Happy Star Trek Day 2023 and Happy 50th TAS!

[Tallguy]

Happy Star Trek Day everyone! And it's a little more special this year because TAS is fifty!

I'm pretty sure I didn't watch it in 1973 but as I got into Star Trek in the next few years it was certainly in the mix. I had the Mr. Spock's Time Trek Viewmaster (Yesteryear) and my brother had The Omega Glory.

Honestly I didn't really start paying attention to many of the details of TAS (since it wasn't on the air for most of my childhood) until I was in high school in the 80's. Then they started to air on Nickelodeon.

But for the "TAS isn't canon" crowd, let me tell you, before TNG it absolutely was. It found it's way into everything! Look at the "reference" books of the day, odds are it has a few TAS factoids. Read the novels from the 80's? Not 100% but there's way more than you'd expect. It was simply accepted as "more Star Trek". It was Kirk and crew doing Star Trek things in Star Trek looking places voiced by Star Trek actors written by Star Trek writers!

And let me celebrate this TAS edition of Star Trek Day by debunking a myth: The Kzinti are not pink because Hal Sutherland was colorblind.

...storyboard artist/character designer Bob Kline laid the blame on color director Irvin Kaplan. "Pink equals Irv Kaplan," shared Kline... "Irv was in charge of ink and paint, coloring the various characters and props (and he would do it himself in his office, he would sit down with a cel and paint it). He was also referred to by many people there as the purple and green guy. You'll see it in a lot of scenes, purple and green used together – that was one of his preferences. He made dragons red, the Kzintis' costumes pink. It was all Irv Kaplan's call. He wasn't listening to anyone else when he picked colors or anything."

-- Star Trek: The Official Guide to the Animated Series

 

[Redfern]

While "The doomsday Machine" may have been the first episode I saw (October '67) and I have no idea what episode I first saw when I started my "crash course" on the reruns in August/September 1972, I DO vividly remember the premiere of the Filmation series on September 8, 1973! A clear memory of "Beyond the Farthest Star" which later confused me years later when various accounts claimed "Yesteryear" was the debut airing. A few more years down the road, I learned I was not crazy. The east coast NBC affiliates aired "Beyond..." (I lived in Birmingham, AL at the time) while the west coast stations got "Yesteryear".

Odd thing, when the cartoon premiered, the local station that aired the original series reruns (a CBS station I think) stopped playing them. Ir wasn't until September of '75 when the Filmation adaptation was finally dropped from the Saturday morning lineup that the live action syndicated package started to air again.

 

[Serveaux]

https://www.startrek.com/news/star-trek-kid-cudi-boldly-be-collaboration

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

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