Star Trek Turns 44 – A look back at 1966 in Video September 8, 2010
by Anthony Pascale , Filed under: TOS, Trek Franchise , trackback
Today Star Trek turns 44. On September 8th at 8:30PM, 1966 NBC aired the first episode of Star Trek – "The Man Trap" (which was actually the 6th episode produced). So today TrekMovie looks back to 1966 to see how Star Trek got its start with a selection of videos promoting the show.
44 Years – and still going
As recently noted by William Shatner, when Star Trek began in 1966 "nobody knew that Star Trek was going to be successful". From the beginning the series struggled in the ratings and after three seasons it was gone, but not for too long. By the 70’s the show re-emerged as a force in syndication, eventually leading to a planned return to TV (in "Star Trek: Phase II") which morphed into the first feature film, leading to ten more films, and four more live action series. The success of the 2009 Star Trek movie is a testament to the timelessness of Gene Roddenberry’s original vision of a hopeful future.
Season 1 opening of "Star Trek"
1966 Videos: Don’t Miss Star Trek – In Color!
This promo describes the show and the "Vulcanian" (via Genius 7277 on YouTube)
Here is another promo for the new series (via bbordenlon2 on YouTube)
[Note: promo shows September 15th which was the official fall season premiere date, but NBC wanted to try to get the jump on ABC and CBS by having a “Sneak Peek Week” and they thus debuted shows a week early - thx Bill Hiro]
Here are 1966 interviews with Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner pitching the new Star Trek series (via OldWorldTelevision on YouTube).
Here is the original TV promo for "The Man Trap" (via ShipHunter on YouTube).
More 1966 Video: The world Star Trek entered
Here is a video retrospective of the television landscape in 1966, which also discusses Star Trek (GoodTV on YouTube).
POLL: Where you there to see it?
Did you witness the birth of Star Trek? Were you even alive to see it?
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Comments»
happy birthday star trek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
those are amazing videos
44 and still going strong thanks to Abrams and Cryptic!
I’m DAMN glad they’re astronauts on some kind of star trek.
HAPPY 44th BIRTHDAY STAR TREK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Strong as Ever, and It will Always LIVE LONG AND PROSPER!!
Wow – “Star Trek” is even older if you count 1964 as the year “The Cage” was produced, which makes it 46 years old! Almost half a century!
I couldnt imagine life without it…. and I’m only 31 (well, in October!).
Happy Birthday !
Happy Birthday and many more to TOS!
I love these old clips…as much as I love the Blu-Ray releases and the job they did to clean them up and update the the special effects, I sure wish that they (Paramount/CBS) had released these and more as extras for these sets…
Now I’m waiting for the 3-D releases of TOS :) …
Jon
Wow, the music in that second video is positively dreadful.
1966 NBC Exec: “Hey, we need a promo for that space show.”
1966 NBC Exec’s yes man: “Ooooh….That’s a great idea, boss.”
1966 NBC Exec: “Don’t have the characters speak or anything. Have that strange guy that narrates the gym class videos do the voice over.”
1966 NBC Exec’s yes man: “Fabulous idea, chief! You’re on fire!”
1966 NBC Exec: “And the freak with the ears? What’s he called? A Vulcanian? Have him scream or something.”
1966 NBC Exec’s yes man: “Top notch idea, boss! The kids’ll love it!”
1966 NBC Exec: “And get my cat to run up and down a piano and then transcribe the notes. We can use that for the promo’s score.”
1966 NBC Exec’s yes man: *gurgle*–”I just messed myself. Inspired! Brilliant!”
1966 NBC Exec: “Now get me a scotch and those nude pics of Elizabeth Montgomery.”
1966 NBC Exec’s yes man: Right on it, big guy.”
As far as the shows set designs are concerned, there is nothing that dates this show. There’s nothing there to give away that it was made in the mid-20th century. One of the reasons it still holds up today.
A HUGE Happy Birthday to you, Star Trek! You’re looking great after all these years! And that’s from someone who’s been with you since “The Man Trap.”
Happy, Happy Birthday Star Trek! “It’s been a long road….” Hmm, maybe its best not to continue. ;)
Star Trek and I turned 44 just recently. Yay!
All the best!! Happy Birthday – STAR TREK!! Live Long and Prosper!!
Happy Birthday Star Trek!
Gotta say, it is odd to see Nimoy discussing himself in full Spock make-up in the 60s.
Happy Birthday, Star Trek! My dad was there for the premiere and passed his love on to me. Thanks, Dad!
And I was watching in 1966, though I do not remember if the first episode watched was The Man Trap. My special connection though is it is also my birthday ! Forty-four years of Trek….Wow! Happy birthday and long life !
^ #8
My thoughts exactly — except the keyboardist was certainly tripping.
Sincerely,
C.S. Lewis
Happy Birthday. May it live long and proper!!!!!!!!!!
ABSOLUTELY GREAT!!!…. HB!!!!!
Happy Birthday ST!!!
44 years is such a short time to enjoy what Star Trek hs to offer to all of us. Let there be more one hundred years of life for Star Trek!
Live Long and Prosper
Star Trek is a Virgo just like me! Woo hoo!
Great day to be a Trek fan! I recently uploaded to YouTube a great documentary made about and by the people who helped create TOS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTXpWb-lP8k
Happy Birthday Trek :)
Looks pretty good for 44.
Happy 44th to STAR TREK
Keep on Trekkin’!
I can’t wait until 09/08/13!
Sat down in my university library today and read a book about the behind the scenes of Star Trek published shortly after its cancellation. It was really cool to read the pitches that Roddenberry made for the show.
I wasn’t even in production yet.
Happy 44th to Star Trek. =)
Guess I’d better watch “the Man Trap” tonight!!! :-)
Happy birthday Star Trek!
