40 Years Ago NBC Killed Star Trek!

[jim48]

Man, am I getting old! It was forty years ago that NBC cancelled its low-rated Star Trek. They could have saved it. The show had a good time slot its first year, Thursdays at 8:30. They moved it to Fridays at 8:30 its second year so a new show, Ironside, could take Thursday nights. Ironside was an instant hit. The network knew they had made a mistake putting Star Trek on Fridays so they picked it up for a third year and scheduled it for Monday nights at 8:00, knowing that the ratings had no place else to go but up. However, Rowan&Martin's Laugh-In, a mid-season replacement--for the cancelled Man from U.N.C.L.E.--was also an instant hit in that time slot and they didn't want to move. NBC swallowed hard and not only kept Star Trek on Friday nights but moved it to 10:00 p.m. a death slot for a youth-oriented show in those pre-VCR/DVD days. The kids were out doing their Friday night thing. The network wanted the show at the end of the night so as not to drag down the rest of that night's schedule. Star Trek got picked up for the remainder of that season by default: NBC didn't have a mid-season replacement show they felt was right for that time slot. Of course they could have renewed Star Trek for a fourth year and put it on a different night, but the feeling overall was it had been given three years to prove itself. Did I say they killed Star Trek? If anything they launched it into a new life, as we all know so very, very well!

 

[warpfactor999]

DAMMIT JIM48....I'M A DOCTOR...NOT A MAGICIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jim48]

DAMMIT JIM48....I'M A DOCTOR...NOT A MAGICIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now you're a magician. That's an order.

 

[jryle1234]

Jim use logic not emotion

 

[ZenGalacticore]

Those pencil-pushing accountants and CEOs at NBC wouldn't know good science fiction if it beamed down and phasered them in the ass! The network never really liked Star Trek. They were nervous about it from its inception. At first, they reasoned that American white audiences wouldn't take kindly to an African-American woman(Lt. Uhura) in a position of commissioned officer authority. (Or Asian Lt. Sulu.) They were dead wrong on both accounts because the fans understood that Star Trek represented a better future civilization.
Secondly, and perhaps more infuriating to fans, many execs at NBC thought Trek was 'too cerebral' for the alleged ignorant, stupid, shallow public. The presumptous bastards!!
People loved Star Trek in part because it DIDN'T insult their intelligence, or tried not to insult it.
Had they scheduled it on Sundays at 8:00 pm it probably would have run for at least 7 years. And now what do we have on tv today? 'American Idol' ? It makes me nauseous.

 

[jim48]

Although there were some good shows that year, the last season of Star Trek was pretty much what NBC had always wanted: Fist fights, phasers, aliens take over the ship and tits in space, all on a reduced budget. Roddenberry walked off the show and the network was grateful, about the same time that Mission:Impossible creator Bruce Geller left that show in a dispute with the network and the studio. Thankfully we can point to more good episodes of Star Trek than lousy ones and not a lot of shows can say that. There was junk on tv back then but today's stuff makes me nauseous. Paddy Chayefsky saw that coming way back in 1976 when he wrote Network.

 

[ZenGalacticore]

Although there were some good shows that year, the last season of Star Trek was pretty much what NBC had always wanted: Fist fights, phasers, aliens take over the ship and tits in space, all on a reduced budget. Roddenberry walked off the show and the network was grateful, about the same time that Mission:Impossible creator Bruce Geller left that show in a dispute with the network and the studio. Thankfully we can point to more good episodes of Star Trek than lousy ones and not a lot of shows can say that. There was junk on tv back then but today's stuff makes me nauseous. Paddy Chayefsky saw that coming way back in 1976 when he wrote Network.

'Dammit Jim', I thought 'Turnabout Intruder' was the last episode. No? You know, the one where Dr. What's-her-name commandeers Capt. Kirk's body and falsely assumes command of the Enterprise. It's Kirk's body alright, but not his mind and it becomes clear that whoever is inhabiting Kirk's body is not qualified to be a starship captain either by experience, merit, or temprement.
It was another Trek 'courtroom drama', IIRC.

Btw, dang! I hope they didn't screw up the new tos ST movie.

 

[dragon04]

Did I say they killed Star Trek? I

Yes. It's dead, jim. 48.

 

[jim48]

Did I say they killed Star Trek? I

Yes. It's dead, jim. 48.

CLOSE-UP: Jim48 reacts.


FADE OUT

 

[Kerberos]

If NBC had called it a SyFy show, more people would have watched it and Star Trek could have been saved.

 

[jim48]

And forty years later Paramount is set to launch another very expensive Star Trek movie featuring the original characters played by different actors. Who'd have thunk it?