The Selma Massacre

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DTF955Baseballfan

Userpedia article: "Hogan's heroes"

Subcategory - Controversies

"...The show began with some controversey when...Ivan Dixon was cast as a prisoner who was not only equal with the others, but in a somehow integrated Underground unit, which was explained by the inference that Hogan was a trail blazer in integratin the military...later said to hail from Miissouri, the home of President Truman, who integrated the military in 1948...The joke was that nobody would mind since 'they're all prisoners anyway' but the inference is Hogan knew Kinch from his days barnstorming with Negro League teams against whites..."(1)

Subcategory: Hogan's Heroes episodes: "The Prince from the Phone Company"(2)

"...slated to air in March of 1966, racial tensions made some wonder if people would accept that Ivan Dixon had a major role in helping witha mission. it was moved to the Friday of the masters, as the network hoped for one of two things - the anticipation of the big sporting event making people not pay much attention or, what they deemed less likely, Masters coverage leading into it and causing more people to watch than otherwise would have. The second wound up occurring and people were 'not as upset as was expected' in one executive's words. No episodes were moved after that..."

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(1) No such explanation is needed OTL, but with racial tensions higher, it's felt a bit more is needed TTL via a throawaway line here and there, only half a dozen or so total likely needed. With Kinch later shown to be a Golden Gloves boxer nad fast enough to possibly "run a 4-minute mile" to warn that a mission was aborted OTL, the addition of Kinch as a baseball player is plausible.

(2) Aired March 1966 OTL

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From Ivan Dixon's authpiography:

"I got more of a chance than Nichelle Nichols - probably because of the situation on the show - but we still had to build it up to make it realistic, more so than we might hve....Later, I was aprt of the group of black entertainers who got together after the bizarre incident in January of 1969. basically, I was of the opinion, which many agreed with, that we were making progress - Nichols by that time had filmed the episode she would do on 'Family Affair' and Gene Roddenberry had already begun work on 'Starbase One,' Dick Gregory and some others had also appeared on the Tonight Show....

"...Mr. Cosby had been interested in some educational stuff...John Amos had been told by Hank Stram around when he was cut from the Chiefs that he wasn't a football player, but a man who was trying to play football, and...Stram urged him to go into writing. he was tehre, too, and he had some ideas. they approached me...I wanted to go from 'Hogan's Heroes' into directing nd producing, but I said I might help if needed, but I wanted to do one more year of Hogan's Heroes, which I did, leaving before the sixth and final season. I suggested that if it was animated, Flip Wilson was the man, with all his characters. But, Nipsey Russell would really make kids of both races smile and remember stuff the way he was always coming up with these poems, so he had to have a spot..."
 

DTF955Baseballfan

Since there has been some jumping into 1967...

Cleveland Plain Dealer, Jan. 19, 1967: “League Switch Official Starting in 1967”

“As the supposed excitement of the ‘Super Bowl’ – Packers 35, Chiefs 10 the final – dies down, word comes out of the Browns’ front office that the long-awaited shift to the AFl is official…Browns sources say that they will be glad to begin signing away any more black players they may want, and they hope they can ‘wreak havoc on the rest of the American Football League.’…The Steelers will join them in the AFL’s Eastern Conference as the Houston Oilers switch to the West…”

From the book, “Two Leagues, One Mission”

“The merger was dead, and Al Davis had buried it with his enticing of two teams from the NFL. They’d had enough trouble deciding to play by NFL rules in the Super Bowl, and there was talk that they would alternate, just as the World Series alternated between leagues for home field each year…The idea was called ridiculous by some, but while Houston’s bright, shiny Astrodome was the clear favorite for Super Bowl II, it wasn’t a certainty yet that it would be played, though that would be established soon…

“…Among players nabbed from the Browns was backup QB Jim Ninowski, who was looked at by the Redskins as well. The Jets offered him more to be…basically a placeholder with Namath there, but also to help calm things. He’d been a backup on the Browns’ 1964 NFL title team,a fter all.

“Art Modell cried foul, considering that it was an attempt to steal plays from the Browns, and some…claimed he would get the started job over Namath, though of course that didn’t happen. Most people picked the Browns to go 12-2 and the Steelers 10-4. The Browns were…good enough to fight the Jets all the way for the division, with 2 wild card teams which could be from either selected to give the AFL the same number of playoff teams as the NFL.”

