WATCH: William Shatner Threatens To Kill Chris Wallace Live On Air for Showing Infamously Cringe Rocket Man Clip
CNN+ host Chris Wallace narrowly escaped “torture” and death when he played a notoriously cringeworthy clip for legendary Star Trek star William Shatner.
Fans of Shatner are probably well-acquainted with Shatner’s dramatic interpretation of “Rocket Man” at the January 20, 1978. Saturn Awards, also called the Science Fiction Film Awards. For the uninitiated:
Mr. Shatner was a guest of Mr. Wallace on the latest episode of the CNN+ series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace, and had a strange reaction to being confronted with the clip. He joked about torturing and killing Wallace for playing a very brief clip — then made the preposterous claim that he had been unaware the performance was being filmed at the time, even thought there were elements of the performance that couldn’t possibly have been incorporated in a non-televised setting:
MR. WALLACE: I want to explore these spoken word albums, and I get what exactly what you’re saying, it’s not quite singing. It’s not quite talking, but it’s you’re going to kill me for this. Nineteen…
MR. SHATNER: No, I would never kill you…. I’d torture you.
MR. WALLACE: …1978. I’m going to play… Here’s another spoken word album. Take a look. Okay.
MR. SHATNER: (video clip) Rocket Man. Burning out his fuse out here, a. I think it’s going to be a long, long time ’til touchdown bring me round again to find I’m not the man they think I am. Oh no, no, no. I’m a Rocket Man now.
MR. SHATNER: Now your audience is going to watch Chris die, as I kill you. (Wallace laughs) It was an award show…
MR. WALLACE: Yes…
MR. SHATNER: That wasn’t being broadcast. They said, Would you entertain us, and do Rocket Man, so I said well I’ll do it like Frank Sinatra…
MR. WALLACE: Okay, because I gotta say it’s a little over the top.
MR. SHATNER: All right. So I was just kidding around, I didn’t know they were recording it. They released that thing.
MR. WALLACE: What do you mean you didn’t? Oh, I see, you knew it was a TV show? I mean…
MR. SHATNER: No, no, it wasn’t on TV.
MR. WALLACE: It was a, you’re in a tuxedo and you’re…
MR. SHATNER: At an awards show.
MR. WALLACE: Oh you thought it was just for the audience,
MR. SHATNER: It was for the audience. I’m in front of an audience. I’m doing its thing. We’re all living. We’re all having fun. And somebody is recording it, and released the recording, released the tape.
MR. WALLACE: Well then don’t kill me. Kill them.
MR. SHATNER: They’re dead. You never heard from them again. No, it was. It’s it’s not my proudest moment. But then I rerecorded it on another album the way I thought it should go.
Watch above via CNN+.
