Fact-Checking Inside Star Trek: The Real Story

[erastus25]

, i

I have the 1981 and 1993 editions in front of me and in both he stops short of saying that the fans were primarily responsible for the renewal but implies that they played a role in the decision.

He cites a number of sources when re-telling the letter writing story, including a report from Newsday in which NBC admits receiving 16k letters of protest. Roddenberry claimed 6k a week. The same article has a quote from Roddenberry denying network accusations that he was responsible for the campaign.

There's also a report from the NYT, cited by Asherman, that reports that the NYC affiliate interrupted a ST broadcast in 1969 to report election results and was flooded with calls. No numbers on how many though.

The only reference he has with numbers for in person protests is a 1968 Newsweek article about 500 students from Cal Tech demonstrating at the NBC offices in Burbank.

So, yeah, no evidence in the Compendium to support even 100k letters of support, and any in person demonstrations were relatively modest.

Whether or not Roddenberry was behind the letter writing...maybe? Seems like that could be a rumor NBC started to discredit him (but why would they do that?), or he was behind it, or it was totally independent. That particular topic has been beaten to death, though, so there's no need to go into a detailed re=hashing.

Some of the information above mirrors passages in The World of Star Trek (1973), including NBC telling TV Guide it had received 200,000 pieces of mail, Bjo Trimble informed that the overload of mail was so great, it was too much for NBC's machines to handle, but at the end of it all, on page 168, Trimble said:

"Eventually, we had an NBC man from Burbank come out and talk to us on the Star Trek set one night, and he asked us if we would tell them how we had done it. How we reached so many people so fast? And how we gotten the information to them about how to address the envelope and how to phrase the letter politely? Of course, we didn't tell him. We might have to do it again someday."

So, if one chooses to believe the Gerrold book and the references within, the letter-writing campaign was not organic, but orchestrated, whether Roddenbeerry admitted it or not.

That's a pretty massive difference in story though. 200k letters and a complete overload of NBC's ability to process vs. 16k and a minor nuisance. I do agree with the interp that Roddenberry was at least in contact with Trimble.

 

[Harvey]

My question is this -- is the notion that Star Trek's letter writing campaign and subsequent renewal was the first of its kind a claim that shows up in other Trek memoirs? Or is TATV simply breaking new (and, wrong) ground here?

All of this is fascinating, but the question still remains, "...is the notion that Star Trek's letter writing campaign and subsequent renewal was the first of its kind a claim that shows up in other Trek memoirs? Or is TATV simply breaking new (and, wrong) ground here?"

Neil

It's not from The World of Star Trek. Quoting Bjo Trimble, Gerrold writes:

"Other shows had been renewed because of letter writing campaigns in the past, and in those cases, it had taken a great deal fewer letters, so when we heard that more than one million people had written in, we felt pretty good." (P.166)

I'll keep digging.

 

[erastus25]

It's not from The World of Star Trek. Quoting Bjo Trimble, Gerrold writes:

"Other shows had been renewed because of letter writing campaigns in the past, and in those cases, it had taken a great deal fewer letters, so when we heard that more than one million people had written in, we felt pretty good." (P.166)

I'll keep digging.

If it helps, I just found this:
http://www.tvobscurities.com/articles/save_our_show_campaigns_prior_to_star_trek/

It's a list of shows from the 1950s that were "saved" by letter writing campaigns. It's heavily sourced back to newspapers and, in some cases, has quotes from network execs admitting that the letters helped.

At the very least we know that any source that claims Star Trek was the "first of its kind" to be "saved" by a letter writing campaign is definitely wrong. Whether or not Cushman is the first to make that claim...

 

[Warped9]

I recall reading of previous letter campaigns, but no specofics were given. It's easy to see how "the largest" and "most well known example" could be later interpreted as "the first successful" campaign.

 

[Harvey]

It's not from The World of Star Trek. Quoting Bjo Trimble, Gerrold writes:

"Other shows had been renewed because of letter writing campaigns in the past, and in those cases, it had taken a great deal fewer letters, so when we heard that more than one million people had written in, we felt pretty good." (P.166)

I'll keep digging.

If it helps, I just found this:
http://www.tvobscurities.com/articles/save_our_show_campaigns_prior_to_star_trek/

It's a list of shows from the 1950s that were "saved" by letter writing campaigns. It's heavily sourced back to newspapers and, in some cases, has quotes from network execs admitting that the letters helped.

At the very least we know that any source that claims Star Trek was the "first of its kind" to be "saved" by a letter writing campaign is definitely wrong. Whether or not Cushman is the first to make that claim...

