These Are The Voyages - Season Three

[Harvey]

How did the budget of UNCLE compare to Trek's?

Good question! And the network license fee also. There could have been other motives behind NBC's choices...

I posted the following a year ago:

(report dated 8/28/67):

Mannix: $213,378
Mannix: $224,602
Mission: Impossible: $218,004
Star Trek: $189,696
Star Trek: $195,674
Voyage: $166,485
Man From U.N.C.L.E.: $150,158
Wild, Wild West: $181,108
Bonanza: $167,870
Gunsmoke: $192, 326
Batman: $184,232

These must be the budgets of select episode rather than season averages (explaining why there are two numbers for Trek and Mannix). The Batman number represents the cost of shooting two half-hour episodes.

From memory, as a rule of thumb, the network licensing fee was about 2/3rds of the show's budget. The studio was responsible for the remaining 1/3rd (and overages). Contractually, the network paid more each season the show was on the air (in other words, NBC spent more money per episode on season three of Star Trek than season two, and more money per episode on season two than season one).

 

[Cmdr. Loskene]

Thank you for that excerpt. Very interesting!!

 

[Melakon]

Those UNCLE numbers would have been right before the airing of its fourth season, and the show was off the air the following January. The third season nearly killed it, because it was trying to copy Batman, and lost any semblance of believability from its first two years. It tried to take a more serious turn in its final year, but it was too late to save it. It was never a "serious" spy show like Mission: Impossible though, being tongue-in-cheek the first two seasons. In the third season however, it was played more as comedy or farce.

 

[Cmdr. Loskene]

And, to be nit picky (hey, we're Star Trek fans!) you mean the ratings would have dropped regardless after the second season, no? The show wasn't a great ratings success in its first season, but in its second season it was in the top thirty.

Yes, that's definitely what I meant to type. The second season was when UNCLE reached major fad status. And nitpick away! That's how we get to the truth.

 

[ThankYouGeneR]

This would be a nice addition to my StarTrek library.

 

[BillJ]

I ordered another copy of Inside Star Trek from a store in Dayton, about 40 miles away. The book has already shipped yet the delivery date is February 17th. They sending it Pony Express?

 

[Melakon]

They sending it Pony Express?

Even Pony Express could do 40 miles in less than 3 weeks. Snail mail, maybe.

My ex-wife was a school librarian, and always had books sent at book rate, which cost less, but still arrived almost as fast as first class.