But a certain power-that-be did not want this. Whitney was never asked to return.
Nichelle Nichols had survived the first cut. Despite this, for Nichols and her character, it had been a roller coaster ride.
Days before filming began on “The Corbomite Maneuver,” a contract was quickly drawn up between Nichols and Desilu. Before it could be signed, the offer was just as quickly withdrawn. In her book, Beyond Uhura, Nichols cried “bigotry,” writing:
The network executives saw in the first script exactly what Gene meant when he said he was recasting one part and wanted to add a little “color” to the bridge. After having triumphed in the banishment of “Number One,” the network men had a fit when they saw that not only was there now an important woman in the command crew and on the bridge, but a black one! When they realized that Uhura’s involvement would be substantial and her lines went well beyond “Yes, Captain,” they furiously issued Gene an ultimatum: “Get rid of her!”
It was a curious statement for Nichols to make. Her part in “that first script” was not that big. Nor was the part in the second script. Nichols often complained how she had little to do in those first shows other than say “Hailing frequencies open, Captain.”
NBC: First with prominent interracial casting – I Spy (Courtesy of 3 F Productions)
In all fairness to NBC, this was the network that had made history in 1965 by premiering I Spy, featuring Bill Cosby in a dramatic lead; the same network that Roddenberry himself admitted wanted to see Sulu, an Asian-American, featured more prominently on the bridge; the same network that didn’t utter a single complaint about Lloyd Haynes, who was also black, being on the bridge for “Where No Man Has Gone Before”; the same network that assigned African-American Stan Robertson to serve in the vital position of Production Manager for Star Trek; and the same network that, at very near the moment Nichols was told her contract was cancelled, sent out a letter from the executive suite to all their series’ producers encouraging increased hiring of non-white actors, with special emphasis on African-Americans.
Dated August 17, 1966, Mort Werner wrote about “NBC’s longstanding policy of non-discrimination,” and the “efforts in the past to assure that the programs broadcast on [their] facilities [be] a natural reflection of the role minorities in American life have met.” He added, “We urge producers to cast Negroes,” and he congratulated the producers who had extended themselves in that regard.
As for insinuations that the NBC men were sexist as well as racists, consider that, in the fall of 1965, this network gave America its first female spy and single working-girl -Barbara Feldon in Get Smart, followed by Stephanie Powers in The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.
Regardless, NBC had nothing to do with the contracts that were negotiated between Star Trek and actors such as Nichelle Nichols -- only Desilu was involved in those dealings. But NBC’s reputation had been tainted. Someone clearly had told Nichols that story about the network not wanting the character of “Number One” because she was female. The NBC men believed they knew who the instigator was – Gene Roddenberry.
The simple truth was that Nichols’ contract rescindment came down to a matter of money. Roddenberry had been giving out contracts too freely, and now the studio was reining him in. He had promised Nichols $1,000 per episode. After only a couple episodes, those he answered to at Desilu, not NBC, were rethinking this handshake agreement. The episodes were coming in over budget and cuts had to be made. Nichols’ salary, then, was reduced to $140 per day. If she was needed for all six or seven days required to shoot an episode, she’d make more money than with the previous arrangement.
“Gene kept on writing her in,” Bob Justman stated, saying that Roddenberry would tell him, “Nichelle’s great, and she’s not that expensive. Someone else would cost a whole lot more.” (94-8)
At the same time, Roddenberry was writing Majel Barrett back into the series and, in order to get away with this, turning up the heat on NBC by telling tales about how the network had rejected “Number One” on grounds of her gender.
“[Roddenberry] had conveniently forgotten that NBC execs, for both financial and moral reasons, had always favored a strong woman as a series star,” Herb Solow insisted. “[NBC] just didn’t want Majel. They resented having her forced upon them.” (161-3)
This was now “Strike Six.” In time, the network brass would strike back.
