Star Trek’s Slow Start

AmericanHeritage.com ^ | 09/07/06

[KevinDavis]

“Captain's log, stardate 1513.1. Our position, orbiting planet M-113. Onboard the Enterprise, Mr. Spock, temporarily in command. On the planet, the ruins of an ancient and long dead civilization. Ship’s surgeon McCoy and myself are now beaming down to the planet’s surface.” With these words, a new television series made its debut 40 earth years ago this week. It was a flop.

The show featured the crew of the Starship Enterprise, whose mission was “to explore strange new worlds.” It was canceled after three seasons. Yet despite that failure, Star Trek was destined to go where no television series had gone before. It would become one of the most far-reaching of all entertainment franchises and evolve into an ever-present cultural landmark.

Early television had seen a few science fiction series, including Captain Video and Space Rangers, but the genre didn’t seem well suited to the small screen. Production costs were high, and the stories were often weird. Studios liked simple, inexpensive sets; viewers liked familiarity.

[united1000]

You sent me on a google quest.

http://www.radiohof.org/adventuredrama/innersanctum.html

The little button on the radio plays that old creak that you remember.

I grew up during a time when everyone had TV. They were black & white mind you, but they had picture tubes bigger than the window of the front loading wash machines at the laundromat. The washing machine at home had a wringer & my mom's washday pants were plaid peddle pushers. They looked very sharp with her saddle shoes

 

Hey, that's cool..........thanks   Wow, I new the show was old, but I had no idea how old..............

[united1000]

I might mention that date was for the radio show, I don't know the dates for tv......... gotta be later than that......... lol

[GoLightly]

I thought it was pretty cool too & yeah, that show really is that old. ;o)

[GoLightly]

I dunno bout the dates for TV either. My mom & her family lived with a wealthy uncle for a portion of her childhood. He had a television while she was living there & it was during WWII. After she moved back to the Midwest her teacher asked the class if anyone had ever heard of television. Mom was the only one in the class to raise her hand & after saying she'd seen one, the rest of the class called her a liar.