I’m nearly as old as Star Trek!
Hard to believe I’m only a few months younger.
Wow…
Happy Birthday, Star Trek! May it live long and prosper.
Unlike me, at least Star Trek has the enviable option to recast itself with younger, better-looking people every forty years or so!
; )
Happy birthday Star Trek! :D I wish I was alive when Star Trek was on TV. Good thing for box sets!
Here’s my mini-birthday video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1Hq2feVwh0&feature=player_embedded
The 50th anniversary will be here before you know it.
I was only six weeks old!
Happy Birthday TOS!
September 15th was the “official” fall season premiere, but that year NBC wanted to try to get the “jump” on ABC and CBS by having a “sneak peak week” and they thus debuted shows a week early.
and by “peak” I meant “peek”.
Wow, this first one, ‘in color,’ makes the show look terrible. The second one’s a lot better. I like the first adult science-fiction show.
Great videos! I wasn’t born for a couple more years, so my intro as a young child was actually TAS, then I started catching syndicated re-runs. Got my disc-shooting phaser though, and I was set.
Yes I was there when. Star trek premierd on NBC sneak week. The man Trap! How could I ever forget. The captain and the Beaming. That was all it took. Since than Trek owned me mind and soul! Thank you for 44 years or as someone said earlier 46 years of a way of life and thinking. I had the priviledge of sharing with my kids and grandkids and mom! Who still loves the the Shat!m Happy Birthday!!!!
#22-I couldn’t get the 5th one to play past Fred’s story about Kirk & Uhura. Love the documentary you put up. Any idea what year it wa made and where it aired? Happy birthday Star Trek! I’m only a little over a month older than you are and you have been and will be a part of my life since I have a memory!
@#9 Peter,
I hope you were joking.
Don’t get me wrong- I still love watching TOS. But there are many elements of the set which looked dated to me when I was a rugrat watching it in syndication.
The computers in TOS are in some ways less powerful than the iPhone in my pocket.
And therein rests the true staying power of Trek. It dreamed dreams for our future- and those dreams were a mix of the attainable and the fantastic.
Star Trek inspired the technological ideas which lead to smart-phones and mobile communications and computing with communicators and tricorder. Our reality in that department surpasses the dream in a great many ways.
And yet the dreams of space travel and global peace and encountering new species remains elusive and therefore compelling.
Yes- Trek looks dated- but the datedness is a selling point, inviting the view to simultaneously pat ourselves on the back and push ourselves into the unknown.
#42
Well put!
Oh, and Happy Birthday, Star Trek!
Didn’t anyone else think the guy doing the restrospective, Geoff Grimshaw looked a bit like the Roddenberry?
And also in that second video (with the bad music) is, I do believe, the late, great Ernie Anderson doing the voice over. (always give a shout out to Ernie)
Real men don’t use shaving cream.
And Anthony, you left out on your poll “No, I was only a month and a half old”.
Actually, it’s nice to see all those “no. I wasn’t alive yets” in the poll. Proves Trekkies aren’t ALL virgins.
Love the flashbacks… hard to get a good picture of what Trek was from the promos, but I guess a few smart folks figured it out.
I was only 4 years old then, but my older sister told me we watched it. I don’t remember of course. I didn’t become a fan until after I discovered it during the animated series. Then after that, I was hooked. It would be another year or two before I actually saw the live action series (we didn’t have access to cable) but bought every book I could. Those were the days!
The “Mammoth Starship Enterprise”, I just love this old stuff!
I was 1 year old.
I was a kid-remembering how different this show was from lost in space,time tunnel,voyage to the bottom of the sea,etc–at first i thought it was a special or a movie–the salt monster!Scary for an 11 yr old but i luved it–and it was on again the next week–i was hooked-happy birthday Trek–I wasnt alone in my luv for this franchise–obviously–thanx to anthony n all trekkers everywhere for continuing to keep the faith
I was 10 when Trek premiered, and I have two very distinct memories of the lead-up and premiere: (…for which I was absolutely pegged in front of the color TV!)
1) Before the show aired, I saw a promo for it that included a bridge clip with Kirk and Yeoman Rand. Already steeped in “Lost in Space” (which premiered the year before), I couldn’t figure out the dynamics of this new “family”, but I thought Kirk’s “daughter” was cute!. Just way beyond my little pea brain to figure that this wasn’t that kind of ship.
2) “The Man Trap” opens with Kirk’s “Captain’s Log”, then the landing party beams down, and a few moments elapse before anyone on camera speaks. With no link in my head between voice and face for Shatner, I immediately pegged *DeForest Kelley* as the Captain. After all, he was obviously the most senior man, therefor the leader, right? Confused the heck out of me when the voices didn’t match, and I had to realign my expectations!
BTW, did anyone else notice that the “1966 Thursday” retrospective from Good TV used a 1967 clip for Star Trek? (”Mirror, Mirror” was second season.)
Happy 44th Anniversary to STAR TREK!!!! I celebrated by watching “Where No Man Has Gone Before” on DVD :)
Interesting to see that 70% of those who voted on the poll said that they weren’t born when the first episode went to air, Star Trek was already 14 years when I was born and I was introduced to Star Trek by my Mother, when I was a child and I have loved it ever since!
Saw the majority in the poll = No – wasn’t alive (67%)— Sheesh I feel old ! Hey #50 -I was ALMOST 2 when it aired.
I missed it but since made up but watching (and rewatching) all!! ~:-)
“I play a Captain Kirk, of a spaceship Enterprise….”
Hard to believe there was a time before starships, and Vulcans. Good work, Gene, good work.
on the Vulcanian thing:
To be fair, Vulcans have been called Vulcanians before. I mean, the name is canon.
