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Star Trek Almost Never Happened, Part One: Pilots and Peril · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians on Earth and a
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  Speaker 1: broad big shout out to our super producer, Mr Max Williams.
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  Speaker 1: They called me Ben. We've got Mr Noel Brown on
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  Speaker 1: the horn today as well. Uh uh okay, guys, let's
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  Speaker 1: just I was thinking how to kick this off. This
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  Speaker 1: is one we're very excited about. This is gonna be
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  Speaker 1: a two parter on the cultural phenomenon Star Trek, which
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  Speaker 1: has changed the world. Now. There are entire podcasts about
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  Speaker 1: all sorts of specific things about Star Trek, but being
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  Speaker 1: a history show, we love to talk origin stories and
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  Speaker 1: I gotta ask you, guys, did you have a favorite
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  Speaker 1: Star Trek character growing up or French? First of all,
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  Speaker 1: have to say, I'm kind of bummed because I thought
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  Speaker 1: we were doing the epic two part Mork and Mindy episode. Um,
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  Speaker 1: but Stark Star Treks cool and honestly, there would be
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  Speaker 1: no morkan Mindy if there were no Star Trek. I
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  Speaker 1: would deposit I've never been a Trekky guy. I like it, um,
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  Speaker 1: but I don't know that I'm familiar enough as a
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  Speaker 1: fan to have a favorite character, you know, what now.
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  Speaker 1: I always just like LaVar Burton as a as a
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  Speaker 1: dude or Visa VI reading Rainbow. So and I liked
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  Speaker 1: his little headgear. I thought it was a cool look.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, Jordie LaForge ft W. I do this all
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  Speaker 1: the time when I'm recording by myself. I like to
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  Speaker 1: pretend I'm either Cyclops or Jordie LaForge. Ben is placing
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  Speaker 1: his his headphones uh down around his eyes like some
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  Speaker 1: sort of Star Trek aviisor it looks great and thank you,
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  Speaker 1: thank you for the visual note the So I would say,
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  Speaker 1: of the three of us back, you were probably the
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  Speaker 1: biggest Treky. You're also a research associate for this series personally. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: Growing up, uh, Captain Kirk always reminded me of my
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  Speaker 1: dad for several reasons. Uh. I always thought data was
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  Speaker 1: super cool. And then when Next Generation came out, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I remember freaking out because there was a Klangon on
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  Speaker 1: the crew. You know. But as we'll see, that's almost
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  Speaker 1: meta progressiveness in the world of Star Trek, which actually
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  Speaker 1: had a lot of real life progressiveness. Here this shows
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  Speaker 1: Star Trek not ridiculous history. Debuted on September eight, nineteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty six, and uh, to your point, Noel, which which
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  Speaker 1: I really enjoy, you can't look at the legacy it
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  Speaker 1: left without acknowledging how many other things came into the
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  Speaker 1: world because Star Trek paved the way. Stuff like Futurama,
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  Speaker 1: of course, and then you know countless spinoffs of the
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  Speaker 1: original series, but also stuff like U Mork and Mindy
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  Speaker 1: and Star Trek Podcast and uh, some big wins for
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  Speaker 1: civil rights which some people might not might not have
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  Speaker 1: seen coming. But how would we loosely describe Star Trek
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  Speaker 1: to someone who had never heard of it before? They
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  Speaker 1: knew the word trek journey, they knew the words star right,
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  Speaker 1: but they had no idea it was the TV show?
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  Speaker 1: What what will we tell them? What would be our
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  Speaker 1: log line for this show? Gentle soap opera in space Utopia?
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  Speaker 1: I like it. I like it. It is about It
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  Speaker 1: is about a semi utopian society, right, and the Federation,
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  Speaker 1: which spans galaxies is not out to make a quick buck.
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  Speaker 1: They're not out to do resource extraction. They're out to
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  Speaker 1: learn more about the universe around them. Pretty cool stuff.
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  Speaker 1: But as you know, they get they managed to get
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  Speaker 1: too trouble every episode. Uh, and now as we're recording three.
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  Speaker 1: There are twelve different series. They spanned over forty seasons.
