History of Star Trek Fan Campaigns
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For examples of other show campaigns, see Fan Campaign.
Outside of the fan campaign to save CBS' Mama in 1956, the original major fan campaign was "Save Star Trek" in the late 1960s.
Precursor Campaign
Per Harlan Ellison's "The City on the Edge of Forever" (1996, White Wolf Publishing), the first campaign to save Star Trek was initiated in November 1966, two months into the first season, by Gene Roddenberry. The Trek show-runner called Ellison to a meeting at Oblath's Studio Cafe in Hollywood wherein he explained that the network (NBC) had designs to kill the show, and that he wanted Ellison's help to ensure the show was not canceled.
This was likely a hedging of bets--per the The Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct 11, 1966, NBC had already asked Desilu for an entire season, as opposed to the half-season originally contracted. Thus, the show was in no danger of being cancelled in its first season, though the timing was right to ensure the series got a second season. That said, it might have gotten renewed even without a campaign: per Television Age, Dec 19, 1966 (in an article about the disappointing ratings of many of the new shows): "Star Trek, a science fiction series, seems to be holding its own, but its 'grey area' performance makes its future kind of iffy."
Nevertheless, at Roddenberry's request, Ellison got eight fellow SF writers (and, for the most part, screenwriters) to affix their name to a letter addressed to the fan community from 'THE COMMITTEE' (see photo on right):
The letter was sent to a large mailing list of names culled from recent World Science Fiction Convention attendee lists, fan clubs, antiquarian science fiction booksellers, and the like. While the date of the letter was December 1, 1966, it must have been delivered earlier as the letter was already referenced in Yandro 165, assembled in late November. Also, Terry Carr, Senior Editor of Ace Books, replied to Ellison's letter on November 28, 1966 (indicating that he was passing on Xeroxes of the letter to a half-dozen of the larger newszines. He also expressed surprise at the request given that, per TV Guide and elsewhere, Trek's early ratings placed it in the top ten programs, nationally.)
By early January 1967, Ellison called James Ashe, editor of the newszine Science Fiction Times, and told him the fate of the series had already been decided (that a second season had been secured).
It is unknown how many letters were sent during this campaign, or if they affected the network's decision. One fan, in a letter to the Medina County Gazette (Medina, OH) published January 11, 1967, speculated that "close to a million" letters had been sent to NBC, TV stations, and sponsors.
This is unlikely. While Ellison's list was undoubtedly large, it was very much a list of the existing SF fan community as opposed to a Trek fan community, which had not yet sprung into being (the first known fanzine of a Trek-based organization separate from the established SF fan community is Vulcanalia #1, released January 1967--indeed, Vulcanalian Enterprises, the parent club, did not even know of the effort.) At the time, the active SF-fanac community was not very large: Worldcon, the largest SF con, had fewer than 1000 attendees. The largest fanzine, Yandro, considered 250 an overlarge distribution. There were perhaps a dozen big clubs, and their mailing lists overlapped. It is possible that there were only ~10,000 active fans at the time (the average sales of an Ace Double at the time was ~70,000; Analog boasted 150,000 readers, but these weren't active fans).
Moreover, response to the effort was mixed. Science fiction authors and BNFs Ted White and Alexei Panshin, in particular, did not participate and actively poopooed the effort. Roy Tackett, editor of Dynatron, a prominent New Mexico zine, said in December that he would not participate in the campaign. However, Rally (a small southern newszine), Degler (a New York-based zine), Ratatosk (the Los Angeles-based counterpart) and Yandro pledged their support.
NBC said in the March 16-22, 1968 TV Guide that 100,000 viewers had written in to the second campaign (see below), and Bjo Trimble, on March 1, 1968 (Where no Fan has Gone Before) anticipated that 1,000,000 letters had been sent out to various places. As the first campaign was necessarily smaller than the second (and generated no evidence of any change in course at the network level, unlike the second campaign), that a million letters were sent in the first campaign is implausible. This is especially so because the active portion of the campaign was only about a month and a half, significantly shorter than the three month length of the second campaign, which began in mid-December, and which did not result in an announcement from NBC in response until February 23 (q.v. "Where No Fan has Gone Before").
