PROLIFIC, EMMY-WINNING TV director Robert Butler saw himself as “a hired gun”, but his peers in the industry regarded him as the Pilot King, a man whose magic touch ensured success for such small-screen classics as Batman, Moonlighting and Star Trek.
Born in Los Angeles, Butler broke into TV working as an usher at CBS. Graduating to stage manager and then director, he soon proved his versatility, helming everything from comedies to Westerns and detective shows, refining a style he described as “very real, very dry and very naturalistic”.
In 1964 Gene Roddenberry wanted that crucial sense of verisimilitude for “The Cage”, the pilot episode of Star Trek. Butler hesitated to accept the offer at first, finding the script hard to follow.