Lucille Ball Lucille " Lucy " Désirée Ball was an actress and comedienne best known for her titular role on " I Love Lucy " . During the mid - 1960s , she was the owner and chief executive of Desilu Studios and as such responsible for approving the initial production of . 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 , who became her new business partner as Co - chairman of the Board in running Desilu , handling the studio ' s business and financial affairs . ( " " , 1997 , pp . 3 - 5 ) " Star Trek " - lore has it cited that it were her affinity for " Star Trek " creator Gene Roddenberry and favor of the general goals of the series as reasons for the studio to persist with " Star Trek " after NBC rejected the original pilot , . Decades later however , this turned out to be only exactly that – lore , an invented lie , perpetuated and grossly exaggerated by Roddenberry in the 1970s - 1980s " Star Trek " convention circuit . Desilu executive Herb Solow has pointed out that Roddenberry did not know Ball personally , and never has . Too preoccupied with her own show , Ball was shielded from the operational minutiae of running her studio by her loyal executive staff ( the longer serving ones fiercely protective of their employer and known as " The Old Guard " or " Lucites " ) who were handling the minor day - to - day business – which Roddenberry was , despite his assertions to the contrary afterwards ( " Star Trek and American Television " , pp . 19 - 37 ) – of Desilu . In effect Ball had , according to Solow , actually misunderstood the premise of the series she had bought at first ; she was under the impression that she had bought a show that dealt with Hollywood stars traveling the South Seas for the , visiting fighting troops in the Pacific . Still , she did not revert her decision after she was set straight by Solow . " " She may have initially misunderstood the " Star Trek " concept , " " author Marc Cushman wrote , " " but TV ' s " wacky redhead " , known for playing a character that had always had a harebrained scheme up her sleeve , had learned well from Desi Arnaz . He had been called crazy many times by Industry insiders , but always proved his critics wrong . " " ( " " , 1997 , p . 22 ; " " , 1st ed , p . 39 ) Solow and Producer Robert Justman have at a later point in time added , " " Lucy really did not understand the show ; it was very foreign to her and she was watching this thing being done . We ' d talk once or twice a week and she never looked away when we were over budget . She was there with the money . No interference whatsoever , in fact as I said in the book , when I gave her the first and second pilot scripts , I don ' t think she even read them . " " Most crucially however , it actually " had been " Ball who had saved " Star Trek " from cancellation for the very first time , but not directly after the initial " too cerebral " refusal in February 1965 by NBC as claimed by Roddenberry in later years and taken as gospel by 1970s " Trekdom " . One year later , in February 1966 , her small studio found itself unexpectedly confronted with the production of three expensive television properties , all brought in by Oscar Katz and Herb Solow ( who were specifically hired to do so , in order to safeguard the future existence of the ailing studio ) , where there had only been one before , her own " I Love Lucy " show . Under advisement were " Star Trek " , the action series " " and the western series " The Long Hunt of April Savage " ( also produced by Roddenberry between the first and second " Star Trek " pilots ) , and the conservative board of directors feared , not unjustified , that the studio would financially overstretch itself . Vigorously defended by Solow , not a voting board member but a firm believer in the show , and despite the fact that " Star Trek " was already picked up by NBC after the second pilot , , had been produced , virtually the entire board ( including her second husband Morton and her brother Fred , but save for executive Bernard Weitzman ) unanimously voted to cancel " Star Trek " . Katz was also a voting board member , but was not present as he was already on his way out . Yet , as Chairwoman of the Board , Ball had the power to override her board , and this she did with a mere nod of her head towards Solow . " " That was all " Star Trek " needed , " " as author Cushman had succinctly put it , " " A nod of Lucille Ball . " " ( " " , 1st ed , pp . 32 , 94 ) For all intents and purposes , and contrary to widely held beliefs in " Star Trek " - lore , this was factually the very first time that " The Original Series " came exceedingly close to cancellation , were it not for Lucille Ball , or as one of the other nay - sayers on the board , studio accountant Edwin " Ed " Holly , later conceded , " " If it were not for Lucy , there would be no ' Star Trek ' today . " " It should be noted that Roddenberry , as a " mere " contracted studio employee , was not allowed to attend , and that , had " Star Trek " been cancelled , so would he have been . Ironically , the fears of the board were somewhat allayed when ABC canceled " April Savage " , before production of the regular series was slated to start . Solow ' s and Holly ' s account of Ball saving the " Star Trek " series for the first time was later corroborated by Ball ' s daughter , Lucie Arnaz ( wife of actor Laurence Luckinbill ) , when she reconfirmed her mother ' s involvement at the 2006 induction of William Shatner into the Television Academy Hall of Fame , albeit in more flowery terms , " " [ At one point , her 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 ! " " Though overruling her board , Ball was not insensitive to their concerns as she had already demonstrated earlier , when the second pilot struggled to finish shooting on 28 July 1965 , in a , for her so typical , plucky way . Keeling over with fatigue , Director James Goldstone , Producer Robert Justman and Solow had the stage cleared for another shoot , when they noticed another broom on the stage . It was Ball , who declared to Goldstone while sweeping , " " What do I have to do to get you to finish ? " " , and to Justman and Solow , " " What I won ' t do to get the wrap party started ! " " ( " " , 1997 , p . 85 ) Goldstone himself corroborated the episode in the documentary , " Inside Star Trek - The Real Story " , where he has added that champagne was served after they were done . Despite her reluctance to become involved in the operational minutiae her studio , Lucille Ball became well known for her character trait of valuing moral propriety after her marriage with Arnaz ( which had fallen apart partly due to Arnaz ' philandering ) , and this she expected of her staff and employees as well . When she found out that the married Roddenberry had an illicit affair with Majel Barrett ( ironically an actress she herself had hired for Desilu and having personally instructed her in one of own comedy seminars in 1957 . ) , she could not abide with this kind of behavior and wanted to fire the both of them on the spot , starkly contradicting his later " affinity " assertions . Ironically , Ball had wanted to do something similar , albeit at the opposite end of the spectrum , with " Mission : Impossible " co - stars Barbara Bain and Martin Landau , when she found out that the two were actually a married couple , and wanted to fire them as she suspected a severe case of nepotism , which she could not abide with either . And indeed , this had been the additional reason for Ball for wanting to fire the future Roddenberry couple as well , as she had also became aware that he had surreptitiously sneaked an as a blonde disguised Barrett back into the " Star Trek " production ( as nurse Christine Chapel ) against the express wishes of NBC . Through an intermediary , her personal publicist Howard McClay , Solow had a tough time to convince Ball otherwise . ( " " , 1997 , p . 223 ; " " , 1st ed , pp . 25 - 27 )