70s Trek: Star Trek In The 1970s

When Star Trek was cancelled in 1969, there was no reason to think that this little science fiction show would ever come back.  But the show's failures actually helped drive its new success in the 1970s. Co-hosts Bob Turner and Kelly Casto look at the syndication juggernaut that was Star Trek in the 1970s. Failure Led to Success Star Trek had not been profitable during its NBC run.  In fact, when it was cancelled, its production costs had pushed it to be over $4 million in the red.  That's over $30 million in today's dollars! The show was considered a dead property and Paramount desperately wanted to find a way to recoup some of those costs.  So the studio decided to move the show into syndication.  This was an interesting decision at the time because conventional wisdom stated that a show needed to have at least 100 episodes to be successful. But Paramount's need to make some kind of profit from Star Trek was great so they decided to move forward with just the 79 episodes.  The studio did not expect that the