Like any good series’ creator/producer, Gene Roddenberry was doing all he could to build a buzz for Star Trek. For the June 7, 1966, issue of Daily Variety, he told staff writer Dave Kaufman, “There have been two types of sci-fi series -- about gadgetry, and fantasy. Rod Serling did a helluva good job on Twilight Zone, but basically it was a fantasy series. This is the first attempt to translate science fiction literature into TV. We have people stories. Too many series put gadgets first, people second. We put people first. Sci-fi in TV and pictures has usually consisted of monsters, or a gorilla destroying Tokyo.”
Roddenberry boasted how he had nabbed such science fiction notables as Harlan Ellison, A.E. van Vogt, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Theodore Sturgeon, and Robert Bloch. He also talked about how he worked with RAND Corporation and CalTech in designing his spaceship, saying, “There is nothing about the ship that doesn’t have its roots in science, that can’t be done from what we know. It’s practicable science; everything we do is possible by what we know today, therefore is believable. It’s the most ambitious, difficult production ever attempted, because everything we do is new.” (145-14)
And then Roddenberry got his first of many digs in against NBC, although a small and seemingly harmless one. Kaufman wrote that “the producer kids they talked about doing a story about a planet populated only by ad agency and network people [but] rejected it because it was too unbelievable.”
On June 19, for his syndicated newspaper column, Bob Mackenzie wrote, “We used to call it science fiction, but television producers are now calling it ‘science fact.’” Quoting Roddenberry, Mackenzie wrote:
If only one star in a billion is a sun, and only one sun in a billion has a planet with conditions similar to our Earth, then there is a minimum of three million worlds inhabited by living creatures…. Star Trek will concern the intergalactic meanderings of a giant space ship, “a huge star cruiser with displacement of 390,000 tons.” This behemoth of the stratosphere contains a crew of 400 and is equipped with laboratories, libraries, offices and recreation rooms. It travels considerably faster than light, speeding between far-flung star systems to carry out “scientific investigations, diplomatic courtesy calls, and enforcement of the laws that regulate Earth colonies.”
Word was out: Star Trek was going to be bigger than the one-year-old Lost in Space.
For the July 15 issue of Daily Variety, Army Archerd quoted Roddenberry, saying, “Outer space is the new west.” And then Roddenberry told how he was determined to not lower Star Trek to the expectations of children, but “to bring kids up to the level of the show.” He added, “And this is a point under discussion right now with NBC.” Indicating that the needs of a network and the assembly line approach used in cranking out episodes was counterproductive when striving for excellence, a fatigued Roddenberry said, “We’re at the point of crisis in TV -- of how much we can do weekly and produce a quality show. ‘Quality’ is now the key word for a successful series.” (145-15)
Echoing this quest for something that rose above the norm, Archerd told how William Shatner responded to being asked “How is your space show different than others?” The actor said, “We learn a lot.” (166-13)
Cynthia Lowry for the Indiana Evening Gazette, on August 9, 1966, wrote, “Press agents for a new NBC entry Star Trek recently issued a release proclaiming that it was not, definitely not, science fiction, but ‘real action-adventure in tomorrow’s space age.’”
NBC publicity photo airbrushed to give Spock human ears and eyebrows (Courtesy of Gerald Gurian)
The second word was now out: Downplay the space stuff. NBC, t
he network that had never before touched science fiction, was doing everything in its power to camouflage Star Trek as being something else. In one notorious press release photo, the tops of Spock’s pointed ears were airbrushed out, making him appear to be a very normal, quite human male of possibly Asian descent. Other pictures released of Spock were of him facing the camera, making his peculiar ears less apparent.
Pictures of William Shatner were more common, and the NBC boys were happy to promote the third most prominent cast member, that blonde space babe in the red miniskirt with go-go dancer boots … who just got sacked.
Grace Lee Whitney struck a sexy pose for the August 28, 1966 cover of TV Week. The article inside declared, “NBC hopes the science fiction plots won’t seem never-ending, and lays stress on the solid adventure approach.”
Steven Carabatsos said, “They were extremely concerned about the program and how they were going to be perceived in it. Bill Shatner was a finely trained Canadian actor and didn’t know what he was getting into. None of us did. Leonard Nimoy was especially concerned, although the Spock character worked out terrifically for him, the program and everyone involved. It could have gone the other way and been just as much an embarrassment.” (28-1)
On August 21, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, in its television magazine, featured the first ever look at the starship Enterprise -- printed upside down. The mistake was understandable. Right side up or upside down, nothing like this strange spaceship had been seen before.
NBC was promoting Whitney more than Nimoy in early network publicity photos (Courtesy Gerald Gurian)
For the first two weeks of September, the Star Trek sound stages remained dark. As cast members made themselves available to the press, Eddie Milkis used the time to catch up with the post-production. Gene Coon and Steven Carabatsos reviewed the episodes already filmed and stayed busy rewriting the five still to come. And Roddenberry, with Jerry Sohl, Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, and Richard Matheson, traveled to Cleveland for Tricon, the world’s largest science fiction convention at the time. It was there, on September 1, that he screened “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Also being shown, courtesy of 20th Century Fox, were the pilot for The Time Tunnel and a new film, Fantastic Voyage.
Roddenberry said, “I was nervous, particularly when I saw them watching other films that were shown before, and stomping and laughing.” (145-9)
Jerry Sohl added, “There was what felt like 3000 people watching a new Irwin Allen show and, as soon as they saw his name, they started booing.” (160-2)
But no one booed, stomped their feet or laughed while the Star Trek pilot was screened. The room was strangely silent. It remained that way even after the film ended and the lights came up.
Roddenberry reminisced, “I think I finally got to my feet and said, ‘Is anybody going to say whether they liked it or not?,’ and it was only afterward that the applause began. I remember calling up the studio and saying, ‘I really think we may have something here,’ and the studio’s reaction was, ‘Well, so a thousand goofs who go to science fiction conventions like it? That means nothing in television.’” (145-9)
The only studio man Roddenberry would have spoken to was Herb Solow, who had no recollection of saying anything of the sort. And he did not appreciate hearing Roddenberry tell such stories.
Shatner on cover of TV Magazine, Sept. 4, 1966, four days before premiere
Two of the thousand “goofs” Roddenberry befriended at the convention were John and Bjo Trimble, who later proved instrumental in keeping Star Trek on NBC... for a while, anyway. The Trimbles were there to oversee the running of a futuristic fashion show. For the event, Roddenberry contributed a couple Star Trek uniforms and the costume worn by Sherry Jackson in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”
Meanwhile, back in Hollywood, the pre-premiere publicity continued. Press releases were sent out; interviews were given.
Captain Kirk made the cover of the September 4 St. Louis Post-Dispatch TV Magazine. For the article, Star Trek was described as “television’s first adult science fiction series.” Pictured with Shatner were Nimoy, his Spock ears barely visible, and Grace Lee Whitney, win a gold pilot tunic, billed as the series’ female lead.
Roddenberry received positive attention for himself in the Chicago Tribune on September 4, with the article “Pilot Turns Cop, Then TV Writer.” The pilot/cop/TV writer said that he wished there was another way to categorize Star Trek other than calling it “science fiction,” for the reason that “many people seem to equate science fiction with monster-who-gobbled-up-Tokyo sort of trash.” He went on to tell writer Clay Gowran that the stories on Star Trek would focus on people rather than gadgetry, “although they may not always be people as we know them.”
On August 28, TV Week, a syndicated newspaper supplement, ran the article “Star Trek Resembles Space Twilight Zone.” Shatner said, “We’re not going to be like the children’s show, Lost in Space, where characters battle villains in eerie costumes. We deal with human conflicts against a science fiction background.” (166-11)
On September 7, one day before Star Trek’s NBC premiere, Daily Variety ran an interview with Shatner. He told correspondent Dave Kaufman, “We are science fiction, but as in all good sci-fi, human stories are told in futuristic terms.... Batman and Lost in Space zeroed in on a particular segment of the audience -- the kids -- and the proof they hit is their popularity. We are in a different timeslot, and will get an older audience. We are trying to provide action and excitement on one level and on another play a little conflict and character development. Our series has a more mature approach; it has jeopardy, romance, sentiment -definite elements of entertainment.... If we make it, we will be setting a trend. In movies and TV, there is a cycle of anti-heroes. We are playing exactly opposite -- if nothing else, it’s heroic.” (166-12)
The week Star Trek premiered, NBC sprang for a quarter page ad in TV Guide and numerous leading newspapers. It featured Kirk and Spock, with Spock again looking more Asian than Vulcan, and a first look at the Enterprise, right side up. The copy read, “Welcome aboard the United Space Ship Enterprise. Where it goes, no program has ever gone before.”
