proof of Guilt” aired 16 August 1959, Lloyd Bridges and Nobu McCarthy (nee Atsumi, Japanese-Canadian) shared a kiss near the end of the episode which Bridges’ character described as “the best testimonial I’ll ever get in my life”.
Adventures in ParadiseAn episode of Adventures in Paradise titled “The Big Surf,” broadcast in 1960, featured two scripted kisses: One between actress Pilar Seurat (Phillippine-American) and actor Robert Sampson, and another with Seurat and Gardner McKay.
I SpyAn episode of I Spy titled “The Tiger” broadcast on January 5, 1966, featured a scripted interracial kiss between Eurasian actress France Nuyen (the only other actor mentioned more often on this list, just behind William Shatner) and Robert Culp.
Movin’ with NancyA December 1967 TV special, Movin’ with Nancy, featured a kiss between Nancy Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. Although this was technically the first time a Caucasian kissed an African American on television in the United States, it differed from “Star Trek” in that Sinatra only kissed Davis on the cheek instead of lip-to-lip.
Star Trek
The episode “Mirror, Mirror“, which originally aired on October 6, 1967, featured a scripted interracial kiss between Eurasian actress Barbara Luna and William Shatner (pictured at right).
In November 1968, the episode “Plato’s Stepchildren” presented what was often referred to as the first interracial kiss on American television, between William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols (African-American). This claim is disputed by some who contend that in the scene in question, full lip contact between the actors did not occur, as they turned their heads away from the camera at the last moment to present the illusion of a kiss, meaning that this scene was not a true kiss. The latter point has been disputed, with Shatner claiming that he and Nichols’ lips never fully touched and Nichols asserting that the kiss was real.
And just for the record, an even earlier TV kiss by Lloyd Reckord (Jamaican), with Andrée Melly, in the ITV Armchair Theatre adaptation of Ted Willis’s play Hot Summer Night, broadcast on British TV in February 1959.
None of which means a damned thing, since we’re ALL of the same race—the HUMAN race—and making distinctions like this are every kind of pointless and stupid.
But, y’know, as long as we’re on the subject…
One thing you may have noticed about these references: They tend to be framed between a European man and a woman of some non-European race (I Love Lucy, Hot Summer Night and Movin’ with Nancy being the exceptions). Most of these kisses have involved an Asian, Eurasian or Hispanic actor; and in these cases, no big deal was made about the interactions. In fact, it’s apparent from the heritages of many of the women cited above that they are products of mixed marriages, adding an additional “all right” to the idea of their kissing a European man.
But the one everyone talks about is the Star Trek kiss, specifically, because it involved a European male and an African female kissing on the lips.
Fetch the smelling salts, Junior, your Aunt Bea just fainted.
Except she probably didn’t… because southern American TV markets generally refused to show the episode Plato’s Stepchildren, in prime time or in later years of airing the syndicated episodes, so Aunt Bea probably never saw it. (But they showed Mirror, Mirror.)
Because this myth was never an interracial thing, as the lack of concern over earlier incidents clearly demonstrated; it was always specifically a Black vs White thing, that particular combination that (ahem) trumps concerns over every other racial combination in America. That makes it an issue, much more than kissing any Asian or Hispanic cutie. As such manufactured “miscegenation” between Blacks and Whites was always considered so taboo in American culture (despite the fact that, hey, it happened all the time), it amounted to blasphemy to even suggest a physical attraction between Whites and Blacks on American television.
Thus, the Shatner-Nichols kiss was controversial specifically for being an affront to the great American taboo of mixing between European and African races (not to mention being a moment of violation, not affection). It stands as a prime example of how far we wanted to believe we’d evolved socially in 1968… a particularly laughable attitude, when you consider the state of American race relations of the 2020s. But then, you already knew that.
Didn’t you?
So let’s dispel this 50-plus-year-old myth once and for all: Star Trek was a great series, progressive, ground-breaking and ahead of its time. And it included no less than three interracial kisses (four, if you count Nichelle Nichols and Majel Barrett in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”— Seriously Nerdy Steve). But the first? Not even.