It is thus more likely that the first campaign generated a response typical of such efforts of the time--around 4,000 letters (see below).
Still, this first campaign set the blueprint for the second, and far more famous, campaign.
Origin of "Save Star Trek"
"Save Star Trek" was the fan response to threatened cancellation after the second season. Their efforts successfully renewed the show. A similar campaign for a fourth season was unsuccessful. Later, fans went on to campaign for the show to be shown in reruns, for the creation of the movies, and for the inclusion of the original actors in these movies. Spearheaded by the Star Trek Welcommittee, the campaign was taken up by fans everywhere and took on many different formats.
A first-hand, early explanation:
We were off the NBC schedule -- dropped -- cancelled. The letters, marches, and all the rest of it were immeasurable help in getting us put back on the schedule.... The renewal was due to many factors -- over a million letters and petitions, the student protests, Gene Roddenberry’s literate, reasonable and persuasive assault in personal trips to New York to speak to the decision -makers there. We had definitely been off the schedule - - and then the mail began to pour in. It cost NBC a great deal in hiring extra staff to answer it ... because much of it was from people of some standing in industry, professions and so on. These could not be answered by a routine form letter. So, we cost NBC some money -- and all of you kept us on the air.[3]
Bjo Trimble explains:
The whole "Save Star Trek" campaign was [her husband] John’s fault. We had visited the Trek set, about when word sifted down that the show would be canceled at the end of this, the second season. So we watched actors do their stuff beautifully in front of the camera, then slump off looking depressed. On our way home, John said, 'There ought to be something we could do about this!'... By the time we got back home, we’d mapped out a basic plan of action. So we called Gene Roddenberry to see if he was OK with this idea. Gene had just told his staff that it would be wonderful if there was just some way to reach to fans and get their support. So things began to happen. But all the news at that time was about Women’s Lib and 'the little housewife speaking up,' so the news media had little interest in a businessman. Reporters focused on me instead of John. To my sorrow, John has seldom gotten even the fan credit he so well deserves for his part in making the Star Trek we know now a reality for all of fandom. [4]
On December 1, 1967, the Trimbles sent out a letter to Star Trek fanzine editors -- which at that time meant Juanita Coulson, the Langsams, Ruth Berman, and Peggye Vickers, perhaps Shirley Meech and Elyse Pines -- and to science fiction fanzines and individual fans, their names harvested from fan mail liberated from Paramount's mail room by Roddenberry. It describes the need for immediate action, the addresses to write to, instructions for writing effective letters and ideas for agitation.
Action NOW is of the essence.... I just got a call from Gene Roddenberry... it is highly likely that Star Trek will die if something isn’t done.... [W]e don’t have much time to work.... Morton Werner, head of programming for NBC-TV, Rockefeller Center, New York, is one of the main people who will decide whether or not Star Trek lives. Letters should be personally addressed to him.... We want to combat the good ol’ traditional American attitude of ‘well, my one vote won’t count much...’ because your one tiny letter just may be the letter that topples the scales in the right direction. If thousands of fans just sit around moaning about the death of Star Trek, they will get exactly what they deserve: GOMER PYLE! (Yetch!)[5] But if thousands of fans get off their big fat typers and W*R*I*T*E letters, and do it soon (like, NOW), it could happen that the man in charge of this sort of thing will be more impressed with our letters than with the damned Nielsen ratings.... So pass the word, and write some letters, people; it’s up to us fans to keep Star Trek on TV. Our own inaction will assure that it never sees a third season![6]
NBC figured Gene Roddenberry for a loose cannon – and they were right. Gene was as iconoclastic as he could possibly get away with, and he suffered a fair amount of slings and arrows due to his unrelenting envelope-pushing. NBC was also convinced that Star Trek was watched only by drooling idiot 12-year olds with no buying power. They managed to ignore the fact that people such as Isaac Asimov, a multiple PhD, and a multitude of other intellectuals enjoyed the show. So, of course, the Suits were always looking for reasons to cancel shows they didn’t trust to be raging successes. They used faulty Nielsen Rating numbers to “prove” that Star Trek was failing badly, and decided to cancel it. Fans decided to take action, and we did it very well, thank you very much! So well that NBC came on, in prime time, and made a voice-over announcement that Star Trek was not canceled… so please stop writing letters.[7]
Also see History Is Written By The Victors: Bjo Trimble talks about saving Star Trek (2003).