Source: Mudd’s Women and other various episodes
I wonder what those reporters were thinking when they walked into that Bridge set for tor the first time? Must have been awesome.
there were actually tv’s without color?
Looks like there’s some unused footage of the Horta scurrying away in the NBC promo.
I grew up on TOS and TAS in the 70s. Capt. Kirk was my role model and idol growing up. Still is! From about the ages of 6 – 12 I was watching all of those ST reruns and Batman reruns. Those were very formative years, and I never stopped liking Trek.
Sometimes I wish that they had just gone with the Phase II TV series and not the movies. We’d have possibly hundreds more stories on film rather than…. six.
TMP then 5 seasons of the next 5 year mission. Then the 2nd film….
Well after reading the recent posts on age . So I will too I’ve admired. Star trek been a trekkie while many of you or your parents were still in diapers! LOL. Something I heard on “Relics”. Have fun and enjoy you “Onlies”
Happy b-day Trek ! I can’t wait for Trek’s 50th anniversary. They should definitely have a movie released on the 50th anniversary. Probably Part 3, of the jj abrams trek.
I wasn’t born til ‘81. I’m 29 and glad I hadn’t been born earlier. I can’t imagine having to watch television in black and white during the sixties.
Plus, there was no such thing as home video, special features, and definitely no internet (at least for home use).
I was 9 years old and I loved Star Trek as soon as I saw it. I didn’t get to see it in color until we got a color TV in 1974 when I was in high school. I remember rushing home from school in the early 70s to watch it and reading the James Blish novelizations in junior high. I had all the Gold Key comics and remember kid magazines with articles. My first Star Trek toy was a ‘tracer gun’ I got when I was about 10. Those were the days.
Promos back in the 1960s were terrible…
#64
Yes, and I’ve also heard stories of people back then sitting in rooms and engaging in something called “conversation.” I’ve only heard of this from a few older people. The need for more research on this topic is clearly indicated. ;)
Great post. Fun getting to look back on Trek in its infancy.
Little did they know back then that Gene Roddenberry’s “wagon train to the stars” would go on to become one of the greatest franchises in the history of television and film.
And the adventure still continues today… : )
Happy Birthday
Just think–how many failed,cancelled tv shows had and still have their own conventions,been resurrected to full movie status, had the actors involved become stars, inspired millions to invent n be part of the positive future it portrayed, spawned several tv shows,11 plus movies, a vegas attraction, declared dead again n failed again only to come back again rising phoenix like from the ashes thanx to jj,roberto et l? And still going strong at 44–Dr. Who has lasted for a similar perod of time on brit tv–but this is a rare phenom-no mere tv show has ever had the impact on history n entertainment like trek has-thanks to us–
I grew up watching ST TOS on CBC every weekend. Shatner is a formidable actor and Spock was an amazing character. Bones cemented it all. It was a peak into an exciting technological future.
Thank you Desilu, Paramount, CBS, CBC, NBC and anyone else responsible in bringing it to the people.
Happy birthday old girl. Love ye loads
Happy Birthday Star Trek, even if we celebrated it in the Philippines yesterday!
In the NBC Premiere Promo, the depiction of the Enterprise looks uncannily like Ryan Chruch’s early rendering of the redesigned ship for the 2009 movie.
“The success of the 2009 Star Trek movie is a testament to the timelessness of Gene Roddenberry’s original vision of a hopeful future. ”
Yes, because 2009’s ST had so much of Roddenberry’s vision in it…
Bugger … no spellcheck! Should be Ryan CHURCH (sorry, Ryan).
Happy Birthday T’OS – you look younger than ever! :)
We had a little Birthday party yesterday evening. Had a glass of champaign and watched The Man Trap, beginning at exactly 8:30 Eastern Time. (Unfortunately we forgot to take Daylight Savings Time into account. Well what the heck.)
I turn 30 years old on 9/11, I was born 14 years too late to miss the beginning of the journey, but I do remember when I was three watching “All Our Yesterdays” with Mr Atoz.
Forget the kids cartoons, I was hooked, TOS and films filled my life and the crew were my role models, and still today. It was then in 1987 when I then started watching TNG, and then followed by every film and TV series that followed.
My wife now loves Star Trek, (well she would have to, its played every day in my house). Since 2000 there has not been a day in my house (unless holidays etc that it has not been played on VHS, DVD, Blu Ray)
Lets all keep it alive just as it was in the past.
Call me old school but the TOS was/is the best :) I’m 56 now but I remember watching on 9/8/66 on an old RCA B&W tv set when I was 12 years old and wondering how it would look in color!!!! I was amazed the whole hour!! Didn’t even go to the bathroom during the commerical breaks so I wouldn’t miss anything!!!
TOS will always be my first love of syndicated TV. Yes, the sets seem dated, but my goodness, did they manage to capture the alien and mysterious in a way the later spin-off shows failed. I credit this to the psychedelic Sixties.
Recently, I was invited as a guest to see Shatner act in his latest TV show, ‘$!*% My Dad Says’, at Warner Bros. WOW! Since the age of three, those technicolored, miasmic dreamscapes of Star Trek, with there charismatic performers have entranced me to the present (now 38). I feel so lucky to have seen The Man in action.
#65-
Wow, Julie. Word for word your post could’ve been written by me. Wow.
I miss my tracer gun :-(
Happy Birthday, Star Trek! I had just turned 8 a couple of weeks before the premier and vaguely remember watching Trek–in fact, Trek has been such a part of my everyday life since then that I cannot remember anything but.
I do remember that as the 8-track died and cassette recorders became readily available my friends and I would record the episodes whenever Trek turned up and listen to our favorite scenes and/or reenact them.
Thank goodness we had the books to keep the adventures going (and TAS for that brief moment in history) until the first movie came out! I have to laugh at all the “newbies” who are impatiently waiting for the next movie in another year or two–try waiting 10 years!!
