DeForest Kelley's long poem

[Trekker09]

Maybe everyone knows about this, I just found out Kelley wrote this in 1977 and self-published it as a chapbook...called The Big Bird's Dream. (Roddenberry not the Muppets)

http://mayclaire.arcanegel.com/memoriam/dkelley/poem.html

 

[Poltargyst]

"At first, the black was not to be,
‘Til the big bird screamed at NBC:
“It’s either she or I” he began to yell,
“Who knows who’s gonna ring whose bell?”"

Was there opposition to Nichelle or to having a black on the show in general by NBC?

 

[comsol]

NBC would not have had a problem with a black character on Star Trek.

 

[Trekker09]

The part about Uhura was the first I ever heard of that being a problem for NBC. What they objected to was having Majel be first officer. Kelley wrote a sequel, The Dream Goes On which is included on this site--

https://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2006/06/7-years-ago-today.html

 

[Kor]

"At first, the black was not to be,
‘Til the big bird screamed at NBC:
“It’s either she or I” he began to yell,
“Who knows who’s gonna ring whose bell?”"

Was there opposition to Nichelle or to having a black on the show in general by NBC?

No, NBC had already passed around a memo to series producers saying that they should increase racial diversity including having black characters. "The Cage" was behind in that area, as it did not have enough diversity for NBC.

Kor