—
## Lucille Ball in the Franchise Era
The question of what Lucille Ball knew about *Star Trek’s* growth as a cultural phenomenon — what she saw of what had grown from the studio she had sold — is one that the available record addresses only partially.
Ball sold Desilu in 1967, two years before the cancellation, four years before the syndication phenomenon became evident, and twelve years before the first film. Her direct connection to *Star Trek* ended with the sale. She retained no ownership interest in any Desilu property; the sale was a complete transaction.
Her post-Desilu career was substantial. *Here’s Lucy* ran from 1968 to 1974, another six seasons of successful network television, adding to the remarkable durability of her television presence. She produced and appeared in television movies and specials through the 1970s and 1980s. Her 1986 cable television movie *Stone Pillow* earned her critical praise and demonstrated continued range.
She gave interviews in which she was asked about *Star Trek*, and her responses were consistently gracious — acknowledging the show’s importance, noting her pride in having been part of its story, and crediting the people around her who had made the specific decisions. She did not, in these interviews, claim more credit than the record supported; she was not, by all accounts, someone who needed to inflate her role.
The specific question of whether she grasped the full financial magnitude of what the franchise had become — whether she looked at the film revenues and the merchandise income and the global fan base and calculated what Desilu would have been worth had she held on — is not answered in any source available to this research. The counterfactual is striking; whether she allowed herself to dwell on it is unknown.