Even comparing Trek to all of the TV shows today I find Trek to still be one of the best–period. Not only because of the creative force of Roddenberry and his staff but because many of the episodes were penned by real sf authors equal to the creative challenge. Nothing against the full-time staff writers on TV shows but I think Trek had a pool of creativity that allows it to continue to be fresh to each generation. I often try to point this out to my kids and challenge them to not settle for the many (broadcast and cable now!) mediocre shows that have been done over the years and today.
Well, I rant–TOS is absolutely the best and we could use more like it today. If only we could see more of the classic written sf (or even many of the new classic ones) brought to a new Trek series then we might experience the birth of a true worthy successor to TOS!
41 – Glad you enjoyed it, I’ll take a look at the 5th segment to see what the issue is. This was released on VHS in conjunction with the Solow/Justman book Inside Star Trek in 1998:
http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Star-Trek-Real-Story/dp/0792152638/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1284036514&sr=8-2
I put it up because it was never released on DVD and I think it’s a doc most people haven’t seen and should. Relatively fair, presenting some views of the origins of Trek that aren’t often heard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTXpWb-lP8k
My first Trek memory is the image of seeing Capt Chris Pike throttlin’ the lead Talosian as it morphs into a beast on the floor. Pretty scary stuff when I was a kid, I tell ya.
I don’t remember the quick shot of the horta speeding down the tunnel, though. Was it in the ep and I just forgot? or did it get cut out?
Good videos, thanks.
I was 5. My dad would let me stay up and watch it with him. At the time I also was heavily into Lost in Space.
TOS rules. Always will.
STAR TREK was my dinner companion when I was 7 (1972/3) and older, coming home from school, and having two parents out of the house ’til late.
I remember as a boy always being impressed at how Kirk & Co. were armed to the teeth, but always searched for the better way out of a situation before using weapons as a last resort.
Viva Star Trek!
Here’s my take on Star Trek: At this point, it’s more important as an inspiration toward future manned space exploration than NASA, which in equivalent terms is a disheartening mess and a bureaucratic nightmare.
How’s that?
I began watching trek in 1990(born in 1977) ….I think it was around 1990:-)…with TNG , think it was the eps. with Kahless, where he came back as a clone….great episode, and I mean I might before had seen some trek movies, but I am not sure…..
But I got stuck with it ever since, and here in little denmark TV-2(A tv-channel ) sendt it overhere, but only a few eps., but I have seen most of treks eps., via german tv , the tv-channel called Sat-1 /sat eins in german, and then later I got them all on vhs, and were very glad, and then dvds, many years later……. And Now im happy to be a part of a century where a new universe with kirk and co., begins……….
Live long and for ever trek!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for a great trip down memory lane! Even the old NBC logo.
I still remember how when I was six my dad perhaps influenced my taste during its airing by informing me that “Lost in Space” was no longer “our” favorite show, and that this was “our” new favorite.
Thanks, Dad. I can still recall how pumped you were about this new show back in ‘66. RIP.
I was 11 years old when “Trek” premiered, and I had no interest in it. I was a fan of that other space show that was on at the time. One of my classmates, named Kevin, kept urging me to watch it. Eventually, I gave in, and caught the first run of “Balance of Terror.” I didn’t understand it (why were there two guys with pointed ears on different ships?) and blew it off for the rest of the series’ first run. I gave “Trek” a second chance in the summer reruns in 1967, and was hooked. (IIRC, the episode that brought me into the fold was “Arena.”) As for Kevin, it turned out that he was a complete jackass, and after graduating grammar school, I lost touch with him, and never saw him again.
So, a very Happy 44th birthday, “Star Trek.”
90 – Very nice memories of your Dad. I have similar thoughts about my brother Ben, who passed in 2008. Star Trek was one of the things that bonded us together and I will always think of him, when I see the Enterprise soar or the music swell in grandeur.
Thank you, 92. Forgot to say in my post that I still can’t believe that this night was 44 years ago. This show has helped build stronger bonds among family and friends and like-minded souls for nearly half a century now — such is its vision of hope for the future.
Let’s see what I recall….
Dr. Who, as he was called in his motion picture theatrical releases (1965 and 1966), was Peter Cushing for me.
THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. paved the way for a TV series worldwide fan sweep and also featured many who would later make significant contributions to the STAR TREK series.
I missed the first few episodes of STAR TREK because I was earlier smitten with Kim Novak in BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE, and later Elizabeth Montgomery in its spin-off: BEWITCHED. Fortunately a sporting preemption caused me to search the dial (primitive form of channel surfing) and my first ST image was the Gorn – by the end of ARENA I was hooked.
If I recall correctly the backing of my tracer/disc gun had a marvelous color picture of Mr. Spock holding what seemed at the time a HUGE model of the Enterprise spaceship.
#94.
I should clarify that I’m referring to the backing of the gun’s packaging.
44 years….Wow!! I was only 7 years old when this all got started.
#96:
Did you ever visit the set with your dad?
@ 96
And it will continue forever ! Thanks to your dad !
I was born during TNG season 1. But, I was always hooked on TOS from age 2, my dad and I started watching trek when I was barely old enough to sit up. I showed the ‘Corbomite Maneuver’ to my 5th grade class for a project they are doing and they enjoyed it alot, didnt realize it was a 44 year old show, and want to watch more (it is not the remastered version either). I think that people of all ages are hungering for good entertainment, this show and others stands the test of time. I think there are a few points we can point to when the life of Trek was pivotal:
1964-Pilot
1965- 2nd pilot
1966- Airing
1977- Star Wars
1979-TMP
1986/1987- The Voyage Home and return to TV (which was a big deal, it is hard to see that now)
2005- Cancellation
2009- New Trek
And we have 5 people to credit Trek’s great success with (besides Gene of course):
Robert Justman
Nick Meyer
Leonard Nimoy
Rick Berman
J.J. Abrams
Oh I am going to add a 6th- Ralph Winter
Happy 44th, Star Trek!
