History of Star Trek Fan Campaigns

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: 
Bjo Trimble explains: 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. 
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:
===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.“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). 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."Quoted by Marilyn Beck, in her That's Showbiz column: ‘Trek’ Wasn’t Axed, Says Leonard Nimoy.” Hartford Courant, 15 Feb. 1968: 25. 
Originally NBC moved the show to Monday night to get more visibility.Lincoln Geraghty, ed., The Influence of Star Trek on Television, Film and Culture (McFarland, 2007), p. 30.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. 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.
===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. A fan writing in 2019 for The Trek BBS remembers it this way: 
Michael Kmet has a slightly different view, putting Justman and Solow's recollections in context, at Star Trek Fact Check.Michael Kmet, Star Trek and Color Television Households. Star Trek Fact Check, February 29, 2016.
===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 1968Thanks to redshirtgal at tumblr, "When Star Trek fans read about the letter writing campaigns..." August 18, 2019.
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. 
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:
===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==
thumb|announcement of 1969-70 cancellation, letter campaign for a fourth season
thumb|Flyer requesting fan action including marches on local NBC stations to keep Star Trek on the air. Composed by Andy Probert, who later worked on the special effects for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
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:
==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.
==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==
Image:Ncc1701fancam.jpg|a 1971 flyer from the zine NCC-1701 -- "If we can't get the series back, maybe we can get a feature length movie."
Image:startrekletter1.jpg|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."
Image:startrekletter2.jpg|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."
Image:stcamp1.jpg|a flyer from the mid-1970s, the subject was the first movie -- "It's letter-writing time again!"
Image:stcamp2.jpg|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."
Image:stcamp3.jpg|first side of a March 1975 letter from Gene Roddenberry advising fans about the movie and rumors
Image:stcamp4.jpg|first side of a March 1975 letter from Gene Roddenberry advising fans about the movie and how to write letters to the producers
File:Moremccoy.jpg|a 1981 flyer to encourage TPTB to have more of a role for Dr. McCoy in one of the movies
==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 ==
Category:Star Trek TOS Events
*
Category:2020 Featured Articles