Let Me Count the Ways... I Watched Star Trek

[mb22]

WPIX in the 70s and a little bit of 1980s VHS tapes decades later, and a local station in Baltimore once or twice in 1975. In the summer of 1984, I stayed at a motel in the Catskills where a local PBS station was showing uncut episodes -- apparently the Paramount videos (?) before they were actually commercially released a few months later.

EDIT: Also saw "Mirror Mirror" in 16mm at a convention.

 

[Forbin]

Whew! That's quite a list!
I watched the original TV run, and every other time it was on TV (WPIX NY) or cable (SciFi Channel) right up to today's run on the H&I network. I haven't watched it on any streaming services.
I never had TOS on laserDisc, but I had some TNGs.
I had some of the 2-episode Betamax tapes.
I had ALL of the 2-episode VHS Tapes.
I have the first release of the DVD sets.
I have the first release of the Blu-Ray remasters with choice of effects.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I remember the first time seeing uncut episodes. It was on WTNH 8 in New Haven, CT. Grabbed it from the antenna with the rotor. Then when the episode ended, they ran the preview for the next one. My jaw dropped, WPIX didn't run them. This was before VCRs so I had to live on the memory until the VHS tapes brought those previews and scenes back into my life.

From the Time of the Beginning right up until the prerecorded VHS tapes came out, I never saw an episode trailer, except for once. When "The Menagerie" Part I ended one night, our local station showed the trailer for Part II by mistake. And that was the moment I learned how to pronounce Nimoy, because he narrated and gave his name.

 

[Radu Molasar]

2) 1970s syndication on 16mm film.
8) The 1985 syndication package.

That would mean you've never seen the uncut episodes! Or the show without commercials. That has to be unusual around here.

H&I is how I watch these days.

I often missed trek visiting my maternal uncle who watched football instead.

 

[Forbin]

In my teens, Trek was broadcast on WPIX NY (channel 11) at 6:00. It was a great excuse to eat dinner in the living room on a folding stack table and get away from some bad family dynamics going on at the kitchen table since my mother's father, who my own father hated, moved in. Dad didn't like me doing that, but the comfort of Trek was way better than the tensions at the table.

 

[Poltargyst]

In my teens, Trek was broadcast on WPIX NY (channel 11) at 6:00. It was a great excuse to eat dinner in the living room on a folding stack table and get away from some bad family dynamics going on at the kitchen table since my mother's father, who my own father hated, moved in. Dad didn't like me doing that, but the comfort of Trek was way better than the tensions at the table.

Did everyone watch Star Trek on WPIX?

 

[feek61]

Did everyone watch Star Trek on WPIX?

No, for me it was WJKS, Channel 17 in Jacksonville, Florida

 

[Mr. Spook]

Did everyone watch Star Trek on WPIX?

It feels like that sometimes, but nah, only if you were in that market and maybe your cable provider carried the station in the 80's and 90's.

In my teens, Trek was broadcast on WPIX NY (channel 11) at 6:00. It was a great excuse to eat dinner in the living room on a folding stack table and get away from some bad family dynamics going on at the kitchen table since my mother's father, who my own father hated, moved in. Dad didn't like me doing that, but the comfort of Trek was way better than the tensions at the table.

It was the only time my parents allowed the TV on during dinner. For a time, we would watch Trek followed immediately by Space:1999. Luckily my youthful obsession made fans out of all four of us, so we never had to argue over whether or not to watch Star Trek.

 

[Ricky Spanish]

Did everyone watch Star Trek on WPIX?

WXIX and WLWT, here in the Cincinnati area.

 

[mb22]

Did everyone watch Star Trek on WPIX?

The NYC metro area is rather densely populated.

 

[blssdwlf]

KHTV in Houston

 

[Methuselah Flint]

From the Time of the Beginning right up until the prerecorded VHS tapes came out, I never saw an episode trailer, except for once. When "The Menagerie" Part I ended one night, our local station showed the trailer for Part II by mistake. And that was the moment I learned how to pronounce Nimoy, because he narrated and gave his name.

Are you sure that wasn't deliberate, given it was a two-parter and as such would be the only time it was guaranteed the 'next time' trailer would be for the next episode?

 

[Phaser Two]

Did everyone watch Star Trek on WPIX?

No, but I did.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Are you sure that wasn't deliberate, given it was a two-parter and as such would be the only time it was guaranteed the 'next time' trailer would be for the next episode?

It seemed like an accident because they aired the whole series many times, but only ever showed a trailer that once.

 

[Kraig]

Watched TOS when it first aired on NBC, on a 21 inch RCA color TV. I also recorded the audio on cassette tapes.
Then in syndication.
I also have 35mm film scraps that were sold in the late 1960's that I mounted in Kodak Ready-Mounts for slides. The color has suffered with time. Usually the scraps are where they are holding a clapperboard in front of an actor at the start of the scene.
Then I purchased the DVDs when they had 2 episodes on each DVD.
The last was DVD season box sets that come in plastic cases, each season with their own color, that are Red, Yellow and Blue

 

[Ricky Spanish]

The last was DVD season box sets that come in plastic cases, each season with their own color, that are Red, Yellow and Blue

There are two distinct DVD season releases. One in solid colors for each season. Then a second one, around the time of HD-DVD. The first season was a DVD/HD-DVD hybrid, the other two were just regular DVD releases. They had clear outer shells.

 

[HGN2001]

I was there from the beginning, NBC Peacocks and all, and watched these episodes in many, many of the formats listed. Here's what I DIDN'T do:

5. Never owned a film print of any episode. I DO have a number of 35mm chopped up slides from Lincoln Enterprises. I used to show the slides and try to play music from the episodes on my reel-to-reel.
A slide sample:

6. Never had a Betamax - I was a VHS person.
12. Never did CED discs, though I knew someone who rented STII on that format.
16. While I've certainly seen ST:TOS on MeTV, I've never had access to an HD version of that channel.
17. I never saw a theatrical print of an episode in a theater.
19. Never had HD-DVD.

Now some caveats about things I DID see or do.

7. I certainly did have VHS, and several iterations thereof. The very first were rental tapes from Paramount and Fotomat. When Fotomat went belly-up, I bought some of their rental tapes.
10. In addition to the Roddenberry intro with B&W parts of "The Cage" (as Episode 0), there was also the all-color version that was broadcast some months later and released on VHS (as Episode 99).
14. The first DVDs I saw and/or bought were the two-eps-per DVD ones. I bought about six or seven of those when I could find them cheap. Later on I bought the Yellow, Red, Blue sets of all the episodes on DVD. Still later, there were a few sampler DVDs of remastered effects that I bought.

 

[Kraig]

There are two distinct DVD season releases. One in solid colors for each season. Then a second one, around the time of HD-DVD. The first season was a DVD/HD-DVD hybrid, the other two were just regular DVD releases. They had clear outer shells.

At the start of DVD they had 2 episodes per DVD, then before I had collected all those they released the solid color box set, season 1 yellow, season 2 blue and season 3 red. I think they were trying to imitate a tricorder with the shape of the colored outer shells.