FACT TREK—The Death Slot (or: The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate)

[Ssosmcin]

Wouldn't the competition have as much to do with it as the slot itself? Judd for the Defense and The CBS Friday Night Movie, in single TV households (and not many people had more than one set), would take a lot of the older audience. A movie would have to be pretty uninvolving for people to jump off halfway and watch Star Trek.

 

[Hofner]

I forgot to mention something in the article. I had to laugh at the reference to oaters equals westerns, I remember people sometimes referring to westerns as oaters. Haven't heard it for a looong time.

Robert

 

[M'Sharak]

I forgot to mention something in the article. I had to laugh at the reference to oaters equals westerns, I remember people sometimes referring to westerns as oaters. Haven't heard it for a looong time.

Robert

It sounds like the kind of term which may originally have been specific to a single magazine or even a single columnist. Industry publications like Variety or The Hollywood Reporter still have a few expressions for things which tend to be found in their pages and nowhere else.

 

[Ssosmcin]

In 1966, while The Man from UNCLE was on Friday nights at 8:30 on NBC, The Wild Wild West was on at 7:30 on CBS. Over on ABC, The Green Hornet kicked off at 7:30 and The Time Tunnel came on at 8:00. This night would have been torture since I enjoy all of them, but UNCLE would have been my pick to miss. The Green Hornet was a fun show, but it tanked, primarily I imagine because people expected it to be like Batman (made by the same team) and it was against the much more popular western/spy series. The Time Tunnel, from what I've read, was actually doing pretty well; ABC's "unsung hero" of the evening, but sandwiched between failures, it didn't stand much chance (also Irwin Allen's penchant for getting lazy with his aliens didn't help). The Time Tunnel started off well, storywise, but changed formats 2/3 of the way though and fell out of favor. It was apparently going to be renewed but at the last minute it was dropped.

@Maurice and @Harvey's point is well founded. The Wild Wild West had a very healthy 4 year run on Fridays the entire time. Earlier than Star Trek's 3rd season, but even when Star Trek was on earlier on Friday's it didn't shake the ratings much. If they put on at 7:30 on Fridays, James T. Kirk would have been clobbered by James T. West.

They didn't give the ratings anemic Star Trek prime real estate on the schedule, but it wasn't in the boonies either.

Funny, I didn't give it as much thought before you guys brought it up. Well done.

 

[Neopeius]

It sounds like the kind of term which may originally have been specific to a single magazine or even a single columnist. Industry publications like Variety or The Hollywood Reporter still have a few expressions for things which tend to be found in their pages and nowhere else.

I don't know where it specifically came from, but it was quite widespread by the late '40s.

 

[Maurice]

"oater" as a industry term goes waaaay back. Searching the Variety archives I see it as far back as 1935:

As an oater it is along familiar lines, but the novelty of the actress makes it something that might yield a better class western picture.

...but even there it's used as if a commonplace word. So far I've not found it earlier, but the Variety Ultimate search tool isn't great at finding "oater" vs. "oat" so it would take a lot of more careful searching to try to pin down the first instance of the term in its pages.

But here from an 1961 article is a description of the term.

These fans are loyal to what is known in Hollywood as the "series Western." "horse opera," "oater" or "sagebrusher," the program Western which is considered a "B" or even "C" picture. However, there was one important difference. The star of these series Westerns had to be one who appeared exclusively in these pictures—he could not romance Marilyn Monroe in one picture and hunt renegade Indians in the next— and each of these cowboy stars had a ' irtatical following of loyal fans which did not vary through the y.urs. Also, the screen life of a Western star was considerable longer than that of a romantic idol, and it was not unusual for a top Western star to chase rustlers for 15 or 20 years with a new generation of kids at regular intervals cheering them on to save that ranch for the girl in distress.
—WHEN SHOOTING COWBOYS BEGAN SINGING Calling the Roll From Bronco Billy Anderson To The Modern Stars, Some of Whom Can't - Ride a Horse or Fire a Gun By ALEX GORDON, Variety, Wednesday, January 18 , 1961

 

[MAGolding]

It sounds like the kind of term which may originally have been specific to a single magazine or even a single columnist. Industry publications like Variety or The Hollywood Reporter still have a few expressions for things which tend to be found in their pages and nowhere else.

