Tavella: “(The work of The Committee was) not unself-interested — ST provided a market for sf scripts for people like Ellison and Frederic Brown…”

Both Ellison and Brown wrote one episode a piece for Star Trek: “Arena” for Frederic Brown, and “The City On the Edge of Forever” for Ellison.

Both of those episodes appeared in the first season.

Brown doesn’t appear to have been on The Committee in the first place. If Ellison was working for his own interest, he never benefited from it.

You are correct in pointing out that I mistakenly attributed Ellison’s work with The Committee to the third season renewal instead of the second season renewal of ST: TOS (as Hal correctly states @ 73).

That said, your scepticism toward Ellison and reluctance to attribute any motivations other than the baser ones to his actions is manifest. Why fight so hard to deny HE worked to save the show?

It’s okay to dislike the man. Heck, quite a few people seem to rabidly hate him. All I’m saying is that, regardless of your feelings about him, you still need to acknowledge the historical debts all SF fans owe him.

I know Bjo Trimble. Bjo Trimble is a friend of mine. Bjo Trimble is the adoptive mother of my wife’s maid-of-honor.

But, from the page cited:

“(the) show was in continual ratings problems, and in 1967 NBC cancelled the show for what would be the first of three times
> in early 1967, a group of SF authors calling themselves “The Committee” sent out form letters to fans and other pro authors urging they write letters of praise for the series to their TV stations, media, and show’s sponsors
— headed by Harlan Ellison; others on “The Committee” included Poul Anderson, Bradbury, Van Vogt, Phil Farmer, Richard Matheson, Ted Sturgeon, Bloch, del Rey, and Frank Herbert
> the next year, NBC attempted to cancel the show again, and once again fandom came to its rescue
{…}
> Bjo published a newsletter WHERE NO FAN HAS GONE BEFORE, bring word to fandom on how the campaign was doing — in the second issue, dated March 1, 1968, she reported that over one million letters had been sent to NBC by fans of the show.” (emphases added)

NBC had already cancelled the show once, and it had already been saved once. Hence, the use of the word, “again.”

Had “The Committee” not saved the show from cancellation, Bjo would never have had the chance to mount her letter campaign. Her campaign came one full year after The Committee’s work, which appears to have saved the second season. “Amok Time,” “Mirror, Mirror,” “The Trouble with Tribbles”… all second season, and all saved through the efforts of The Committee.

As a wise person once said, “please keep the credit accurate.”

Yes, it actually happened and Ellison was the leader. Doesn’t make him a saint or anything, but his efforts shouldn’t be overlooked by internet revisionism.

That’s the same early first season effort that Espana mentioned. Nice, (if not unself-interested — ST provided a market for sf scripts for people like Ellison and Frederic Brown) but it is most certainly not “leading the successful campaign to keep Star Trek: TOS on the air for a third season” as you said above, which was Bjo Trimble (and John Trimble) all the way. Given that it is a landmark in media fandom, and a model for fandom campaigns ever since, please keep the credit accurate.

Which is a variant of what Stephen King says in his intro for Harlan’s collection Shatterday: (quasi-quote) The guy I most want in the emergency room when I’m having a heart attack, because I know he’ll ride herd on everyone to see I get the best care.

Arguably, my wife Ulrika and I are married today because of a dinner we had with Harlan and his wife Susan. I owe him a lot, and he and I share certain characteristics that I can say, “There but for the grace of God…” That may be narcissistic on my part, but I believe in the Golden Rule enough that I’m willing to cut him a fair amount of slack. {shrug}

Probably the biggest thing to remember with Harlan is that for about a decade or so, he was the equivalent of the Beatles in the science fiction field. There was no place he could go without generating massive amounts of commotion, and I firmly believe that much of his public persona (which is entirely different from his private self) developed to insulate his life when confronted by literally thousands. Again, thinking of the possibility of what would happen to me under similar circumstances, I’m not sure I wouldn’t do much the same. But he’s enough of a fan, and attracted enough to fannish culture, that he’s still been in public his entire lengthy professional life.

As I said above: I treat Harlan with the consideration I would want if I was in his circumstances — both good and bad.

It took me a bit of effort, but I found a reference regarding Ellison’s efforts to save ST: TOS. Check out the fan history site –

http://www.smithway.org/history/chap6a.html

Look for references to “The Committee”.

Yes, it actually happened and Ellison was the leader. Doesn’t make him a saint or anything, but his efforts shouldn’t be overlooked by internet revisionism.

Sadly, for my own vicarious opinion-making, those opinions are WILDLY mixed. I think it’s fair to say that no matter what one thinks of Ellison the person, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone reasonably well-informed about SF who doesn’t have an opinion at all. Whether or not you think he is a great writer (or a great person), it would be hard to deny his importance to American literature in the 20th century.

As for his writing: I love his nonfiction, and continue trying to plug the gaps in my collection. (Anyone got a spare Memos From Purgatory?) I haven’t read as much of his fiction, but that says a lot more about me than it does about him; what I have read has been powerful, dense with ideas (in the best sense of the term), and unlike so much fiction, rewards a second and even third trip to the serving table.