Love 60s TV - Trek, Twilight Zone and Outer Limits

[Jeri]

...Today TV is far more conservative than people! And TV wonders why they loose thier audience to other things? Just a thought..

Here's how it seems to me. Back in the 1950's and 1960's, people didn't think educating themselves was a bad thing. They didn't mind so much if someone threw out a new idea. But now it seems like education is a bad thing, and nobody is going to let anybody tell them anything, especially in a TV show. Unless, of course, it's about how you decorate your house.

Oh, P.S.

...the human race can be united by creating an alien invasion, thus using fear to control the populace...

I meant to mention that President Reagan said several times in speeches and in talks with world leaders (i.e., Gorbachev, for example) about how the world would come together fast enough if we were faced with an extraterrestrial threat. He had reported seeing UFO's a couple of times himself, and I think that's what put him in that state of mind. One of the sighting occasions was by himself, the presidential entourage and crew of AF-One in flight.

 

[Eric Cheung]

When I was a kid I loved Nick-at-Nite. I loved watching Dick Van Dyke, Green Acres, and Get Smart. Of the 60s shows they had on their line-up those were probably my favorites (I was waiting for the Get Smart movie for ten years, when they announced Jim Carrey as Smart. Though I like Carrey, I think Carell was a much better choice.). Looking back at each of those shows I realize how good they actually were. Dick Van Dyke was quite an intelligent and realistic portrait of both early television and a young, modern marriage. Green Acres did a lot of the tricks that the Zuckers and Monty Python would employ just a few years later. And Get Smart was a workplace satire, a stylish and genuinely thrilling spy show, and a romantic comedy with genuine chemistry. Actually all three were romantic comedies that showed realistic affection between the leads, itself fairly amazing for the time.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Early TOS wasn't so wrapped up in it's own universe, adventure show trappings, and 'canon' as today's convoluted Trek obsessiveness. The stories came at the viewer rather like Twilight Zone and Outer Limits did, and sometimes the writers were future Trek contributors. Early TOS reflected the style of those times, the stories were about the characters being drawn into mysterious situations with often moral or even unsettling endings.

Exactly. That's why early TOS is special. Forty years of follow-on stories have added a lot of detail, but never elevated it and rarely equaled it.

 

[euphorik]

Don't forget "The Invaders"..

a-MEN, brother. i've really been enjoying this series over the past few months, netflixing slowly through season 1. creepy, paranoiac, and nihilistic, it's pretty much the complete opposite of ST's sunny, optimistic version of the future. sophisticated writing, great trek-alumni guest stars (lawrence montaigne i "the experiment" comes to mind), and fantastic musical scores (by "the outer limits'" dominic frontiere).

highly recommended for classic trek, TZ, and OL fans!

 

[Noname Given]

Don't forget "The Invaders"..

a-MEN, brother. i've really been enjoying this series over the past few months, netflixing slowly through season 1. creepy, paranoiac, and nihilistic, it's pretty much the complete opposite of ST's sunny, optimistic version of the future. sophisticated writing, great trek-alumni guest stars (lawrence montaigne i "the experiment" comes to mind), and fantastic musical scores (by "the outer limits'" dominic frontiere).

highly recommended for classic trek, TZ, and OL fans!

I liked Season 3 of Invaders the best - but I won't say anything since if I did, it would be spoilerish.

 

[ToddPence]

Umm . . . there was no season 3 of "The Invaders".

 

[Outpost4]

The Invaders want you to believe there was no season three...

 

[Noname Given]

Don't forget "The Invaders"..

a-MEN, brother. i've really been enjoying this series over the past few months, netflixing slowly through season 1. creepy, paranoiac, and nihilistic, it's pretty much the complete opposite of ST's sunny, optimistic version of the future. sophisticated writing, great trek-alumni guest stars (lawrence montaigne i "the experiment" comes to mind), and fantastic musical scores (by "the outer limits'" dominic frontiere).

highly recommended for classic trek, TZ, and OL fans!

I liked Season 3 of Invaders the best - but I won't say anything since if I did, it would be spoilerish.

DOH! - It's been awhile. I guess I got the seasons confused. In looking at the episode list, I guess it was the two parter in season 2 that threw me as it seemed like a season finale. Basically I liked the point where the show

Spoiler: Stuff about later Season 2

Got away from the reset of him generally not being believed and we found that there was a group aware and fighting the Invasion and even that the U.S. Government itself was involved.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

I was pleasantly surprised by the Twilight Zone and Outer Limits from the 60s. The modern day versions seemed to end with a "it's man, he's evil!". The early shows are so much more innovative with their story telling in comparison.

 

[Plum]

...Today TV is far more conservative than people! And TV wonders why they loose their audience to other things? Just a thought..

Here's how it seems to me. Back in the 1950's and 1960's, people didn't think educating themselves was a bad thing. They didn't mind so much if someone threw out a new idea. But now it seems like education is a bad thing, and nobody is going to let anybody tell them anything, especially in a TV show. Unless, of course, it's about how you decorate your house.

Oh, P.S.

...the human race can be united by creating an alien invasion, thus using fear to control the populace...

I meant to mention that President Reagan said several times in speeches and in talks with world leaders (i.e., Gorbachev, for example) about how the world would come together fast enough if we were faced with an extraterrestrial threat. He had reported seeing UFO's a couple of times himself, and I think that's what put him in that state of mind. One of the sighting occasions was by himself, the presidential entourage and crew of AF-One in flight.

*chuckle*, yea, people forget how Reagan was just as prone to creating enemies as the current crooks and liars. Remember when the Sandinistas were gonna nuke Alabama? Reagan even went on TV with maps.

Of course the 60s were just as conservative, just as nuts. Today we have some few things out there that are literate and daring (The Wire comes to mind) just as The Twilight Zone was in it's day. And early Star Trek.

Early TOS wasn't so wrapped up in it's own universe, adventure show trappings, and 'canon' as today's convoluted Trek obsessiveness. The stories came at the viewer rather like Twilight Zone and Outer Limits did, and sometimes the writers were future Trek contributors. Early TOS reflected the style of those times, the stories were about the characters being drawn into mysterious situations with often moral or even unsettling endings.

Exactly. That's why early TOS is special. Forty years of follow-on stories have added a lot of detail, but never elevated it and rarely equaled it.

Thanks and, yea, remember how people used to say Trek was special because it was about people? As in the human condition? That is instead of some Byzantine tale about what the (bad guy) Empire is up too and the latest dastardly plan.