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

[ZapBrannigan]

Thanks for that.

I've been reading books by TV writers and producers who worked in the 60s and we've been digging through Broadcasting in addition to Variety and it really does change your perspective on the choices the networks made and why, and NBC becomes far less of a villain than fandom has painted it for the past half century. Not to say they always made the right decision for their shows, but Star Trek was an odd animal that had fairly low affiliate coverage and difficulty landing consistent sponsorship, and there was some conflict between the programming and the sales side at the network. They had roughly 33 prime time shows per year to slot, and it was impossible to give each one its ideal time slot and ideal lead-in.

Shows with better ratings than Trek were often canceled, so the fact it stayed on the air for three years was something of a miracle. The Monkees was never a huge ratings hit but its ancillary revenues (let's not go into Monkees business again, please) made it worth keeping on the air for a while. Gilligan always pulled in higher numbers than Trek but its appeal was strongest with children, so it didn't command great ad rates.

Re: blaming NBC for Star Trek's troubles, there's one thing I always found funny. In 1970s fandom, and I'm thinking of David Gerrold or the Lichtenberg-Marshak-Winston book, or both, somewhere in there, were the writers who complained that NBC must have picked "Spock's Brain" to debut the third season as a way to sabotage Star Trek. Like, "That's what they thought of Star Trek!" But NBC didn't write and produce the episode. It just didn't occur to "official fandom" in those days to blame the show itself for its own failings.

The days of painting NBC the villain was also the Roddenberry as God era, so there you go.

 

[Neopeius]

Re: blaming NBC for Star Trek's troubles, there's one thing I always found funny. In 1970s fandom, and I'm thinking of David Gerrold or the Lichtenberg-Marshak-Winston book, or both, somewhere in there, were the writers who complained that NBC must have picked "Spock's Brain" to debut the third season as a way to sabotage Star Trek. Like, "That's what they thought of Star Trek!" But NBC didn't write and produce the episode. It just didn't occur to "official fandom" in those days to blame the show itself for its own failings.

It's important to note just how removed the fan was from the corridors of power, so remote that it was virtually incomprehensible. TV creates a false intimacy, the illusion that the entertainment is created just for the viewer, in real-time; that the actors are personal friends.

I remember watching Robotech in 1985 and being appalled at the transition from the Robotech Masters (Southern Cross) arc to the Invid (Mospeada) arc. I thought it was poorly handled and set up. I called a friend of mine to bitch at how the showmakers had really flubbed.

I had no idea that the show was not American in origin. I certainly didn't know that the discontinuity was because the show had been patched together from different shows. All I knew is that I didn't like it and that I held the creators responsible, and I felt the innate right to be personally affronted.

The days of painting NBC the villain was also the Roddenberry as God era, so there you go.

Absolutely. I've gone into exhaustive detail about Roddenberry wagging that dog, inciting the first write-in campaign. Did it help Trek get renewed for a second season? That'd be nice to find out (@Maurice -- anything?)

But painting NBC as a bunch of morons who didn't know the jewel they had did them no favors with the fans, who were perhaps more forgiving of "their own"... like Don Ingalls, who penned the absolutely crappy "The Alternative Factor"...

 

[plynch]

No kill i
This thread by talking more about session musicians, as I play the John Sebastian Songbook LP behind me, but here is a thread that lists particular bands and acts, even different lps

https://www.tdpri.com/threads/60s-b...nds did or didn't play their own instruments?

 

[Neopeius]

No kill i
This thread by talking more about session musicians, as I play the John Sebastian Songbook LP behind me, but here is a thread that lists particular bands and acts, even different lps

https://www.tdpri.com/threads/60s-bands-who-played-on-their-own-records.107204/#:~:text=I've recently read that the many did, in,bands did or didn't play their own instruments?

Oh yeah! The Electric Prunes. They had an excellent first album.

The Hollies are great, too. We saw them play (mime?) "Look Through Any Window" on Hullabaloo, and they were fantastic.

Thank you for the link, plynch. Pretty much settles that. And now we have a lovely musical background to go with our TOS discussion.

 

[1001001]

I am enjoying the digression. Certainly more than threads for posting episode scripts one line at a time.

You’ll get no argument from me on that point!

