On September 8, 1966 the first episode of of an ambitious sci-fi show created by Gene Roddenberry aired on NBC – in color! 48 years later, Star Trek is still going strong after hundreds of episodes over five series and twelve feature films (with another on the way). Watch the first commercials and interviews for Star Trek below, plus get info on TrekMovie’s ‘livetweet’ celebration and giveaway set for tonight.
Don’t Miss ‘Star Trek’ – In Color!
When it debuted in 1966, Star Trek was a new kind of TV show. It was an hour-long science fiction drama in color aimed a both kids and adults. Here is the first commercial for the series giving viewers and overview.
And here are interview clips with stars William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy promoting the show
Relive ‘The Man Trap’ With Livetweet Celebration Tonight at 8:30PM
Star Trek’s birthday was originally Thursday September 15th, but then NBC decided to preview the show (along with some other new shows) a week early. So on September 8th at 8:30 PM they aired "The Man Trap," which was actually the fifth episode produced (after the failed first pilot).
Print ad for premiere of "Star Trek"
So tonight at 8:30 ET (5:30 PT) TrekMovie staffers will be watching "The Man Trap" and livetweeting along. Anyone can join in on the fun We will be using the hashtag #StarTrek48 for the livetweet and all day long to celebrate the anniversary. The livetweet will include a trivia contest with prizes!
More #StarTrek48 at TrekMovie
And TrekMovie has more celebration of the 48th anniversary of Star Trek coming up, starting with an exclusive interview with original series writer David Gerrold coming up later today.
Thanks to Peter Grayson, Bobby Cole and Becky for vids.
Long live STAR TREK!
Happy Birthday to thee love of my Dreams. Star Trek!
!!kerT ratS yadhtriB yppaH
This should be mandatory watching if you are going to be a Star Trek fan. (in case the spin-offs may have muddied your perception, this should clear things up a bit! lol) Man Trap also would make an excellent one-off from either the Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits.
Happy Birthday Star Trek! (no bloody “TNG”, “Ds9”, “Voyager” or “Enterprise”…to paraphrase the good Mr. Scott!!)
Can’t wait for the big 5-0 and the next film!
Who knew?
Happy launchday, Big E!
Happy Birthday Star Trek! LLAP to all my fellow trek fans.
I took a peek around this morning, knowing it trek’s bday, trekmovie is the only star trek site celebrating.
Been watching The Cage, WNMHGB, and a few other classics and movies to celebrate today.
Back in 1966, I was 12 years old. One kid from seventh grade named Kevin kept bugging me to watch this new show titled “Star Trek.” At the time, I was a fan of “Lost In Space”, with a major crush on Marta Kristen (who is ten years older than me). I finally gave in sometime in November; the episode that was on that Thursday was “Balance of Terror”. I didn’t understand why there were two men with pointed ears in the show. I gave up on “Trek” for the time being, but got hooked for good during the summer reruns. Kevin turned out to be as big a jackass as Harry Mudd, but he turned me on to something very special, that has been with me for 48 years. Happy Birthday, Star Trek.
OK, I’ll put on Man Trap at 8:30 tonight.
I’ll try to join the live tweet as well….
Cool. I remember doing the live-tweet for First Contact.
Happy Birthday Star Trek: TOS, TAS. TNG. DS9, VOY & ENT :-)
Happy birthday, “Star Trek”. :)
Happy B-Day Star Trek .. 48 years young and going strong.
.. However, if you actually take into consideration “The Cage” began production in November 1964 – we should be celebrating Trek’s 50th Birthday this year.
Lou
We had to wait until 12 July 1969 in the UK to see it! then i was hooked – I’m 55 now!
How different would the world be now — and would each of US be now — if Star Trek had never existed?
Happy Anniversary, Star Trek! Here’s hoping you’re around for at least another 48 years.
Happy Birthday Star Trek! LL&P!! =D
It’s my mom’s bithday who is also a Trekkie and the reason I was pulled into the series and franchise. Definitely a special day. Happy Birthday Trek.
Earthman? Seriously? LMAO!!!
Paramount had better wake up soon!!!!!
if bbc can do an amazing tv special for dr who’s 50th
then star trek has to do something special !! come on cbs.if not a new series then one last return to the prime timeline in a tv movie.
they HAVE to!!!
PARAMOUNT!!!! ARE YOU LISTENING?????
come on a tv movie with enterprise. throw in shatner one last time too and give us all what we want!!!. bbc made loads from the dr who special around the world. you can do BETTER!!!
STAR TREK has been away from tv too long.a tv movie would be enough..
for now…….
…I prefer: “Earthican” ;-)
Print ad art was used as cover for first collection of Blish adaptations.
yeah, no… hopefully Axanar will give us a nice 50th ;-) …maybe on CBS?
Could not agree with Capt. Lou and Tom Pearson MORE!!!!! Say it now and say it proud!
7. Adam Bomb 1701
“Back in 1966, I was 12 years old. One kid from seventh grade named Kevin kept bugging me to watch this new show titled “Star Trek.” At the time, I was a fan of “Lost In Space”….”
