How Lucille Ball saved Star Trek

[spshu]

Once I knew that Desilu Productions was Lucille Ball's production company, I wonder what if any influence that she had on Star Trek. Here is an article just about that:

How Lucille Ball saved Star Trek


I always wonder about Norway Corporation, the other production company, as it was basic an enigma until recently. Found out that it was Gene Rodenberry's company at the time, but he end up selling to Paramount. And a couple of weeks a go I saw that Norway was on the copyright notice with Paramount for an episode of Star Trek.

[Owen E Oulton]

Apparently Desilu was so cash-strapped that Lucy herself would sometimes fill in sweeping floors on the Trek sound stage according to anecdotes by Star Trek crew...

[Chris Donovan]

Lucy was so committed to keeping her promises to shows being produced at Desilu that she in the end bankrupted the company because she wouldn't pull the plug when she arguably should have.

[spshu]

Apparently, she also still had pull after she sold Desilu to Paramount. As she was a greater influence in being renewed for its third year than the letter writing campaign.

Forget Khan and Klingons, Star Trek's greatest trick was simply surviving

Indeed, it’s said it wasn’t the campaign itself that saved Star Trek: it was the presence of Lucille Ball at Desilu Studios – which had produced The Cage and the TV series – who had personally intervened to save Star Trek. Such was NBC’s desire to do business with Ball.

So, yes, while NBC committed Star Trek to a third series, it did so on terms that ensured the program’s demise. NBC shunted Star Trek around the time slots, including 10-11pm Eastern on a Friday. Audience numbers inevitably fell off and that gave NBC the excuse it needed to set its phaser to the kill setting and fire.