My Grandma mistook "The Orville" for a new "Star Trek" show

So here's what happened. I had gone to bed early after dinner (I sleep really weird hours most days) on Sunday, September 17th. The date is important because "Star Trek: Discovery" had not been released as of that date. I was in bed, and my grandfather was flipping through the channels when my grandmother stopped him because she thought she had seen a Star Trek show on the air. Knowing just how much I love Star Trek, and knowing there was a new show coming out but not knowing anything about it, she called me in, saying "Vince, the new STAR TREK is on!" Keep in mind I was asleep before, so my first thought is, "Already? It's not supposed to be out until next Sunday!" I rush into the room after getting my shirt back on, worried sick that CBS pulled one over on me or that I had misread the release date. Come to find out they were watching "The Orville". LOL

An interesting thing to note: my grandparents are both super diehard Christians, and don't watch anything that contains too much sex, language, or violence, so I had to warn them about Seth McFarlane and his 'dirty' sense of humor. They subsequently changed the channel (too bad, because I was actually a bit curious about how "The Orville" turned out).

 

I would imagine that most people in the general population wouldn't be able to tell The Orville from Star Trek.

 

I can't blame them. It's more authentically Trek than many Star Trek fan films.

 

Its not too dirty at all. They may have actually enjoyed the show.

 

My stepdad saw a preview for it and ranted about the new Star Trek show & how the guy in Sulu's station wouldn't be saying this and that, etc. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out what he was talking about.

I then had to tell him what Orville was vs Discovery.

 

Considering that the show does not have "Star Trek" in the title, and none of the marketing says that it is set in the Trek universe, there should be no reason to assume that Orville is a Star Trek show.

Kor

 

Sure there is. It looks like a Star Trek television show. It's in the future, and comes complete with uniforms, fancy spaceships, ray guns, familiar bridge set up, and them there Jem'Hadar fellows.

Can you tell boy bands apart? Backstreet Boys, *NSync, One Direction? I sure can't. They're all one and the same to me.

To someone who doesn't care about Star Trek, The Orville and Star Trek are one and the same to them.

 

Personally I ignore most advertising.

 

Good points. I've known plenty of people who don't even realize that Star Trek and Star Wars are two different things, or that DC and Marvel aren't the same, etc.

Kor

 

Of course they thought that, The Orville goes out of its way to ape TNG.

 

It's definitely fun Star Trek. I'm hoping Discovery will also be fun Star Trek!

 

Orville is like a soft parody of Trek, straight down to the aesthetics and the uniforms.

It has the sarcastic interjections of other MacFarlane but it is certainly not dirty.

 

NSync and Backstreet Boy would be the ones old enough to be the guys in One Direction's fathers.

 

Orville is truer to the spirit of Star Trek than some Star Trek shows have been.

 

They don't look the same. To me that's like saying Star Wars and Star Trek look alike.

That requires the prerequisite of actually knowing what any of them look alike. I don't know how you managed to get to a point where they all look alike because you generally know what they look like. I couldn't point them out if you put them besides five guys from Five Guys and a Burger.



I'm fat less forgiving. The fluke of "Enterprise" aside, every Trek show has had Star Trek in the title. Every Trek show, again aside from the fluke of "Enterprise", has the familiar pin logo. And no Trek show has been a seriocomedy like "The Orville".

Anybody who mistakes it and can't at least say, "Hey, this doesn't really look like anything from Trek I've seen and I've never watched an episode" to me is the kind of person who confuses apples and oranges, and blue Kool-Aide and Windex.

 

To the casual viewer they are all the same. Orville and Star Trek more than most. My mother still confuses Superman and Spider-Man.

 

I'm not even a casual viewer of of "My Little Pony: Friendship is MAgic" -- hell, I watched part of one episode because I decided I've rather not get eye cancer. But I can distinguish it from other similar looking cartoons. Yeah, not the greatest example since not every cartoon has annoying ponies as the leads.

 

So can I and I've not even seen one episode. But I've a feeling we're not the same sort of "casual" as someone's grandparents. And in some areas we aren't even the same sort of casual. I've seen you rattle on about music used in TV show, something I don't care about or pay attention to. I couldn't tell Bear McCreary from Alf Clauson if you paid me.

 

*stares from across the room*

*narrows eyes*

 

I was at work last night and they had it on Fox for the game and The Orville came on afterward and the host asked if we were watching Star Trek. I think people just assume if something has characters wearing colorful uniforms aboard a starship, then it HAS to be Star Trek. If it were Star Wars, everybody would have lightsabers.