Oh, TV Obscurities is great! If I write a fact check on this point, that post would be my first source.

I recall reading of previous letter campaigns, but no specofics were given. It's easy to see how "the largest" and "most well known example" could be later interpreted as "the first successful" campaign.

I think you're giving Cushman entirely too much credit here. No scholar worth her salt would make that jump.

 

[Warped9]

^^ I'm not talking specifically about Cushman. I'm talking about the accepted notion among fans. Your own work has been about debunking long held myths that are still held by some fans and still repeated in print and in the media.

- TOS had the "first inter-racial kiss." Wrong (but it's the most well known)
- NBC didn't like the character of Number One and the idea of a female second in command. Wrong
- NBC wasn't crazy about mixed racial casting. Wrong
- TOS was an ensemble show. Wrong
- TOS was produced on a nothing budget. Wrong (although it wasn't really sufficient particularly when Paramount cut the budget back)
- TOS was camp. Wrong (although there are a couple of exceptins)

I'm sure there are others I'm missing at the moment.

 

[Noname Given]

^^ I'm not talking specifically about Cushman. I'm talking about the accepted notion among fans. Your own work has been about debunking long held myths that are still held by some fans and still repeated in print and in the media.

- TOS had the "first inter-racial kiss." Wrong (but it's the most well known)
- NBC didn't like the character of Number One and the idea of a female second in command. Wrong
- NBC wasn't crazy about mixed racial casting. Wrong
- TOS was an ensemble show. Wrong
- TOS was produced on a nothing budget. Wrong (although it wasn't really sufficient particularly when Paramount cut the budget back)
- TOS was camp. Wrong (although there are a couple of exceptins)

I'm sure there are others I'm missing at the moment.

You left out:

TOS was the only show to get a second Pilot episode (or it was 'extremely rare) - when in fact both 'Lost In Space' and 'Gilligan's Island' effectively got second pilot requests before finally making it to the air. (And at around the same time that GR, H. Solo and Dersilu were first pitching 'Star Trek' to NBC.

 

[Christopher]

TOS was the only show to get a second Pilot episode (or it was 'extremely rare) - when in fact both 'Lost In Space' and 'Gilligan's Island' effectively got second pilot requests before finally making it to the air. (And at around the same time that GR, H. Solo and Dersilu were first pitching 'Star Trek' to NBC.

That's not correct. Rather, both those shows had their pilots recut and reworked into different versions after their respective series were bought. In the case of Gilligan's Island, what ended up as the premiere episode was a hodgepodge of scenes from the original pilot, reshot scenes with the replacement actors for the Professor and the girls, and the bulk of what was supposed to be the second episode. A few months after that, the majority of the abandoned pilot was cut into the Christmas episode as a flashback. In the case of Lost in Space, the pilot footage was spread out among episodes 1, 3, 4, and 5 of the series, interspersed with new material featuring Dr. Smith and the Robot.

So it's true that in both cases, the premiere episode was different from the pilot episode (while incorporating portions of it). But neither of those was a second pilot, meaning a demo episode made to sell an unsold show. In both cases, the network bought the show and then ordered the pilot retooled. That's a different case from Star Trek, where a second, entirely new pilot was ordered before the series was bought.

 

[Noname Given]

TOS was the only show to get a second Pilot episode (or it was 'extremely rare) - when in fact both 'Lost In Space' and 'Gilligan's Island' effectively got second pilot requests before finally making it to the air. (And at around the same time that GR, H. Solo and Dersilu were first pitching 'Star Trek' to NBC.

That's not correct. Rather, both those shows had their pilots recut and reworked into different versions after their respective series were bought. In the case of Gilligan's Island, what ended up as the premiere episode was a hodgepodge of scenes from the original pilot, reshot scenes with the replacement actors for the Professor and the girls, and the bulk of what was supposed to be the second episode. A few months after that, the majority of the abandoned pilot was cut into the Christmas episode as a flashback. In the case of Lost in Space, the pilot footage was spread out among episodes 1, 3, 4, and 5 of the series, interspersed with new material featuring Dr. Smith and the Robot.

So it's true that in both cases, the premiere episode was different from the pilot episode (while incorporating portions of it). But neither of those was a second pilot, meaning a demo episode made to sell an unsold show. In both cases, the network bought the show and then ordered the pilot retooled. That's a different case from Star Trek, where a second, entirely new pilot was ordered before the series was bought.

