Ralph Senensky Courtesy Michael Okuda Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Ralph Senensky, the prolific TV director who called the shots for the emotional return of Ellen Corby on The Waltons, the three-part pilot for Dynasty and, before he was fired, 6 1/2 episodes of the original Star Trek, has died. He was 102. Senensky died Saturday in a hospital in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, his niece, costume designer Lisa Lupo-Silvas, told The Hollywood Reporter. "He was 100 precent sharp until the end," she said. "He may have been 102, but he had a mind like he was 30." The Iowa native also helmed multiple episodes of Dr. Kildare, Naked City, 12 O'Clock High, The Fugitive, The F.B.I., Ironside, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, Dan August, Nanny and the Professor, The Partridge Family, Barnaby Jones, Insight, Hart to Hart and The Paper Chase. Related Stories Movies Tchéky Karyo, French Actor in 'The Missing,' 'La Femme Nikita' and 'Addicted to Love,' Dies at 72 TV Kent Gibson, Emmy-Winning Sound Designer on Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos,' Dies at 77 And in 1963 for the ABC medical drama Breaking Point, he handled one of the earliest gay storylines for television. Among Star Trek fans, Senensky is synonymous with some of the best episodes of the Paramount/NBC series. Season one's "This Side of Paradise" is regarded as one of the early standout Spock installments, and season's two "Metamorphosis," another installment that premiered in 1967, was his personal favorite. For the third season, he embarked on 1968's "The Tholian Web," which saw Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy), McCoy (DeForest Kelley) and Chekov (Walter Koenig) don shiny silver spacesuits as they investigate a crippled sister ship. There was trouble ahead, however. Those zipper-less suits meant the actors had to be sewn into their costumes, then unsewn when they needed a bathroom break. By the third day of shooting, Senensky was four scenes behind schedule when he was called into producer Fred Freiberger's office and fired. On the pages of The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount executive Douglas S. Cramer announced that Herb Wallerstein would finish things up. Senensky got zero credit for his work. "The article pointed out the studio's intent to curtail the problem of films not being completed as scheduled," Senensky reflected on his website. He said he received a phone call from Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who was "outraged, apologetic and sympathetic." Over five years starting in 1973, Senensky directed 12 episodes of CBS' The Waltons, perhaps none more moving than "Grandma Comes Home," the sixth-season finale that aired on March 30, 1978. The episode marked the return of Corby as Grandma Walton to the show after she had suffered a stroke in 1976. Writers incorporated her illness into the series, and she received top billing in the credits that week, with an Emmy nomination to soon follow. In a 2011 chat for the Television Academy Foundation website The Interviews, Senensky noted that he spaced out Corby's scenes across multiple days and only filmed in the morning to make it easier on her. "They gave me two cameras at all times," he said, "so when I was shooting her, I could shoot the over-the-shoulder and close-up all in one take." In the most powerful sequence, Grandma Walton - feeling as though she's become a burden on the family - breaks down in tears opposite daughter-in-law Olivia (Michael Learned) as they snap beans on the porch. Ellen Corby on The Waltons. Courtesy of Everett Collection When the dallies were shown in a screening room the following day, the director and those watching became emotional. From the back, Waltons creator Earl Hamner Jr. yelled, "Senensky, you son of a bitch!" "It was the nicest words anybody ever called me," he said. The show's iconic close of the family wishing "Good night" to one another was tweaked to have Corby say, "Good night, everyone" as the screen fades to black. "How this performance came out of her in the condition she was in was truly a miracle," Senensky said. "What she should have won was an award for a Profile in Courage." The older of two boys, Ralph Abbott Senensky was born in Mason City, Iowa, on May 1, 1923. His father, William, co-owned a clothing store, and his mother, Jenny, was a homemaker. At Mason City High School, Senensky served as editor of the one-page weekly Cub Gazette and worked as a director's assistant on school productions. Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he registered for the draft at age 18 and was stationed in Belgium. Upon his return, he did four years of community theater, studied at Northwestern and enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse. He eventually got his foot in the door at CBS in Los Angeles in 1955 typing radio scripts, became secretary for Playhouse 90 producer Russell Stoneham and