Wish ‘Star Trek’ Fan Bjo Trimble A Happy Birthday
by Erik Amaya
The story of Star Trek‘s third season renewal is one of the first — if not the first — examples of genre fans mobilizing to save something they love in the face of a hostile business environment. When there seemed to be strong inclinations that the program would not return for a third season, Trek fan Bjo Trimble and husband John Trimble caught wind of the possibility (likely from series creator Gene Roddenberry) and mobilized a write-in campaign to let NBC know there was a serious audience for the show.
After receiving around 100,000 letters, way more than NBC could respond to, the network took the unusual step of using airtime during its broadcast day to tell the fans Star Trek would return. And though executives claimed they always intended to renew the show, the campaign worked, securing Trek‘s longevity in syndication and eventual rebirth as a film and TV institution. It would also inspire other fandoms to send networks bottles of hot sauce or take out billboard space in New York’s Time Square to prove to the bottom-line guys that audiences exists even when the numbers say they are missing.
As Star Trek luminary Michael Okuda observed on social media yesterday, August 15th is Bjo Trimble’s 90th birthday. And in commemoration of that, he suggested fans of Trek, in all its manifestations, send her cards celebrating the event. We also thought it was a nice idea and suggest you to do the same. Letters are a Trimble specialty after all.
Send your birthday wishes to the following address:
Bjo Trimble
California Veterans Home
700 East Naples Court Chula Vista, CA 91911