{"id":5278,"date":"2013-10-31T11:54:20","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T19:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/?p=5278"},"modified":"2018-06-09T16:35:55","modified_gmt":"2018-06-09T21:35:55","slug":"was-denise-crosby-fired-from-stark-trek-the-next-generation-because-she-posed-nude-in-playboy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2013\/10\/31\/was-denise-crosby-fired-from-stark-trek-the-next-generation-because-she-posed-nude-in-playboy\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Denise Crosby Fired From Star Trek: The Next Generation Because She Posed Nude in Playboy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here<\/a> to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far.<\/p>\n

TV URBAN LEGEND<\/span><\/u>: Was Denise Crosby fired from Star Trek: The Next Generation<\/em>
\nbecause she posed nude in Playboy<\/em>?<\/p>\n

While posing nude in Playboy<\/em> has launched the careers of a number of actresses, like Jenny McCarthy, Carmen Electra and Pamela Anderson (although a strange turn of events had already made Anderson popular in Canada, as I featured in an old Football Legends Revealed<\/a>), it can also cause problems when actresses try out for “family” programming. In the May 1988 issue of Playboy<\/em> (which would have been released around March 1988), they had a nude pictorial spread of Star Trek: The Next Generation<\/em>‘s Denise Crosby, who played Lietenant Tasha Yar on the program, then in its first season (the spread was advertised as “Denise Crosby: Out of Uniform”). Yar’s character was killed off in an April 1988 episode. Reader Drew G. wrote in to ask: <\/p>\n

One legend I heard, many years ago, that I have always wondered about, and maybe this was covered already and I missed it, was that Denise Crosby’s Lt. Yar character was killed off in the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation<\/em> because she had appeared nude in a Playboy<\/em> magazine. While I thought it unlikely that Gene Roddenbery would have done this it wouldn’t be unprecedented.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So is it true?
\n
\nNo, it is not. <\/p>\n

First off, while Crosby appeared in the May 1988 issue of Playboy<\/em>, the spread was just a reprinting of a pictorial that she had done for Playboy<\/em> back in the March 1979 issue of the magazine, early in her career as a model, with the selling point being “Here’s Bing Crosby’s granddaughter…nude!” So she had already posed nude when they hired her in the first place (Playboy<\/em> reprinted the photos nine years later without even letting Crosby know. She told People<\/em> magazine at the time, “It’s a bit exploitative of Playboy to do that, I suppose. But I’m not bitter about it.”)<\/p>\n

Secondly, and more importantly, Crosby was not fired from Star Trek: The Next Generation<\/em>. She quit the show. She spoke about her decision to leave the show on StarTrek.com last year<\/a>: <\/p>\n

I was miserable. I couldn\u2019t wait to get off that show. I was dying. This was not an overnight decision. I was grateful to have made that many episodes, but I didn\u2019t want to spend the next six years going \u201cAye, aye, captain,\u201d and standing there, in the same uniform, in the same position on the bridge. It just scared the hell out of me that this was what I was going to be doing for the next X-amount of years. I think you have to take your chances. I was really young. I didn\u2019t have to make house payments or put kids through private school or support people. I was free to make those kinds of decisions. I\u2019d been in acting school really dreaming of playing all kinds of different things. Whether it\u2019ll happen or not, you don\u2019t know, but you\u2019ve got to give yourself a chance. God forbid you go through your life thinking, \u201cWhat if?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She said as much to People<\/em> back in 1988, “I didn’t want just to say, The frequency’s open, sir,’ for five years.”<\/p>\n

Looking back, the fact that Yar and Worf were both security officers definitely did seem to come straight out of the Department for Redundancy Department, so it is understandable that Yar lost some focus as the show went on. <\/p>\n

Crosby specifically recalled, though, that she left on good terms with Roddenberry, explaining to StarTrek.com<\/a>: <\/p>\n

