Lucille Ball… Star Trek’s Savior? Why the comedian championed Star Trek

In 1964, at a production cost of about $500,000 – twice the budget of the feature film A Fistful of Dollars that same year, America’s favorite dyed redheaded comedian, Lucille Ball, through her production company Desilu, took a chance on a show that no one else would, even investing some of her own personal finances to produce a pilot – and then an unprecedented second pilot. That show was Star Trek. And even after it was sold to a major network, its fate as a bubble show pitted Ball against her own Board of Directors who pressured to dropkick the money-bleeding production.

Star Trek was a bubble show from the get-go. A famous letter-writing campaign is credited with saving Star Trek from cancellation in its second year. Indeed, that had to have had some motivation, but in the end, all studios and networks really care about is profit. One source stated Star Trek was the most watched color television show at the time, and that NBC’s parent RCA was selling more color television sets as a result, but this can’t be true as Bonanza was color from the onset in 1959 and The Andy Griffith Show went color in 1965, both the most watched shows in general, let alone their color status.

The fact that Star Trek had already been sold into syndication in 1967 probably helped, and another season would make it even more marketable to independent stations.

Lucille Ball’s influence on keeping Star Trek alive cannot be ignored. Ball defended Star Trek even while it bled her company dry. But why?

While Lucille Ball most definitely was a general supporter of Star Trek, she was also a visionary with sound business foresight, contrary to her famous I Love Lucy character. Having basically invented the concept of syndicated re-runs, what Ball recognized in Star Trek was its future potential worth. To her, it was an investment that could eventually bring a big return. And… she was right! Unfortunately, it came after selling her production company.

Not only would the original Star Trek have enormous success in syndication, it would span a feature film franchise and its successor, The Next Generation, would even surpass its success spanning additional spinoffs and versions.

As of 2023, the Star Trek franchise had a net worth of almost $11 billion dollars according to the Guinness Book of World Records. More than media franchises James Bond, Superman, or former Desilu sibling Mission: Impossible; and more than the market cap of toy maker Hasbro. It all started with a visionary creator named Gene Roddenberry and a benefactor named Lucille Ball.