Ralph Senensky (1923-2025)

Director Ralph Senensky died earlier this month (November 1) at the age of 102. During his career, which spanned three decades, he directed episodes of TV shows like The Twilight Zone, Dr. Kildare, The Fugitive, Mission: Impossible, Star Trek, The Partridge Family, Barnaby Jones, Eight Is Enough, The Waltons, Dynasty, and The Paper Chase.

Senensky also directed episodes of a number of obscure or short-lived TV shows, including East Side/West Side, Channing, Breaking Point, Slattery’s People, The Interns, Dan August, Getting Together, Banyon, SEARCH, Planet of the Apes, Three for the Road, Young Maverick, Casablanca (1983), and Paper Dolls.

Perhaps even more notable than his prolific output as a director was his incredible memory and the stories he told about the episodes he directed. Senensky launched a blog called Ralph’s Trek in 2009 where he chronicled, in no particular order, his directing career. He later created his own website, Ralph’s Cinema Trek: A Journey In Film, where he continued sharing tales from his work in television. You can find all of Senensky’s posts listed by TV show here.

Here’s an excerpt from Senensky’s post about the Planet of the Apes episode “The Tyrant”:

I recognized back then that the series was a reenactment of early America’s history with slavery, with the humans being the enslaved. What I didn’t recognize, but do now, is how much the format of PLANET OF THE APES bore a very strong resemblance to that of THE FUGITIVE. The two astronauts and Galen, like Kimble, under constant pursuit by the law, would become emotionally involved each week with some person or persons, and the following story would proceed from there. But regarding this script, the two compelling characters with whom they became involved were dropped at the end of the first act; young Mikal was killed and Janor just disappeared. Might it not have been interesting and emotionally involving to pursue the story of the conservative older man, now newly awakened to the possibilities of rebellion by the slaying of his younger brother, as he was involved in an adventure of revenge abetted by Galen and the two astronauts? And if the climax of the story was his death at the hands of the apes, Galen and the two Astronauts were again reminded of the futility of trying to rebel against those in power and still faced a future of constant flight on a planet ruled by apes. But that’s not where this story went!

And here’s an excerpt from his post about The Twilight Zone episode “Printer’s Devil”:

The business of Mr. Smith’s finger bursting into flame was set the day Burgess [Meredith] came in for his wardrobe fitting. Once the wardrobe had been selected, the special effects man took over. To demonstrate he stuck his finger in a coffee can of ice. When it was sufficiently cold and numb, he doused it with lighter fluid. He then attached a wire to his finger, threw a switch and voila — fire! He went through the procedure a couple of times before it became Burgess’ turn. First he ran the wire up Meredith’s pant leg, on up under his shirt and down his shirt sleeve, ready to be attached to his finger. Then his index finger went into the ice. As Meredith had his finger in the can of ice, I assured him that the special effects man had guaranteed the process would not burn him. His response: “I’m not worried about getting burned. I’m more concerned with freezing to death!”

These posts are a treasure trove of information and a resource I’ve been meaning to dive into more. Ralph Senensky’s recollections offer first-hand insight into how so many TV shows were produced and filmed during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

Obituaries can be found at The Hollywood Reporter and Forbes.

(via TrekMovie.com)