“Everybody thinks if you’re an actor, and certainly if you’re an actor and on a television series, you must be doing very well,” Koenig said. “Well, I was barely making more than minimum the first season. The second season I was on the show … I had a contract. I was paid a week’s wage whether I worked a day or a week. So I made a little bit more. Whereas I made $10,000 for the whole year in 1967, I made $11,000 in 1968. Well, that’ll only go so far.”
After Shatner and Nimoy, I think Koenig got more work after Star Trek than anyone else. Babylon 5 sure didn’t hurt.
When I picture Koenig, I think of Bester, not Chekov. He was amazing in Babylon 5.
I know TV was different then, and they were making Trek the Kirk/Spock and sometimes McCoy show, but man, Chekov should’ve been more than just a comedy relief character with a bad accent.