Like the legendary Variety headline "Sticks Nix Hick PiX", July 17, 1935.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticks_Nix_Hick_Pix

https://archive.org/details/variety119-1935-07/page/n124/mode/1up?view=theater

 

[Neopeius]

"oater" as a industry term goes waaaay back. Searching the Variety archives I see it as far back at 1935:

...but even there it's used as if a commonplace word. So far I've not found it earlier, but the Variety Ultimate search tool isn't great at finding "oater" vs. "oat" so it would take a lot of more careful searching to try to pin down the first instance of the term in its pages.

But here from an 1961 article is a description of the term.

There was an entry in my 1960 edition of Dictionary of American Slang. Lovely book, that. But it has ~1950 as the date of commonness, and I can't find it in newspapers before 1948. So maybe it did originate in Variety?

 

[Maurice]

There was an entry in my 1960 edition of Dictionary of American Slang. Lovely book, that. But it has ~1950 as the date of commonness, and I can't find it in newspapers before 1948. So maybe it did originate in Variety?

Or The Hollywood Reporter or perhaps some other trade paper or magazine, many of which are long defunct. Could have been industry slang like “manmaker” or “stinger” or “Warner Bros. haircut” that got picked up by the trades as opposed to coined by them.

 

[David cgc]

Having seen other shows aimed at Star Trek's age group do well on Friday Nights, the network probably did not think they were doing Trek any harm. Not every teenager or young adult went out on Friday nights. Lots of people were homebodies, lots of married couples stayed home for various reasons (kids in bed, low disposable income for going out, etc.). No school or work the next day, so kids who normally had to go to bed earlier may have been able to stay up later.

Something the "death slot" discussion has occasionally brought to mind was the years-long success of the Sci-Fi Channel's Friday Night lineup. I remember when I was a High School and College aged kid... here, posting on this board in the live commentary threads... and that I certainly did not mind Friday having four new episodes of TV in three hours (okay, I kind of minded that I had to tape "Enterprise," on the grounds that whichever Sci-Fi show was on opposite it (I can't remember if it was BSG or one of the Stargates) would either be more tied in to the rest of the night or have a more spoil-able moment). It was definitely better than when Voyager and DS9 were on at 9 and 10 on Wednesdays when I was younger, and I'd have to just catch what I could from the reruns over the summer, and the season premieres and finales that usually hung just outside of the school year.

Anyway, I always just chalked it up to cable lowering the bar for TV success compared to back when there were only three channels (combined with the story about how the demographics would've multiplied the commercial attractiveness of each individual Star Trek fan, had they only been analyized). And now the bar is even lower with streaming (I still have a suspicion that the audience for the new Trek shows is lower than the loyal cadre of die-hards that couldn't get Enterprise a fifth season). But it turns out I was misled and misinformed on all counts. Roddenberry! *Shakes fist*

 

[Maurice]

@Harvey pointed me to an Oct. 1965 issue of The Hollywood Reporter from the Bird's files which has the headline NBC-TV Plans Friday Teen Night, and which mentions both Trek and Police Story as possible mid-season replacements.

 

[Neopeius]

@Harvey pointed me to an Oct. 1965 issue of The Hollywood Reporter from the Bird's files which has the headline NBC-TV Plans Friday Teen Night, and which mentions both Trek and Police Story as possible mid-season replacements.

The 'zines of latter '65 anticipated Trek in January, too.

 

[publiusr]

Seems to be that Laugh In (riffed from love-in?) would have been a better late night choice than Trek…send the kids to bed!

 

[Neopeius]

Seems to be that Laugh In (riffed from love-in?) would have been a better late night choice than Trek…send the kids to bed!

It used to run in re-runs in the 70s at like 2 in the morning!

Laugh-in is definitely a take on all the "-ins" of the 60s. Sit-ins, Teach-ins, Be-ins, Love-ins...

 

[Maurice]

Seems to be that Laugh In (riffed from love-in?) would have been a better late night choice than Trek…send the kids to bed!