Well, to be honest had Jeffery Hunter stayed the Captain, the same situation (using scenes from the first pilot) would most likely have occurred with Star Trek too. That's why 'The Menagerie' was done - they wanted to get some use out of the 600K or so spent on the original pilot. The fact remains, MANY a show got a 'second chance' at a pickup after the Network passed on a first pilot and gave notes to the executive producer/creator. GR's whole point of the story has always been basically, "The Network gave us a second shot because 'Star Trek' was 'special'..." which is all honesty is not entirely true. If I'm not mistaken the Network passed because of:

1) Issues with casting (which is NOT uncommon for ANY new show pilot)

2) Given the cost of the actual first pilot (and the extra footage because GR's and Solo's backup plan if the network completely passed would have been to release the first pilot to theatres in a limited run); the Network execs still had to be convinced Desilu could produce episodes week to week on a very strict budget - and they wanted to see what an actual episode for TV would look like - which in not what they got from the first pilot.

 

[Christopher]

Well, to be honest had Jeffery Hunter stayed the Captain, the same situation (using scenes from the first pilot) would most likely have occurred with Star Trek too. That's why 'The Menagerie' was done - they wanted to get some use out of the 600K or so spent on the original pilot. The fact remains, MANY a show got a 'second chance' at a pickup after the Network passed on a first pilot and gave notes to the executive producer/creator.

That's not the point. The point is that in the cases of Gilligan's Island and Lost in Space, the pilots were only retooled after the series had been acquired by the network -- as, indeed, many pilots are, though usually not to such an extreme degree. So each series required only one pilot in order to sell it. The modified first episodes were premieres, not pilots. We tend to use the two words interchangeably, to call any first episode a "pilot," but strictly speaking, a premiere is only a pilot if it's made before the series is picked up. So neither Gilligan's Island's "Two on a Raft" nor Lost in Space's "The Reluctant Stowaway" constituted a second pilot. They are not analogous to "Where No Man Has Gone Before," an actual second pilot that was ordered before the series was picked up. Neither show needed a "second chance." They were sold on the first try, but they needed revision before they were ready for broadcast.

After all, a pilot is just a demo reel. Its purpose is to sell the show to the network, not necessarily to be broadcast itself. A number of older shows had pilots that were never aired at all. So it's not uncommon for a show to be bought and then reworked when it goes into production. Star Trek is a different case, because it had a second pilot requested before it was bought. (And it's worth noting that "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was re-edited before being aired as the third episode of the series, though only slightly -- given new titles and opening narration, trimmed of a couple of short scenes, that sort of thing.)

1) Issues with casting (which is NOT uncommon for ANY new show pilot)

Yes, but again, in the cases you cited, the cast changes weren't made until after the shows were bought -- in the same way that ST replaced Piper with McCoy and Alden with Uhura after the second pilot sold the show.

 

[Harvey]

Did Carl Reiner have to shoot a second pilot when he recast what became The Dick Van Dyke Show, or did the heavily revised show go straight to series?

 

[Christopher]

Did Carl Reiner have to shoot a second pilot when he recast what became The Dick Van Dyke Show, or did the heavily revised show go straight to series?

I found The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book by Vince Waldron on Google Books, and it does say that there was both a pilot for Head of the Family (the original version with Carl Reiner as Rob Petrie) and a separate pilot for The Dick Van Dyke Show. But I suppose that's different because they were under two different titles, and because it wasn't a case where a single buyer gave the show a second chance and then bought it. Rather, it wasn't until after the Head pilot failed that Sheldon Leonard got involved and worked with Reiner to retool it and start over.

 

[Harvey]

I think that's splitting hairs just a little, but you're right that the circumstances were different than Star Trek. Getting a second pilot order was definitely unusual, so I'd be surprised if the circumstances were more than broadly similar the few times it happened before NBC decided to produce a second Star Trek pilot in 1965.

Here's an obscure one I found looking for "second pilot" in the Variety archives. "I Remember Caviar" was a thirty minute sitcom pilot from 1959 starring Pat Crowley about a wealthy family forced into poverty. It was produced by Screen Gems for NBC, but was not picked up. However, NBC and Screen Gems decided to try again, shooting a second pilot called "All in the Family" (not to be confused with the Normal Lear show that would be produced a decade later), again with Pat Crowley in the lead. Again, Screen Gems produced for NBC. Unlike Star Trek, though, NBC must have passed on the series. Both pilots ended up showing as installments of Goodyear Theater on NBC, one in 1959 and one in 1960.

 

[Harvey]

The Encyclopedia of Television Pilots (1937-2012) lists some others:

Lum and Abner: Two pilots were made attempting to adapt this popular radio show into a television series, first in 1949 (for CBS) and later in 1951 (for ABC). Neither went to series.