Josh Marsfelder presents a sociological take on just who Trimble is, and "Save Star Trek" in a modern context, in a 2013 entry at his blog Vaka Rangi:
First of all, Bjo Trimble was no ordinary Star Trek fan, and I don't mean in just the fact she organised one of the most massive and famous letter-writing campaigns in history. In what's perhaps evidence of precisely how insular and niche Star Trek always was, Bjo Trimble was absolutely an insider in the science fiction community of the late 1960s. She got her start attending the Tenth World Science Fiction Convention held in Chicago in 1952, where she was stationed as a WAVE (part of an all-female Navy volunteer emergency response system instituted during World War II). There she met both Robert Bloch and Harlan Ellison, the latter of whom had just sold his first story and decided to propose as soon as he met her (she obviously turned him down, and eventually went on to meet her actual future husband John at the same convention). She became a regular at the conventions in subsequent years, organising some of the first science fiction themed art and fashion shows. It was at one of these shows that she met Gene Roddenberry after being captivated by a screening of “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, and even convinced him to show off the Star Trek uniforms at one of her exhibitions, thus providing one of the first glimpses fans would get of the new show's costume design.[8]
Twisting the Peacock's Tail
This is part of the story, but not the entire story. According to numerous sources, Gene Roddenberry and Desilu-Paramount were in on the "Save Star Trek" campaign from the very beginning. In fact, it was Roddenberry who contacted the Trimbles about a letter campaign after having met them at Worldcon -- not the other way around.
Roddenberry met with college students to organize "spontaneous" protest marches and put Star Trek stickers on the cars of NBC executives. He also recruited people to visit NBC's Burbank and New York offices, talking to anyone who would listen about Star Trek's incipient cancellation and passing out leaflets, buttons and stickers to anyone interested. In addition, he sent out flyers to anyone who had written fan mail. He also provided the group with film clip frames (from the cutting room floor) and various small items from the set that could be sold to defray expenses. This was the beginning of the Lincoln Enterprises souvenir/premium catalogue.[9] Bjo Trimble says in interviews that they had to remind Roddenberry to be extremely circumspect about his involvement so it would appear to be solely a grassroots campaign.
That Roddenberry was involved was an open secret among members of the official fan club, who received a welcome form signed by Roddenberry with the words "We also may all be actively involved later in 'Twisting the Peacock's Tail'. More about that later."
