Connections: Trek and Mission Connections: Trek and MissionMuch of the early press about Space: 1999 referred to it as the new Star Trek. The stars came from another US TV series, Mission: Impossible. Here we look a little closer at the making of Star Trek and Mission: Impossible to explain the thinking behind Space: 1999.
When US TV networks commissioned a new series, either internally or from an external production company, they typically required one or more pilot shows. If they went ahead with a series, they typically paid for the first half a series (around 14 episodes), and started broadcast. They assessed the audience ratings, and critical reaction, and would order mid-season changes for the remaining episodes, or cancel the series altogether. Production companies, and creative personnel, did not like this system of network interference.
Lew Grade's ITC did not follow these rules. While they would try to sell a series before making it, they preferred to film the entire series, without a pilot or mid-season assessment, and only then start broadcast. For ITC, the US was the most important market, but sales to the UK and international markets were important too. Being filmed in the UK, they were far away from network oversight.
US production companies also sometimes worked like this, and two shows in particular were enormously influential. These two shows were made by the same production company, Desilu, on adjacent stages in Hollywood at the same time. Desilu was owned by actress Lucille Ball, star of I Love Lucy. Desilu had being trying to break into drama series for some time, and in 1966 they finally sold two innovative new series, Bruce Geller's Mission Impossible to CBS, and Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek to NBC. While both shows produced pilots (Star Trek made two different pilots), they insisted on a full season guarantee (Trek series 2 did have a mid-series renewal). The two shows were the most expensive on network TV, but nevertheless Desilu insulated the two series producers from a lot of network interference. Desilu was tolerant of high budgets, and (initial) schedule over-runs, and insisted on high technical standards, including 35mm film to ensure later sales, including to international markets. These were values shared with ITC, but not regularly practised by the networks or other production companies.
A number of crew worked on Mission Impossible, Star Trek and Space: 1999. Joan Collins appeared in all three series, because she was a well known name working in the US and UK. Martin Landau always claimed he rejected the role of Spock in Star Trek. He was probably considered, but he didn't even commit to Mission Impossible except as a guest star, so it unlikely he was ever a serious consideration. When Landau left Mission Impossible, Nimoy took over his role in the fourth year. Space: 1999 recruited stars and crew from both series, Landau, Bain and director Lee Katzin from Mission Impossible, Fred Freiberger and writer Art Wallace from Star Trek.
Several of the people in these series knew each other well. Mission Impossible producer Bruce Geller went to acting classes taught by Martin Landau, and cast him for his series. Mission Impossible and Star Trek were filmed on adjacent stages at Desilu, and staff such as assistant director Bob Justman was reassigned from one show to the other. Leonard Nimoy was also an acting coach and knew Landau. In Star Trek first series, while Shatner earned $5,000 per episode, Nimoy had just $1,250. When Star Trek was renewed for the second series, Nimoy heard that Landau had negotiated $11,000 an episode for the second series of Mission Impossible, and wanted a huge rise (to $9,000; he settled for $2,500). The Landau figure was wrong. He was on $5000 per episode for season 1 as a guest star, then $6,500 per episode for 2 and 3 (paid directly by CBS). Landau did ask $11 for season 4, which Desilu refused to pay. Nimoy then took over the role for season 4, at $7,000 per episode (having personally checked with Landau).
For Space: 1999 in 1973, Landau and Bain were paid $20,000 per episode.
Fred Freiberger had the same agent as Roddenberry, and had interviewed as a producer for the show before the first series; as he was planning a trip to Europe, he did not proceed, with Gene Coon taking his position. After Coon left, and with Roddenberry withdrawing from the third series, Freiberger was brought in. Later in 1973, Freiberger was interviewed as a writer for the first series of Space: 1999, and in 1975 Gerry Anderson recruited him as producer-writer on the second series.
The budget for each episode of the first series of Mission Impossible was $186,865, although 22 of the 28 episodes went over budget (the pilot cost $575,744). By the third series, the official budget for episode was $185,000, but every episode exceeded that, with one reaching $511,000. By the fourth series, the budget was under much stricter control, and from the sixth all episodes were kept to budget.
Star Trek first series budget was $190,635. In the second series it was raised for the first few episodes to $192,000 (with a salary boost to Nimoy), but then cut to $187,500. The third series was a significant price cut, to $178,500. The Desilu-Paramount studios were now charging for their facilities, a large hidden cost that also reduced the budget.