There was no animosity. I don\u2019t know that anybody really wanted me to go. I think it stirred up a lot of things in all the other cast members. I\u2019m not exactly sure what, but you\u2019ve got to question your own commitment or your own place, what you\u2019re doing there. I think it stirs up stuff. However, Gene and I were very clear about what was going on. He said to me, ‘I don\u2019t want you to go, but I get it. I get why you\u2019re leaving. I was a young writer at one time and I was hungry and I was frustrated, and I get that.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Crosby later returned to Star Trek: The Next Generation<\/em> for a few episodes, both as Yar (including the acclaimed time travel story “Yesterday’s Enterprise”) and as Sela, the half-Romulan daughter of Yar (via time travel and alternate timelines, think the X-Men<\/em>‘s Rachel Grey’s relationship with Cyclops and Jean Grey).<\/p>\n

The legend is… <\/p>\n

STATUS<\/span><\/u>: False<\/p>\n

Thanks to reader Drew for the suggestion!<\/p>\n

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far. TV URBAN LEGEND: Was Denise Crosby fired from Star Trek: The Next Generation because she posed nude in Playboy? While […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[8],"tags":[452],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7MjBq-1n8","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7718,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2016\/03\/16\/did-playboy-cancel-a-nude-spread-for-phyllis-diller-because-it-was-too-sexy\/","url_meta":{"origin":5278,"position":0},"title":"Did Playboy Cancel a Nude Spread for Phyllis Diller Because it Was “Too Sexy”?","date":"March 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends related to architecture and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the magazine urban legends featured so far. MAGAZINE URBAN LEGEND: Playboy canceled a nude spread for Phyllis Diller because it was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Grab Bag Legends"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/phyllis-diller_protest-375x302.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8498,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2016\/10\/12\/did-star-trek-never-show-scottys-full-right-hand-on-the-show\/","url_meta":{"origin":5278,"position":1},"title":"Did Star Trek Never Show Scotty’s Full Right Hand on the Show?","date":"October 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"James Doohan was missing a finger on his right hand - did he manage to hide it throughout the original Star Trek series?","rel":"","context":"In "TV Legends Revealed"","img":{"alt_text":"scottstartrek","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/scottstartrek-375x284.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9233,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2019\/08\/27\/star-trek-captain-kirk-beam-me-up-scotty\/","url_meta":{"origin":5278,"position":2},"title":"Did Captain Kirk Never Actually Say ‘Beam Me Up, Scotty’ On Star Trek?","date":"August 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far. TV URBAN LEGEND: Kirk never actually ever said, \"Beam Me Up, Scotty\" on Star Trek.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "TV Legends Revealed"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/kirk-beaming.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4888,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2013\/06\/28\/is-a-playboy-centerfold-really-the-standard-test-image-for-image-processing-algorithms\/","url_meta":{"origin":5278,"position":3},"title":"Is a Playboy Centerfold Really the Standard Test Image for Image Processing Algorithms?","date":"June 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends related to architecture and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the magazine urban legends featured so far. MAGAZINE URBAN LEGEND: A Playboy centerfold is the standard test image for image processing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Grab Bag Legends"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7500,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2016\/04\/08\/did-the-original-lead-actresses-of-carrie-and-star-wars-swap-roles-over-a-nudity-clause\/","url_meta":{"origin":5278,"position":4},"title":"Did the Original Lead Actresses of Carrie and Star Wars Swap Roles Over a Nudity Clause?","date":"April 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about movies and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the Movie urban legends featured so far. MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: George Lucas and Brian De Palma swapped lead actresses for Carrie and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movie Legends Revealed"","img":{"alt_text":"star_wars_iv___a_new_hope___movie_poster_by_nei1b-d5t3cw9","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/star_wars_iv___a_new_hope___movie_poster_by_nei1b-d5t3cw9.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5601,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2014\/01\/29\/did-star-trek-the-next-generation-use-sherlock-holmes-characters-in-an-episode-not-knowing-that-the-characters-were-not-yet-in-the-public-domain\/","url_meta":{"origin":5278,"position":5},"title":"Did Star Trek: The Next Generation Use Sherlock Holmes Characters in an Episode Not Knowing That the Characters Were Not Yet in the Public Domain?","date":"January 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far. TV URBAN LEGEND: Star Trek: The Next Generation used Sherlock Holmes characters in an episode\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "TV Legends Revealed"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5278"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5278"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8893,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5278\/revisions\/8893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}