Wow Adam, your Star Trek ’66 story is almost exactly the same as mine. I was a month shy of 9 and the kid who turned me on to Trek was named Stanley. I believe the first ep I saw was ‘Charlie X’ but in truth I’m not absolutely sure about that. What I am sure of is Lost in Space became a “cartoon” to me and the real science fiction show, Star Trek became a true love. Instantly and lifelong.
Happy Birthday ST!
(And Happy Birthday to my baby sister, Charlene!)
Happy B-day, Trek.
I can’t wait for the big celebration in 2016 – Bring it on!!!
Happy Birthday Star Trek!!! Only 2 years to 50! Love to all the surviving cast and thanks for 48 great years of fun!
Happy Birthday Star Trek!
The only Star Trek site to post anything about the 48th anniversary. Always count on trekmovie.com
Many happy returns old friend!
What a great day it would have been to officially announce a release date , director etc for Trek 2016. Oh well
Its funny how many first time viewer stories always start with “I had this friend ‘joe’ who kept bugging me to watch this new show on NBC called Star Trek”.
It was certainly word of mouth that brought a lot of the original audience in.
In my case, it was my cousin Kevin and I watched “Naked Time” first run on his B&W TV. I was hooked ever since. (and started looking for friends with one of those new octagon RCA color sets).
#29. Stargazer54 – September 9, 2014
For me, it was that a baseball game preempted BEWITCHED IN 1966. I saw ARENA and I was hooked.
I wanna go back to the sixties just to watch Trek again – LIVE!
Happy B-day, Trekkies!
Does anyone having the shooting schedule for each according to season?
Like….when did they begin and end each episode? How long did each one
take? I ask because of the 1st promo – preview. Their showing the Gorn
episode this…that and whatnot…makes me wonder.
Happy Birthday Star Trek!
I do not have a memory of anyone telling me about this new TV series and urging me to watch it. As far as I can recall, it was screened at 8.00pm Thursday and my sister and I were allowed to stay up a bit later and watch TV, so I suspect that the first time I saw it must have been during the school holidays.
I remember being terrified at the first sight of Mr Spock because of his ears. My sister hid herself behind the settee and cried. She’s two years younger than me. I shut my eyes when that man with the pointed ears came on screen, so I really did not get to see much of that first episode, just heard it. We soon got over our fear of those ears…:)
31. TrekMadeMeWonder – September 10, 2014
I wanna go back to the sixties just to watch Trek again – LIVE!
CBS has recently partnered with the CERN and the Large Hadron Collider to develop time travel technology for that purpose. A competing indie time-travel project has also just launched a Kickstarter campaign to that end. Their fundraising goal is $6 Quadrillion by the end of September to begin preliminary research. You get a T-shirt with each $1 billion donation.
# 34. Cygnus-X1 – September 11, 2014, #31. TrekMadeMeWonder – September 10, 2014
Recall, STAR TREK was a DesiLu production and they pioneered filming in front of a live studio audience.
Cygnus, imagine what that might have been like if they do go back in time and convince them to film Trek that way? Filming scenes rarely followed story order so it would be a bit like watching the movie MOMENTO, but heck, we time travelers already know the proper order so we’d probably have a ball.
Meanwhile:
http://www.breathecast.com/articles/star-trek-3-movie-release-date-plot-news-new-film-directed-by-roberto-orci-may-premiere-in-2016-19650/
This Christian site just seems to be a regurgitater of other news sources reporting so there’s no accounting for their accuracy of (re?)interpretation. BFWIW:
“…the upcoming science fiction movie ‘Star Trek 3’ will be released on schedule, as director Roberto Orci is said to have completed the first draft of the film. The sci-fi blockbuster is expected to be released on the 50th anniversary of the series in 2016.
…
In the meantime, new reports are saying that ‘Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies’ star Benedict Cumberbatch will be returning to reprise his roles as Khan in the franchise.
…
According to a report by the Hollywood Reporter, the next ‘Star Trek’ film is still untitled and unscheduled, but Paramount and Skydance are expecting to have a film in time for the franchise to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2016. Additionally, stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana are expected to return.” — Chandan DasSep 12, 2014 12:41 PM EDT, BREATHEcast
“Well, I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch. The studio has yet to even read the script. I’m in the middle of writing it, with the talented team of [JohnD.] Payne and [Patrick] McKay. They are true Star Trek fans, as well. So, I can’t even think anything about the future until I give them a script and they greenlight it. Until that happens, everything else is just a rumor.” — Roberto Orci
everything in that ‘news’ article that is accurate was reported here, including the bits in that article attributed to this site….nothing to see there
# 37. Anthony Pascale – September 12, 2014
“everything in that ‘news’ article that is accurate was reported here…” — Anthony Pascale
Indeed, I didn’t mean to imply anything more to it than your own observation there, but what I was more interested in discussing was their interpretation about what it all means.
Am I reading you right that your take is what is right in the “article” is right and what is wrong in it isn’t worth the effort to even think about hitting a single key to mention?