thegoddamazon:ladyw1nter:obstinatecondolement:knitmeapony:mimejuice:dduane:spodiddly:tinuelena:Whose

thegoddamazon:ladyw1nter:obstinatecondolement:knitmeapony:mimejuice:dduane:spodiddly:tinuelena:Whose intervention ensured Star Trek saw the light of day?Answer: Lucille BallMost people recognize and remember Lucille Ball as the lovable and silly star of one of America’s earliest and most loved sitcoms, I Love Lucy. What most people don’t know is that Lucille was a savvy business woman and that she and her husband Desi Arnaz had amassed a small fortune and owned their own studio, Desilu.It was at Desilu that acclaimed Sci-Fi screenwriter and visionary Gene Roddenberry got his big break. Roddenberry pitched the Star Trek pilot to the studio as a sort of Western-inspired space adventure. While many within the studio balked at the idea, Lucille liked the idea and the first pilot was approved and filmed. The pilot was pitched to NBC and was promptly rejected on the grounds that it was too intellectual, not enough like the space-western they had been lead to believe it would be, and audiences wouldn’t relate to it. Lucille, a fan of Roddenberry’s work, pushed back against NBC and insisted they order a second pilot. Ordering a second pilot was a practice almost entirely unheard of and save for Lucille’s charisma and clout with the network it would never have happened.Roddenberry shot the second pilot, NBC accepted it, and Star Trek premiered in 1966, thus beginning a new era in the Sci-Fi genre and laying the foundation for half a century of Star Trek fandom–an era that would have never come to pass without the intervention and insistence of Lucille Ball.Bonus Trivia: After her divorce from Arnaz, Lucille bought out his share of their studio. As a result she became the first woman to both head and own a major studio. (*)Now I love Lucy.So few people know about this! Too few. Glad to see this turning up here. Also: it was through Lucille Ball’s influence that the concept of the rerun (previously unknown and thought to be worthless by studios to whom it was pitched) finally took hold. Desilu essentially pioneered the concept of syndication, and of the “syndication package” — the minimum number of episodes (initially 65, now sometimes more) necessary for a series to become commercially viable, via onward sales, for longer than its initial live run.We have a lot to thank Lucy for besides that beautiful rubbery face.  :)whoa.This is just another way that we can remember that as women We. Created. Scifi.Never let anyone tell you that women are a recent addition to fandom.  From Mary Shelley on, horror, sci fi and fantasy have been a women’s realm since the beginning.Always reblog.fuck. I never knew this. A NEW FOREVER REBLOG.I was wondering how many of these reblogs would go around before someone found out Lucille said some fucked up shit about POC or some other oppressed group.Guess no one found anything.I accepted the challenge and looked into it. From what I could find, people have cited her close friendships with several black people (celebrities and not) and her marriage to Desi Arnaz, a (light-skinned) Cuban, as evidence that she was not. However, most of the people discussing it seem to have a fairly simplistic view of how racism really works: if your maid and nanny are black, that’s not necessarily evidence that you view black people as equal to whites because you “allow them into your home” as one commenter said. (…Wow.) It also isn’t evidence that she definitely was racist; the fact in itself doesn’t tell us much. She had a close relationship with her personal assistant, who was black, which might point in a slightly more positive direction (since a PA is someone you trust and rely on very closely, it implies at least the assumption of confidence and trust), and people have also pointed out her choice to bring several black entertainers onto her show as guests. Again, though, there are plenty of “But I have black friends!” racists out there who very comfortably tokenize and blindly make “exceptions” while still holding blanket biases. She was apparently a great admirer and a friend of Sammy Davis, Jr., but again, the fact of having black friends isn’t all that instructive.I did find one word-of-mouth report (“my friend saw her speak and he said that he got the impression that”) that she “didn’t like black people,” without any details or elaboration. So there’s that as well, but it’s hard to know exactly what gave this person that impression. (I’m inclined to believe that if someone called out such a beloved figure, they probably had a good reason, though.)So basically, we can’t tell for sure or to what extent (at least not based on my admittedly fairly casual research), but there’s a decent chance she least has said something problematic about black people specifically. Personally, I believe it’s possible to be happy and thankful about her role in bringing Star Trek (a racially progressive show) to the public and acknowledge the possibility that she was a bit of a racist at the same time. We can celebrate an accomplishment without erasing or ignoring the problematic politics of the achiever. I am NOT saying that being happy about this one thing means it doesn’t matter that/if she was racist, or that it “makes up for” it, but as we frequently say you can like problematic media as long as you recognize and acknowledge those problems. So, returning to the initial post in that spirit: I HAD NO IDEA AND THAT’S AWESOME. I always used to watch I Love Lucy reruns at my grandparents’ house, so I have fond memories of her already, but this is a delightful piece of information. -- source link

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