Userpedia: NFL and AFL standings, 1967 (*=wild card)

NFL East: Baltimore, Dallas*, New York Giants, Philadelphia, Washington
NFL Central: Green Bay, Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Indiana
NFL West: Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Louis, Atlanta

Green Bay over Los Angeles, Dallas over Baltimore, Green Bay over Dallas (Packers host because they won the division, also had 1 more win the Cowboys)

AFL East: Cleveland, New York, Pittsburgh (3rd, but 5-8-1), Buffalo, Cincinnati, New England
AFL West: Oakland, Houston*, Kansas City*, San Diego, Denver, Seattle

Oakland over Kansas City, Houston over Cleveland, Oakland over Houston

Super Bowl II: Green Bay 33, Oakland 14


From “A History of the AFL” by Ian Rappaport

“The Browns had done well, going 10-4, but then were upset by the Oilers on their own home field when their quarterback threw a crucial interception with the score tied, while Oakland bested the Chiefs before obliterating the Oilers. It proved…the AFL’s best teams were on a par with the NFL’s, which changed the conversation to, ‘The top teams are on par, but the bottom teams are far worse,’ something that would take a lot less time to disprove because the Steelers had gone 5-9 and would get worse….

"...By the middle of the season, the disaster of the first Super Bowl loss had vanished into peoples' memories, as they saw the AFL could compete, and the Packers' even more dominating Super Bowl II win- seven scoring drives versus five - didn't leave as bad a taste..."

“…Another interesting game was the Heidi Game, the next to last game of the season and one which knocked the Jets from the wild card race. With under two minutes left, Joe Namath had led a last-minute drive, then the Raiders responded and viewers never got to see the end of the game – could the jets come back and score to retake the lead with seconds left? As it turned ut, that returnee from UCLA, Wilchert, who was closer to a third receiver, had a very good return and Namath put them in position to win, but the Raiders’ defense stiffened at the last minute.(1) It was a game which would stick in the jets’ craw all winter; they vowed revenge the next season.

“They would get that revenge and then some.”

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(1) OTL the Jets fumbled the kickoff and the Raiders recovered and scored yet another touchdown. They have a different returner here.

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From the ESPN 30 for 30 – The legend of Broadway Joe

“…Namath had passed for 3943 yard that year, and without the Browns would surely hve gone over 4,000, something no QB had ever done. Instead, Sonny JHurgensen did it, throwing the ball up all the time at the end as they tried to get the record and he had what seemed to be a personal battle with Namath, egged on by the commissioners…Jurgensen got there with 4,002 yards passing.(3)

“Some said the NFL was very glad to see it that year. Jurgensen was clear cut, whereas Natmath was a major party animal.”

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(3) Can he do it? He needs just under 300 yards, but the Steelers really held him in check, and while he doesn’t have the games against the Browns, 2 each against poor Eagles, and Giants teams will help, plus favorable schedules elsewhere can allow it, that’s still only 20 yards more each game and a couple 120-140 yarders can be 320-yarders. Plus, of course, he’s going for the record by the end with the play calling as it is.
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(More 30 for 30)

Voice of head Coach Weeb Ewbank: “We signed Ninowski in ‘67, but we had a chance to go after Billy Kilmer, too. He wasn’t the partier Namath was, but even so, there was concern that he’d need a rule that he and Namath would never be at the same party, just in case. So, instead we get Ninowski as a safe pick, yet a player who was actually a little mobile, just in case Namath would get hurt. There were concerns about Namath’s knees, after all…”

Cleveland Plain Dealer, Oct. 19, 1967:

NFL owner: "The season has shown the leagues are equal, so the merger talks are back on in some ways. Now, the biggest obstacle maybe be Al Davis' ego, along with...antitrust things."
 
Historyman 14

Historyman 14

The Washington Post. July 1st. 1966.

Students set themselves in flames!

5 Anti War students committed self-immolation on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial....

...A note found that is reported to have said 'We give our lives in the name of peace, and call out the Minnesota Killer to end his evil ways before more lives are lost."

(Have fun, Osakadave.)
 