The networks paid Desilu around $160,000 per episode. Desilu was making a loss on both series, especially Mission Impossible with the over-runs. CBS would sometimes make additional payments, such as covering Martin Landau's salary in the second series of Mission Impossible.
The budget for Space: 1999 was claimed by ITC to be $6.5 million for the full series, and $275,000 per episode in year 1 (year 1 publicity). The second year budget was $7.2 million with $300,000 per episode (year 2 publicity, Variety advert). It was, however, calculated in UK pounds, with £2.6 for year 1 (£105,000 per episode) (1974 press) and £3.6 for year 2 (Daily Express).
However, Fred Freiberger claimed in a 1980 interview that the ITC figures were just publicity. The actual year 2 budget was $185,000 per episode (less than Mission Impossible and only slightly more than third series Star Trek, despite almost 10 years of inflation). The reason was that UK studios were significantly cheaper than Hollywood. This is also why George Lucas made Star Wars in the UK, and numerous other films followed into the 1980s.
When Breakaway took much longer to film than scheduled, this was not a new experience for the Landaus. The first episode of Mission Impossible in December 1965 was planned at 13 days, and took 19 plus an extra day for inserts. Later episodes were done at a much faster pace, taking 7 days per episode, but longer over-runs were not unusual.
Star Trek had just 6 days to complete an hour long episode. This was the average for an hour long episode of American television.
This pace was only possible because working late into the evening was standard. On the first episode of Mission Impossible they worked until 10pm on Christmas Eve. Some of the crew got overtime, but the cast were generally paid to complete the picture, not by hour. First series star Steven Hill was an orthodox Jew who would leave before sundown on Fridays, causing big problems for a production that often ran to midnight at the end of the week; in his absence guest star Martin Landau got a much larger role.
Space: 1999 struggled to complete episodes in 10 to 12 days. UK crews worked a standard 8 hour day, starting at 8:30am, stopping for a 1 hour lunch around 12:30pm, finishing abruptly at 5:30pm. There were also mid-morning and mid-afternoon tea breaks, during which all filming was suspended. One of the attractions of the UK for the Landaus was being able to get home in the evening after filming to see their children.
The Landaus experience in Mission Impossible was a series that was allowed to over-run in days and budget. For them, it all went wrong when new producers came to to control costs.
In July 1967, Lucille Ball sold Desilu to Gulf and Western, who merged it into their Paramount TV division. The new management were stricter on the financial side and wanted more operational control. The changes, introduced over the next 2 years, had profound effects, not least the reductions in budget. Crew who had enjoyed the freedom of the Desilu days began to move on. For both series, the third series in 1968 is when things changed drastically, and the change of management was the primary reason.
These series were noted for the strong influence of their creator-producers. For Mission Impossible it was Bruce Geller; for Star Trek it was Gene Roddenberry; for Space: 1999 it was Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. All of them would have a difficult time on their series that made their name.
After Desilu became part of Paramount in 1967, two executives in charge of Mission Impossible and Star Trek, Herb Solow and Robert Justman, left. Geller clashed frequently with the new Paramount executives, particularly Douglas Cramer, Solow's replacement. Increasingly Geller was forced out from his show, with the big confrontations happening at the start of series 4, in 1968. Martin Landau and Barbara Bain were forced out, and a new line producer, Bruce Lansbury, came in. Finally during the early part of series 5, in 1970, Geller was banned from the studio lot. Mission Impossible made two more years, on budget but a weak echo of the original Geller vision.
Cramer also clashed with Gene Roddenberry on Star Trek when it was renewed for a third series. Cramer set a reduced budget, and when Roddenberry protested he was exiled to an office on the other side of the lot. Roddenberry had almost no involvement in the third series, which now assigned to a new producer, Fred Freiberger. Instead, Roddenberry, while still collecting an executive producer salary, was working on his next project (two Tarzan movies). Roddenberry did insist on one small scene, with a Shatner speech and medallion in the episode "Is There No Truth In Beauty". The cast and crew later realised that Roddenberry was selling a copy of the medallion to fans through his (unlicensed) mail order company, Lincoln Enterprises, along with copies of scripts (without Writer's Guild authorisation) and film frames (without Paramount's authorisation, which would cause problems in the third series when all the stock footage was found to be missing).
