The topic about abandoning Trek when things go awry from one's expectations reminded me of this.
Basically, I bailed on Star Trek midway through its second year on NBC. There were two reasons: disappointment with the show was one; an improved social life was the other. Midway through the second season this apartment complex near my house started hosting "record hops" in the evenings for the younger teens who lived in the buildings. I started going as the guest of a friend. I wouldn't go out if Star Trek was on.
After watching "Patterns Of Force" I decided I'd rather go try to talk to girls. I probably skipped half of the remaining second season shows.
We bought a color TV a few weeks before the third season of TOS premiered, so that got me back into the show for a few weeks - color is so ubiquitous now, it's probably hard to imagine but I'd never gotten a good look at Star Trek in color - no one I knew well had a color TV other than my grandparents. They lived in Stanaford, West Virginia and the reception from the NBC affiliate in Blue Plains was so awful that my couple of attempts to watch Trek in summer reruns down at their place were just frustrating.
Anyway, I stuck with Trek for a couple of weeks during the third year and then discovered Judd For The Defense. That was the end of Trek in first-run, for me.
I picked Trek up again and saw the remaining episodes a couple of years later, in syndication on Washington's WDCA 20. But by 1968, in first run it had become one of those shows I liked for a while and then got bored with.
You know, the other technology besides color that was missing at the time was any way to go back and watch the good episodes and thus renew one's enthusiasm for the whole thing - you could remember shows like "The Doomsday Machine" but you couldn't go back and appreciate them again for new facets. Once during the regular season and once during the summer and then - poof - they were gone.
Basically, I bailed on Star Trek midway through its second year on NBC. There were two reasons: disappointment with the show was one; an improved social life was the other. Midway through the second season this apartment complex near my house started hosting "record hops" in the evenings for the younger teens who lived in the buildings. I started going as the guest of a friend. I wouldn't go out if Star Trek was on.
After watching "Patterns Of Force" I decided I'd rather go try to talk to girls. I probably skipped half of the remaining second season shows.
We bought a color TV a few weeks before the third season of TOS premiered, so that got me back into the show for a few weeks - color is so ubiquitous now, it's probably hard to imagine but I'd never gotten a good look at Star Trek in color - no one I knew well had a color TV other than my grandparents. They lived in Stanaford, West Virginia and the reception from the NBC affiliate in Blue Plains was so awful that my couple of attempts to watch Trek in summer reruns down at their place were just frustrating.
Anyway, I stuck with Trek for a couple of weeks during the third year and then discovered Judd For The Defense. That was the end of Trek in first-run, for me.
I picked Trek up again and saw the remaining episodes a couple of years later, in syndication on Washington's WDCA 20. But by 1968, in first run it had become one of those shows I liked for a while and then got bored with.
You know, the other technology besides color that was missing at the time was any way to go back and watch the good episodes and thus renew one's enthusiasm for the whole thing - you could remember shows like "The Doomsday Machine" but you couldn't go back and appreciate them again for new facets. Once during the regular season and once during the summer and then - poof - they were gone.
friend of mine set up his Kodak Super-8 camera on a tripod in front of the TV, and filmed certain episodes on a time-delay setting. He could get an entire episode on 4 reels of film. He only did this for three or four episodes. When watched, they would be in "fast motion" and reminded me of old silent films. But that, along with cassette recordings of the soundtrack (lots of people did this) you sort of had a record of the episode. It was a pretty rudimentary way of recording the episodes but it was the best we could do.
