On September 28, 1987, Star Trek returned to television with Star Trek: The Next Generation. Eventually, the show would become a big hit, running for seven seasons before moving to the big screen with four feature films. To celebrate, let’s go back in time to see how the show was being introduced.
Say hello to Star Trek: The Next Generation
In 1987, doing a show like this in syndication was still a big risk, especially with a cast of mostly unknown actors. As part of their publicity to promote the show, Paramount released an electronic press kit from which television stations could take segments and incorporate them into their own programming. The 42-minute video is broken into sections introducing the series and features profiles/interviews with all of the main cast as well as creator Gene Roddenberry, producers Robert Justman and Rick Berman, and behind-the-scenes looks at the production and special effects.
You can watch it in its entirety below (via media-ron on YouTube):
Catch up on more Star Trek history at TrekMovie.com.
wow brings back so many memories…
I remember late in season one during WonderCon in Oakland, they had Frakes and Dorn there and Frakes was sitting alone in the audience just a couple empty rows away from me, totally undisturbed…
nobody really knew what to think of the show at that point…the Original Series was still #1 in everyone’s minds…
Even though I loved TNG out of the gate I didn’t consider it my favorite show over TOS probably until after it’s fifth season. I never even considered I would like it more than TOS ever lol. I was also still just a kid.
TOS and DS9 still are the two best series in my mind, and I think many fans share this opinion. TNG is a respectable #3, although SNW (#4 now for me) could overtake TNG in my mind at some point. The two dregs way down on my list are Lower Decks and Enterprise. DIS, TAS, Picard, Prodigy and Voyager I would have in the 5-9 slots (above average moving to OK).
Wow 35 years ago today! Where does it go???
This show really could’ve crashed and burned after it’s first season but it lived long and prospered in ways I don’t anyone ever thought it would at the time. It’s still crazy popular today and probably have way more people watching it now than when it first aired. I really don’t think we would’ve had the 47 spin off shows we have now if it wasn’t for this show!
Happy Birthday TNG!!!! You earned it!
Like I mentioned a little while back on the other article, thank goodness TNG was first run syndication. Had the Paramount network become a thing or TNG ended up launching the FOX network I really don’t think it would have survived.
I agree, especially on FOX at that time. I think only two shows got renewed in the first year lol.
Yeah. I think it was Married with Children and The Tracy Ulman Show or something like that
Now the sicko in me wants to see the alternate universe TNG that aired on Fox, filmed in front of a live studio audience with lots of hooting and hollering, and every scene ending with a flushing toilet gag or a bikini girl running across the bridge. God, that was an era of glorious trash.
Picard’s legs def wouldn’t have been crossed, that’s for sure!
Slams a Ferengi’s head into the wall before showing him the airlock. It’s what Al Bundy would have done!
So a klingon came into the store today…
Don’t get too elitist in your reminiscence… after all, the show we’re celebrating was responsible for the hanky-clad Edo, musician Sonny Clemonds looking for “low-mileage pit-woofies” and the episode “Code of Honor” (not to mention series regular directing an episode featuring another series regular climaxing to a haunted candle)?
Did I say TNG was perfect?
No, I want to see the more trashy version! That’s the point. The Edo were only halfway there. We need hooting and hollering to complete the picture. And “Pit Woofies” would have been a great title for this show on Fox.
Sigh… what could have been…
my bad.
No problemo.
So instead of ‘technology unleashed’ you want ‘Roddenberry Unleashed’ right?
Sorry, that just makes me think of the Tracy Torme story about GR erupting up on the Paramount roof about endless waves of pleasure.
Sounds like fun.
LOL that would’ve been hilarious. But Gene Roddenberry also probably would’ve been arrested for trying to kill the President of FOX by the third episode. ;D
Had he (or John Cleese, who once mimed onstage strangling Rupert Murdoch with his bare hands) actually done that, we would all be living in a better world today.
LOL, yeah.
Actually, I could see that working for Lower Decks…not the sleazy part, but the live studio audience with laugh lines part.
Wow. 35 years! TOS only hit it’s 30th anniversary after TNG was off the air! Man how time flies!