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  Speaker 1: We're talking eight hundred episodes. That's not even counting the
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  Speaker 1: thirteen movies and a pop culture phenomenon. Right. There are
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  Speaker 1: conferences for trek Ease. There are big and small get
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  Speaker 1: togethers alike. We have several people listening in the crowd today,
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  Speaker 1: ridiculous historians who might be in their Trek e costume. Actually,
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  Speaker 1: since he said that, Um, I'm gonna get a little
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  Speaker 1: more comfortable over here. Oh, here we go shows, there
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  Speaker 1: we go. Okay, so yeah, Max has Donnes his spok
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  Speaker 1: ears and a bit of a spock wig. Is that
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  Speaker 1: sort of spock cut? Yeah, it's It's horribly uncomfortable, but
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to stick through it the entire episode. It's
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  Speaker 1: all one piece is it plastic? It looks a little
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  Speaker 1: like this highly conditioned much like Star trek Uh like outfits,
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  Speaker 1: makeup and everything. It is horribly uncomfortable, but I will
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  Speaker 1: wear it. Well, can you give us a vulcan face?
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a screenshot. This is this is just
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  Speaker 1: for me. Yeah, because they don't smile. Great, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I can only do the Star Trek fingers with one
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  Speaker 1: hand the other one. I can kind of do it,
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  Speaker 1: but it's just a little more. It's hard. Yeah, you
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  Speaker 1: guys are killing it. Well. This is actually from judaism.
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  Speaker 1: Leonard Nimoi made this up. This is a blessing when
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  Speaker 1: you do it with both hands for a specific type
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  Speaker 1: of priest. But this is weird. We're running the weird
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  Speaker 1: trivia out first. So okay, this is the thing you
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  Speaker 1: might not recognize seeing this entertainment juggernaut. You might not
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  Speaker 1: be aware of folks that Star Trek almost never existed.
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  Speaker 1: And there's a great there's a great article that you
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  Speaker 1: found Max from entertain Weekly ine titled how Star Trek
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  Speaker 1: Almost Died, and it talks about how close the show
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  Speaker 1: came to being canceled in the early years, like multiple times. Right, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, usually revolutionary ideas they don't come easy.
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  Speaker 1: You know, people tend to fight them against the status
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  Speaker 1: quo and things like the Grand Old Opry, which, don't
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  Speaker 1: get me wrong, is a a cultural phenomenon in and
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  Speaker 1: of itself, if not like the whitest kind of most
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  Speaker 1: vanilla of cultural phenomenons that still exists to this day.
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  Speaker 1: But it was a television show. You know, it's sort
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  Speaker 1: of a variety show, and it was very, very very popular.
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  Speaker 1: And in the South and Southwestern states, folks kind of
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  Speaker 1: favored the Grand Old Opry. We're like, what's the Star
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  Speaker 1: Trek business. So programmers, station managers, whoever was making these
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  Speaker 1: decisions in local markets were very close to ditching Trek
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  Speaker 1: entirely in favor of of this kind of you know,
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  Speaker 1: scuting and Newton Country Western program Yeah. NBC tried to
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  Speaker 1: cancel Star Trek three times over its original seventy eight
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  Speaker 1: episode rutten from September of sixty six to June of
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  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, and each time it would have been
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  Speaker 1: canceled had the fans not rose up and livid outrage. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: And it was a critics darling for a while. It
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  Speaker 1: was never Uh. I think the highest to gotten the
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  Speaker 1: Nielsen ratings was the number fifty spot. It was way
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  Speaker 1: behind other popular shows of the day like Mr. Terrific
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  Speaker 1: and the Tammy Grimes Show, and uh where you've probably
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  Speaker 1: never heard of either. I was gonna say the funny
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  Speaker 1: thing about history, you know, when's the next Tammy Grimes
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  Speaker 1: con or Mr. Terrific spin off? Uh? And like you said,
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  Speaker 1: people didn't uh cotton to it with the same enthusiasm
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  Speaker 1: in different regions of the US. And look, if you
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  Speaker 1: are a big studio producer in the sixties, Star Trek
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  Speaker 1: is a really wacky idea. Creator Gene Roddenberry pitched it
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  Speaker 1: originally as a wagon train to the stars, and he
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  Speaker 1: was doing that because when you talk to producers and
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  Speaker 1: studio execs this is a true thing and podcast as well,
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  Speaker 1: you want to try to tie the concept to something
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  Speaker 1: that has already been proven to be successful. So he's like, uh, westerns,
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  Speaker 1: you like westerns. They are like, yeah, Western's make a
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  Speaker 1: lot of money for us, and he goes, well, this
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  Speaker 1: is a Western, but it's in space, which is kind
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  Speaker 1: of funny because we know what Star Trek became, wasn't that.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, there were certainly some fights on like desert
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  Speaker 1: planets and things like that, but this concept really is
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  Speaker 1: not what took off ultimately, but it is kind of
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  Speaker 1: what Star Wars is and became. The Star Wars really
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  Speaker 1: and most of its incarnations is a space western, especially
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  Speaker 1: with the Mandalorian, you know, and Star Wars starts in
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  Speaker 1: the world of feature film. Star Trek starts as this
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  Speaker 1: TV show from this guy who used to be a
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  Speaker 1: pilot from pan Am. He used to work for the
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  Speaker 1: l a p D as a press officer. Uh he was.