Roddenberry was intensely disliked by some some people who had worked on the series. Theme music writer Alexander Courage was outraged that Roddenberry wrote lyrics, which were never used, just so he could claim half the music royalties. Leonard Nimoy distrusted Roddenberry over various disputes, including royalties as well as a promised role in The Questor Tapes (1974). Roddenberry was repeatedly brought back by Paramount for Star Trek, only to clash with other producers and finally be sidelined. First was an aborted TV revival in 1976 (Star Trek Phase II), the pilot film becoming Star Trek The Motion Picture (1979), much of the cost over-runs for that film being blamed on Roddenberry. The next five films retained him as a consultant, given scripts, while his feedback was ignored (he hated all the later films). In 1986, Roddenberry was brought back in for a new series, Star Trek The Next Generation. Mid-season he began to retire from the production in failing health (and with addiction problems).
When Gerry Anderson asked Freiberger to take over the second series of Space: 1999, it was not just that he was an experienced veteran of a science fiction series, it was also because he could control costs.
Geller, Roddenberry and Gerry Anderson were all closely involved in script development, and all tended to write plot driven scripts with humourless characters. It was other writers on their shows who tried to introduce wit and personality. Geller and Roddenberry were prone to insist on getting their own way, but Gerry Anderson was more flexible. All had strong personal loyalty to some cast and crew, and major rifts with others.
Mission Impossible first aired on CBS on Saturday 17 September 1966 at 9pm. For the second series, it moved to Sundays at 10pm, where it had its greatest success.
Star Trek started on NBC on Thursday 8 September 1966 at 8:30pm. For the second series in 1967 it moved to the Friday 8:30pm slot. For the 1968 season, it moved to Fridays at 10pm. While the late slot worked for Mission Impossible, it excluded children and even teenagers who were a key audience of Star Trek. At the end of the series, in June 1969, NBC moved it to Tuesday at 7:30pm, but the audience had deserted it.
Star Trek then moved into syndication in 1969, being sold to individual stations who ran the episodes every weekday evening. After all the episodes had been run, they were just repeated in the same slot. Normally a show needed over a hundred episodes. Both Mission Impossible and Mannix completed 7 network seasons before Paramount were confident of syndication sales. But with just 3 seasons and 79 episodes, a complete daily run of Star Trek lasted just 3 months, with episodes repeating 4 times a year. But Star Trek was a hit in syndication. Kaiser Broadcasting owned five major UHF stations, and their president had signed a syndication deal with Paramount while the series was still on network. As the first to run the series in syndication, it ran it at 6pm (against news shows), uncut and in the original NBC order. The ratings success in all five markets became well known, and other local stations emulated the early slot. As a colourful adventure series, without the adult violence and romance of cop shows, it attracted kids with their parents.
Producer Gene Roddenberry popularised the idea that Star Trek failed on the networks because they just measured the total audiences, not the demographic subset of the young and educated who most enjoyed the show (old folks really disliked science fiction). While the ratings of both Star Trek and Mission Impossible were lukewarm in the first series, they were renewed because they were prestige shows attracting press attention and awards. The difference is that Mission Impossible then took off with audiences, while Star Trek just struggled into a third series, with a less favourable timeslot. Both shows were very expensive, and standard actor contracts gave the cast a raise with the third series. Hence both series started to have their budgets squeezed, especially the weaker performing Star Trek.
Syndication and network broadcasts were vastly different. For a start, the cast contracts generally paid only for a network broadcast and a first re-run. Only the producers and, sometimes, leading man, would get profit participation, although thanks to Hollywood accounting, no series ever made a profit (Star Trek only suddenly turned a profit when they wanted to make feature films).
The syndication audience was very different too. It was smaller than prime time, and so fragmented it was difficult to measure, with different timeslots and different competition. The show was on earlier- often 5pm or 6pm, rather than 8:30pm or 10pm. Star Trek had been aimed at adult audiences, and few children would have been allowed to stay up late for a 10pm network slots, even though this was ratings prime time. Now, children, teenagers and the family were a major part of the audience. Even the fans who started organising fan clubs and conventions were in their twenties or early thirties, while most of the fans themselves were teenagers. Tellingly, the first revival was an animated series (1974-1974).
The syndication market was open to other programming, especially as government rules forced networks to let affiliate stations run different programming. This was the market that Lew Grade's ITC sold series into. Unlike the old network series run every weekday, these were short-run series and specials. ITC tried to sell Space: 1999 to networks, but was forced to sell directly into syndication. This meant that on some stations, viewers would see an old Star Trek syndicated repeat, immediately followed by a new episode of Space: 1999. Several other shows were also able to make their mark in first run syndication, notably another ITC sale, The Muppets.
