Created by Sheldon Leonard and originally premiering in 1960, CBS’s “The Andy Griffith Show” went down in history as one of the most popular, influential, and culturally significant sitcoms of American TV’s early, B&W-to-color sophomore era. The series starred Griffith as Andy Taylor, a sheriff and widower trying his best to keep the peace in his fictional small town of Mayberry, North Carolina while also raising his young son Opie (Ron Howard). A hit from early on in its run, “The Andy Griffith Show” ran for eight seasons and aired a whopping total of 249 episodes; in that time, it featured a massive amount of memorable regular, recurring, and guest stars, including Jan Shutan, who appears on Season 5’s “Guest in the House.”
The episode is centered around the arrival of Gloria (Shutan), a longtime family friend of the Taylors who comes over to stay at Aunt Bee’s (Frances Bavier) for a few days to unwind following the break-off of her engagement, causing Andy’s girlfriend Helen Crump (Aneta Corsaut) to feel jealous of her friendship with Andy. Although Shutan never returned to the show again following that one-episode stint, she still left a big mark on the show — as she was wont to do. The American actress had many other memorable TV guest roles throughout her career, and the best-remembered one may be the one that made her known to OG Trekkies the world over: Lt. Mira Romaine on “Star Trek: The Original Series.”
Jan Shutan played Mira Romaine on the original Star Trek series
Jan Shutan had relatively few continuing TV roles in her career — CBS’s “Sons and Daughters” and ABC’s “Room 222” are among the few series on which she appeared across multiple episodes. But she was an extraordinarily prolific performer when it came to guest roles, and out of the many such roles she played in the sixties and seventies, her appearance on NBC’s “Star Trek” stands out. Hardcore Trekkies will, of course, remember Lieutenant Mira Romaine, the Mars-born sciences division specialist who was tasked with overseeing a transfer of equipment to Memory Alpha, and developed a tryst with Lieutenant Commander Montgomery “Scotty” Scott (James Doohan) in the process.
Shutan’s performance, on the original series Season 3 episode “The Lights of Zetar,” is notorious among the “Star Trek” fanbase for its intensity and range. On the episode, Romaine struggles with strange symptoms and premonitions after having her mind attacked by Zetarians, a noncorporeal alien species which takes the form of bizarre flashing lights. It became a memorable enough role to be referenced by Simon Pegg’s Scotty in a deleted scene from 2016’s “Star Trek Beyond,” which indicates that he and Romaine may have managed to find romantic bliss after all.
