What is it about TOS that makes it look so distinctly 1960s?

[Fang66]

Music - the background music is also very provincial.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by “provincial.”

The original Star Trek had excellent music, written by some of Hollywood's most talented composers. In some third-season episodes, the music was better than the script. In more recent times, incidental music for TV drama has come to resemble aural wallpaper.

Funny, the music, LEAST of all, is something I would point to as nailng TOS as "60's", with the notable exception of the 'wah wah' riff used for the like of shots of Mudd's Women's & fake Nancy Crater's butts.

Heading out to eden,
Yeah brother.
Heading out to eden,
Yeah brother.
No more trouble
In my body or my mind.
Goin' to live like a king
On whatever I find.
Eat all the fruit
And throw away the rind.
Yeah brother, yeah.

Steppin' out to eden,
Yeah brother.
Steppin' out to eden,
Yeah brother.
No more trouble
In my body or my mind.
Goin' to live like a king
On whatever I find.
Eat all the fruit
And throw away the rind.
Yeah brother.

 

[Fang66]

According to Inside Star Trek, color TV was the reason ST stayed on the air as long as it did. Its ratings were too weak to justify the renewal of such a costly show by themselves, but it was the top reason why people were buying color TV sets, and the patent for color TV was owned by RCA, the parent company of NBC. So the money NBC was losing by broadcasting ST was offset by the money RCA was making because of people buying color TV sets to watch ST. And that, so say Solow and Justman, was the real reason it got a third season -- not the massive letter-writing campaign that's usually given credit and which was largely an urban legend manufactured by Roddenberry. (It happened, but was nowhere near as large as he claimed and was organized by Roddenberry himself rather than being spontaneous on the fans' part.)

I imagine ST being in color from the start helped its ultimate popularity. It was in syndicated reruns that it really built its audience, and shows like Lost in Space, Bewitched, and Gilligan's Island that started out in black & white before switching to color often had the B&W episode skipped over in reruns. (At least they did by the '80s; not sure if that was so in the '70s, since I didn't have a color TV in that decade.) So if ST's first season, say, had been in monochrome, it might not have been shown as often and there would've been less ST to follow in reruns.

Although it would've been cool if we'd gotten a season of ST in black & white. Talk about your distinct period looks -- there's something about the black & white cinematography of '60s TV that gives it a distinctive character. The monochrome first season of Lost in Space just looks so much classier than the garishly colored campfests that were its latter two seasons.

I grew up watching Star trek in black and white. I think we got our first colour TV in about 1980. I loved Trek in black and white and unlike my shock and dissappointment at seeing the stupid colours of cartoons that were completely different to my imagination I can't remember any negative feelings about Trek in colour, actually I think it was just as I imagined it.

 

[Captain Robert April]

Y'know, there is room for an "all of the above" reason for Star Trek lasting as long as it did on NBC. The letter writing campaign certainly didn't hurt, since a network always appreciates it when you let them know you're watching their programming and you want to see more of it.

 

[May]

I have always thought that in the 60's the way of speaking was sort of more polite than it is nowadays. And that makes TOS sound like different than later ST series.

 

[Fang66]

Mostly acting, especially the fighting. Very 60's.

Ahh, yes -- the classic '60s TV fighting technique where a light karate chop delivered anywhere in the vicinity of the neck, shoulders, or upper back would cause instant unconsciousness. Mission: Impossible's Jim Phelps was as much a master of the technique as Jim Kirk. Famous Spock Nerve Pinch, eat your heart out!

Max Smart FTW

 

[Fang66]

Mainly I think it's the use of colour. It was new on television back then, and if you pay attention, there's colour EVERYWHERE!!! And sometimes for absolutely no logical reason (green & violet light washing the walls near the ceiling??).

I love it!

Perhaps some nearbye inconceivably futuristic device giving off green and violet light? That's what I always thought it was supposed to suggest.

 

[Saxman1]

I have always thought that in the 60's the way of speaking was sort of more polite than it is nowadays. And that makes TOS sound like different than later ST series.

Agreed! Did Riker ever react without saying, "Dammit" or "What the hell......" to every situation? Then you got to the movies and "We're through running from these BASTARDS!" What was that all about? To make him look more macho? It made him look like someone with a rather limited vocabulary.

 

[Christopher]

Well, it's not like the TOS characters didn't swear, they just swore with euphemisms acceptable to '60s TV censors. Blast it, what the devil, what in blazes, what in heaven's name, that sort of thing. These were TV-acceptable substitutes for the words the writers were really thinking of but weren't allowed to use. So it was the TOS characters whose vocabulary was limited, in the literal sense that someone was imposing limits upon it.