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  Speaker 1: He was a huge nerd who wrote for shows like Dragnet,
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  Speaker 1: Have Gun, Will Travel, which is I still think is
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  Speaker 1: a great show. That's nostalgia there. I gotta say too.
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  Speaker 1: When I found out that Gene Roddenbara used to be
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  Speaker 1: worked for the l A p D. I just that's
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  Speaker 1: just the most l A thing ever. Like he's working
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  Speaker 1: at his like l a p D press desk post
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  Speaker 1: and being like, you know, so one day I'm gonna
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  Speaker 1: beco'mem gonna be a screenwriter too, you know, in between
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  Speaker 1: writing press releases about you know whatever police press officers
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  Speaker 1: right about he's working on is his pilot? Sorry, Jill Ce,
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  Speaker 1: one day I'm gonna be a star. Yeah. And that's
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  Speaker 1: you know kind of comment in Los Angeles. Uh he
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  Speaker 1: he says, my series that I'm working on, he's writing
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  Speaker 1: scripts from this back in the fifties. He says it's
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  Speaker 1: gonna be mix of anthology sci fi stuff like Outer
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  Speaker 1: Limits or Twilight Zone, but the characters are going to
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  Speaker 1: stay the same throughout. So he describes it as a
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  Speaker 1: Gulliver's travel of the future. These are all pulled from
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  Speaker 1: things he was saying to Studio exacts. So this this
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  Speaker 1: to take a quick aside the idea of anthology series
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  Speaker 1: with the same characters. That's more like a Monster of
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  Speaker 1: the Week kind of format, right like the X Files,
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  Speaker 1: where you have your core cast, but they're you know,
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  Speaker 1: traveling around and doing different adventures every episode, like Scooby
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  Speaker 1: Doo or whatever. Right, Yeah, And one thing that really
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  Speaker 1: sticks out about the anthology hybrid approach here is that
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  Speaker 1: there's kind of a reset between episodes, so terrible, crazy,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes hilarious Triple esque stuff will happen, but then when
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  Speaker 1: you get to next week's show, things are back relatively
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  Speaker 1: to normal. Right, No one's died unless they were wearing
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  Speaker 1: a red shirt to establish the stakes of a and uh,
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  Speaker 1: no one has serious scars that remain with them in
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  Speaker 1: the early days, and they're kind of self contained. You
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  Speaker 1: don't have to know what happened in episode eight to
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  Speaker 1: dig what happened in episode nine, which is a huge
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  Speaker 1: plus for for studio executives because it allows you to
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  Speaker 1: kind of come in midway and not feel left behind
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  Speaker 1: or feel like if you didn't start from the ground
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  Speaker 1: floor that you're you know, going to be completely lost. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: And we know that that model, you know, at least
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  Speaker 1: outside of the like era of kind of prestige television
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  Speaker 1: has has remained, you know, at least in in the
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  Speaker 1: idea of sitcoms and more of these X files type shows.
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  Speaker 1: You know, it's a little harder when you have like
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: a Lost where if you miss an episode you will
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  Speaker 1: be titularly lost. Yeah. And also the Lost writers, we're
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  Speaker 1: very building the plane yeah while they were flying, so okay,
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  Speaker 1: truck yes, And then went on to mess of Star
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  Speaker 1: Trek whether you want to say right for a mess
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  Speaker 1: with that's a division amid the fandom. So our buddy Gene,
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  Speaker 1: who is dreaming big but maybe doesn't know just how
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  Speaker 1: big a stream will become. First he goes to the
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  Speaker 1: suits at CBS, and the suits at CBS sit them
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  Speaker 1: down for essentially a two hour long conversation about the
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  Speaker 1: nuts and bolts of this Star Trek idea, and then
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  Speaker 1: they say, okay, great meeting. Uh, someone will be in touch.
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  Speaker 1: And someone was in touch, but not with him. They
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  Speaker 1: bought Lost in Space instead. So he goes to NBC,
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  Speaker 1: and NBC gives him a chance for a pilot episode.
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  Speaker 1: We're getting a lot of this from Richard Zoglin over
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  Speaker 1: at Time, who talks about Star Trek first made into
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  Speaker 1: the into the screen. So this episode is called the Cage,
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  Speaker 1: and this is the one that doesn't have Captain James T.