What aroused the suspicion of NBC Vice President Herb Schlosser was that, at least as he saw it, Star Trek had not been cancelled. The schedule was still in process. In fact, NBC executives were in favor of renewing it, and when the schedule was released in February 1968, Star Trek was on it. Several newspapers which had declared Star Trek had already been cancelled had to retract those articles in light of a statement by Leonard Nimoy: “We’ve gotten no word yet one way or the other. And at this point we seem to be in a better position than we were a year ago."[10]
Originally NBC moved the show to Monday night to get more visibility.[11][12][13] Later, they reneged on this schedule and moved it to Friday at 10 p.m., guaranteeing that this would be the last season as it was too late for children, and teens and adults would be out at parties or shows. Roddenberry seemed to lose heart and interest in Star Trek at this point.[12]
When You're First In Color TV, There's Got To Be A Reason
While these actions generated publicity and may have attracted viewers, the real reason Star Trek was renewed, according to Bob Justman and Herb Solow, was that it had become the most popular TV series filmed in color (at a time when many shows were still filmed and broadcast in black and white). NBC billed itself as an all-color network, and its parent company, RCA, manufactured and sold color TV sets. Justman and Solow speculated that Star Trek was contributing to color TV sales.[12] A fan writing in 2019 for The Trek BBS remembers it this way:
The first time I read about a connection between NBC and the RCA color TVS was written by Herb Solo [sic], the Desilu/Paramount executive in charge and one of the show runners. He wrote that STAR TREK was the second highest rated NBC show among color TV owners and he said that he felt that that particular demographic was a much more important reason for Trek to be renewed for a third season than the fan letter writing campaign. He also acknowledged that this was an unpopular point of view, but he was in the meetings with NBC and heard what they had to say. It also gives credence to why the third season was on 10 pm Eastern Time on Fridays. Back then color TVs were expensive and people who could afford them tended to have dinner parties and cocktail parties on Friday nights. In 1968 there was a shift in color TV quality, and people who had the new sets loved to show them off while hosting a party. A show that had a lot of strong color use, such as TOS, showed off the strengths of the new color TV technology. Anyway, I read about the color TV demographic and its importance in a book co-written by Solo, and he was at the decision making meetings with NBC. Take it as you will.[14]
Michael Kmet has a slightly different view, putting Justman and Solow's recollections in context, at Star Trek Fact Check.[15]
How Much Mail Was Received?
"When news of the rumored cancellation of NBC's Star Trek reached the hinterlands, it started the biggest rubble since Tony Galento fought Max Baer. On the surface it appears that the series has even more fans than Lawrence Welk." - Don Page, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, 5 January 1968[16]
According to Alan Baker, NBC's Director of Publicity Programming, the number of letters received at the height of the letter campaign in early 1968 was more like 12,000, not over a million. Even 12,000 was almost too much for the publicity department to handle, since NBC's policy was to respond to every single letter received. This was still far more than the 2,000 to 4,000 letters generated by most TV show letter campaigns.[12]
In an open letter to TV Guide, NBC Vice President Mort Werner said the number of letters and telegrams was closer to 100,000. The Hartford Courant reported 114,667 letters between December 1967 and March 1968. The final tally according to NBC was 115,893 letters, with 52,358 received in February 1968. Werner sent along some of the letters, which were reprinted in TV Guide:
As an ardent member of the Star Trek Underground Watcher's Society, I agree with the New Orleans lady in principle. But, Mrs. Tortorich, it is the kiss of death to tell anyone that a program is intellectually stimulating! If this is made known, the network will fire the producer, and the sponsors will fade like a cheap pair of pants. No! There is a better way, fellow Trekkies. We must tell the network that Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley are dolls, real DOLLS! Tell the sponsors the show is the newest kind of CAMP! Then tell the public that if they listen close the dialog is really DIRTY! This should please everybody, and those of us who are hooked on the show could enjoy it another year. Besides, Mr. Spock really is Something Else. - Jane Ayers, Evansville, Indiana.
NBC shouldn't even think of canceling Star Trek, the most literate, original and thought-provoking series. TV's image is already badly tarnished; should Star Trek be canceled, its image will be shattered beyond repair. - Rod Osbourne, Paterson, NJ.
If NBC kills Star Trek my 132 seventh-grade boys vow to use a phaser on our NBC affiliate. - N.H. Zimmer, Metairie, LA.
Dear Peacock: If the Enterprise leaves its Hollywood orbit, I'll pluck out your feathers -- one by one. - David Hillman, Burbank, CA.
Greetings! We the inhabitants of the Omicron Delta system salute you. In Star Trek you have finally created a television program worthy of intergalactic recognition. Should you discontinue it, we will have no alternative but to destroy your planet. - Anonymous, Tecumseh MI.
NBC: We will be forced to reduce you to your component atoms... - Office of the Commander, United Star Federation.
I have constructed a quite successful laser beam, and... - Anonymous, San Diego, CA.
