By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
One of the things that made Star Trek: The Original Series so popular was that it was broadcast in color at a time when many popular TV shows were still in black-and-white. In addition to the bright colors of the uniforms, the early sets were especially colorful because cinematographer Jerry Finnerman used background lighting to spruce up the otherwise gray interior walls of the Enterprise. And he did this for a secret reason: the show was broadcast on NBC, and because the network was then owned by television manufacturer RCA, the sci-fi show was made more colorful to sell more color TVs.
Back in the 60’s, many households were carefully weighing whether or not they should update their old black-and-white sets to a color model. RCA was in a fairly unique position because it could use ownership of NBC to create colorful TV shows, effectively giving consumers a reason to upgrade. Star Trek became a kind of flagship for these new series, and RCA prominently used the show in advertisements with taglines like “When you’re the first in color TV, there’s got to be a reason.”
For the first season of Star Trek, it was mostly the hard work of Jerry Finnerman and his background lighting that made this show the “first in color TV.” He did more than make the backgrounds more vibrant…he arguably imbued the Enterprise with the kind of warmth that made it feel like home to countless fans everywhere. Unfortunately, the rushed production schedule of later seasons meant that he didn’t have time to set up this lighting, which is why Season 2 and 3 look relatively drab.
Incidentally, RCA using Star Trek and other shows to advertise color television sets is an even smarter move than you might think. You see, the company also sold the expensive equipment needed to film shows in color, so emphasizing the importance of color television helped them make money on both the sales of TV sets and the sales of cameras and other production equipment. Their use of Star Trek to market color TVs also served to promote NBC, which meant that RCA could make even more money via advertisements and other network-related deals.
The use of Star Trek to sell color TVs may have done more than make RCA money…it may, in fact, have saved this sci-fi series from certain doom. NBC wanted to cancel The Original Series after Season 1, and the most common narrative is that the show was kept alive due to letter-writing campaigns and other demonstrations of fan support. However, in his book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, Original Series Executive in Charge of Production Herbert F. Solow theorized that the show might have gotten renewed despite its low ratings simply because it was making RCA plenty of money.
Ironically enough, Star Trek never quite had as much color as in The Original Series…The Next Generation kicked off an era of making starships look like washed-out Holiday Inns, and live-action NuTrek is now insanely dark in more ways than one. In the days of Captain Kirk, this franchise was all about giving us brilliant hues of red and gold. These days, though, Star Trek only really gives us one color: the blues.