Paramount considered launching their own TV network at several times, and Star Trek was each time considered for revival, including for Star Trek Phase II in 1976. Finally in 1987, Paramount revived the series as Star Trek The Next Generation. The networks demanded a pilot, so instead Paramount committed to a first run syndication, where it would for seven successful seasons, spawning several spin-off series.
The first US national colour television was in 1954, but most few people had colour TV sets, and few programmes were actually in colour. 1966 was the first year all new network programming was in colour. The US station most keen on colour was NBC, owned by RCA, which made colour televisions. Star Trek was launched in that season, and while the total ratings may not have been great, the series was top for viewers watching in colour. Herb Solow, head of production at Desilu at the time, believed the series was renewed for a 2nd and 3rd series because it was a showcase for colour television (there was a letter writing campaign by fans to renew the 2nd series, which Roddenberry credits with the NBC renewal, but Solow's theory seems more credible).
At least for the UK and the rest of the world, Space: 1999 launched just as colour television was taking off.
The other key aspect of the Desilu shows, Star Trek and Mission Impossible, was that they were prestige shows bringing in awards and critical praise. Mission Impossible won 4 Emmys in the first year including the first of 3 wins for Barbara Bain. By the series 2 and 3, Mission was a ratings hit, and part of American culture, with press coverage, quotable lines, comedy shows doing parodies and later TV series imitated elements of the format.
Star Trek also got award nominations in the original run, with numerous nominations for Leonard Nimoy, editing and effects. But it was the constant repeats in syndication that made the cultural impact, underlined by the fan culture that literally grew up supporting it.
Many shows attract fan mail, but science fiction attracts much more fervent support than other genres. Star Trek producer Gene Roddenberry was very active in reaching out to fans. During the making of the show, he went to science fiction conventions and met and corresponded with authors such as Isaac Asmiov, as well as influential fans.
When Star Trek was up for renewal for a second series, and a year later for a third series, a large letter writing campaign was formed. Roddenberry claimed each had a million letters, although NBC and others put the figure at around 12,000. Roddenberry claimed not to be involved in this, or marches on NBC headquarters, or the personal number of NBC's boss being publicly released. The organisers had their expenses billed to Paramount by Roddenberry, and the letter campaign mailing list was used by his company Lincoln to sell Star Trek merchandise. Roddenberry would try the same tactics against the film Star Trek The Wrath of Khan (1982), which he hated for the militaristic Star Fleet, and leaked the script to stir up a campaign against Spock dying.
Fans of science fiction books were largely male and were deeply sceptical of television sci-fi, while Star Trek fans were generally far younger and female. After the series ended, Star Trek fans began to organise their own conventions, fan clubs and fanzines, all closely following the model of traditional science fiction fans because the older organisers had come from that fan world. At conventions and in press interviews, Star Trek stars would be asked about the new show Space 1999 (see here). At conventions, when guests were asked about the show, audiences booed, to the point that Roddenberry asked them to stop. At the end of the third series of Star Trek, in January 1969, Roddenberry was busy preparing Tarzan, and there was no letter writer campaign or marches as the series was cancelled.
Space: 1999 fan activity was initially organised by Star Trek fans who enjoyed both shows. As the book science fiction fans had rejected Star Trek a significant proportion of Star Trek fans rejected Space: 1999. Several big Star Trek conventions invited Space: 1999 stars- specifically Nick Tate who attended August Party in Maryland, USA and Terracon in Leeds, 1976.
Merchandising was an area where Gerry Anderson had been a pioneer, setting up a merchandising company to support his series. Roddenberry's Lincoln Enterprises was focused on fans, but he also recognised the importance of merchandising. He formed a close friendship with Stephen Poe, who worked in marketing for model kit company AMT. Poe was given an office at Desilu to prepare the first AMT kit, of the USS Enterprise. While he was there, he wrote the influential book "The Making of Star Trek" (as Stephen Whitfield, using his stepfather's surname). Roddenberry insisted on a dual credit, and half the profits, but did not write any of the text. Meanwhile, Poe worked with series production designer Matt Jeffries to produce a follow-up AMT model, and AMT produced tooling master models. One of these master models was dressed at the studio for filming in several third series episodes, as the AMT kit appeared in shops.
Space: 1999 would get its own "making of" book, written by Tim Heald.
Copyright Martin Willey