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  Speaker 1: Kirk as a guy named Captain Pike played by a
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  Speaker 1: star at the time, Jeffrey Hunter. And Pike is in
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  Speaker 1: this pilot taking captive on a planet where the indigenous
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  Speaker 1: inhabitants want to use him to quote breed a new race.
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  Speaker 1: The network said, this show is too smart for our audience,
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  Speaker 1: it's too cerebral. But we like where your head's at, Gene,
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  Speaker 1: So why don't you take a swing at a second pilot?
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  Speaker 1: And that's kind of rare, right isn't Is it rare
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  Speaker 1: to pilots? Oh yeah, I mean even you know in
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  Speaker 1: the in the much less expensive podcast world, you know,
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  Speaker 1: we get a lot of pitches for shows, and if
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  Speaker 1: a pilot is rejected, it almost never, you know, is
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  Speaker 1: the case. It will be like, well, why don't you
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  Speaker 1: give it another shot? And it costs like nothing to
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  Speaker 1: make a podcast pilot, So this is there definitely only
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  Speaker 1: was some faith in this fellow and and his ideas.
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  Speaker 1: They just wanted to hone it in and probably broaden
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  Speaker 1: it out a little bit, you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: the same as it ever was, right, And this is
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  Speaker 1: where we have to introduce the legendary Lucille Ball, who
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  Speaker 1: has some stuff to say about Star Trek. Lucille Ball
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  Speaker 1: was tough, we know, you know, again, like um in
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  Speaker 1: Hollywood even to this day, like new ideas are hard
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  Speaker 1: sell until they just blow up and then they become
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  Speaker 1: the thing that everyone else wants to mimic, you know.
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  Speaker 1: So Lucille Ball was a funny woman leading a show,
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  Speaker 1: and that was not a thing. Women were usually kind
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  Speaker 1: of supporting characters to funny men, and they were usually
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  Speaker 1: just wives and we're kind of like the butt of
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  Speaker 1: jokes often, but they weren't the ones making the jokes
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  Speaker 1: and getting all the laugh lines. So Lucy was huge,
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  Speaker 1: and she was so huge and became such a cultural
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: phenomenon with I love Lucy. I mean again, her husband,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: who you know, their relationship is famously a little bit
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  Speaker 1: rocky at times, but he was definitely kind of second
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  Speaker 1: fiddle to her, at least in terms of the show.
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  Speaker 1: He was kind of a straight man, even if he
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: had some funny bits here and there. Um often that
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  Speaker 1: kind of capitalized on his nationality and to this day
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  Speaker 1: kind of on age super well and come off as
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  Speaker 1: a little bit racist and weird. But it was Lucy
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  Speaker 1: who was the power behind the throne, and she and
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Desi Arnaz her husband um were so successful that they
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: were able to buy a studio. They bought the former
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Archao Studios was just like a legacy old school studio
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: that made I think like a lot of like like
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Golden Air, a kind of monster movies and stuff. For like,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: what did what did Arkao do? This is Alex Williams question.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: I'm sure he's done episodes in ephemeral about r Kocho
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  Speaker 1: did a lot of um. I mean, you're right, they
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: date back to the radio days. But they did stuff
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: like jazz singer. I want to say, a lot of
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: those buzz Berkeley type, you know, big musical kind of things.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: I want to say, I think they were responsible for
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Citizen Kane uh And they also birthed a lot of
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: huge um uh stars you know, King Kong is what
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: they did. Of course, so r KO was definitely more
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: than just a run of the mill kind of like
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  Speaker 1: b Studio. They made massive, massive hit films and birth
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  Speaker 1: stars like Katherine Hepburn, uh Fred Astaire Ginger, Rogers, Carry
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  Speaker 1: Grant had you know, had um contracts with r KAO Pictures,
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  Speaker 1: but then they went bust and we're you know, sitting
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  Speaker 1: dormant for a while. Lucy and Desi bought the studio,
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  Speaker 1: which was actually adjacent to the Paramount lot. And if
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, Star Trek has been a Paramount property
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: since the since the word go ish right, No Max
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: has given us the hand kind of well, it's probably
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: one of those Spider Man versus the Marvel Universe kind
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  Speaker 1: of I things. Star Trek has been in a situation ship,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: an entanglement perhaps with Para. So so we're setting up
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  Speaker 1: the story of Lucille Ball and taking over uh r
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  Speaker 1: Kao's property to make their company, Desilu Productions. Get it,
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  Speaker 1: Desi Lucille whether they think Lucy des didn't have the
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: same ring. And I think it's funny that the man
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: still gets to lead the little acorny in the little portmanteau.
