Desilu was the name of a 1960's television production company. The name was an amalgamation of the names of the two founders, Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. Desi and Lucille were a popular comedy duo that formed the company in anticipation of selling their show to the major TV networks of the day.
Their show, "I Love Lucy", was indeed bought by the TV networks and allowed Desilu to go on to produce other shows. However, by 1962 the couple had divorced leaving Lucille solely in charge of the company. Things were not going well, with only "I Love Lucy" still running, so Lucille started looking for new shows to produce.
At that point a largely unknown writer by the name of Gene Roddenberry pitch a show to Lucille called Star Trek. Initially she thought it was a show about Hollywood celebrities going overseas to play at USO concerts. However, once she realised it was more UFO than USO she saw the potential and green-lighted the production.
The first show aired on September 8th, 1966 and Lucille was right about the potential of Star Trek, with the franchise still going after 50 years. Unfortunately, she underestimated the costs of producing this new style of TV show and in 1967 had to sell Desilu to Paramount Studios.
She is still recognised, however, as the person who launched Star Trek!
