Does anyone know in which season Gates McFadden was "expecting"? (The "DS9 Companion" made a comment that she was pregnant during one of the seasons of TNG and was "kept behind a desk" during much of this time.)

Oh, don't worry, Sven. I've seen the kid. It looks nothing like you. You're safe.

Seriously, though, her son James Cleveland McFadden-Talbot was born in 1992. (I don't know which month.) Brent Spiner is his godfather.

Well I won't tell Mr. Talbot if you don't, Luigi. Thanks.

(Cue melodramatic soap opera music.)

Sven, aren't you a bit young for that? Maybe you were precocious?

Well, is anyone else thinking "temporal vortex"?

There was an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine.

Just watched a "How They Made It" documentary for the Jim Henson movie "Labyrith" and guess who was the Director of Choreography for that film? ... yes, our own Dr. Crusher. Except she is listed as Cheryl McFadden in this film. No wonder her character was given the job of teaching Data how to dance!

She was also listd as such for The Muppets Take Manhattan, and for the 3rd season episode of The Cosby Show that she appeared in.

The actress' first name is actually Cheryl; Gates is a middle name.

>>Besides Patrick Stewart and David Tristan Birkin, she is the only other actor to ever play Captain Picard in any 'Star Trek' series.

LOL I love it! Obviously, Beverly became "Captain Picard" when she kept her married name.

Phil also used it in his Starship Quiz when the clue for "USS Pasteur" was 'commanded by Captain Picard'.

I just now saw Gates in a new Microsoft commercial. Ya coulda knocked me over with a feather!

Answering a 5 year old question, but she was pregnant during Season 4. She found out just after having done her own stunts for Remember Me.

She is just so incredibly attractive. I always liked her as Dr. Crusher.

I just watched "Labyrinth" from 1986, and back then, Gates used her first name Cheryl while she was doing the dance choreography and various other tasks for that movie. It was the last movie Jim Henson directed before his death. Sigh.....

Yes, I know that Derf already said this back in 2003. I just thought I would make my contribution. Cheryl was in the Making Of featurette for the movie, and spoke about choreographing the fight scenes that the goblins were in. (They were really many little people in suits.)

Anyway, I haven't really seen Ms. McFadden in anything else but TNG. But I do think she was in "The Hunt For Red October" for about five seconds as Harrison Ford's wife.

I missed that Microsoft commercial, Mark. I wonder what her hair looks like now. Long, short, red, or blonde?

But I do think she was in "The Hunt For Red October" for about five seconds as Harrison Ford's wife.
She was. But Jack Ryan was played in that flick (the first Jack Ryan flick, BTW) by Alec Baldwin. Harrison Ford played the role in the next "Ryan" flick, Patriot Games. Ryan's wife, Cathy, was played in that one by Anne Archer.

She was fired from TNG in 1988 for complaining about the lousy, substandard scripts of the first season, Paramount let her go for that reason. Namely, "Home Soil" and "Angel One" in particular. That is now well known, she herself said so in the special features sections of the recent Blu-Ray releases of the series.

And I am glad that she has finally revealed what really happened. And she even admitted that she did not like the way Beverly Crusher was being portrayed in the first season, either. Compared to how she would be when she returned a year or so later, she was really quite annoying and irritating to watch and listen to in Season One.

And seeing as how Pulaski got over as a TNG crewmember about as badly as was possible for a character in a TV series (Dr. Melanie Smith didnt get over SeaQuest's second season either, as I recall) Gene brought Gates back and she resumed the role of Dr. Crusher once again. And that is cool, she really did have some great episodes throughout the series, as opposed to major duds like "Sub Rosa", which really detracted from her as a strong female character, I felt. She then did the four movies but was given very little to do in each one. Oh well.

And that's pretty much it. Later!

Gates McFadden has a podcast out, in which she interviews her Next Gen co-stars. Don't expect behind the scenes stories; the interviews cover her castmates personal stories. More here.

Here's interviews with McFadden and Brent Spiner.

Gates is her middle name. Her first name is Cheryl.

In fact, in early publicity stuff for TNG, she was credited as Cheryl McFadden. Not sure when she decided to start using her middle name.

Challenge accepted.
A search on imdb.com came up with several early acting appearances as 'Cheryl McFadden', including 'Another World', 'The Muppets Take Manhattan', and 'The Wizard'', with the last one listed as a 1987 episode of 'The Cosby Show'.
She would have started filming TNG by then, so maybe Next Gen was the first use of 'Gates'.

Yeah, it seems that is the case.

Wonder why she did that?

Not positive, but I seem to recall something being mentioned about wanting to make a difference between her stage performances (as Cheryl McFadden) & her TV performances. *shrug*