George H. Merhoff

George H. Merhoff was a gaffer who worked on every regular episode of , from through , firstly in the employ of Desilu Studios and subsequently in that of Paramount Pictures, after the acquisition of the former by the latter. While The Original Series was his primary assignment in this period of time, he occasionally stepped in to perform similar duties for Star Treks twin sibling franchise Mission: Impossible, which was concurrently in production on the Desilu Lot.
Merhoff has written an one-page article on his experiences on the Star Trek sound-stages, titled "Beaming Up: Star Trek gaffer", that was published in June 1969 in the 12th and final issue of the fanzine.
Merhoff was also referenced in the revised final draft script of , which stated that a crewman in that episode was to be "illuminated with Merhoff precision."
==Career==
Little is publicly known about Merhoff's life and career. He was the son of , who began working in the motion picture industry as an electrician in 1922. Like his father, George, Jr., began working as an electrician, and in his case, for 20th Century Fox sometime around 1935. Merhoff briefly enlisted in the US Army during the waning days of WWII, from June to November, 1945, and by 1950 was employed as a "gang bass".
Like his father though, Merhoff worked in near anonymity, as it was not commonplace in Hollywood of that era to officially credit studio staffers for the productions they had worked on. What are known include his work on (1960, uncredited), and (1962, as chief set electrician). Brother John (1971) as his last recorded motion picture credit. In 1970, his occupation was listed as a motion picture director.
== External link ==
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Category:Camera and electrical department
Category:Star Trek reference authors
Category:Memory Alpha production staff pages without an image