Osakadave

Osakadave

Go For Broke:
Go For Broke is an ABC action-adventure TV series which aired for three seasons from 1966 to 1969. (1) The show follows the exploits of Charlie Company, a unit made up primarily of soldiers of Asian decent, inspired by and loosely based on the real life exploits of the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. The show is considered to have been a major breakthrough for Asian Americans. It is also notable for being the first WWII television show filmed and telecast in color. (2) The show starred Mako as Captain Ohara, George Takei as Lieutenant Sato, Robert Ito as Sergeant Kono, and several other actors of Japanese, Chinese, and Hawaiian decent. (3)

BMDS entry circa 2016 (4)

1 - This replaces The Rat Patrol in ABC's fall 1966 lineup. Some version of it will pop up, however. Too cool of a show to do away with. :D

2 - Again, subbing for The Rat Patrol.

3 - With Hoshi on Star Trek, and Takei not on ST, he's freed up for a different program. Mako and Takei both stared in an earlier episode of The Gallant Men based on the 100th, and Ito was just getting started, having had a small handful of TV roles. Note that Takei's character's name is an obscure joke.

4 - Big Movie Data Stash, TTL's version of the IMDB.
 

kalelovil

May 16, 1966
BBC News
'Castro Calls Cuba To "State of Alert"'

Cuba's Communist Prime Minister Fidel Castro tonight ordered a state of alert for the Cuban armed forces "and all the Cuban people" in order to "guard against United States provocations.".

A communique issued by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces Ministry today said the nation’s military had been put on alert and had adopted “all pertinent measures to go immediately into combat if circumstances demand it.”
Castro gave the order in a radio broadcast after issuing two bitter anti-American communiques, denouncing the United States role in the recent escalation of the war in Vietnam and the continuing American presence at the Guantanamo naval base."


May 18, 1966
Los Angeles Times
'Record Number of Cuban Exiles Arrive In Miami'
 
Osakadave

Osakadave

"...(redacted) reports that (redacted) was responsible for killing Ruhollah Khomeini, a vocal critic in exile in Najaf, Iraq, on August 7, at the behest of Nassiri..."

Except from highly redacted CIA report on SAVAK activities, refering to the assassination of a minor cleric in 1966, obtained by PIA request in 1983

Note: PIA is the Public Information Act if 1966, TTL's title of the Freedom of Information Act of 1966. Also, this is several years before Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist, and butterflies one of the most influential arguments for the rise of Islamic theocracies.
 
Israel

Israel

Osakadave said:
"...(redacted) reports that (redacted) was responsible for killing Ruhollah Khomeini, a vocal critic in exile in Najaf, Iraq, on August 7, at the behest of Nassiri..."

Except from highly redacted CIA report on SAVAK activities, refering to the assassination of a minor cleric in 1966, obtained by PIA request in 1983

Note: PIA is the Public Information Act if 1966, TTL's title of the Freedom of Information Act of 1966. Also, this is several years before Islamic Government: Governance of the Jurist, and butterflies one of the most influential arguments for the rise of Islamic theocracies.
Click to expand...

Yes!
 
Osakadave

Osakadave

The Niemöller Tribunal
The Niemöller Tribunal was a private body conveined by German minister Martin Niemöller and hosted by English philosopher Bertrand Russell in September 1966 to investigate and evaluate American foreign policy and the war in Vietnam in particular. The tribunal primarily focused on alleged American and allied war crimes. Telford Taylor, an American lawyer known for his role in the Counsel for the Prosecution at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II, served as the "prosecutor" and the "jury" was composed of a large number of prominent peace activists, including several Nobel lauriates. The tribunal was influential on the 1970 Fullbright Commission.

Userpedia entry circa 2016

Note: this of course is TTL's Russell-Sartre Tribunal.
 

DTF955Baseballfan

From the 30 for 30 “Just Overtake Them, Baby: The Al Davis story”

“Though the AFL’s Raiders had been blown out by the Packers in Super Bowl II, Al Davis wasn’t deterred. Going into 1968, Commissioner Davis had several plans to expand the AFL, including putting a team in Los Angeles to counter the Rams. Still, he was putting them on hold till he saw one of his teams beat an NFL team in the Super Bowl. The Browns, it could be argued, were a playoff team but not the best. He hoped it would be the Raiders, but he didn’t care. As it turned out, he had the best chance he could ask for…”

Baltimore Sun headline, Dec. 30, 1968:

“PERFECTION: Colts Improve to 16-0!”(1)

Sports Illustrated, Jan. 5, 1969:

“The Colts, even with Unitas injured the whole year, are a team that appears to be unstoppable. Unitas won’t start in the Super Bowl, but it doesn’t appear to matter. Of course, the 1942 Bears had the same thing happen when they were denied the chance to win their third straight title when – after an 11-0 season – Washington beat them in the title game, but is Joe Namath really near as good as Sammy Baugh was?”