I was only ten months old when it came on TV.
Happy Birthday, Star Trek! ^_^
Happy Birthday Star Trek! I wasn’t even thought of when it first aired [come to think of it I wasn't thought of ever. I guess you could call me an accident :) ] but I will never forget the first time seeing Star Trek when I was 9 and going completly crazy for it. Oh those were the days…..
The Original And The BEST !!! Happy Birhtday !!!
Happy Birthday Star Trek!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BOBORICI you have some big shoes to take care of!
In a world where politicians have failed us, where corrosive talk radio diatribes tear at the very fabric of this country, where financial woes stalk our federal, state, and local governments, Star Trek, in all its forms, reminds us that the future awaits.
The future will not be Star Trek, but through it all, Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek will have inspired many of us to pursue it. That is more than can be said for most things in life.
103: What a happy accident! (Between us accidents :-)
I read somewhere that back in those days the Nielsen ratings couldn’t show the demographics like they do today and that Star Trek actually had good ratings for certain demographics that are prized today by advertisers. Anyway, Happy Birthday Star Trek!
Happy Birthday Star Trek.
Legends never die and sometimesif you´re really lucky become 44!!!!
Couldn´t imagine life without it…(eventhough i wasn´t born when it went on air, grew up with the TNG
TOS is the best and will always will be here’s to more years of Star Trek
I remember a lot of Star Trek, even though I didn’t come into the world until long after it began.
I remember the first time my dad introduced me to Star Trek, seeing Q floating naked on the bridge, just amazed at how a show with no fighting or ’splosions could be so interesting. I also remember as a very young boy hiding my eyes at the scary TOS episode Miri, with my sister at my side. I remember having 2 months to live at one point, also, lying in hospital waiting for a full-body bone-marrow transplant… and seeing on Red Robinson’s Classic Movie Theater TOS’s Space Seed episode followed immediately by The Wrath of Khan. Fantastic fun.
Like so many others, I can’t imagine a world without Star Trek. Happy Birthday. Thanks for everything.
I was a few days short of two when it debuted My earliest memory must be from a early rerun of WNMGB on a b/w TV. It’s a bridge shot looking down on the crew as someone counts down to the edge of the galaxy. It sent my mind spinning and I was VERY worried of such a place.
My next memory was watching on a color TV, (may have been an initial airing) -Decker ramming a shuttle craft down the throat of the Doomsday Machine. I was left alone with my older brother who had grown tired of my restlessness and made me watch. I tried to hide from it, those sounds, that bright light, the look on Decker’s face. Yikes!
When I was seven a younger friend who could not yet read gave me a torn up copy of James Blish’s STAR TREK 7 on my way to school. The red cover seemed eerie (of course) with Kirk alone on the planet while the Enterprise streaked away overhead. The cover fascinated me. I still have it and I’ve been a fan ever since.
I remember that day in Sept day in 66 very well and our family just got a color TV after we moved to California from Florida in 1965.
I wanted one of those TOS uniforms back then more than I wanted a uniform from the TV series COMBAT which I liked too…if any one else remembers that show.
@9 The sets don’t date the show. Really? TOS was never about fake tech, it was phaser blastin skirt chasin, fun. On review, you gotta look past some of the ham fisted storytelling, but it’s watchable because it’s over the top.
Technically I was alive when it first premiered with the Man Trap however I was in the hospital as I was born September 8th 1966!!! My mother says that during the second season, I would sit on my mom’s lap and every time Mr. Spock appeared on the screen, I would pull my ears and pretend they were pointed!!! LONG LIVE STAR TREK and Happy 44th birthday!!!
Proud to be OLD SCHOOL!!
The lousy reception, the interminable WAIT for next week’s show, the straining to get a glimpse of props… and certain mini-skirted crew… people…
(Hmm…those were NOT the days.)
The “space” music in that 1966 promo!! LOL!!
Hilarious!! I wonder where that’s from?
Please stop continuing this myth that star trek didnt rate & was only watched in syndication- I expected more from Trekmovie!
according to sources including Norman Spinrad’s introduction to the classic episodes vol 3 the show was still watched by 20 Million people for 3 years & maintained a steady audiance even in the friday night 10pm death slot!
It was canceled the year before they looked at demographics- star treks overall numbers were not the highest but they were all children & young adults-male especialy- when they broke down the demagraphics & saw the show had an audiance they pushed it into syndication knowing it had an audiance that just solidified & became known as trekkies.
oh & Happy Birthday Star Trek!
I think that this YOUTUBE video is a great tribute made 4 years ago its prevelant today
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80_HKdvNhgA&feature=related
114- “it’s over the top.”
..or, in this modern “age”, is everyone so grounded by the bizzare need for everything they see in entertainment to be so “real” that, even in the unexplored unknowns of space, they’ve forgotten how to imagine?
The sets didn’t date the show, I agree. Matt Jefferies was forced to work with nothing, yet the lines of his inspired designs — the bridge set in particular — are as beautiful today as ever. It isn’t an issue of cost, or a measure of how cheaply they were built, but of the ideas inherent in the designs themselves that make them great.
Happy Birthday Star Trek. The Original series is still the best. yes technology wise its dated but to me it adds to the charm. I was born the year the series came out butt saw it on the BBC for the first time during the early 1970’s. I was hooked right from that early age.
I still get a great buzz from the show.
Greg
UK
I was 9 when Star Trek debuted. I used to watch the show at my grandmother’s house because she had a color tv. I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen next to the Beatles. 1966 was the year of Star Trek and “Revolver,” the two main things I wrapped my life around… and it’s pretty much been the same for the past 44 years!