The Boston Terrier: Blake Edwards wrote and produced two pilots for this series which aired as episodes of The Dick Powell Theatre on NBC. The first was a 60 minute pilot produced in 1962. The second pared down the concept into a new, 30 minute pilot produced in 1963. Both starred Robert Vaughn. Neither sold.

There appear to be a few others, but I've maxed out the number of pages I can view on Google and Amazon, and even the eBook is beyond my price range at the moment. Outside of The Dick Van Dyke Show, I haven't found any shows before Star Trek that had a second pilot and went to series. Carl Reiner's show may have been the first, and Roddenberry's the second, but I haven't done enough research to be able to say so with much authority. It's possible there were others.

 

[Maurice]

Later still, "All In the Family" shot its pilot three times, with different actors playing Meathead and "Little Goil" each time, but always the same script.

 

[Christopher]

Doctor Who reshot its "pilot," but it wasn't an actual pilot in the sense of a demo for an unsold series. The series was developed in-house at the BBC, so it didn't have to be sold. The premiere episode was reshot simply because the executive who'd created the series, Sydney Newman, felt it had turned out badly (there were technical and performance issues) and decided to give the producer a second chance to get it right. BBC shows at the time were recorded as if live, performed straight through with only a few recording breaks permitted for each episode, so reshooting the pilot was kind of tantamount to just doing a new take of a scene after botching the first one.

 

[MantaBase]

I think what Christopher says is correct. I am not sure which books you are talking about, but unless it is an autobiography the use of third person works better for the reader. It's less confusing.

EDIT: Opps...think I just replied to a months old post. Sorry.

 

[Balok's Head]

Harvey, I just saw your blog and have found it incredibly interesting!
Opportunities to come across info on the OS are few and far between for me now so finding out new things at this point is simply amazing.

I particularly loved the entry on the shooting of 'I, Mudd' and was amazed to learn that much of this information is available to the public!

However my current location makes studying these materials impossible.. (New Zealand..) I would love to see some shooting schedule information on 'The Corbomite Maneuver' as it was the first series production. Is this possible? I'm also interested in 'The Devil in the Dark', specifically what scenes were shot before and after Shanter left for Florida for the burial of his father.

Just a few ideas for future articles, maybe?

Thanks for all your hard work so far!


Scott.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Seriously, Robert Comsol? You actually think that I, a professional writer in the English language, could somehow not already be familiar with Shakespeare?

Hear, hear...Do you really need to invoke "the argument of authority"?

You are, of course, correct that there are major differences between the play and the film's story. But that is why I said the film was "inspired by" the play rather than "adapted from" it. As trevanian points out, the filmmakers have made it clear over the years that the play was their inspiration.

Yes, you said "inspired by" but I first wanted to deal with the myth that it's an adaptation, which it most definitely is not.
But seriously, how does "inspired by" qualify amidst the obvious facts?

Supposedly, Dr. Morbius is Prospero, his daughter Altaira is Miranda, Commander Adams is Ferdinand, Robbie the genie Ariel and the Monster from the ID probably Caliban, but in summary FORBIDDEN PLANET is definitely an antithesis:

• Prospero brings the travelers against their will to the island, Morbius wants them to return to Earth
• Prospero schemes for Miranda to meet Ferdinand, Morbius tries to prevent her encounter with Adams (thus giving birth to his monster)
• Caliban’s assassination plans are unsuccessful, the Monster from the ID kills Morbius
• and while Ariel is set free in the end, Robbie continues to serve the space travelers as astronavigator.

Bob

As you say, and yet, there's this British musical...

Just sayin'.

 

[Harvey]

Outside of The Dick Van Dyke Show, I haven't found any shows before Star Trek that had a second pilot and went to series.

I found one:

Following reshooting and recasting of a pilot nixed by ABC-TV Ziv TV's second pilot, called "Tombstone Territory," has been okayed by the network and will be seen on ABC next season, with Bristol-Myers sponsoring.

Ziv had originally lensed a pilot called "Town at Gunfire Pass," which BM bought, but ABC termed "unacceptable." As as result, pilot was recast, with Pat Conway, who was second lead in the first pilot, upped to top lead, and the second pilot proved acceptable both to the sponsor and the network. Pilot was directed by Eddie Davis.

Conway plays role of a sheriff of Tombstone, while the crusading editor of the Tombstone Epitaphoriginally the lead character-is now relegated to a secondary role. Series will be on Wednesday nights following "Disneyland."

--August 22, 1957

The show lasted three seasons (two on ABC, one in syndication) before being cancelled. The original pilot doesn't appear to have ever been broadcast and isn't on DVD.