Mark Davis, son of longtime Commissioner Al Davis: “The Super Bowl…would be back in Los Angeles on January 12, 1969. I already had that date circled, I was a teenager and Dad had me pumped! It wasn’t just about getting an AFL team there to rival the Rams, though he kept looking or seeing if anyone wanted to move. He actually had been talking already about teaching me the business so I could buy the Raiders someday, since he was going to be Commissioner for the foreseeable future….

“When we lost to the Jets in the AFL title game…they ruled that ball a forward pass near the end but Witcher fell on it, anyway, so we figured no harm, no foul. We were genuinely happy, and Dad started barking about how the Jets could win even though the Colts were undefeated.

“What happened several nights before that game shook all of us, and made lots of people wonder if 18 points was really enough of an underdog for the Jets to be. But, the players rallied.”

From the 30 for 30, “Legend of Broadway Joe”

Ewbank: “Los Angeles has…a unique party scene. Oh, Miami, if they hadn’t had the problems, would have had one, too, had we gone there. But, it was a smaller city; almost a town compared to Los Angeles. L.A. was developed. It was Hollywood…”

Jim Ninowski: “As Joe’s backup, there was always a part of me, because of his partying lifestyle, that made me think. ‘I’d better be ready in case he’s drunk in practice one day.’ I mean, you saw that sometimes. But, we hoped Namath would be all business, or as much as he could be; in other words, we needed to be ready for the Colts. Those Colts were tough; in fact, some of the things they were saying were pretty boastful.”

Don Shula: “I had warned my guys not to be overconfident. I knew we had that problem. When you’re an 18-point favorite in Vegas, sure, you can imagine one or two guys feeling like they might have it made, but you don’t want your whole team to be that way. I knew we still had to prepare.

“When Vegas took us off the books in a couple places, and the spread went up to 22 or 23 points in others within a day, that’s when it got to more of our guys. Not that it wouldn’t have anyway; indeed, Joe Namath was a good quarterback, and he’d have done even better…”

Matt Snell: “Namath went to one of his parties, and we didn’t know where he was.. We just sort of laughed it off; missing curfew wasn’t new for him. We figured, ‘Well, just like before, he might show up late one day, but Coach’ll get things squared away and he’ll be ready come game time.’ It wasn’t like today where you pass 40 times a game anyway, after all; I knew I’d probably get the ball close to 30 times… We could have never been ready for the news the next morning.”

Ninowski: “First I heard was, we started getting on the bus and Coach tells me I got first team snaps. I said, ‘Okay’ really casually, I figured Namath got back real late, Coach was sending a message. So, to lighten it up a bit, I made a little joke, I said, ‘He partied a little too hard, huh?’ At first Coach went ‘Oh, yeah’ like Namath was in some big trouble with him but he’d take care of it in house, like all the other times. Sort of like when a parent catches a kid stealing someone else’s lunch money. But, then he muttered ‘WAY too hard’ and almost seemed to shudder…. So, I went on and said, ‘So, I have first team…’ and trailed off, hoping he’d finish, give me more of a hint, and he told me, ‘I don’t have every detail, but plan to start Sunday.’…”

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(1) Their only loss OTL was to the Browns, who are now in the AFL
 
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DTF955Baseballfan

Los Angeles Times headline, Jan. 8, 1969: “Jets QB Namath, Others In ‘Wild Party’ Police Say”

From the 30 for 30, “The legend of Broadway Joe”

Policeman: “We’d been called because of a report that drugs of a certain type were being used at a party…We planned on something raucous, but didn’t know what…

“When we arrived, we saw plenty of people carousing like expected, including Mr. Namath, who had lots of scotch and stuff in his system …it was like an orgy….

