How many letters did NBC receive?

[TiberiusK]

Bjo Trimble claimed that fans flooded NBC offices with a million letters, which saved the show for a third season.

Nimoy, in I Am Not Spock said that it was really 114,667.

Yet, in Inside Star Trek, Justman and Solow quote Alan Baker, who was Director of Program Publicity for NBC. Baker claimed that the real number was about 12,000.

Who is right? What is the most reliable estimate?

 

[Christopher]

If Baker was director of publicity at the time, he would've been the one who actually dealt with the letters as NBC received them. Therefore he's the most primary source, and his estimate is more reliable than the others. Nimoy would only have heard about it second- or thirdhand, and Trimble and Roddenberry had a vested interest in exaggerating the number.

 

[Broccoli]

y'know, anytime I read an article on the letter writing campaign, it keeps changing. I find it funny though that the farther the person is from the Paramount offices, the larger the number gets.

 

[trevanian]

hey, stamps were only six cents. Plus, lotsa folks were committed to issues (even silly ones like a tv show.) I can believe a huge number, especially if there were girls 'encouraging' lots of shut-in type dudes to write.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

TiberiusK said:Bjo Trimble claimed that fans flooded NBC offices with a million letters, which saved the show for a third season

I've got to get this straight, the letters only kept Trek afloat for another season. But, it was only after this last season that NBC discovered the breakdown of demographics meant Trek was worth keeping, at which time other contracts had been made.

 

[Forbin]

I know for a fact they received at LEAST seven.

 

[Christopher]

The Squire of Gothos said:
I've got to get this straight, the letters only kept Trek afloat for another season.

Well, no, not according to Inside Star Trek. Solow & Justman say that the real reason NBC kept ST on the air despite the money it was losing was because surveys had shown it was the number-one reason why people were buying color TV sets in 1967 -- and the patent on color TVs was owned by NBC's parent company, RCA. So ST lost money for the network, but made money for another branch of its corporate parent, so the executives decided it was worth taking the loss -- particularly since they thought it was a smart, classy show and liked having it on their network. But as the ratings continued to drop and the losses continued to mount, it finally exceeded the point that they were willing to keep taking that loss.

I don't see how a letter-writing campaign could ever really make that much of a difference to a show. It's not as if the network didn't know how many people were watching -- that's what ratings tell them. And advertisers use ratings to determine which shows to support, and no show is going to get made unless there are advertisers willing to pay for it. Or unless the people in charge of a network have a vested interest in keeping the show around despite taking a financial loss on it, which was the case here. A few thousand letters would not have been enough to convince NBC to keep making a show that was hemorrhaging money, not unless there was something in it for NBC or its parent company.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

Dude, you have completely killed me with that comment, only watching Star Trek because of the spangly costumes!

And to think in our plasma screen future we insist that SF be darker

 

[Trekwatcher]

Look, the letters probably played some role, but I agree with Christopher, and think much of this is just part of the TOS mythos.

 

[Holopat]

two of them were mine

 

[1001001]

two of them were mine

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