William Shatner was on television.
James T. Kirk . Kirk first appears in Star Trek : The Original Series and has been portrayed in numerous films , books , comics , webisodes , and video games . Star Trek . The first television series , simply called Star Trek and now referred to as The Original Series , debuted in 1966 and aired for three seasons on the television network NBC . It followed the interstellar adventures of Captain James T. Kirk ( William Shatner ) and his crew aboard the starship USS Enterprise , a space exploration vessel , built by the interstellar federal republic United Federation of Planets in the twenty-third century . William Shatner . In his seven decades of television , Shatner became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T. Kirk , Captain of the USS Enterprise , in the Star Trek franchise .