“We tried to disperse…but he fought us, claimed he’d be fine in the morning and he had a football game…I flat out told him, ‘I don’t think you’re playing like that.’ Not only was he plastered, he and a couple ladies were in a state of undress…That’s when my buddy said he found someone unconscious, and we got real mad…”

Namath: “I had been to another couple parties before this one. Los Angeles parties are wild. I went way too far here….I’d invited a lot of celebrities; I guess I can say now, Mr. Cosby was one of a few who had asked if there would be lots of women…I said yes…. The Hollywood people, and some of my friends from New York who came out here, they were the ones who brought drugs….never could figure out who brought that one drug…”

1st Policeman: “We had to start interrogating after…apparently a few people had brought drugs, including this cocktail which was known as an agent to seduce women, get them to pass out, and then…Well, it got mixed in with the others, everyone was so distracted by Mr. Namath’s personality and celebrity. eventually, accidentally got served as a drink, which Mr. Cosby then consumed, which was why he was unconscious. With the amount of booze he’d had before, there was some concern…”

Hollywood producer: “Even after a very long recovery, Mr. Cosby left show business for a time due to being caught with…women who, like him, were drunk and engaging in acts that were consensual, but obviously not the thing to do with his wife pregnant…One of the women recalled him starting to slip after having grabbed the drink, she’d started to scream just before the police got there…”

2nd policeman: “When we went to investigate…we interviewed everyone, grilled some especially hard. There were… criminals that Mr. Namath was associated with who he knew from a tavern he was looking to buy, or maybe had bought by then, I don’t know. Anyway, the guys from New York, those criminals, they were grilled especially hard, but they swore they didn’t know who had brought the one Mr. Cosby consumed. The others, like Mr. Cosby and Mr. Namath, were shocked at its presence…. Cosby, once he was well enough to talk, said, ‘Given what Namath promised, if he told the others the same thing he told me, why would they think such a cocktail was needed?’ We didn’t ask much more, he did seem really sorry that he’d been caught and that this had hurt his pregnant wife and kids.”

Cosby: “After my time in the hospital, I spent…over a year away from everything getting my life straightened around. Some said it was detox, others said there were other problems, but that’s between my wife and I…

“I returned to doing stand-up, but they never looked at me the same again. Which is okay, my health prevented a lot anyway…, the liquor before lpus that cocktail…messed up my liver or something…I’ve been clean over over 30 years and faithful to my wife. Namath, he was a bachelor, and he’d lived like it… Those SWAP people said he had resisted them.....”

1st policeman: “There were too many prints on the cocktail…Some rumors about it being white supremacists were passed off as nonsense, nobody there had been associated and how would it get to him...We eventually…figured it was one of the criminals from that tavern who had come to the party…”(1)

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(1) This is the place Namath owned fully later, here he can own it a bit earlier with the AFL not watching as strictly, plus even if he doesn’t, he likely knows these people earlier TTL just as he likely knew them OTL; as hangers-on if nothing else. So, basically, Joe Namath wouldn’t be the same after it, and more importantly, Bill Cosby gets help for his problem really early so there are no more sexual problems, is knocked out of his show business stuff, yet still does some stand-up comedy, etc., and his wife, whether or not she stays with him, is the one to be most active in things. Especially because this will lead to more concern over women and trying to end domestic violence and other assaults on women.

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Los Angeles Times, Jan. 9, 1969: “Namath facing suspension, unlikely to play following injury. Roughed up at party…,”

Weeb Ewbank, Jets’ coach: When I told Ninowski to plan to start, I didn’t have all the facts, I knew there was drinking and some people had brought drugs. I didn’t know how much trouble Namath was in, only that he’d been roughed up and wouldn’t be likely to play, anyway…

“I called the players in for a meeting at practice, then…filled them in later as I got information. I said we’d run the ball a lot but had a strategy of short passing that wound up looking a bit like a proto-West Coast offense. People forget Maynard was our second leader receiver that year, George Sauer, Jr. was the top one, so we were in good shape there, the Colts would still key on him, I figured; and I was right.”

Ninowski: “Namath, from what some stories said at first, had actually had a swig of that cocktail they talked about, but either way, we knew there were other drugs there….I knew one thing – I wanted to stay far away from that. I told the team that day it was going to be my last game. Maybe I could have gotten one more season, but I was ready to settle down, and I did.”

