What's the cost of true innovation, and when does it pay off? Further, would you rather be financially savvy or creatively fulfilled?

Lucille Ball is known as a comedy pioneer, and rightly so. She is sitcom royalty, and her physical comedy prowess often elevated what would've been simple premises and made them instantly iconic situations. The fact that you can still close your eyes and picture the chocolate factory scene, or the grape stomping scene, means that the lady was doing something right. Very few performers would ever create on that indelible level after Lucy. 

She should also be equally known for her role as a businesswoman in a time and industry that was particularly inhospitable to them. She and husband Desi Arnaz took what they learned and worked to platform other creatives, bringing forth a brief era of artist-owned material. These Are the Voyages, a three-volume chronicle of the making of Star Trek, elaborates on Lucy's role in bringing that incredible series to the screen. Author Marc Cushman claims that it was I Love Lucy and the money that the show made that paved the way for the USS Enterprise's maiden expedition.

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Eventually, CBS bought the rerun rights back from Lucy and Desi for a million dollars, which was a lot of money back then. Lucy and Desi take that money, bought RKO and turn it into Desilu Studios and everyone is coming to them and asking them to film their sitcoms the same way they did their own. The company grows, but then the marriage falls apart and Lucy ends up running the studio and by this point they don’t have many shows. Lucy says, ‘We need to get more shows on the air,’ and Star Trek was the one she took on, because she thought it was different. She thought if this thing catches on, it could run in reruns forever and that’s going to be money coming in to Desilu.”

However, anyone familiar with the origin story of Star Trek knows of the bumpy flight that was the show's second and third seasons. Creative ambitions far outpaced the show's studio allowance, and soon, it all came crashing down around one famous redhead.  

“Paramount took over at the halfway point of the second season and started tightening the budget. Paramount’s attitude to Star Trek was, ‘You’re not going to ruin us like you ruined Desilu.’ Lucille Ball lost her studio because of Star Trek. She had gambled on the show, and you can read the memos where her board of directors is saying, ‘Don’t do this show, it’s going to kill us.’ But she believed in it. She moved forward with it, and halfway into the second season, she had to sell Desilu to Paramount Pictures. And once Paramount Pictures came in, they said, ‘We’re going to run this like a business. You’re not going to go over budget anymore.’ Lucille Ball gave up the studio that she and her husband built, it’s all she had left of her marriage, and she sacrificed that for Star Trek.”