The TOS sets are charming—heck, weren’t all designs in the ’60s a bit charming? Besides, I imagine the bridge in Trek ‘09 might look just as dated in forty or so years. I was watching “Aliens” recently and noticed how dated the Space Marines’ chunky laptop (cutting-edge future tech for 1986!) looked when compared to the super thin computers Apple is putting out nowadays. Still, it took nothing away from the movie’s ’80s design charm (and it kinda made sense for the big bad Marines to have a big bad laptop with them).
I think designs only fail when they throw common sense under the bus and go for what’s currently fashionable—ahem, like Abrams’ embrace for gritty, ultra-realism by turning a brewery into a starship’s engineering! Yeah, again, I’m thinking that design won’t hold up very well forty years from now—then again, did it ever hold up at all? ;)
Happy B Day Trek. I think the Bridge of the Big E In tos looks great still today. Also Loved the Big Es bridge in Mirror Mirror with the Empire. When you watch Enterprise In a Mirror Darkly that bridge looked incredable and I think it can still be pulled off today. a Few Twikes maybe.
if i’m not mistaken, the “preview” for THE MAN TRAP isn’t exactly the original one. if i recall from my dated memory-banks, the original opening-image declared “NEXT WEEK” and featured a different title-card. those shots were replaced many years ago with the “NEXT TIME” one (maybe a 3rd season incarnation.
anyone know if i know what i’m talking about? lol
Happy Birthday Star Trek! sorry I missed you in your first run (I debuted myself only a month and 21 days later). By the time I was 3 you were off the air, but I do remember catching the fever when visiting my grandmother. Her and my grandfather had a little TV in their kitchen at the table and I would watch you there at first and then when we went back home after vacation ended, I watched you all the time as much as I could. I was hooked! And as they say, the rest is history. Thanks for all the years of entertainment and fueling my imagination!
1964-2005 Star Trek you had a great run, 10 movies and 700+ episodes.
I wasn’t alive when you started, but I’ve been a fan since the mid 1980’s. When Hollywood is done with their unoriginal reboots, I’m sure you will be back. Until then, I’ll be watching Ziva on NCIS!
97
Many times. The best was the Trouble with Tribbles set. My brother and I got into some trouble ourselves
Great article, happy 44th birthday TOS! I was born in August 89 so no to seeing it in 66′ lol
Only six more years until a MAJOR celebration! Happy Birthday “Trek” and thank you for so many wonderful moments and memories for so many years.
The first and still the best: TOS! TOS! TOS!!
113 – I remember “Combat” and “Rip Cord.”
I was 10 and I didn’t watch the premier. Some how I missed the promotions. However, one evening I was flipping through channels and saw the transporter effect briefly on my way to my desired channel. (None of this going directly to a channel.) When I saw the transporter, I stopped, said “Whoa, what was that?” and immediately backed up. I’m not positive but it may have been The Enemy Within.
I’ve been watching ever since!
Live Long and Prosper!
Great clips! Thank you TM! Keep it up!
Qapla’
still going strong thanks to Abrams who made me a trekkie now I haven’t seen all of TNG, Voyager, Deep Space Nine episodes yet
136
Cool. You still have a lot of great Trek left to watch. Glad the new movie has brought you in to see it.
Happy birthday Star Trek.
“The first adult space adventure” — that says it all. It’s easy to forget how unprecedented “Star Trek” was back in 1966.
I was alive and old enough (just barely), but I didn’t start watching — on a black-and-white tube with crappy reception — until the 1970s.
#81 @Harry Mudd.
Do tell. How was he? How was the show?
I didn’t see it in it’s original run, but I saw it in repeats all though my childhood. Star Trek is one of my earliest TV watching memories.
By college I could recall eps just from the Cold Open and for that never even watched TOS until last year or so until we cycled through everything on DVD.
That non-watching gap was some 20 yes long during which ST (and TOS) fully remained a part of my DNA.
There WILL be a 50th anniversary, probably coinciding with ST:13!
The word “Vulcanian” was used by “Mr. Mudd” in “Mudds Women” remember that?.
“Your part Vulcanian aren’t ya?”
LLAP!
I was Born on Dec 19th 1968. So Did not watch in the orignal run. It was actualy the Animated Series that was my first viewing of Star Trek. I think it was with the Tribbles.. Then the next night I seen Trouble with Tribbles and I was so hooked. The Next one was the Doomsday Machine and the rest is history. This was in 1975. So for 35 years with all of the Movies and Series I have been a hard core fan. Happy Birthday Trek. May you live long and Prosper.
I still believe one of the most important factors in TOS’s success was the use of actual sci-fi writers. Granted, they could have used more, but I think some of those writers — Sturgeon, Spinrad, Ellison, etc. — helped to define something about the show that non-sci-fi writers had to rise up to. IMO…
Judging by the poll numbers, the vast majority of folks here weren’t even born yet when Star Trek premiered. And those who were old enough were still quite young (10 and under). Many of those people missed the show on its first run according to some of the comments.
I wonder how many fans on this site were 15 years or older when Star Trek first aired?
#143.
I have to agree. And I know, since I was part of the fans working to make the 1979 reboot take, that we had always hoped for the storytelling to evolve to be better and better and NOT be constantly reset as seemed to be the paramount (sic) corporate preference.
My Trek began as a teen in the late 80’s. I discovered the show via late night reruns on a local station, Channel 39 in Houston, Texas. I was immediately hooked; I was in love with a series. Star Trek V was the first movie I saw as a true, excited, opening night fan. Over the years I bought the series and the movies on VHS, then DVD, now Blu.