There are other forums and other boards for discussing many things, but talking about the pop culture of the TOS era in a TOS forum provides an interesting, wider perspective on the show. Unless there is a rule that the stated topic of the thread must be adhered to until the end. I don't see it in the FAQ.

Regardless of how other boards do things, we have a lot of specialized forums here, and managing the traffic (so to speak) is definitely one of our jobs. And having been in staff here for the better part of twenty years, I think I have a pretty good handle on how things work here. Not everything is in the FAQ and not every rule is spelled out in exact detail (as T’Bonz has made clear many times).

So, you please go ahead and enjoy the board and all it has to offer, and we’ll do the managing of it. And let’s please not derail this thread any further. If you have comments about my interventions, please use the PM function.

Now, I return you to 60’s Bands Who May or May Not Have Played Their Own Instruments…

 

[plynch]

Choose from below:

Dr. Sevrin and New Eden
did/did not
play their own Vulcan lyre and electrobicycle wheel.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Only a Herbert would chose "did not".

 

[Neopeius]

Choose from below:

Dr. Sevrin and New Eden
did/did not
play their own Vulcan lyre and electrobicycle wheel.

It was fascinating, to say the least, discovering Deborah Downey's post-Trek career.

Absolutely fascinating.

 

[1001001]

Choose from below:

Dr. Sevrin and New Eden
did/did not
play their own Vulcan lyre and electrobicycle wheel.

Is that it’s official name? Electrobicycle Wheel?

The Schwinn-O-Phone?
The Huffy-Nator?

 

[Noname Given]

Choose from below:

Dr. Sevrin and New Eden
did/did not
play their own Vulcan lyre and electrobicycle wheel.

Are you telling me Adam lip-synced?

 

[Maurice]

It's important to note just how removed the fan was from the corridors of power, so remote that it was virtually incomprehensible. TV creates a false intimacy, the illusion that the entertainment is created just for the viewer, in real-time; that the actors are personal friends.

Very much agreed. It's amusing to see things like fans concluding that NBC moved Trek into a death slot because they feared such an active and vociferous fanbase, and they needed a "reason" to kill the show. The fact is they didn't need a reason to kill it because if they'd actually wanted to they'd just have done so. Sure there' have been a vocal outcry from the faithful but that would have had little impact except maybe a few weeks of fans bitching in letters to the editor, but it would not have affected their business or bottom line. In fact, when you look through letters sent to TV Guide and newspapers of the time, some of the fans come across as a little ridiculous, and I'm sure much of John/Jane Q. Public just saw them as obsessive kooks.

Absolutely. I've gone into exhaustive detail about Roddenberry wagging that dog, inciting the first write-in campaign. Did it help Trek get renewed for a second season? That'd be nice to find out (@Maurice -- anything?)

We're still looking into that but it's certainly possible that NBC saw the campaign as free publicity that might make people who'd never watched the show give it a shot. On the other hand it's apparent the network knew Roddenberry was behind kicking off the campaign (he even joked the network was accusing him of this) and that it was not as grassroots as everyone pretended, so we're pretty certain they didn't take the mail volume as seriously as they would have had it been truly spontaneous and less organized.

 

[Hofner]

I refuse to believe a studio musician was used when in Lost In Space the robot sang a song while playing a guitar.

The. Robot. Was. Playing. The. Guitar.

Jimi Hendrix had nothing on B3.


@Maurice and @Harvey,

I finally got around to reading the article, thanks for the work. As someone who saw at least some of Star Trek's initial run, I am fascinated reading about how things were back then.

In my case, the death slot didn't keep me from watching the third season of Star Trek anyway.
In fact, if it had to be at 10 pm, it was a good thing it was Friday, I was allowed to stay up past 10 only on Friday and Saturday nights at that time.

I certainly remember watching Laugh In back then. Being a kid, my favorite part was how poor Judy Carne kept being manipulated into saying "Sock it to me".

Robert

 

[Ssosmcin]

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. Roddenberry blaming NBC for the death slot was just typical Gene blaming others for his wanting to get off a show that wasn't making him enough money or prestige.

It's not like Thursday at 8:30 was skyrocketing Trek in to the top 5. Friday at 8:30 didn't help either, so going later wasn't that much of a jump. "Hmmmm, earlier isn't reaching them, maybe we should try later."