As most of your readers probably already know, NBC has renewed Star Trek for the 1968-69 season. While we were formulating next season's schedule, more than 100,000 viewers -- one of the largest totals in our history -- wrote or wired their support for Star Trek. Obviously, it is not possible to answer such a large volume of mail individually, so I, therefore, extend a general thanks on behalf of NBC management to your readers who took the time and trouble to communicate with us. The response was gratifying. - Mort Werner, Vice President, NBC Television Network, New York, NY.
See also
- A Look at Star Trek. Television Obscurities, September 1st, 2006, updated February 24th, 2013.
- TPTB's Involvement with Fandom/Specific Fandoms#Star Trek (Gene Roddenberry)
- Syndication: Early Star Trek Syndication at Memory Alpha, detailed information about the sale of Desilu and Star Trek being picked up by Kaiser Broadcasting, from Herb Solow writing in Inside Star Trek: The Real Story and NBC: America's Network by Michele Hilmes (Univ. of California Press, 2007).
The Importance of the Third Season
While the third season of Star Trek had fairly lackluster ratings, it was instrumental in the future of Star Trek. At the time, shows without a third season were not picked up for broadcast syndication (individual stations buy shows outside their affiliated network). And without syndication, where the show really picked up viewers, Star Trek would have simply been a footnote in television history. In that sense, the Save Star Trek campaign certainly saved the future of Star Trek.
Campaign for the Fourth Season
Another unsuccessful letter campaign for a fourth season began in the winter of 1968 as word spread that the show was off the fall 1969 schedule. Some of these letters were reprinted in TV Guide also: "How can anyone dare speak of taking Star Trek off the air after I just had my ears sharpened like Mr. Spock?" - T. Rioux, Fall River MA. (This may be Terry Lee Rioux, who in 2005 completed the authorized biography of DeForest Kelley, From Sawdust to Stardust.)
In the twelfth issue of the official newsletter Inside Star Trek, fans were told:
YES, STAR TREK HAS BEEN CANCELLED. Star Trek will return to the air Tuesday, June 3, 1969 at 7:30 on NBC with Gene Roddenberry's never-before-seen "Turnabout Intruder". They will then re-run eleven third season episodes before going off the air the first week of September 1969. In a few areas Star Trek has been picked up for re-runs by local stations starting in September, 1969.This would not preclude the possibility of re-entering prime time network programming as a mid-season replacement in January, 1970 or even a fresh start in September 1970. Our best chance lies with ABC which usually has more openings than the other networks.
The realization of this rebirth is largely up to YOU.
The networks have been besieged by your letters; however, as soon as they see a drop in the mail count they will figure the storm is over, breathe a sigh of relief and promptly forget us.
DON'T LET THEM. This is our last chance. WRITE!!! WRITE ABC!! WRITE NBC!!
WHO SHOULD FANS WRITE? WHAT ARE THE EFFECTIVE WAYS?
First, don't mention Star Trek on the envelope. If you do the network executives will never see your message since all such letters are forwarded unopened to the show.
Send your letters to NBC and ABC executives. The best choices are: [addresses for NBC's Julian Goodman and Mort Werner, ABC's Elton Rule and Martin Starger follow]
Letters from schools, professional organizations, and professional people always carry extra weight. A hundred letters carry more weight than one letter with 100 signatures.
WILL LINCOLN ENTERPRISES STAY IN BUSINESS? YES, as long as loyal fans would like souvenirs of the show. Thank you for all your support in the past.[17]
Detailed Instructions
From Star-Borne #8 (1973): You have asked what you can do to help bring STAR TREK back on the air. by David Gerrold.
The zine Star-Borne, probably issue 11 or 12, included this list of suggestions for fans to write requesting a revival of the live-action show and supporting the animated series. These are adapted from Bjo Trimble's original guidelines for writing letters to NBC to save TOS.
- Star Trek - write now!
- There has been mentioned in STAR-BORNE, in almost every issue, the letter writing campaign to help bring back ‘live’ STAR TREK and to help keep the animated STAR TREK on the air too. What should you do when you write your letters? Follow the information given here.