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  Speaker 1: Every relationship is a country all its own. So Lucille
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  Speaker 1: Ball has an eye for talent. She can tell when
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: something might be a hit, so they produce in film
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: series like The Andy Griffith Show, which you will probably
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: remember more so than Mr Terrific, The Life and Legend
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: of wider and of course, the Dick Van Dyke Show.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: After she and Desi break up, she eventually buys her
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: ex's share of the firm, making her not just a
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  Speaker 1: powerful star, but the most powerful woman in television. And
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  Speaker 1: she is in the catbird seat when NBC projects jeans
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  Speaker 1: first pilot, the Cage. Uh Lucy Lucille Ball agrees to
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  Speaker 1: finance the second project, even though everybody on her board
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  Speaker 1: is say no, that's crazy. Can do you have any
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  Speaker 1: idea how expensive it will be? And she says, uh yeah,
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  Speaker 1: And I'm the most powerful woman in the television in
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  Speaker 1: the game of television, so make it so. Make it so. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: Max was would um Lost in Space already have been
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  Speaker 1: a minor hit at this point since it got picked
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  Speaker 1: up in you know, in over Roddenberry's original pitch Um.
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  Speaker 1: I'm guessing it's probably come an honor at the same time,
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  Speaker 1: But but I don't think it was like sci fi
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  Speaker 1: of this degree, wasn't like entrenched yet as some sort
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  Speaker 1: of massive like cultural phenomenon. And in any way, it
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  Speaker 1: was still kind of fringe e compared to the stuff
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  Speaker 1: that the studios knew worked, like those westerns. Well, Outer
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Limits was also very much sci fi, still lost in
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  Speaker 1: spaces n So they did come out the year previous.
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  Speaker 1: But there's a funny Lucia Ball story we should tell.
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  Speaker 1: So while she's supporting making this thing, she originally thought
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  Speaker 1: Star Trek was about traveling performers working for the U
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: s O. You know, the ones who like go out
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  Speaker 1: during global conflicts and do a little vaudeville show. So
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  Speaker 1: she was thinking of what would later be you know,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: like Star Search or America's Got Talent. I do want
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: to say this on air because I know somebody, well,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: we're not really sure about that. There are a couple accounts.
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  Speaker 1: There's some people who say Lucile Ball was very involved
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  Speaker 1: and like the day to day of Star Trek, and
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  Speaker 1: there's some people who go all the way to the
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: other way and say, oh, she didn't know anything about
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: the show at all. I am going with this report
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: because this is from the guy who brought her Star
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Trek M and was in there like on the day
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: to day, and this is what he said. She said,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: So we're gonna go with that, all right, Guys, can
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: you imagine? I mean, you know, we know Lucy from
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: her persona as Lucay, you know, as Lucy on On
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: mc gilla cutty, you know on I love Lucy, but
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: I bet mean to be a woman of that stature
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: in such a boys club of Hollywood and this era,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: she had to have been tough as nails and dan
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: suffer no fools. And when you look at pictures of
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: her like I R L you know, and also certain
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: dramatic kind of recreations of her this time, I would
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: be she she she comes off as a little bit scary.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Well you would, you would have to be. I mean,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: there's probably so much there's so many traumatic experiences she
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: had to have that just haven't made it into history books.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: But uh, but yeah, she persevered and weathered the storm,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: and with a force like Lucille ball on your side,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: making a second pilot seems a lot less crazy. They
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: recast almost everybody. Actually, the guy who would have played
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: the captain, the guy who played Captain Pike bows out
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: because he's worried the sci fi thing will be a
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Fad Roddenberry cast this, uh, this guy from Canada who's
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: kind of an up and comer with a lot of
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: experience on on stage and screen. His name is William Shatner.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: He becomes James T. Kirk and Roddenberry also makes it
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: very makes a priority to have this crew be international
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: in terms of their representation. You've got a chief engineer
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: who is cartoonishly from Scotland. You've got a helmsman who
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: is definitely from Japan, well famous George T. Cap. You've
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: got a you've got a communications chief who is African American.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: This part, especially in the South, probably ruffled some feathers
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: because these people were working as equals. The old thing
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: that made them unequal was the hierarchy of a ship's crew.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised to you. I mean if this
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: was a appealing part of the equation to Lucy as well,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: who had been such a game changer in terms of
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: women's role in Hollywood, both behind and in front of
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the camera, you know, I mean, I think this is
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: probably something that she maybe again, I mean, I'm just
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: conjecturing here. I'd love to read her her perspective on this.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: I'm sure it exists, but it would appear that outside
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: as being a savvy business person who thought that they
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: could have a hit on their hands, that there's some
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: appeal here and like, let's let's let's push this further,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: you know, let's um, let's have something that looks a
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: little different, people that look a little different, in a
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: show that also is a little different. But she kind
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: of saw the big picture and this was again crucial
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: to genius. He's casting up Deforce. Kelly plays the doctor.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: He won't you constantly? Yeah, they do. He constantly. He's
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: the one who constantly establishes that he's a doctor and
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: not an expert in whatever thing is brought to him
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: at any given point. It's a trope, you know, Damnit, Jim,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: I'm a doctor, not a horticulturist. Dammit, Jim, I'm a
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: you know even what he doesn't need to. It's just
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: a casual question. They're like, hey, are you going to uh?
