Michael O'Herlihy

Michael O'Herlihy was an Emmy-nominated television director whose career spanned thirty years. In, he directed , a first season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series.

O'Herlihy received an Emmy nomination for directing the 1979 mini-series Backstairs at the White House. Among the actor he directed on this series were Star Trek alumni Ian Abercrombie, John Anderson, Bibi Besch, Robert Hooks, Bill Quinn, Noble Willingham, and Paul Winfield.

O'Herlihy's many other directorial credits include episodes of such programs as Maverick, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Gunsmoke,  (three episodes, including one with Lee Bergere and John Crawford, another with William Smithers), Hawaii Five-O, M*A*S*H, Mannix (three episodes, including one with Walter Koenig), The A-Team (starring Dwight Schultz), Miami Vice, and The Equalizer (starring Robert Lansing and Keith Szarabajka). His credits also include a number of made-for-TV movies, including Peter Lundy and the Medicine Hat Stallion (1977) with John Anderson and Bibi Besch, Desperate Voyage (1980) starring Christopher Plummer and Jonathan Banks, and A Time for Miracles (also 1980) starring Kate Mulgrew and George Murdock.

Although the majority of his credits were in television, O'Herlihy also directed a few feature films for Disney. These include the 1966 adventure The Fighting Prince of Donegal, 1967's Mosby's Marauders (with Michael Forest), and the 1968 musical The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band.

O'Herlihy was the uncle of actor Gavan O'Herlihy, who appeared in the pilot episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Five years after his death in 1998, Michael O'Herlihy's last name was used as the name of one of the astronauts of the first Earth-Saturn probe on a mission patch seen in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode. This was an homage to the director of "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", the episode in which the Earth-Saturn mission was mentioned. Episode writer D.C. Fontana received the same honor.