Rick Berman

Berman was overseeing the development of TV-movies, miniseries and specials as the vice president for longform and special projects for Paramount Network Television when Roddenberry tapped him to help produce the first series revival, "Star Trek: The Next Generation." A fast learner, Berman advanced from producer to supervising producer to co-executive producer over the course of one month. His new series proved to be a huge success that ran for seven seasons before Paramount decided to shut down weekly production in favor of the potentially more lucrative business of making "ST:TNG" movies.Before the gold rush, Berman was senior producer on the Emmy award-winning children's series "The Big Blue Marble" (PBS, 1977-82). He spent the next two years as an independent producer working on projects including "What on Earth," an informational series on HBO, and "The Primal Mind," a PBS special. Berman next segued into a series of executive positions in TV beginning as director of dramatic development at Warner Bros. He joined Paramount in 1984 as director of current programming, watching over the likes of "Cheers," "Family Ties," and "Webster." Before a year had passed, Berman was executive director of dramatic programming. He would climb one more rung up the ladder before being tapped to board the Enterprise.