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Are you gonna make it to the cocktail party this
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: space afternoon. He's like, damnit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: a calendar professor. You know. It's particularly myself here. Oh,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: it's a great joke. It's I mean it's so much
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: that even when U D S nine did the Fans
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Service Letter Trials and Tribulations episode, they have Dr. But
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Schier say, I'm a doctor, not a historian. So okay,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: now we get to one of my favorite characters, I
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: believe one of yours as well, Max, the half alien
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: member of the crew, Mr. Spock played by Leonard Nimoy Uh.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Spock is incredibly contra virtual to the studio. NBC really
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: wants to drop him because they say, look, this guy
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: looks kind of satanic. You know, he doesn't have a goatee,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: but his eyebrows are doing a lot of work. He's
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: got pointy ears. And Roddenberry made this amazing rebuttal he
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: said quote, I felt like we couldn't do a space
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: show without at least one person on board who constantly
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: reminded you that you are out in space and in
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: a world of the future. It just occurred to me
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: that I think maybe his uh resemblance to founder of
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: the Church of Satan Anton LaVey might have had something
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: to do with this idea of him looking Satanic, because
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: LaVey was bald and also had mega pointy ears and um,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: you know, kind of sharp pointy features and arched eyebrows,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: you know. Uh, and I believe yeah it was it
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: was around the sixties or the late fifty is that
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: he would have been in the press as a figure
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: of some uh countercultural kind of controversy, along with folks
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: like Kenneth Anger ninety and not to mention Fritz Lieber
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: and so on. Nineteen sixty six, I think is around
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: the time that Levy starts doing lectures on the occult.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: So this, yeah, there, there's definitely some stuff in the
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: zeitgeist here, uh NBC. Besides that, this is not the
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: hill they're gonna die on, so they let spak across
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: the past. But they said, but they literally say, you know,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: kind of keep him in the background, like we will
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: let people be reminded there in space, but we don't
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: want to be in their face about it. Essentially. Yeah.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: But but then once the spot character like just takes off,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: they're like, spok it up, spark up front, give us
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: more spok let's lead into that Vulcan neck pinch or
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: whatever the hell it's called. Yeah, exactly. Also, just a
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: little bit of a silly trivia that we've talked about before.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: There was a phenomenon cultural phenomenon. Uh that that is
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: relatively contemporary where people in Canada were drawing, um, exactly
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: what Max has on his head, this kind of like
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: you know, bang kind of straight cut bang thing and uh,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: pointy ears and a little bit of a goatee thing
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: um and hand doing the fingers uh that live long
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: and prosper figures on their Canadian bank notes because the
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: former prime minister Wilfred Laurier looked a lot like spok
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: and they call it spaking um. And also the bank
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: apparently was against it. But because it's you know, technically
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: defacing money is like illegal, yes, yeah, and you can
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: see people doing that with doing similar things with Washington
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: on US currency. But this, yeah, this uh, this spot
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: guy is going to be a big deal. NBC is
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: wrong about it. And Max also you pointed out that
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: if you look at the first pile it which still
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: had Leonard Nimoy, and you look at the second pilot,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: they definitely dialed back that quote unquote satanic look um.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: And maybe they would have treated Nimoy better if they
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: had known that he was going to go on to
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: have an illustrious musical career. Thinking of the Ballad of
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Bilbo Baggins, which have linked to the chat. It's uh,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: I gave you the full album version, so maybe wait
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: till we're off the air. Also, you know, related to
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: the other show that Ben and I do together stuff
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: they don't want you to know. Leonard Nimoy became a
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: very famous kind of conspiracy unsolved mysteries type presenter with
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: in search of you know, starring Leonard Nimoy uh, famously
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: referenced in the Tenaceous Diesa referring to Leonard Nimoy kicking
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: out the jams and uh. That makes me think we
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: do a Nimoy episode in the future, or just Star
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Trek music. I Actually it's weird because here's how much
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: of an effect this thing. As a slight sidebar doing
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: research for something else, I actually pinned Max looking for
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: scholarly papers uh from economists about the post scarcity economy
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: of Star Trek, and Maxwell follow up with you. I
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: gotta tell you this. It's a weird thing. But anyhow,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Star Trek we wouldn't be having any of these conversations
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: if everything hadn't worked out. Just so, the first episode
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: that ever hits the network is uh not the pilot
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: it's called the Man Trap. The crew encounters a vampire
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: esque alien, but instead of drinking blood, it drains bodies
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: of salt. Uh. This is a Thursday night, September eight,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: and the other shows that are on at the time