Namath: “I was messed up; I had done some other stuff, too, there, not just scotch, but more importantly, I messed my body up real bad just fighting all those police. I was never the same after that; played another year or two after my suspension, but who knows what might have been.

“I’m just glad my team got me the victory.”

New York Times, Jan. 13, 1969”:

“Jets Upset Previously Undefeated Colts 13-7

“Snell runs 36 times for 143 yards and a Touchdown, shares MVP honors with jets’ defender Rich Jackson.”(2)

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(2) TTL the Jets’ defense is just as good at forcing turnovers and not allowing a TD till late in the game, Ninowski isn’t quite as good as Namath but Namath didn’t have a great game. Ninowski avoids the one interception and Snell runs the ball half a dozen more time, Sauter catches 6-7 instead of 8 passes, and so one field goal drive after the initial doutchdown doesn’t happen and the Jets’ win is 13-7 instead of 16-7.
 
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DTF955Baseballfan

From the documentary, “A Half Century of Progress: 1940-1990 in Entertainment,” BET

Narrator: “…In the wake of the incident with Bill Cosby, Flip Wilson and some others had met together to discuss how to give blacks in entertainment a more positive image without the stereotypes of earlier days. Nichelle Nichols hadn’t been at that meeting, but some people from Sesame Street had. With Sesame Street starting, she’d already planned to meet with the directors – the change of plans with her taking Anissa Jones struck some, like Flip Wilson, as odd, though it made sense in retrospect because of her other plans… she promised it would, in the long run, show the concern of blacks for the plight of others and improve working conditions for all…

John Amos: “We were anxious to see how Sesame Street was received. If it worked, perhaps we could put something together, too, with Saturday morning and other cartoons still going strong….”

Flip Wilson: “I had good relations with NBC, In fact, we were in negotiatiosn for my variety show to be on there. I got together with ken Mundie and we talked about maybe doing something like what Mr. Cosby had done – his wife discussed it with us and gave her blessing – and of course I incorportated my own ideas as a one-off in ’69. Ironically, NBC rejected it for Saturday mornings, saying it was too educational, so for a time there was a chance I’d have that with NBC and ‘Fat Albert’ – or whatever we chose to call him – with CBS….”

John Amos: “Because of his being drugged, not nknowing whether he’d taken it himself on purpose, and all that, plus the fact he’d been cheating on his wife anyway, the networks didn’t want him personally involved in anything, though…his work seemed to be okay since she’d given her blessing. He could communicate some, but his wife had been his publicist for quite a while anyway…

“Flip was such a whiz with characters, and Hank Stram had encouraged me to start writing, so I said we should go for it. NBC didn’t want Wilson as the bookend live action guy on another network, but – afraid his variety show would also leave after one good season – they agreed he could do a few voices. Nichelle Nichols was busy with another project, ‘Starbase One,’ and we wanted a man, anyway. They asked me but I wasn’t quite as confident as I would be – I’d just begun playing Gordy [on the Mary Tyler Moore show] so I had an in with CBS, and later I’d regret I hadn’t tried sooner to be the star. I agreed to do some, but…we got Nipsey Russell to do some, too. He was older than we’d wanted, we didn’t want to go with the ‘wise old grandfather’ type, but he was still a valued addition. It transitioned to me later and, eventually, since I already had more creative control by then, we got Jimmie Walker involved…”

Nichelle Nichols: “1969 and ’70 would prove to be landmark years in Black entertainment. It was almost like what happened to Bill Cosby propelled us all toward greater things, although I’m sure we’d have all had great success anyway, like Flip Wilson with his variety show and John Amos with his growing acting career. That’s the year Sesame Street started, too, with children of all races featured playing together – - it was banned in a few Southern states at first, but that was par for the course. Anissa’s presence and her playing with other kids for that one episode really did seem to help… She slipped that little line in about Sesame Street being ‘A place Buffy can be forever even when Anissa grows up” was fun, it added to the idea of Sesame Street being this place of childlike joy and freedom without all the cares of the world… and, you could even say that, and not what happened next, was the her real statement that she was leaving. It’s just that nobody could know it yet, because I’d only just talked to Gene Roddenberry and gotten him to accept putting Anissa on ‘Starbase One.’”
 

