Lucille Ball and Star Trek
 

This is probably an oldy/moldy tidbit of trivia you guys of seen before, but somehow stumbled on it while searching for something on the Net. It is from the memory-alpha.org site:

"Lucille Désirée Ball (6 August 1911 – 29 April 1989; age 77) was an actress best known for her titular role on I Love Lucy. During the mid-1960s, she was the chief executive of Desilu Studios, and as such, responsible for approving the initial production of Star Trek: The Original Series. Her affinity for Gene Roddenberry and favor of the general goals of the series have been cited as reasons the studio persisted with Star Trek after NBC rejected the original pilot, "The Cage".[1]

Ball founded Desilu with her husband, Desi Arnaz in 1950. After the couple divorced in 1960, Lucy bought out Desi's interest and ownership of the studio. Soon after, she married comedian Gary Morton, who became her new business partner in running Desilu. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, pp 3-5)

During the 2006 induction of William Shatner into the Television Academy Hall of Fame, Ball's daughter, Lucie Arnaz (wife of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier actor Laurence Luckinbill), told a story of her mother's involvement in Star Trek's earliest days. At one point, Ball's own studio chiefs said, "And the two most expensive shows are Mission: Impossible and Star Trek, [so] they have to go.' She used to always listen to everything the dyed-print suits said. But she said, 'No, I like 'em!' And they said, 'They cost too much!' And she said, 'But I like 'em!' So they left them!"[2]

Ball also personally instructed Majel Barrett in one of her comedy seminars in 1957. [3][4] "

Tom (PK)

Lucy held an AWFUL lot of power, I don't think I'd wanna be the guy who told her a fave program of hers cost too much... I remember TOS being dogged by the Bean Counter Brigade from the very beginning... I'm sure Roddenberry's backside had a pretty major set of calluses on it.. But, it would be interesting to see how much Dinero the Trek franchise has generated for Paramount over the last what, 50 years now ? Lotta fancy cars, ginormous houses & boob jobs have been paid for by that humble "Wagon Train to the Stars" that crapped out, or so they thought, in '69...

maybe its better that they killed it off, rather than cheapen it too much, like the super low budget effects and sets that Dr. Who was using in that period..

Lucy was awesome :)

Here's an interesting read...
http://www.imayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/startrek/

Here's a follow up article with some more details about the S.T. and M.I. deals with Desilu and Paramount:

http://badassdigest.com/2013/09/08/h...r-trek-happen/

Tom(PK)

I love Lucille Ball.

This episode of ST had the Desilu LOL signature stamped right on it.

Lucy was more likely busy doing her show when ST was in production.To bad she did not get on the show to play a funny character .

In this episode .Set back in the 1920's .Kirk and Spock had to join the mob in order to fix issues on the planet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=RVN-qqyEY4s

Watch the part when Kirk had to learns how to drive a car.

Also Kirk had to destroy a cathedral radio by using the transformer wire to trip and tie up the gangsters.I could not see what brand the radio was.

There are other funny parts .Enjoy.

i don't think anybody that knows any of her personal life could not lover her
 

I often think of her instant response to barbara walters question with the comment that she and desi "had everything"... "We had nothing!". Shortly after that gary politely told barbara "i think that's all in the past now" as if saying barbara should go to something else. Lucy was kind enough to share some of what many of us wondered about her personal life while it clearly still hurt her to remember. A wonderful Password episode from'64 has lucy and gary and the most precious smart and cute kids lucy and desi. I wonder if desi sr. Watched it and i think i can imagine how heartbreaking it would be if he did. That would drive most to smoke drink or drugs.
lucy and desi sr. Remained friends to the end sharing thier great kids.
Everything about them is very touching and interesting as well.

I saw that episode recently. There was an all-day Star Trek marathon on the Space channel shortly after Leonard Nimoy's passing. I guess Captain Kirk had to take in so much knowledge to advance through the Starfleet ranks that more basic information had to be sacrificed. :D

The scene with the radio, there's a MacGyver moment for ya.

Lucy was very good to her many friends. Barbara Pepper was a Goldwyn Girl with Lucy in the early thirties and had a very sad personal life for many years. Lucy made it a point to offer Barbara roles in any show where Barbara's talents could contribute. They remained true friends until Barbara's death while working on Green Acres as Mrs. Ziffel. I'll bet Barbara wasn't the only friend to "help Lucy out" when she needed them. :thmbsp:

Very interesting about mrs. Ziefel.another great example of her caring of others was her doing the movie Stone Pillow to bring attention to the deserving homeless people. She talked adout it with, i think, joan rivers on the tonight show. She said she got so sick she ended up in the hospital. She was surprised when she went into a restaurant in character and was not recognized!. She was an angel. I read somewhere that she purchased debbie reynold's very exclusive cat eyed white rolls royce convertable. I imagined she likely paid her a big price to help debbie when she had money trouble and likely syrprised gary with it since he was a big car buff but that is just my imagining a likely scenario from a few facts.