LeVar Burton Wore A Banana Clip Over His Eyes on 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'
The Blind Starfleet Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge Saw Through A Handy Dandy Modified Hair Styling Device
Hollywood, is anything about your odd offerings ever remotely real? Your outrageous, unrepentant fakery remains legendary. It even impacts crews of future warping starships. And of course, Star Trek specializes in superior sci-fi fakery for decades.
It seems that fabled California La La Land is only preoccupied with dreamy illusion - the ultimate fake out. However, in a genuine capacity, the dream factory on America’s west coast can teach us all about the art of hardcore recycling.
Think of it along the lines of a university system employing the most artistic professionals using big budgets, though far from financially unlimited. So, instead of buying off the shelf at Walmart, Target or Best Buy or making it all from scratch, reusing things is often the name of Tinseltown’s budget busting game.
Since film production calls for all manner of gadgets and whatnot’s, studio prop makers and art designers take full advantage of everyday, even mundane items. When these creative artists redo, remake and remold instantly recognizable things like salt shakers, egg cartons or toilet paper tubes, you’re fooled into thinking they are really high tech devices. It’s as if super spy James Bond’s superiors ordered gadget guru Q to make do with things he found rummaging around at garage sales and flea markets.
Ultimately, movie and TV props can end up being truly weird. Just how weird? How about Star Trek: The Next Generation star LeVar Burton wearing a hair barrette, otherwise known as a banana clip, on his face for seven years.
Yes, he wore a modified hair stylist tool on his face, not in his hair.
From the Memory Alpha Article:
The art staff assigned to Star Trek: The Next Generation spent three months working on possible designs for the VISOR. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion (3rd ed., p. 21)) After several test models of the device were produced, Scenic Artist Michael Okuda brought a plastic banana clip – which generally fits over a girl's or woman's head – into the production, one day, having discovered it could be used to represent the VISOR.
Re-manufactured to fit actor LeVar Burton's face, it retained some elements from illustrator Rick Sternbach's designs. Despite these embellishments, many fans quickly guessed that the prop took its inspiration from a banana clip. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion (3rd ed., p. 21)) In addition, David Gerrold wasn't satisfied with the result either. "They went with the air filter look, which I totally did not like," he lamented. "You cover up too much of an actor's eyes and he's got nothing to work with." (The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years, p. 99)
Not surprisingly, it’s said LeVar Burton didn’t much enjoy wearing that banana clip on his face season after season and was likely relieved when producers gave him nifty eye size versions (contacts) in the feature film, Star Trek: First Contact. Although it was a discomfort to the actor, it’s rare in any TV show - even Star Trek - where a character wore such a recognizable prop which made him instantly identifiable to his fan base.