William Shatner has spoken before about the tough times he went through after the cancellation of Star Trek: The Original Series. Walter Koenig, too, has said that the phone just wasn't ringing afterwards. But the ending of the series affected more than the actors as The Fifty-Year Mission The First 25 Years by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross revealed in an older quote from Gene Roddenberry.
After the series was cancelled, Roddenberry admitted that he had some tough times. He saw his dreams "going downhill" as he coudln't get work. Though he'd written other genres besides science fiction before The Original Series debuted, he was dubbed a "science fiction" writer so the work just wasn't coming.
Roddenberry spoke at colleges to the devoted fans, and with the first one, he said he "felt lucky to net the four or five hundred dollars that they paid me." At times, it was diffficult for him to pay the mortgage so he struggled to find his next path.
"I was stereotyped as a science fiction write, and sometimes, it was tough to pay the mortgage. They said 'you're a science fiction type.' I said 'hey, wait a minute. I used to write westerns. I wrote police stories,' and they said, 'no, now you're science fiction.' I don't feel bitter about that."Gene Roddenberry
Looking at Roddenberry's legacy now, which include over 930 episodes of Star Trek, thirteen movies, games, collectibles, and so much more, it's difficult to think that the creator of this franchise was once struggling. But he'd been stereotyped. Fortunately, he stuck with writing science fiction, and it paid off. And even though Roddenberry did go through some hard times after The Original Series, he said he wasn't bitter about it. That was just the way Hollywood was. Fortunately for us, he didn't give up on his dream!