DTF955Baseballfan

From Nichelle Nichols’ autobiography

“It was still frustrating, but I’d sort of gotten over my being left out of Star Trek…had a few good parts here and there to stay sharp…. I was really glad to be booked in not three ‘Family Affair’ episodes in season 3 of the show; I’d gotten along well with the kids as a substitute teacher in a previous season, and in fact, I heard there was actually a very mild, but still present, thought of trying to have me on in a recurring role for season 4, which was why they asked me back for the third. Anyway, one aired January 6 - I helped Buffy in Puerto Rico when another women came between Uncle Bill and Buffy’s time together – and then I appeared in two as a substitute teacher. They figured a different hairstyle and makeup would make me different enough for the January one…

“…Anyway, in late March we aired one where Buffy started to like a boy and was afraid he wouldn’t like girls who were smarter than her. Over the course of working with her, especially on the second and then the third show near the end of the season(1)…I noticed things that troubled me a little with how Buffy seemed to have to act younger than she was….

“…At first we connected because I was able to commiserate. I was still frustrated because they’d passed me over just because I was black – especially when it was supposed to be a show about the far future – and she was because she was a preteen, and not only were the producers expecting her to play a little girl and promote the show like crazy, her mom seemed very demanding, maybe even doing things… to increase her own profit....

“We kept in touch… she was a smart girl, she was able to discuss, in some ways, what the ramifications might be of that big pre-Super Bowl party that got raided, where they found one fellow unconscious. At the same time, she wondered about drugs and…seemed to have some very sad thoughts….”


From, “Sometimes the Sky is Where You Start,” by Anissa Jones:

“…When Nichelle just showed up one Saturday and took me to Disneyland, I was stunned. I didn’t know about all the background stuff – she had promised my mom to take me to some modelling and other celebrity appearances while I was there, in exchange for letting me go – but she told me along the way. Then, she broke the big news – she’d talked to people with this new childrens’ program that was going to be starting – Sesame Street. It was still in the discussion stages, but…my mom knew if I appeared on it – of course, as Buffy – it would really boost my popularity even more. I didn’t like that part, but Ms. Nichols said she’d go with me once school let out and we had a break; we filmed months ahead of time…my mom would meet us there… while she saw Nichelle as just a kind mentor, which I needed since Kathy was the only regular female, but Nichelle was actually at work in other ways…

“…So, she’d had had time, since she hadn’t been on Star Trek, to get involved in the initial discussion about the show, and she’d asked them to let me appear if I wanted, but that was partly a ruse to get me to open up about what I’d hinted at in my last letter…”


From Nichols’ autobiography:

“The fact she’d broken her leg – and they’d had to write that into the script – may have been a Godsend, as she’d had to slow down some of her travels, and the trip to Sesame Street headquarters in june was part of that slightly extended break, even though her mom and the producers figured it would be the launching point for more… There was so much on her mind that she wasn’t having time to process: The divorce, a custody battle that was still ongoing, the pressure…everything….

“She’d said that she was looking for a way to escape and by the time June rolled around…siad she wouldn’t mind just giving up entirely…. I was glad she wasn’t hinting at what I feared she could have been, but while her thoughts weren’t that dark – eleven-year-olds don’t always have the words to precisely explain what they mean – I knew from other letters that she was starting to feel troubled. She wanted to act, but she didn’t want to keep being the same person. She was already starting to dread ‘having to do it forever.’”


CBS executive: “In those days, we taped 30 shows a year; we really didn’t understand – or maybe we turned a deliberate blind eye to – how all those demands could be so rough on kids. Anissa probably did need some space, although in a way – and I guess I can say this now because it had a happier ending than it could have – we knew the day would come when she wasn’t a little girl and couldn’t play one, so maybe we tried to fit too much in before then. Anyway, we wanted to help her, but we wanted to keep making money and…her mom pushed things a lot. We tried to help her parents work out a compromise, figuring maybe that would help, but they wouldn’t budge.

“We thought she was bluffing when she threatened to quit. We should have been paying more attention to what was going on over at NBC.”

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(1) The first 2 episodes are from OTL, the third isn’t. Cissy falls for a hippy in one that airs close to the end of the ’68-’69 season, but that is likely to be different with how hippies might be viewed OTL. Even if it’s not totally different, her appearance for a scene is still plausible.
 
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