The first series I watched in "real time" (from premier to finale) was TNG.
It was a wild premier for me. I was in the Society for Creative Anachronism at the time, and the day of the premier coincided with one of our shire's annual tournaments and feasts. My job was to collect the fees and sell drink tickets, so I couldn't miss it. Plus we had the King and Queen visiting all the way from wherever they were from in Washington state and they hardly ever made it out to this part of the kingdom. So missing the feast was really out of the question.
However, the only member of our shire who actually had a house with a living room large enough to accommodate a bunch of people had taped Encounter at Farpoint (VCR era). After the feast (and after we'd cleaned up the church hall), she invited everyone over to her place to watch it.
Most of us were still wearing our medieval costumes. So I watched Encounter at Farpoint with a roomful of people in medieval garb from several different centuries, and the only two people allowed to sit on chairs were the King and Queen. The rest of us sat on the floor. I remember some of us just about crying when McCoy showed up. And it was pretty much agreed by everyone that Q must be Trelaine "all grown up."
Well, we turned out to be wrong about that. But it was the most fun series premier I ever had.