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: are Bewitched, which is still, you know, kind of iconic
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: and My Three Sons. People didn't immediately like Star Trek,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: at least the critics didn't. They said it was confusing,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: it was too complex, it just didn't work, and uh,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: ratings were good enough for the show to make it
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: to a second season, but just barely, you know what
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: I mean. It's almost like the first season was a
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: not good enough pilot in itself, so they said, we're
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: gonna keep trying. Yeah, there's a cool quote from Variety.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: We're not being cool. It's just it's a very uh
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: summing up the perspective of the time quote from Variety saying,
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Star Trek obviously solicits all out suspension of disbelief, but
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: it won't work, Um, because of the things that you
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: were saying. Even within the sci fi frame of reference,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: it was an incredible and dreary mess of confusion and complexities.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: And that is a criticism that maybe some people who
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: today don't get Star Trek might still throw at it.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: You know, it does have a certain vibe to it
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: that you're either on board with or you're not, because
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: it isn't like really any other show. It kind of
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: sets its own tone. And if it's not for you,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: if the pacing isn't for you, and if kind of
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: you know, some of the political undertones aren't for you,
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: then it just might not be your bag. But it
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: is the bag of plenty oh folks, as we know
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: it would eventually become. So apparently this was This was
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: right around NBC's decision the first time to cancel the show,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: and this was announced in the middle of its second season,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: and a lot of people were upset due to some
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: pragmatic concerns. If a show only runs for two seasons,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: then it's highly unlikely that the network will bother to
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: air reruns, and so Star Trek would have become an
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: historical footnote. However, fans like sci fi writer Betty Joe
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Tremble also called b Joe Uh, they gather to the cause.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Tremble later says it really annoyed me talking about the cancelation.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: I think we had a moral prerogative not just to
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: save the show, but to let these networks know the
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: public have an opinion. So she and her husband John
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: create a campaign called Save Star Trek. It's this huge
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: letter writing effort the fan base that already considers this
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: occult classic. They're getting all the addresses from fan mail.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: Even Gene Roddenberry, through like a shell of plausible deniability,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: is chipping in so fans can get free postage stamps.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: And there's this chain letter that goes around for anybody
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: who is not old enough to have experienced these. In
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: the days before, your crazy uncle would send you emails
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: that said forward forward, forward forward. Obama says Earth is
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: flat or whatever. People would send these letters that would say,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: send a copy of this letter to x amount of
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: people right or you know, it'll give you instructions. It's
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: meant to go viral, and it gave These letters gave
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: people a step by step guide for how to write
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: to the network and what to say. As a result
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: of this, NBC gets more than one dred and ten
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: thousand letters individual letters from fans across the United States,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: and we still don't know how many letters they got.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: They may have received many more at least that's what
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: some former NBC folks say, but officially it's unclear, is
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: that right, Max? Yeah, I mean there is some reporting
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: that say it's in the millions of letters they got,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: but it's like also um from off the record former
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: NBC employees, So it's like who actually knows. And there's
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: a lot uh involving this about Gene Rodber maybe doctoring
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: some of this stuff too. So because Gean was a writer,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: maybe he wrote the protest letter that he had other
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: people copy. Uh, that's a conspiracy, but but we know
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: the real thing, the letter writing conspiracy or movement if
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: you want to call it that. Regardless how many actual
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: letters arrived, it did shake NBC because no one had
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: ever tried this at such a large scale as a
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: fan community, and because of this, Tremble is often referred
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: to in the Trekky community. Treky's are the fans of
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Star Trek. She's often referred to as the woman who
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: saved Star Trek, but she says at the time people
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: thought she was an idiot. There were other things happening
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: in the world. Of course. The women's liberation movement was
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: in the forefront of the news. There were women speaking up.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: There were people saying this must change. And then concurrently,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: you know, or simultaneously there's another group of people led
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: by a woman who are save this weird TV show.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: So they were questioning priorities. But again to the conversation
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: about how how hard lucile Ball had to be to
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: succeed in a predatory environment and a misogynistic one. B
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Joe is managing to do some unprecedented stuff as a
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: female sci fi fan. You know, she's rallying the little people,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: and despite that initial media skepticism, it worked. In March,
