When were you there right from the start?

[C.E. Evans]

(my partial listing--in no particular order)

Star Wars
Tron
The original Battlestar Galactica
Buck Rogers (Gil Gerard)
The A-Team
Knight Rider
Robotech (anime)
Star Trek (from TMP onwards)
Firefly
Bleach (anime)
Naruto (anime)
Farscape
Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (TV series)
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (toyline & cartoon)
Transformers (original cartoon)
Halloween (John Carpenter's original)

 

[Hunter X]

I'm not sure that BSG and Doctor Who should count, or remakes/continuations or older shows in general. Does that *really* count as the "beginning"? Maybe you didn't know how good it was going to be, but at least you had a pretty decent idea of the plot going in.

Yeah, I was there for the beginning of DS9, Voyager and Enterprise (though I still haven't seen season 4 or most of season 3 of the latter), but I don't know that I'd count them for myself. I mean, you knew what you were getting with Trek at that point.

I was also there for Heroes and Prison Break, though I bailed on the former and consider the latter more guilty pleasure after its first season.

 

[PsychoPere]

I was also there for Heroes and Prison Break, though I bailed on the former and consider the latter more guilty pleasure after its first season.

Bailing on them is the reason I didn't include Heroes or Enterprise on my list.

 

[Captain Craig]

Instead, what shows, books or movies were you there for right from the beginning, with no idea if it would become a big thing or not? You took a gamble with some time investment and won.

The only ones that I'd consider among my top shows that I can think of being there for from the first broadcast are Lost and Firefly.

From the OP

Does "Dollhouse" count? I don't think it was exactly a hit.

It's not a requirement for the show to have been a hit. The OP asks if you took a gamble regardless if it was going to become a hit or not. He even lists Firefly for one of his and that got cancelled at 13 episodes. So it wasn't a categorical 'hit' itself...sadly.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

I don't like jumping in the middle of shows, so for me, it would be easier to list the shows that I didn't see from the start:
Cheers
Seinfeld
Due South
24

 

[sojourner]

I remember trying to convince my friends to checkout this new show "Miami Vice".

Other than that, pretty much most of what everyone else has said.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

All Law & Order except the original (I got hooked on that one at about season 7, then I caught up)

All Trek except TOS

 

[Terengo]

The original Star Wars. Which was funny, because for some reason, despite being a big SF fan, I knew absolutely nothing about the movie when I went. I was dragged to see it by my girlfriend, and did not have high hopes for it, because, you know, she was a girl and I was the big SF guy. It didn't take long for it to totally blow me away.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Lost, BSG, V, Caprica, Heroes, buncha stuff...I guess that isn't too unique. ENT was the first Star Trek series I jumped in at the beginning for, and didn't bail along the way (like I did with TNG).

I was also "there" for the original Star Wars, but I didn't see it till the 1979 re-release after the rest of the planet had seen it 500 times. Somehow, I still didn't know the plotline, only that it was sci fi and everyone thought it was amazing. I might have heard about lightsabers and Princess Leia's weird hairdo.

For ESB, I went right away!!! I knew there was an "amazing" plot twist at the end, but not what it was. That was a long, long time ago, in a galaxy without internet spoilers.

 

[stj]

CSI had zero buzz, but I was committed from the first episode. ER was expected to fall to David Kelley's Chicago Hope, but, again, I thought ER was vastly superior from the first episode. The Big Bang Theory was mostly ignored but I thought it was hilarious. I saw that Brothers & Sisters was excellent from the first episode, although very few people remark on the drop in quality after Jon Robin Baitz was driven away. I was committed to The Closer from the first episode.

 

[1001001]

Not TV or movies, but music.

I remember hearing a single from a new band on KROQ in Los Angeles when I was a teenager. The song was I Will Follow by some band called U2. I went out and bought the album Boy the next day. This was before most of the United States even knew U2 (KROQ was seriously ahead of its time).

 

[zakkrusz]

I watched the following more or less from the start to finish when they aired on TV here minus a few of them that are still airing:

Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise
Babylon 5
Farscape
Beavis and Butthead
Gargoyles
Roughnecks: Starship Trooper Chronicles
Transformers
Batman TAS
X-Men TAS
Spider-man TAS
Banner of the Stars
Bleach
Blood+
Blue Gender
Blue Seed
Boogiepop Phantom
Bubblegum Crash
Bubblegum Crisis
Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040
Code Geass
Code Geass: R2
Cowboy Bebop
Crest of the Stars
Death Note
Dragonball Z
Dragonball GT
Dual Parallel Trouble Adventure
Eureka Seven
FLCL
Fullmetal Alchemist
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Gad Guard
Geneshaft
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (both seasons)
Gungrave
Gurren Lagann
.hack//SIGN
.hack//Legend of the Twilight
Hellsing
Inu Yasha
Kekkaishi
Kikaider
Last Exile
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi
Mobile Suit Gundam
Mobile Suit Gundam 00
Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
Monster
Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit
Outlaw Star
Paranoia Agent
RahXephon
Read or Die
Read or Die TV
Rave Master
Requiem From the Darkness
Robotech
Rurouni Kenshin
Samurai Champloo
Scryed
Serial Experiments Lain
Silent Mobius
The Soul Taker
Street Fighter II V
Tenchi Muyo
Tenchi in Tokyo
Tenchi Universe
Texhnolyze
Tokko
Trigun
Trinity Blood
Vandread (both seasons)
The Vision of Escaflowne
Witch Hunter Robin
Wolf's Rain
X TV
Yu Yu Hakusho

 

[Hunter X]

Not TV or movies, but music.

I remember hearing a single from a new band on KROQ in Los Angeles when I was a teenager. The song was I Will Follow by some band called U2. I went out and bought the album Boy the next day. This was before most of the United States even knew U2 (KROQ was seriously ahead of its time).

Oo, nice one. I keep attaching myself to obscure bands hoping that they'll be famous one day. Doesn't happen. Maybe I should start liking better music.

I'm also curious about book series, especially if there's anyone out there who picked up Harry Potter before all the hype.

 

[Goliath]

I'm also curious about book series, especially if there's anyone out there who picked up Harry Potter before all the hype.

I've been reading Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor mysteries from the start.

And I collected the first fifty books from Hard Case Crime.

That probably doesn't mean anything to anyone else, though.

 

[WHF]

As a Star Trek fan I've been there at the beginning for all the modern series.

Outside of Star Trek:
Trailer Park Boys
The Newsroom
Made in Canada
The Tournament
Intelligence
Futurama
Spartacus
Rome
Deadwood
X-Files
The Lone Gunmen
Rescue Me
Freaks and Geeks
(I'm probably forgetting some)

A lot of these were not big hits but I've felt my investment of time (and now $ for DVDs) was well worth it. Of course I've also was there from the start for some really bad TV as well.
As far as books go I don't think I was ever there for the beginning. I've always relied on word of mouth for books.

 

[tomalak301]

Does Glee count as being there from the start even though I saw the Pilot episode when they were doing the whole Twitter thing and not last May post American Idol? It had such a long season with so many things happening that I almost feel like I've been there from the start, at least when Showmance aired.

Other shows I've been there from the start:

Voyager
Enterprise
Parks and Recreation (Though not big, but damn I hate NBC for benching this show after the awesome season they had )
24

I think that's about it. I tend to join shows late.

 

[Mistral]

3 I can think of where I truly had no idea but was there anyway.

I saw an ad the day before it aired and tried to get my friends to watch this tv movie called...Babylon 5. I was there-and waited over a year for it to come back as a series.

The Bone Mama on KUPD released a single 8 months before the album came out. She played it at 8pm every night for a week before the band's management shut her down and banned her from playing it. I loved it the first time I heard it and bought the album at midnight when it finally released. The song was Welcome to the Jungle by G n R.

I was driving to a friend's and stopped my car to call him. I made him listen over the phone to this new song by some band I'd never heard of, my doors open and my Logik cranked as loud as the speakers would take it(it was a pay phone-remember those?). He tuned into the radio at his place after about 20 seconds so he could listen to it right. We were both blown away by the sound...of Collective Soul.

 

[Star Wolf]

We all have various TV shows, book and movie franchises that are recommended to us, by friends, or by posters on this or other boards, by word of mouth. This thread is not about those experiences.

Instead, what shows, books or movies were you there for right from the beginning, with no idea if it would become a big thing or not? You took a gamble with some time investment and won.

The White Shadow
Hill Street Blues
Miami Vice.....
Picket Fences
Brooklyn South
Joan Of Arcadia
Third Watch
Firefly
Kings

Only Miami Vice fell apart with continued viewings and the passage of time.

Would Sarah Conner Chronicles count, it was the continuation of a franchise?

 

[Sakrysta]

Add Glee and Sarah Connor Chronicles to my list.

Also bought the discount intro CDs at Barnes & Noble for both Norah Jones and Nickel Creek when they first came out. I was pleased and gratified to see both of them succeed in the mainstream.

 

[captcalhoun]

Life on Mars UK
Ashes to Ashes
Red Dwarf
Sarah-Jane Adventures
Torchwood

novel-wise
Star Trek: Vanguard
Star Trek: New Frontier
Star Trek: Titan