Star Trek: The Original Series wasn’t a breakout television show as we all know.
The ratings weren’t strong for the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series, and there were rumors the series was going to be cancelled. But the fans weren’t about to let that happen, and as we know, Bjo Trimble and her husband, John, began a letter writing campaign in an effort to convince NBC to reconsider any plans for cancellation.
One fan didn’t just send a letter to NBC, though; she decided to see if she could get Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz on board. So she sent him a letter asking him to use his comic strip to campaign for the renewal of the series. Unfortunately, Schulz had to disappoint her, and his reply was shared on Twitter by Rodrigo Baeza.
1968, Charles Schulz explains to a fan that he'd rather not use "Peanuts" as a platform to save STAR TREK from cancellation: pic.twitter.com/fDpav9Yubt
— Rodrigo Baeza (@rodrigo__baeza) April 7, 2022
The Star Trek: The Original Series fan didn’t get what she was hoping for from Charles Schulz.
At the time of the young fan’s request, Peanuts was eighteen years into its fifty-year run and still extremely popular. Having a mention of Star Trek in the comic strip could have seriously boosted the attention Star Trek was already receiving at NBC headquarters.
As it turns out, though, Schulz had to tell the fan that, while he agreed that the series should be kept on television, he didn’t think the newspaper editors around the country would be pleased if he were to use the comic strip to campaign for Star Trek’s survival.
He sent the letter to the fan on February 7, 1968, and on March 1, 1968, NBC announced that the series had been renewed for a third, and what we didn’t know then, final season. So while this fan’s appeal to Charles Schulz didn’t help, the attention from others, like New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller, did.