- How often should you write? Would it be difficult for anyone to write one letter a week to PARAMOUNT and NBC? First, WRITE PARAMOUNT. Tell them that you want STAR TREK to return as a live television show or movie. Then get your friends, cousins, fellow workers, school mates, etc., to write too. The more letters the better. Let us keep burying PARAMOUNT in an avalanche of letters.
- And then WRITE NBC. Tell them what you think of the animation. Tell them if you want it back next year. Tell them if you would like to see it as a prime-time evening show.
- Write to your local television station that might be broadcasting the syndicated rerun STAR TREK. This can be instrumental in keeping the reruns in your area. There is nothing wrong in calling the station manager too and telling him/her what you think of STAR TREK. Every call or letter counts.
- Follow the letter writing rules. If you have trouble composing a general business letter, write a general form letter and use it as the model for the letters that you will write. But most of all - WRITE!
- The following are the guides for writing letters:
- DO NOT write STAR TREK, “I LOVE LEONARD NIMOY” etc. on the outside of the envelope. This is automatically forwarded to Gene Roddenberry by NBC or Paramount.
- DO NOT send in petitions. They are virtually worthless. One letter is worth more than 100 signatures.
- DO NOT send in “Form” letters of any kind including carbon or ditto. These are too readily identified.
- DO NOT write ‘cute’ letters. This is a BUSINESS LETTER! Use proper English and letter form if possible. Also, anonymous letters present a very bad image as to the caliber of the ST fan.
- DO type or write neat intelligent letters with a firm voicing of opinion.
- DO use letter-headed stationery only IF IT IS REPRESENTATIVE OF YOU personally. It is ideal for pointing out the kind of responsible person that the STAR TREK fan is.
- WRITE NOW! It is also recommended that you keep carbons of all correspondence with both PARAMOUNT and NBC, and that you also keep records of all replies (if any) that you receive from NBC or PARAMOUNT.
- S.T.A.R. CENTRAL encourages all of our readers to write now. The above rules may be reprinted freely by any ST fan or club in order that more of STAR TREK’s fans will find out about the campaign." [18]
Other Star Trek Fan Campaigns
Fueled by the success of the first campaign, fans went on to rally for other things they wanted. Later Star Trek fan campaigns, some resulting in success, included those to:
- bring back re-runs/syndication
- support the animated series (but don't call it a "cartoon"!)
- create the first Star Trek film
- have all the original cast members in the movies
- not have Spock killed in The Wrath of Khan
- have a big/bigger part for McCoy in the movies
- convince President Ford to name the first space shuttle orbiter after the starship Enterprise, instead of Constitution.
Gallery of Star Trek Fan Campaign Flyers and Letters
a response to a Star Trek fan letter that was written by a teenage boy -- "We know from the response of our audience, that this show has a great appeal to adults as well as teenagers."
a response to a Star Trek fan letter that was written by a teenage boy -- "It is my understanding that there are no plans at this time to present STAR TREK... during the new 1969-70 season."
a flyer from the mid-1970s, the subject was the first movie -- "It's letter-writing time again!"
excerpt from a 1975 newsletter issued by the STW and written by John Trimble and Bjo Trimble -- "Be polite, mature, intelligent, and brief -- nobody wants to read pages and pages of how great you think an actor is."
first side of a March 1975 letter from Gene Roddenberry advising fans about the movie and rumors
first side of a March 1975 letter from Gene Roddenberry advising fans about the movie and how to write letters to the producers
Meta/Further Reading
- I'd like to talk about STAR TREK, past, present and future, and I don't know whether you're going to like what I have to say. by D.C. Fontana (1973)
- You have asked what you can do to help bring STAR TREK back on the air. by David Gerrold (1973)
- History Is Written By The Victors: Bjo Trimble talks about saving Star Trek (2003)
References
- ^ Harlan Ellison, December 1, 1966 open letter to "The Committee" consisting of major science fiction authors including Richard Matheson, Isaac Asimov and A.E. Van Vogt.