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: NBC said, okay, we're no longer going to cancel Star Trek.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: There will be a season three. Yeah you can't be
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: the change. Yeah you wish to see in the world.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: It can be done, especially you know, in this time
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: where you know, we look at like you know, change
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: dot Org petitions. It's kind of uh um, spitting in
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: the wind or whatever. You know, if if you can
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: feel a little bit daunting to go up against the
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: powers that be, this is a as maybe lower stakes
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: or something like this might seem it is a an
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: example of somebody being able to singlehandedly rally, you know,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: enough people to get the attention of a much larger
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: entity and and make a positive change. Because Star Trek
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: was an important cultural institution, It created a lot of
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: changes in the way people perceive characters on television. It
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: gave a lot of opportunities to because of that multinational
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: kind of angle that we talked about. We're gonna get
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: to some specifics, uh in part two about how this
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: was such an important cultural moment and some of the
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: things that were being tackled on Star Trek, whether thematically
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: in episodes or just between the cast, were important. It
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: was important for representation, you know, on television during a
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: time when like women's liberation, um, and kind of you know, uh,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: let's say, civil rights were really starting to be very
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: very front and center and very important. You know, pop
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: culture can help those kinds of causes. And we have
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: b Joe too for that, we really do. But they're
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: not out of the space woods yet, fellow ridiculous historians.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Because the show's budget is dramatically cut in the third season,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: NBC is practicing what I would call malicious compliance. Roddenberry
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: is no longer, at least at this period. He's not
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: hands on show runner. He's stepping away from the day
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: to day stuff, and as a result, a lot of
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: people will tell you the quality of the show declines
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: in the third season, and by the end of season three,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: everybody thinks the show is going to be canceled. The
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: fans come back out. Let's get the band back together,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Let's reunite the army of the little folk fighting the
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: studio exects. They even march outside of NBC's Burbank studios.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: It doesn't work. February nineteen sixty nine, the network says
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: we're going to cancel the series after that final episode
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: runs in June. The final episode, turn About Intruder is
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: uh according to Our Residents star Trek critic both very
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: horrible and disgusting. Max has given thumbs downs. It is
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: the episode that establishes that in the distant future, women
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: cannot become captains, which they spend many, many, many many
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: subsequent seasons and shows undoing, including Voyage. You're making sure
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: like the main character in the Captain was a woman.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: It's like, oh, this woman just goes insane because she
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: could not become a captain. It's like what, but okay,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: so this seems like an ignominious end, right, You remember
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: the iconic opening opening monologue from Captain Kirk. They talked
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: about a five year mission. Now it looks like they're
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: not going to make it to five years. But there
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: is a very important victory that b Joe and the
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: fans earned. Since Star Trek got a third season, it
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: had enough episodes to go into syndication, and as we'll
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: see you part two of this series. That is a
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: game changer. For now. I mean, the time is just
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: flown by here and old. For now, I think we're
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: going to pause. Uh, we're gonna go away too. Was
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: it ten forward and forward? We're gonna We're gonna adjourn
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: to ten forward. Chatted up with Guy Nan, who, according
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: to the lore of Star Trek, must have been alive
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: at the time of the original series. Uh, we'll get
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: into that. We'll not get into it at all. I mean,
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: I mean that might be shown in a Star Trek
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: movie or something I'm not quite possibly maybe, Uh, but
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: for now, I want to say thank you, of course
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: to our super producer, research associate and Residents Spot cosplayer
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: Mr Max Williams. Thanks of course to Lucille Ball. I
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: bet a lot of folks didn't see that coming, but
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: thank you for I Love Lucy and also star Trek Indeed,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: and of course thanks again to you Max for doing
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: this incredible research for excited to get right into part
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: two post haste. Also thanks to Chris Frosciota is here
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: in spirit heaves, Jeff Coates, Jonathan's stricklin time is nige
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: if not past nine agreed, uh he is our resident Kardassian,
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: not Kardashian. Sorry, sorry, strict. I'd also like to thank
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: Alex Williams for making this slap in pop and uh nool.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Thank you. It looks like we're on our continuing mission
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: to uh to explore history in the most ridiculous way possible,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: and they couldn't be more excited. Samy here, my friend.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: We'll see you next time. Books. For more podcasts from
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.