Let’s be blunt. Did NBC give Star Trek the finger?
On September 16, 1968, four days before Star Trek’s third season premiere of “Spock’s Brain,” the second season opener of NBC’s Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In featured the very first Flying Fickle Finger of Fate award. That dubious honor—which became a weekly staple of the series—was awarded to public figures, corporations, and government agencies, for their many questionable achievements.
"And who praytell gets the daring delightful darling darting digitus derringer dis time?"
If you'd asked Star Trek fans who most deserved the “delightful digit” many would have nominated NBC itself. The reason? The network’s March 1968 decision to rescind a plan to schedule their beloved series in a prime slot on Monday nights at 7:30 p.m. and bury it on Friday nights at 10 p.m.—the so-called “Friday Night Death Slot”—where it had previously intended to put Laugh-In.
The folly of NBC's decision appears obvious in hindsight. After all, Star Trek became a hit in off-network syndication, spawning movies and ever-multiplying sequel series for almost 50 years, whereas Laugh-In is a largely-forgotten and—to modern audiences—unfunny relic.
On the surface this seems to be so. As usual, the reality is more complicated.
The story began over a year prior to Trek's debut. For its second season (1965–66) NBC moved The Man From U.N.C.L.E. to Fridays at 10 p.m. Initially a flop, late in its first season the show became hot, drawing a similar audience demographic that would come to embrace Star Trek. See if the reaction to that 10 p.m. move sounds familiar:
Whither U.N.C.L.E. ? Nope. It finished that season in the Top 20 at #13.
Early in 1966, as the networks were shuffling around shows for sponsors for the following fall, NBC at first considered putting just-ordered Star Trek into that Friday 10 p.m. time slot where U.N.C.L.E. was soaring, possibly hoping to twice catch lightning in a bottle. Ultimately Trek debuted on Thursdays at 8:30. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was shifted to 8:30 on Fridays and its ratings plunged into the 40s.
But the tale of Star Trek's final season began late it its first. In early 1967 CBS canceled long-running western Gunsmoke (#34 for the season), then abruptly reinstated it for the fall as the lead-in for Lucille Ball’s The Lucy Show. Gunsmoke became a surprise hit, shot into the Top 10, and outdrew even Lucy.
That same season NBC moved Star Trek from Thursday at 8:30 p.m. to Fridays at 8:30 p.m., presumably hoping that the lead-in of Tarzan—a top 30 show the previous season—would be a better lead-in than Trek had its first season. It also moved U.N.C.L.E. to Monday at 8 p.m., only to see its ratings tank against the back half of Gunsmoke and The Lucy Show. Mere weeks into the season, NBC considered canceling it and moving Star Trek into its slot.
Instead, NBC chose to leave Star Trek put on Friday at 8:30 and closed out the season by putting untested midseason replacement series Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In into the "kamikaze" slot where U.N.C.L.E. had been shot down by CBS’s big guns. But this was seen as temporary, and only a little over a week after Laugh-In's Jan 22nd premier the trades reported NBC’s initial approach for the fall: Star Trek for the leadoff hour on Fridays at 7:30 p.m., where its Tarzan lead had been (its rating dropped that year).
By Valentine’s Day 1968 NBC was thinking different about the fall: with Trek a possibility on Mondays at 7:30 p.m., going head-to-head with Top 10 Gunsmoke. But it was NBC’s Monday 8:30 p.m. slot that was critical to what ultimately happened, because whatever landed there had to face Lucille Ball’s new show, Here’s Lucy. No Lucy show had ever fallen out of the Top 10. A tough spot. A week later, Star Trek was still planned to face Gunsmoke while Laugh-In would go to Friday night at 10 p.m. For the next four weeks this appeared to have been "stet"
Then, 54 years ago today (March 18) Daily Variety reported “‘Trek’ May Be Off NBC’S Track In Fall,” noting the show would move to 10 p.m. Fridays, with Laugh-In staying put on Mondays at 8 p.m.
Why the sudden change? Per Variety:
In reporting on the 20th the reason was crystal clear: in Laugh-In NBC had unexpectedly found a “'Lucy'-beater” that could also take on Gunsmoke. You don't argue with success, and NBC wasn’t going to risk a win like that in hopes that Star Trek—which only placed #52 in its first season and doing no better in its second—could match it.
The irony of Laugh-In as a '“Lucy'-beater” was that Lucille Ball, the former executive whose studio birthed Star Trek, was a factor in that show losing its shot at Monday night…for better or for worse.
