Is anyone aware of any photo showing Lucillle Ball visiting the TOS set? Ive combed the net and cant find one. Its been established that she visited the set (after all she owned it!) Im just surprised theres not one pic of her there. Im going to guess that she was probably very particular about being randomly photographed and would not likely approve of snap shots there but just wondering if anyone has seen one...
Lucille Ball on the set of TOS Photos Anywhere?
- Thread starter Wmurch
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No, but I've seen a blooper reel that included a shot of Ms. Ball, probably a clip from The Lucy Show.
Famously, Lucy used a broom to clean the set floor (the second pilot?) to help get everybody out before a Union regulation cut-off time, to save hundreds of dollars of overtime for the production. This was reported in an early "making of..." book.
That's the only mention I could find (thanks to Memory Alpha) of her ever visiting the set, though it's not really what I'd call a visit since she was supposedly helping clear up after production of the second pilot has finished. The article kind of makes it sound like she had very little to do with the show besides owning the studio and voting. It also says that regardless of what Roddenberry said they actually didn't know each other personally. So it would seem that if she did visit it was when he wasn't there. Though I don't know how accurate Memory Alpha is on these things and I'm certainly no behind-the-scenes expert.
I just bought a used copy of her autobiography (Love, Lucy), but unfortunately it only goes up to 1964. I haven't read it yet, but I doubt she mentions Star Trek.
I understand that a younger Majel Barrett studied comedy acting under Lucille Ball in 1962.
Yeah, the Alpha article mentioned that. I wasn't aware. It also said she was mad about their affair and had wanted to fire both her and Roddenberry over it but she was talked out of it.
The Solow/Justman Inside Star Trek goes into detail about how Lucy was pro-Trek once persuaded it was a way of turning her studio around, while also slightly oblivious yet also attentive to costs. And also hostile to her producers employing their mistress.
This is of course a 30 years later hearsay account, except when reprinting memoes.
This is of course a 30 years later hearsay account, except when reprinting memoes.
Did she outsource the mopping to Carol Burnett?
Another tale in this vein is that, when the BBC was running plays live in the 1950s, the original transmission of Nigel Kneale's The Creature (film remake is The Abominable Snowmen) was messed up as a BBC jobsworth who wanted to leave early started sweeping up the fake snow outside the cave, during transmission of the final scene, so that he was clearly visible in the background outside the cave set.
Then you're the man to find it Indy. Fortune and glory... or at least some likes on the BBS.
I've done my Star Trek archaeology. It got me some glory but no fortune.
Neil
A photo of Lucy in the captain's chair.. that would be awesome.
John McGiver in there too.
Surely a jobsworth is a guy who wants you to carry on working right up to the last minute and beyond where as this guy was cleaning up so he could knock off early or dead on time! Sounds like my kind of guy!
JB
She did once mention Trek in an episode of Here's Lucy.
It seems almost like a shout out to the prop department.
I caught this and added it to MA.
It seems almost like a shout out to the prop department.
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Big fan of John McGiver, esp. his roles in The Manchurian Candidate and Twilight Zone eps.
Saw his son Boris in a production of Warhorse at Lincoln Center (as the protagonist's father) a few years ago; was a small role, but he made an impression and when I looked him up, discovered who his father was.
Maybe that Lucille Ball dressed in the Gorn costume so that she wouldn't have to pay a stuntman to do the job. 