 

[A beaker full of death]

Well, it's not like the TOS characters didn't swear, they just swore with euphemisms acceptable to '60s TV censors. Blast it, what the devil, what in blazes, what in heaven's name, that sort of thing. These were TV-acceptable substitutes for the words the writers were really thinking of but weren't allowed to use. So it was the TOS characters whose vocabulary was limited, in the literal sense that someone was imposing limits upon it.

Indeed; they definitely used up some good will with the last line of COTEOF.

 

[spooky spice]

Haven't read everything (it's a looong thread!)

The beehive hairdos
The go-go boots
The mini skirts
The use of very bright colours, and occasional psychedelic patterns
The women make the tea, answer the phone and swoon at the men
Large, blocky, black leather furniture

However no one smokes, or does drugs...

 

[Captain Robert April]

Not that Harlan Ellison didn't give it the ol' college try...

 

[Forbin]

But, if you look closely, there ARE ashtrays in Enterprise corridors.
http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/3x07/dayofdove_147.jpg

 

[Saxman1]

Well, it's not like the TOS characters didn't swear, they just swore with euphemisms acceptable to '60s TV censors. Blast it, what the devil, what in blazes, what in heaven's name, that sort of thing. These were TV-acceptable substitutes for the words the writers were really thinking of but weren't allowed to use. So it was the TOS characters whose vocabulary was limited, in the literal sense that someone was imposing limits upon it.

Indeed; they definitely used up some good will with the last line of COTEOF.

That's what makes "Let's get the hell out of here" so powerful and moving at the end of that ep. I never failed to find my eyes moist when Kirk utters that line. I've read somewhere that due to the nature of the story and the crushing loss Kirk experienced, the network censors put up little or no quarrel with that "hell."

 

[Christopher]

^I gathered that they did have to fight the censors to get permission to use the word, and they won. I could be wrong, though.

Note, however, that "hell" and "damn" were only forbidden when used as expletives, not in more literal usages. We had a log entry in "Court-martial" where Kirk said the evidence against him was "damning." We had Commodore Decker describing the titular "Doomsday Machine" as "a devil right out of Hell" -- a place name rather than an interjection. And we had McCoy in "Spectre of the Gun" describing Tombstone as "hell-for-leather, right out of history." (Although I'm not sure what he meant by that, since "hell-for-leather" means "at breakneck speed," particularly on horseback. And there doesn't seem to be any consensus about the etymology of that phrase.)

 

[CoveTom]

You know, I'm reading this thread about how shows from different decades are easily identifiable, and I've got an episode of I Love Lucy on across the room. And it made me think, I think there's something about black-and-white shows that defies that rule. Think about it... take an episode of I Love Lucy from the early- to mid-50's. Then fast forward ten years and take one of the black-and-white episodes of Dick Van Dyke or Andy Griffith or Bewitched.

Aside from the differing camera angles depending on whether the show was single camera or three camera, can you really see anything that dates one differently from the other? I don't think you can. But take a color episode of Andy Griffith or Bewitched and I think you can much more easily date it.

 

[Maurice]

Well, black and white removes the element of color, obviously, an a lot of style and fashion is in part defined by its palettes. Aquamarine is a 60s color. Avacado more 70s, etc. When you subtract that it denies you one additional bit of information.

 

[Christopher]

Think about it... take an episode of I Love Lucy from the early- to mid-50's. Then fast forward ten years and take one of the black-and-white episodes of Dick Van Dyke or Andy Griffith or Bewitched.

Aside from the differing camera angles depending on whether the show was single camera or three camera, can you really see anything that dates one differently from the other?

The quality of the picture and audio? The equipment in the '50s was a little cruder. Also, I think the shows of that decade (at least the sitcoms) had a more stagey quality, since that was still a time when a lot of programming went out live, and even the filmed/taped shows still reflected that style because it's what the people involved were trained for. By the '60s, TV production values had become somewhat more filmic. Dick Van Dyke was still somewhat stagey, but Andy Griffith had a more naturalistic quality with a lot of outdoors/backlot shooting.

Also, I'm not much for noticing fashion, but I think by the '60s it was less obligatory for men to wear hats.

 

[Forbin]

^Been watching Van Dyke lately, and, every once in a while, they'll do a closeup on a character. It still surprises me, because as a whole, the show IS shot wide. I guess they were trying to break out of the mold or something.

 

[Mr_Homn]

But, if you look closely, there ARE ashtrays in Enterprise corridors.
http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/3x07/dayofdove_147.jpg

that link isn't working for me, but i'd really like to see the image to see what you are talking about

 

[Gojira]

Nicholas Meyer once said that you can pretty much tell when a movie or TV show was filmed within a range of 5 years no matter what time period the story is set in.

It cannot be avoided. No matter how you change the hair styles and costumes people can easily tell when a movie or TV show was made. Each time period in history has a certain look to it and that always creeps into TV and movie productions.