As for why NBC threw Spock's Brain up as the premiere...it's in the title: "Spock." He was the most popular character and I can absolutely see the scheduling people saying "if Spock won't draw the big audience with his name in the title, the OK Corral episode sure won't."

 

[Maurice]

Successful heart transplants were new news in 1968 and "Spock's Brain" was capitalizing on that.

I think Roddenberry was perhaps rightly miffed that he'd had a first-up slot snatched out of his hands at the last minute after a fairly late renewal. My guess is when he found out about the 10 p.m. shift he played his final card by offering to come back and produce the show directly (Variety indicates NBC veep Mort Werner was going to meet him) if NBC would rescind the change, and when they couldn't/wouldn't do that he realized he'd better start looking for his next paycheck and very quickly landed a two-picture gig at National General, which saw him write his Tarzan script, which never went anywhere, but it was a big cash influx on top of his Executive Producer fees on Trek.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Having seen other shows aimed at Star Trek's age group do well on Friday Nights, the network probably did 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. Roddenberry blaming NBC for the death slot was just typical Gene blaming others for his wanting to get off a show that wasn't making him enough money or prestige.

But for American culture--specially the youth culture, they had been conditioned to believe Friday was the "free" / "I get to do whatever I want with my time" day, even if they were not hitting the streets. In other words, they were capable of finding any number of things to do other than watch a sci-fi series during those valuable, Friday evening hours.

I think ABC had the better strategy with Land of the Giants--which made its fall 1968 debut on Sundays at 7 p.m.--a timeslot it would hold for its two-season run. Sunday evenings were all about the weekend wind-down / getting ready for the coming week, so the target audience was more likely to be at home with no external distractions. LOTG did start off with pretty good ratings, and one could argue that its time slot (and better scripts early in its run) had something to do with that.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

The days of painting NBC the villain was also the Roddenberry as God era, so there you go.

Justman says the network was very supportive of the show in this documentary based on his and Solow's Inside Star Trek book. (at 8:57 if the video doesn't start there automatically):

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Right after that, Grant Tinker also discusses how Roddenberry vilified the suits and how NBC doesn't get nearly enough credit.

What is the real story? We may never know. The actual truth may be stranger than science fiction.

 

[Ssosmcin]

But for American culture--specially the youth culture, they had been conditioned to believe Friday was the "free" / "I get to do whatever I want with my time" day, even if they were not hitting the streets. In other words, they were capable of finding any number of things to do other than watch a sci-fi series during those valuable, Friday evening hours.

I think ABC had the better strategy with Land of the Giants--which made its fall 1968 debut on Sundays at 7 p.m.--a timeslot it would hold for its two-season run. Sunday evenings were all about the weekend wind-down / getting ready for the coming week, so the target audience was more likely to be at home with no external distractions. LOTG did start off with pretty good ratings, and one could argue that its time slot (and better scripts early in its run) had something to do with that.

Land of the Giants inherited the time slot vacated by Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Irwin Allen's prior and longest running science-fiction television series. It had that timeslot for three straight seasons. Voyage did well there for its first two color seasons, but the final season saw the ratings drop.

As the rerun markets would bear out, you're probably right that an early evening timeslot was best for shows like Star Trek and Voyage.

Still, having said that, I'm sure there were plenty of adults and young adults who didn't go out on Friday nights. If you were lower middle class like my family was, we didn't go out that often. So seeing Star Trek on a Friday evening in my house would not be uncommon.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Still, having said that, I'm sure there were plenty of adults and young adults who didn't go out on Friday nights. If you were lower middle class like my family was, we didn't go out that often. So seeing Star Trek on a Friday evening in my house would not be uncommon.

There were also a lot of teenagers who couldn't get a date in those days. (Now they can always text with a creepy older guy posing as a kid on the Internet. You know, depending on how busy I am. [ Joke ].)

 

[Ssosmcin]

There were also a lot of teenagers who couldn't get a date in those days. (Now they can always text with a creepy older guy posing as a kid on the Internet. You know, depending on how busy I am. [ Joke ].)

When Trek hit syndication, most the people I knew who liked it were dorky homebodies.

Soooooo, yeah, Friday's needed filling.

 

[Maurice]

Again, U.N.C.L.E. had gone to #13 in that slot, so it wasn’t some automatic death sentence. I wish we had more visibility into the NBC side of the equation.