I've read and heard so many times that one reason why Gene Roddenberry created a science-fiction show was that by setting stories in space or on alien planets, he could do stories that wouldn't get passed the censors if they were set in an ordinary Earth setting. I've also seen Rod Serling say the same about The Twilight Zone. Both thought that the audience would see through the science-fiction elements and get the message they were trying to put across. I just wonder why they thought the audience would get it but that the censors wouldn't. Did they think the censors were too stupid to see what they were trying to do and that the audience were much more intelligent? Or did they think that the censors did know but that they (the censors) thought the advertisers wouldn't?
I think the real issue is about being obvious. Certainly not all network censors could be that blind, but seeing something dressed up as what many might perceive as little different than fantasy made it easier to overlook certain things. Indeed if you look at films after the precode era (post early 1930s) film writers, producers and directors got very clever about how to get touchy ideas across without being obvious. Even a western series like Have Gun Will Travel did it on network television. Star Trek wasn’t the only or even the first television series to explore touchy subjects. But it’s the one best remembered of a period when boundaries were being pushed on many fronts and levels. And being science fiction may have given it a bit more freedom than a straight up contemporary set drama where the subject matter would be more obvious.
I don't think the audience necessarily had to consciously recognize the allegory to real life in order for its messages to influence how they thought and acted. If anything, it's better if the audience doesn't realize that you're trying to teach them a lesson, if you just sneak the message past their defenses and let it influence them unconsciously. They may not realize you're talking about Vietnam or the civil rights movement or whatever, but if they admire the characters and want to emulate them, and the characters believe in peace and equality, then it could influence the viewers' opinions about real-life things going forward. It's probably more effective that way; if you're blatantly lecturing them about a real-world issue, they're more likely to be defensive and resistant.
I buy it with Serling but I think Roddenberry was in many ways aping him. Plenty of shows before Star Trek dealt with controversial or hot button topics; The Defenders,for one. Allegory is as useful for sneaking ideas past an audience as a network censor, because by not addressing a subject head-on there’s a higher likelihood you can slip by preconceptions.
Apparently the catalyst was an episode of Roddenberry's 1963-4 The Lieutenant ("To Set it Right," guest starring Nichelle Nichols). Quoth IMDb: "Although this episode was scheduled to air on February 22, 1964, it apparently never did, and NBC refused to pay for the episode, forcing MGM to shoulder the full cost of it. Gene Roddenberry said this happened because NBC did not want to broadcast material that overtly dealt with racial prejudice against African Americans for fear of angering any viewers, affiliates or advertisers. This was during the months that the U.S. Senate was actively filibustering the legislation that would eventually become the successfully-passed Civil Rights Act of 1964. The episode was finally broadcast for the first time on TNT in the early 1990s. Roddenberry supposedly used this experience as his motivation for writing "metaphorical" stories on Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) to sneak controversial topics (including racism) past the network censors."
I don't want to spoil a project @Maurice and I have in progress, but...don't believe everything you read on the internet.
I suspect it was also a matter of plausible deniability. If anybody gave them a hard time, they could always play innocent and claim, "What? That episode has nothing do with race relations in modern America. It's about aliens discriminating against robots on Zeta Alpha VI."
You mean that Roddenberry exaggerated his reputation as a trailblazing television visionary who was constantly battling against the evil, conservative network censors? I'm shocked, SHOCKED, to find that there is gambling going on at this establishment!
Yeah. The truth about that episode doesn’t appear to be what has been told about it. And Roddenberry’s claims about it oughta be taken with a grain lick of salt.
I've always believed that. It is not that Serling was the first to ever use fantasy to address larger issues, but the repeated success of the fantasy format doing it on The Twilight Zone had to have sounded the alarm (or red alert,,,) in Roddenberry's approach to stories. Naked City and Route 66 as well. Yes, especially at that time. What's interesting is that as TOS was carrying on the allegorical story, other series set in the real world kicked the door in and addressed many of the day's most politically charged issues up front, such as the original N.Y.P.D. (ABC. 1967-69) and The Mod Squad (ABC, 1968-73). I'm not sure how much censors were breathing down the necks of those series' producers, but they covered topics that were a mirror of the fiery issues consuming America at that time.
^^^Good observations. The Defenders is actually quite shocking in its subject matter at times, but CBS stood behind the show and even after the sponsor defected still aired a 1962 episode about abortion that you probably couldn't get on network TV today.