As the intro indicates, there's a lot more to this. It's a tale of demographics and ratings, how those led to the cancellation and immediate revival of Gunsmoke, Lucille Ball’s perennial Top 10 series, how those created the “kamikaze” slot that killed U.N.C.L.E., with the resulting hole in NBC’s schedule that would be filled either by explorers of the final frontier or a bunch of kooks who would “sock it to me” anything and everything, and which of them would discover if Friday night at 10 p.m. was—in fact—a "Death Slot" at all. There are tons of actual news clippings, images, and more in that piece: The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate (link).
Hopefully this is a topic some of you will find worthy of discussion.
On September 16, 1968, four days before Star Trek’s third season premiere of “Spock’s Brain,” the second season opener of NBC’s Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In featured the very first Flying Fickle Finger of Fate award. That dubious honor—which became a weekly staple of the series—was awarded to public figures, corporations, and government agencies, for their many questionable achievements.
"And who praytell gets the daring delightful darling darting digitus derringer dis time?"
If you'd asked Star Trek fans who most deserved the “delightful digit” many would have nominated NBC itself. The reason? The network’s March 1968 decision to rescind a plan to schedule their beloved series in a prime slot on Monday nights at 7:30 p.m. and bury it on Friday nights at 10 p.m.—the so-called “Friday Night Death Slot”—where it had previously intended to put Laugh-In.
The folly of NBC's decision appears obvious in hindsight. After all, Star Trek became a hit in off-network syndication, spawning movies and ever-multiplying sequel series for almost 50 years, whereas Laugh-In is a largely-forgotten and—to modern audiences—unfunny relic.
On the surface this seems to be so. As usual, the reality is more complicated.
The story began over a year prior to Trek's debut. For its second season (1965–66) NBC moved The Man From U.N.C.L.E. to Fridays at 10 p.m. Initially a flop, late in its first season the show became hot, drawing a similar audience demographic that would come to embrace Star Trek. See if the reaction to that 10 p.m. move sounds familiar:
Whither U.N.C.L.E. ? Nope. It finished that season in the Top 20 at #13.
Early in 1966, as the networks were shuffling around shows for sponsors for the following fall, NBC at first considered putting just-ordered Star Trek into that Friday 10 p.m. time slot where U.N.C.L.E. was soaring, possibly hoping to twice catch lightning in a bottle. Ultimately Trek debuted on Thursdays at 8:30. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was shifted to 8:30 on Fridays and its ratings plunged into the 40s.
But the tale of Star Trek's final season began late it its first. In early 1967 CBS canceled long-running western Gunsmoke (#34 for the season), then abruptly reinstated it for the fall as the lead-in for Lucille Ball’s The Lucy Show. Gunsmoke became a surprise hit, shot into the Top 10, and outdrew even Lucy.
Instead, NBC chose to leave Star Trek put on Friday at 8:30 and closed out the season by putting untested midseason replacement series Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In into the "kamikaze" slot where U.N.C.L.E. had been shot down by CBS’s big guns. But this was seen as temporary, and only a little over a week after Laugh-In's Jan 22nd premier the trades reported NBC’s initial approach for the fall: Star Trek for the leadoff hour on Fridays at 7:30 p.m., where its Tarzan lead had been (its rating dropped that year).
By Valentine’s Day 1968 NBC was thinking different about the fall: with Trek a possibility on Mondays at 7:30 p.m., going head-to-head with Top 10 Gunsmoke. But it was NBC’s Monday 8:30 p.m. slot that was critical to what ultimately happened, because whatever landed there had to face Lucille Ball’s new show, Here’s Lucy. No Lucy show had ever fallen out of the Top 10. A tough spot. A week later, Star Trek was still planned to face Gunsmoke while Laugh-In would go to Friday night at 10 p.m. For the next four weeks this appeared to have been "stet"
Then, 54 years ago today (March 18) Daily Variety reported “‘Trek’ May Be Off NBC’S Track In Fall,” noting the show would move to 10 p.m. Fridays, with Laugh-In staying put on Mondays at 8 p.m.
Why the sudden change? Per Variety:
In reporting on the 20th the reason was crystal clear: in Laugh-In NBC had unexpectedly found a “'Lucy'-beater” that could also take on Gunsmoke. You don't argue with success, and NBC wasn’t going to risk a win like that in hopes that Star Trek—which only placed #52 in its first season and doing no better in its second—could match it.
The irony of Laugh-In as a '“Lucy'-beater” was that Lucille Ball, the former executive whose studio birthed Star Trek, was a factor in that show losing its shot at Monday night…for better or for worse.
Hopefully this is a topic some of you will find worthy of discussion.
Last edited:
