Template:Realworld Lucille 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]
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]
- An irony of Ball's involvement with the production of the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", is that she allowed NBC to remove Majel Barrett's character from the series concept on the grounds that a female in a position of authority was unacceptable. Ball was herself the first female studio boss in Hollywood history.
External links
- Template:IMDb-link
- Lucille Ball at Wikipedia
References
- ↑ Stape, William N. "Lucille Ball: Mother of Science Fiction Classic Star Trek". Associated Content. 5 July 2007.
- ↑ StarTrek.com's report on Shatner's induction into the TV Academy Hall of Fame
- ↑ Majel Barrett's biography at the Earth: Final Conflict official site.
- ↑ Fisher, Deborah. "Spotlight: Majel Barrett Roddenbery". StarTrek.com. 20 July 2000.