- ^ "It is no secret that for many years I was not exactly the biggest booster of ST. Having been in at the beginning before the beginning of the series, having been one of the first writers hired to write the show, I was wildly enthusiastic about the series as Gene Roddenberry had initially conceived it. (In fact, at the very first Nebula Awards banquet of the Science Fiction Writers of America, which I set up at the Tail O' The Cock here in Los Angeles, I arranged for a pre-debut screening of the pilot segment.) The show debuted on September 8th, 1966 and by December it was in trouble with NBC. The Nielsens were very low, and Gene asked me if there was anything I could do to get the popularity the show was experiencing in science fiction circles conveyed to the network. I set up 'The Committee' and using the facilities of Desilu Studios, I sent out five thousand letters of appeal to fandom, urging the viewers to inundate NBC with demands that the show be kept on the air." Harlan Ellison, Harlan Ellison's Watching (Underwood-Miller, 1988).
- ^ D.C. Fontana, quoted in Spockanalia 2, April 19, 1968. Cited by Marc Cushman in These Are The Voyages - TOS: Season Two Jacobs Brown Press, 2014. Spockanalia's editors added: "While we're busy taking pride in our nudging the Powers That Be, let's remember that networks have very short memories. There will, no doubt, be a new campaign this fall -- and it will be less desperate if we continue to write during the summer. Right, Bjo?"
- ^ from an interview with Bjo Trimble on startrek.com, posted 9.1.2011, accessed 9.4.2011
- ^ The Trimbles were not being metaphorical. According to an article on the MeTV website, Gomer Pyle, USMC was one of the factors in Star Trek's ultimate demise: "After CBS's Gomer slipped to tenth in the ratings, NBC saw an opportunity to schedule its struggling Star Trek against it. The network moved Kirk and Spock from Thursday evenings to Fridays, head-to-head with Gomer in the 8:30PM slot, thinking Star Trek would find an audience. The competition only helped to give Gomer its second wind, as it climbed back to No. 3. After the drubbing, Trek voyaged to the 'graveyard slot' on Fridays at 10PM for its third and final season." These 'Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.' facts will make you say SHAZAM! MeTV website, 2016-05-26.
- ^ Marc Cushman, These are the Voyages - TOS: Season Two. Jacobs Brown Press 2014.
- ^ Bjo Trimble, the Woman who Saved Star Trek, 2011-08-31.
- ^ Josh Marsfelder, "Ship's Log, Supplemental: Bjo Trimble and 'Save Star Trek!'" Vaka Rangi, September 24, 2013.
- ^ “Gene Roddenberry gave us a great many film clips and so on -- odds and ends of things around the set -- to sell to fans and friends, so that we could defray some of the expenses of the campaign. Well, the stuff went like wildfire and I knew then that fans -- all Star Trek fans, not just our friends -- would dig the chance to buy this kind of stuff..." Bjo Trimble, quoted in Marc Cushman and Susan Osborn, These Are The Voyages - TOS: Season Three (Jacobs Brown, 2015).
- ^ Quoted by Marilyn Beck, in her That's Showbiz column: ‘Trek’ Wasn’t Axed, Says Leonard Nimoy.” Hartford Courant, 15 Feb. 1968: 25.
- ^ Lincoln Geraghty, ed., The Influence of Star Trek on Television, Film and Culture (McFarland, 2007), p. 30.
- ^ a b c d Herbert Solow & Robert Justman, Inside Star Trek: The Real Story (Pocket, 1996), p. 378 et seq.
- ^ George Gent, “N.B.C. Schedules Changes in Fall". New York Times. 21 Feb. 1968: 95.
- ^ "Doctor Jeffrey," The first time I read about a connection ... thread on The Trek BBS, discussing a proposed series called Starship.
- ^ Michael Kmet, Star Trek and Color Television Households. Star Trek Fact Check, February 29, 2016.
- ^ Thanks to redshirtgal at tumblr, "When Star Trek fans read about the letter writing campaigns..." August 18, 2019.
- ^ Inside Star Trek 11, p. 8.
- ^ from Star-Borne
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