35years! Incredible! Almost as long since the last Trek movie!
LOL!!
Well, I turned 21 that year, wow. Of course the first couple of seasons were a little rough, but I stuck with it, and while TNG never surpassed TOS as my favorite Trek show, it certainly is my 2nd fave., and I’ve re-watched many episodes, and the films, numerous times. 35 years. Well done, crew of the Ent-D.
I started watching Star Trek regularly years later, in 1993…In 1987 I was 7, they started showing TNG in Germany in 1990. I must have seen some occasional S1 episodes but I had never seen TOS and the movies because we didn’t have cable or satellite, only the state-owned public TV channels. But in 1993, everything changed and I was reborn a Trekkie :-)
Pretty much the same experience here. I was 7 as well and hadn’t really been exposed to Star Trek but I do vividly remember seeing the first wave of Galoob action figures on store shelves. I didn’t get into the show until around 91 or 92, but I have been a lifelong fan as well. TNG really had a lot of influence on me as a teenager and a lot of times I still find myself thinking back to how the Enterprise D crew handled things when dealing with things at work and in my own life. Like most of you here, it holds a very special place in my heart.
Ever seen the first ZDF dub? Found some VHS tapes at my local video store years later that still featured it. Terrible stuff! 😬
Happy 35th, “Das Nächste Jahrhundert”! 😝
(I know, not technically YET, but y’know!) 😉
“Troooiiii”
“Lt. Commander Data, an androoiiid”
“Staaaaaar Trek: The Next Generation”
Cool to see the press kit for TNG. Happy 35th Anniversary.
Here is a little clip of Marina Sirtis talking about TNG’s popularity back in 1992:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXlwPQTS2Fw
It’s funny because she was saying she wasn’t sure if they would still be popular and making more stories in 25 years like TOS ended up doing. Nope, she was wrong, because it’s now 35 years later and they are still making more stories lol. It’s surreal they are all coming back in Picard. And while I’m highly mixed on that show (to say the least) it’s still nice to see these characters back today so many years later. :)
Nothing ever truly dies in Star Trek!
Ikr, Its the same level of surreal as the original star wars actors coming back pre 2013 .. Ford back as Han?,not in a million years. Mark Hamill back as Luke? a fun notion but will never happen. or Nimoy returning as Spock. Ford as back as Deckard.even Jackman as Wolverine after Logan . Based on those alone all bets are off on who comes back, and while it looks like the kelvin crew are toast its kind of obvious one day, somewhere, somehow they’ll be back.. (maybe a decade after we last saw them TMP style :)
Yeah Hollywood is just nostalgia crazy these days with so many actors coming back to play iconic characters in both movies and TV shows. Add Michael Keaton returning to play Batman again in tw-, uh, another film again. They got the entire original cast of Jurassic Park to come back together for Jurassic World. I’m a huge Law and Order fan so was happy to see actors like Anthony Anderson, Chris Meloni and Sam Waterson return to their original roles. Waterson has been playing Jack McCoy about as long as the TNG actors been playing in theirs. They ALMOST got Scott Bakula to return in Quantum Leap but it sounds like he wasn’t happy with his role in it. Hopefully though he too will be returning to another big role fans are begging to see him play again. ;)
As far as the TNG cast, they never truly went away. When they started the movies, they were still showing up in the other TV shows like Voyager, DS9 and yes, Enterprise. ;)
They been gone since the Kelvin movies started but obviously they couldn’t be part of those. But once we went back to the prime universe and Picard was announced, I knew we were going to see them spring up in other shows again and it was a foregone conclusion they would all be together on Picard.
I never thought Bill Murray would suit up as a Ghostbuster again. Or Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man. Never mind also Andrew Garfield as well. Pleased to see Peter Cullen back for the next Transformers and Frank Welker.
When i saw that Yeoman Rand wasn’t going to be reprising the role as the new Captain or even an Admiral of Star Fleet, that was it for me, I was done with Star Trek forever.
Sir Patrick is a very good liar……. he was not thrilled at all…..