Captain’s Log: Star Date 1960. LUCILLE BALL takes control of Desilu Studios to become the most powerful woman in Hollywood.
Captain’s Log: Star Date: 1964. Looking for another project with the potential to be as successful in reruns as I Love Lucy and The Lucille Ball Show, she discovers Star Trek. CBS passes, but Lucy persuades NBC to make a pilot. It flops. She assumes responsibility for the expense, overriding studio executives, and keeping only one member of the original cast—Leonard Nimoy. She then convinces NBC to greenlight a second pilot, a rare occurrence. This time, the show is a hit! Not only was this series groundbreaking for having a female studio head push it to network television, it was also ground-breaking in the themes tackled. The series, which began in 1964, is still going strong as a franchise.
Thanks to Lucille Ball’s visionary forethought, we have the sci-fi phenomena known as Star Trek.
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