19
America Meets Star Trek
Half-page print ad taken out by NBC in TV Guide and numerous newspapers across the U.S. for the second episode to air, “Charlie X.”
Dick Sargent as Tammy’s uptight brother, and Grimes, disguised as an Arab Sheik, in The Tammy Grimes Show (ABC, 1966)
When Star Trek premiered on NBC, the official fall TV season had not yet begun. Even TV Guide’s Fall Preview issue was still a week away. But NBC had been running on-air promos for “sneak a peek at NBC week,” a seven-day head-start on the traditional fall kick-off.
ABC’s competition for Star Trek at 8:30 p.m. on Thursdays was The Tammy Grimes Show. Grimes was a star on Broadway, having won a Tony award for the lead in The Unsinkable Molly Brown. TV came calling and she was offered the role of Samantha Stevens in Bewitched. Certain the series would flop, Grimes turned the offer down. Two years later, after the surprise success of Bewitched, the unsinkable Tammy Grimes agreed to ABC’s second series’ offer, a half-hour sit-com presenting the feisty Broadway star as “a madcap heiress.”
Star Trek, up against ABC’s top show, Bewitched, with Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York, and Agnes Moorehead (ABC, 1966)
Following Tammy Grimes at 9 p.m. was Bewitched, returning for its third season. The series was ABC’s biggest hit and had become the second-highest rated show on television. Now it would be in color.
Scheduled for 8:30 on CBS was an old favorite: My Three Sons. The spirited comedy with a wholesome Disney feel starred Fred MacMurray as a widower raising three well-meaning but rowdy boys. My Three Sons had just finished the previous season as the fifteenth most watched series on television and was considered ideal programming for the “family hour.” At 9 p.m. was The CBS Thursday Night Movie. Well before HBO, Showtime, and Netflix, prime-time movies were a huge draw, and one of
the most popular was the Thursday movie on CBS.
Another competitor: CBS’s My Three Sons, with Fred MacMurray, William Demarest, and the boys.
TV insiders were predicting Star Trek would be lucky to survive the mid-season shakeup. To go beyond that, it needed a lot of help to stay afloat. In television, especially in the day before every TV came with a remote control, a series needed both a strong lead-in and a solid follow-up to keep its audience. Star Trek had neither.
The lead-in was Daniel Boone, starting its third year. The series had always done respectable business for NBC, but was not a ratings powerhouse. During the series’ first year, the raccoon-capped pioneer lost out to CBS’s ghoulish family, The Munsters. The following season, CBS’s Gilligan’s Island won the ratings race.
The NBC “help” on the back end was a new series called The Hero. Unknown funny guy Richard Mulligan (later to gain fame and collect Emmys on Soap and Empty Nest) played an actor cast as a TV western star who was afraid of horses, allergic to sagebrush, and all thumbs when it came to the fast draw, throwing a punch, kissing the pretty saloon girl, or anything else requiring coordination or guts. His exasperated “real life” wife on the series was Mariette Hartley. She too was years away from stardom.
If Star Trek was to succeed, it would have to do so on its own.
Leading the charge on NBC: Fess Parker as Daniel Boone (1966) …
Roddenberry wanted “The Corbomite Maneuver” to open for the series, but it was held up in post-production. Of the episodes that were ready, the choices were limited to “Where No Man Has Gone Before” (the second pilot film), “Mudd’s Women,” “The Enemy Within,” “The Man Trap,” “The Naked Time” and “Charlie X.” The choice was made by process of elimination:
These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One Page 52