They might've gotten away with being more risque at 10 p.m. but Laugh-In shot to #1 for two years at 8 p.m. Mondays so that was clearly the ideal slot.

 

[Henoch]

Laugh-In was one of my favorite shows I looked forward to watch. Odd concept for a comedy: I remember actually laughing with the show. Sock It To Me!

 

[Christopher]

The Green Hornet was a fun show, but it tanked, primarily I imagine because people expected it to be like Batman (made by the same team)

I'd imagine that depended on whether they were previously familiar with The Green Hornet. The TV series was pretty faithful to the tone of the original radio series and movie serials. So adults in the '60s who remembered those from their youth would probably have known what to expect better than most 21st-century viewers would. Also, movie serials were often rerun on TV; I remember seeing Flash Gordon serials and such when I was growing up. Or they were revived in movie theaters occasionally. IIRC, it was the recent re-release of the 1943 Batman serial, and the way it became a cult hit with audiences mocking it for its campiness in retrospect, that inspired the creation of the Batman TV series. I dunno, maybe '60s audiences would've found the GH serials campy too, but from what I recall, the first one (only one I've seen) was played straighter than the '43 Batman, focusing on fairly grounded, realistic criminal rackets that the Hornet busted, rather than things like disintegrator rays and mind-controlled zombies.

 

[Neopeius]

I'd imagine that depended on whether they were previously familiar with The Green Hornet. The TV series was pretty faithful to the tone of the original radio series and movie serials. So adults in the '60s who remembered those from their youth would probably have known what to expect better than most 21st-century viewers would. Also, movie serials were often rerun on TV; I remember seeing Flash Gordon serials and such when I was growing up. Or they were revived in movie theaters occasionally. IIRC, it was the recent re-release of the 1943 Batman serial, and the way it became a cult hit with audiences mocking it for its campiness in retrospect, that inspired the creation of the Batman TV series. I dunno, maybe '60s audiences would've found the GH serials campy too, but from what I recall, the first one (only one I've seen) was played straighter than the '43 Batman, focusing on fairly grounded, realistic criminal rackets that the Hornet busted, rather than things like disintegrator rays and mind-controlled zombies.

I suspect the majority of the 60s tv audience was familiar neither with the GH radio show nor the Batman comics. They were first and foremost TV watchers (just as MCU watchers are mostly not comics fans). The Batman kitch took the world by storm. Green Hornet was different. Better, in my opinion, but if folks were looking for Batman 2, it wasn't it.

Of course, neither was Captain Nice or Mr. Terrific, but that's because they were Batman knockoffs and not as good as the original.

 

[Ssosmcin]

The Batman style expectation, I imagine, would be from the fact it was produced by Bill Dozier and had his unmistakable opening narration that immediately brings the more popular series to mind. He even had a presentation made that had to make it clear this was not a "Batman Style" series. If viewers were unfamiliar with the Hornet or just watching the series cold, they'd hear the narration, see the hero and his sidekick driving in a souped up car which emerged from a hidden entrance, thundering into the city to catch criminals. At a time when even straightforward adventure shows were being altered to be more like Batman, I would think the expectation for this to be similar would exist.

The first serial is quite good. I haven't had a chance to watch the follow up yet, but the TV series was very much along those lines, which is why I really enjoy the series. It was a solid straightforward crime adventure. Van Williams was excellent in the dual role. He gets overshadowed by Lee, but Williams carried the series and he was excellent. He had a great fighting style (I heard he got some pointers from Lee).

 

[Neopeius]

The first serial is quite good. I haven't had a chance to watch the follow up yet, but the TV series was very much along those lines, which is why I really enjoy the series. It was a solid straightforward crime adventure. Van Williams was excellent in the dual role. He gets overshadowed by Lee, but Williams carried the series and he was excellent. He had a great fighting style (I heard he got some pointers from Lee).

I'm delighted to meet another fan. It really is a good show, and I agree, Williams is a compelling lead. I love that he's uncomfortable in a tux but quite at home in a mask and hat. The show is just outrageous enough to be a superhero show but grounded enough to be a plausible crime drama.

There are very few shows from the era that we all watch together as a family. Right now, it's just Trek, MI, and GH. Occasionally Hollywood Palace.