Star Trek TOS remains my favorite tv series of all time, and it’s likely nothing will ever replace it. I’ve turned other people on to the series. The show remains like an old friend; sometimes it fades into the background and isn’t heard from for awhile, but it’s always back when I need it. To this day, the sense of comfort I feel when I sit in front of my tv and pop in a favorite episode … well, it’s just something special. Many of you know exactly what I mean.
After Generations, I felt like my Star Trek was truly over (though I did enjoy some of the later shows to a lesser extent). To paraphrase Jim Kirk, ‘I was lucky I got it back.’ Seeing Star Trek 2009 made me feel like a kid in the 80’s again, discovering it all for the first time. But nothing will ever top the one true original. Thanks to everyone who has given us Star Trek over the years. It truly has changed many lives.
TOS IS MAGICAL and it is thanks to the original series that inspired Trek 09 happy birthday Star Trek here’s to more years of Trek and may it continue to live long and prosper.
I had to vote “old enough but missed it”, at least in terms of the 9/8/66 debut of the show – but I do remember watching STTOS as a kid; I remember being bored by Captain Kirk’s girlfriends (hey, I was eight!) and I have a picture somewhere of me in 1967-68, at age 10, wearing a home-made ST shirt (it was a gold-colored mock-turtleneck with a piece of aluminum subbing for the command insignia).
I also remember being punished for some misdeed on a Thursday evening and missing the show that night – which depressed me no end – and I can also remember watching “Wolf in the Fold” (or was it “Catspaw”) at our pastor’s house during that second season.
Then the reruns started, and I’d turn on the little TV in my bedroom at 11pm (when the reruns were on in St. Louis) in 1970 watching “The Immunity Syndrome” and playing with my model of the Enterprise trying to emulate the special effects.
Then, in the spring of 1973, I discovered the David Gerrold books (”The World of Star Trek” and “The Trouble With Tribbles”) and the rest was history.
No to pile on… but my first episode was the first run of Naked Time.
I was 12 and my cousin kept bugging me about this great sci fi show on NBC that I just had to see. Sitting on the floor of my cousin’s room affixed on the B&W grainy picture I watched Kirk and Scotty attempt a cold start of the the warp engines while Spock was off being tormented by his inner psyche – and he’s the only one who knows the formula! Wow!
I was hooked. Only problem – it was on an over the air station I didn’t get at home, so I missed most of the episodes. Finally, in college I’d run home after classes every afternoon to watch the reruns in color. Sometime before graduating, Roddenberry came to speak on campus and brought the famous gag reels. Pretty cool seeing the Great Bird and watching the bloopers on the big screen.
Here is a famous quote from Gene’s speech:
” To be different is not necessarily to be ugly. To have a different idea is not necessarily to be wrong. The worst thing that could possibly happen is for all of us to look and think and act alike. For if we do not learn to appreciate the small variations between our own kind here on Earth, then God help us if we get out into space and meet the variations that are almost certainly out there.”
Long live Trek and may the vision continue.
147
Thanking TOS for the 2009 movie?
I thank the 2009 movie for keeping Star Trek alive and getting new fans like yourself into the fold.
Wil you also be watching the other shows. All the shows have great stuff in them.
I discovered Star Trek in reruns. WPIX 11, New York. I made lots of discoveries in reruns. I Dream of Jeannie. The Honeymooners. Annette Funicello in a tight sweater on The Mickey Mouse Club. But only Star Trek changed my life.
I was alive but too young (2) to watch Trek in 1966. My first memory of Star Trek is several years later. My older brother told me I have to watch this show coming on at 4pm that afternoon on Channel 44 in Tampa, but we turned the channel to see not some outer space adventure, but footage of Air Force planes scrambling. A minute later, there was the my first look at the Starship Enterprise. It was “Tomorrow is Yesterday”.
141… “Vulcanians” are also mentioned in “Court Martial”.
I grew up with Star Trek. May Gene Roddenberry’s optimistic vision live long and prosper.
Happy belated big 4-4, ‘Star Trek’! Live long and prosper!
I wonder how the 45th and 50th Anniversaries of Star Trek will be celebrated.
How about taking the voice recordings of the extremely poorly animated Star Trek series and putting them with freshly generated CG replacements.
It might just make them watchable again.
Before anyone jumps down my throat, I loved ST:TAS as a child. But lets be real here. Apart from the fact most of the original actors reprised their roles, it looked absolutely awful.
Hey Thorny, we’re about the same age! \o/
Does it make you feel old that 69% of the poll voters were not even alive when Star Trek started? :-)
well in a way off course I will be watching the other shows.
Star Trek can be remembered as a source of technological inspiration.
See, for example, the latest narrative in:
http://news.discovery.com/space/warp-drives-making-the-impossible-possible.html
155 — I agree with you all the way. CG humans are still too expensive to be done well on television, but re-animating the show with high-production drawings and some CG elements (as in the Justice League cartoons from a few years back) seem very possible and compelling.
I don’t remember whether I saw the first episode, but I had to watch somewhat covertly anyway. My conservative Catholic mother didn’t approve of her 8-9 year old son watching such trash. Nona’s witch dance in “A Private Little War” was the last straw. She actually turned the TV off! Of course, with a 10 PM time slot, I never saw the 3rd season at all. Never fear — I came back strong in the 70’s with syndication.
Now what’s this about a 2009 movie? Was there a 2009 movie? Ye gods, I thought that was a nightmare. Thank goodness it only happened once!
I was a few weeks shy of my tenth birthday when I accidentally stumbled upon the Miri episode. I never saw anything like it before and I was hooked for life. I loved Yeoman Rand and I thought Captain Kirk was amazing.. Never missed an episode or reeuns after that..
What is a little known footnote in the history of Star Trek is how its cancellation shook up the Nielsen ratings system (as mentioned in #108 and #118). Prior to Star Trek’s cancellation, the Nielsen’s took almost no account of any sort of demographics… all viewers were lumped together into a single composite number.
