What is it about TOS that makes it look so distinctly 1960s?
- Thread starter Captain Al
- Start date
The Porky Pig “son of a bitch” clip was made for one of Warner Brothers' “Breakdowns” reels, probably in the early 1940s. Every year they'd put together a reel of jokes, bloopers and outtakes to be shown at the studio Christmas party. These gag reels weren't meant to be seen by the general public. But, of course, everything winds up being available for public consumption these days, especially in the internet age.
Like this, for example.
The men on Trek TOS were given pointed sideburns to make their hairstyles look more “futuristic.” It wasn't a general fashion at the time. Long sideburns became fashionable in the early 1970s, along with those horrible blow-dried haircuts.One word: Sideburns
The men on Trek TOS were given pointed sideburns to make their hairstyles look more “futuristic.”One word: Sideburns
I always thought it was more a service thing, like crew cuts are today.
The men on Trek TOS were given pointed sideburns to make their hairstyles look more “futuristic.” It wasn't a general fashion at the time. Long sideburns became fashionable in the early 1970s, along with those horrible blow-dried haircuts.One word: Sideburns
Oh
, my bad 
I didn't know
Of course, it wasn't just "Starfleet." Heck, it wasn't even just "The Federation." You can see that even the Kelvans (well except Kelinda) in "By Any Other Name" had pointy sideburns.
(You can even see where actor Robert Fortier's actual sideburns stop and the pointy part of the sideburns were simply applied with make-up.)
So, rather than giving all the Starfleet folks pointy sideburns in common, I think it was more of a shorthand way of conveying "The Hairstyle of The Future"--for everybody--not just Starfleet. You can tell it's The Future because they have sideburns unlike anything we currently have on Earth.
In fact, although there aren't a lot of Federation civilians that we saw, we did see that Dr. Coleman, Larry Marvick, Nilz Barris, Cyrano Jones, the Trouble with Tribbles barkeeper-guy, Arne Darvin, George Samuel Kirk, Simon Van Gelder, Samuel T. Cogley, and Commissioner Ferris all had pointed sideburns.
(You can even see where actor Robert Fortier's actual sideburns stop and the pointy part of the sideburns were simply applied with make-up.)
So, rather than giving all the Starfleet folks pointy sideburns in common, I think it was more of a shorthand way of conveying "The Hairstyle of The Future"--for everybody--not just Starfleet. You can tell it's The Future because they have sideburns unlike anything we currently have on Earth.
In fact, although there aren't a lot of Federation civilians that we saw, we did see that Dr. Coleman, Larry Marvick, Nilz Barris, Cyrano Jones, the Trouble with Tribbles barkeeper-guy, Arne Darvin, George Samuel Kirk, Simon Van Gelder, Samuel T. Cogley, and Commissioner Ferris all had pointed sideburns.
The men on Trek TOS were given pointed sideburns to make their hairstyles look more “futuristic.”One word: Sideburns
Yeah, but weren't they just imitating human form?
The pointy sideburns was a compromise solution to the matter of giving the characters futuristic hairstyles while enabling the cast to go about their daily lives in 20th Century Los Angeles.
They never went to the Sunset Strip?
Not sure how weird Sunset was in '66...
Well, considering the working hours, I doubt they had the time to hit the Strip very much, so it was most likely home to Sherman Oaks...
For me, what makes Star Trek (The Original Series) appear to be so 1960s? Well, let's see, we have the mini-skirts, the hairstyles of the men and women, the mannerisms and language used, the quality of the sets, and even something to do with the music used for the show.
That's not that they had fewer lights, it's that they were lighting dramatically. It's cheaper and faster to pump up the ambient light on a set (a la TNG) so you spend less time lighting each setup. The flat overlit look of the 80s shows is as distinctive as the dramatic lighting used in the 60s.
I have to agree that I think it's the colour.
Like you say, one has to remember that colour TV was quite brand new back then. I guess people wanted lots colour on the screen (colour TVs weren't cheap).
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The colors, the hairstyles, the costumes (especially the female guest stars!).
Yeah, the hair and makeup on the women is very much late '60s - in many cases, just a slightly toned-down "mod" look.
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