How the HUAC Almost Killed Star Trek

As promised, it's story time, kiddos.

The House Unamerican Activities Committee was a special committee to try and ferret out communist influence in America during the early years of the Cold War. It was supposed to look for spies and saboteurs.

Mostly, it went after artists, actors, writers, and film directors for not toeing a certain line when it came to their output. That line, of course, was borderline nationalistic and very pro-business, racist, and misogynist.

We won't go into all the lives the HUAC ruined with their shennanigans. We'll just look at one they tried to ruin. You may have heard of her. A comedian named Lucille Ball.

It's not an understatement to say that if you watched television anytime in the past 50 years, you have been influenced by her and her husband, Desi Arnaz's, work. I Love Lucy almost literally invented the modern television business model. Because Lucy and Desi lived on the west coast while most television broadcasting occurred on the east coast, they were forced to use a little trick to allow them to perform at reasonable hours: they recorded their show on film.

Shows, prior to that, if they were recorded at all, were recorded on a format called kinetoscope. These deteriorated quickly had low fidelity. But being filmed, I Love Lucy was one of the first television shows to last, as they say, for the ages. It also allowed other features that are now a staple of television: re-runs and flashback episodes. One year, during Lucy's pregnancy, they re-aired several episodes with wrap-around segments where the other characters starting off: "Remember that time when Lucy..." Not to mention that just about every sitcom since then has been using recordings of the I Love Lucy audience for their own laugh track!

So why did the HUAC come after America's favorite red-head? Probably a lot of reasons. The fact that the narrative focus of her show was the female character probably helped. The fact that she was openly an happily married to a Cuban immigrant probably contributed. But their ultimate excuse was that during the 30s, her grandfather joined the Communist Party and pressured her to join, too.

So, she was still technically a Communist. Of course, she wasn't spying or sabotaging anything. Public pressure and the support of her husband caused the HUAC to cave in this one instance and let her go. So she was free to continue changing television history.

Here's a lesser known story. Lucy owned a television studio, Deslilu in the 60s, and a script for a show pitched as "Wagon Train to the stars" came across her desk. She didn't understand it, but she somehow knew it had the potential to be great. So she gave the writer the go ahead to make it. Twice! That writer's name: Gene Roddenberry.

So, all you macho Kirk fans, you have a woman to thank for your franchise seeing the light of day. You also need to thank another woman, B-Jo Trimble, and her dedicated letter writing campaign, for keeping it on the air as long as it did.

There are lessons to learn from this story. I trust you, my audience to piece them together. But one I always take from it is going to be the most important as we go forward, and it's the basic message of Trek: Hope.