Unfortunately, sometime after Star Trek was cancelled, Nielsen began to break the ratings down into categories and it turned out that while TOS was never very high in the total ratings, it was at or near #1 in its timeslot for the highly coveted 18-24 age group. This was the group that marketing research had show was the most likely to spend money and be influenced by television commercials and was a prime target for advertising dollars. Star Trek was reeling this group in in huge numbers and, had this information been known at the time, would have all but cemented the show as a mainstay in NBC’s schedule.
It almost makes you wonder what would have been had this information been known… Trek certainly would have been on for more seasons, but you wonder if the cult phenomenon that built around it through conventions and fan-fiction would ever have happened. Who knows? Short term success back in the ’60s might have prevented Trek’s long term influence!
As for me… I was born in time to “see” the last season of TOS on TV. While I cannot remember any of it, of course, my mother often told me how, as an infant, she would put me in the playpen in our family room with the television on. She said I would sit quietly during the entire episode of Trek… the only time I would cry would be if she tried to change the channel!
Some of my earliest memories revolve around playing with my TOS action figures and bridge playset (how I wish I still had those originals) and putting together any plastic Star Trek model kit I could get my hands on. When I see the quality replicas that are out today, like the Master Replicas stuff, how I would have killed for something like that as a kid! Anyone else remember those bright blue “communicator” walkie-talkies?
Good times… good times!
145. Disinvited
You’d think by the time TNG came around, they’d have learned some lessons from TOS in terms of stories. One could say since TOS wasn’t around for very long it had fewer “bad” or “mediocre” stories. Meanwhile, seven seasons of TNG, VOY, DS9 and the 4 seasons of ENT left a lot of room for extremely mediocre episodes. Recently, I Googled “Worst Star Trek Episodes,” and what a hoot that was. Some maintain that “Spock’s Brain” is the absolute worst Star Trek episode ever, while others suggest “And The Children Shall Lead” is the worst.
As for TNG, episodes like “Sub Rosa,” and “Angel One” are clear indications that the writers were severely lacking in their understanding of what science-fiction is supposed to be.
I could go on, of course, but I think the point is pretty obvious. A lack of using true sci-fi writers is responsible for bringing us some of the worst Star Trek. I’m not saying every episode had to be hard sci-fi, but maybe a legitimate sci-fi writer as a consultant might have helped prevent all of the Trek series from straying into bland, sometimes stupid, territory. IMO…
156 – “Does it make you feel old that 69% of the poll voters were not even alive when Star Trek started?”
Perhaps a little — at least in my case. But it makes me feel very lucky and grateful to be part of the 31% who were. Of course we all are fortunate to enjoy it today — 100% of us posting and contributing comments here — regardless of whether you were born and saw it during its original run. And look how fans old and new are gathered in IDIC as a testament to this show’s enduring quality.
#162- I remember those communicators! And that is a poignant story about how you were spiritually/emotionally linked to Trek before you could understand it intellectually. Cool.
Is Anthony OK? Where are the updates?
#162. JamfoFL pondered “…you wonder if the cult phenomenon that built around it through conventions and fan-fiction would ever have happened. Who knows? ”
I do. Like THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. before it those things were already well underway by the end of the first season, i.e. it had already begun and would have continued – just look at DOCTOR WHO. It seems mostly forgotten that NBC always claimed STAR TREK was on the cancellation block. The first season’s cancellation threat wasn’t taken as serious by DESILU as the 2nd and 3rd as it was largely seen as a cost negotiating tactic (Even back then networks believed that an hour divided into to half-hour situation comedies was always a better return on investment.) and NBC’s PR machine tried to pretend that it was just some unfounded rumor after it got a most unexpected fan response. Nevertheless, the first season possible cancellation threat was likely MORE responsible for getting the fans organized and going to “meetings” to learn what could be done to keep this special bit of TV drama going than the final implemented one.
Almost 3 days now and no updates? That’s a first for this site, hope everything’s ok Anthony and co.?
Surprised there’s no article up about the Klingon Opera.. :S
168 & 169 should now both be happy in one fell swoop. The keepers of this site do not rest long.
Yep, I owned a pair of those communicators. Actually met a kid on them who had a CB radio at the time. And I remember the show Combat, though I remember liking the show more than the episodes themselves.
P. Technobabble: couldn’t agree more with those sediments. The newer shows were often less daring, choosing instead to rehash the same formula. And I’ve always heard and believed “Spock’s Brain” was the worst of TOS. Ever notice the vessel that made off with Spock’s grey matter was the same seen often on Lost in Space?
Dmduncan – what part of the city did you live in while watching WPIX?
Its good to know that when us “Grupp” trekkies die off that. Younger or TNG of trekkies are in place to pass on trek, and preserve what the. Meaning of trek is about. I was 14 at. Treks 1st showing Sept 1966. A memory for a life time. You Onlies take good care of Trek and keep passing it on
^^ Star Trek could very well become a religion, as foretold in Futurama. (In fact, it already has some of the hallmarks of faith — belief in canon, for example, and the received wisdom of the original acolytes.)
;-)
I remember first seeing Star Trek back in 1969 (I was 6 years old) when it began its run in the UK on BBC1. I recall being somewhat annoyed that my then favourite TV show “Phoenix Five” (a near forgotten Australian space show) had it’s time slot taken by this new show. Needless to say I soon forgot all about the crew of the “Phoenix Five”when I saw the Enterprise and its crew. I was amazed at how real everything seemed in comparison to TV shows of the era (e.g. Dr Who). In particular I loved the Bridge, with it’s cool sound effects. Its certainly stood the test of time and must now surely rank as one of TV’s best series.