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Star Trek 101: The In-Between Years

We got moved from Thursday night in a good time slot to Monday night in a good time slot to Friday night at 10, which is death for a show like ours. The reason why it was death is that our audience was comprised mainly of people between the ages of 14 and 35, and those people are not home Friday nights at 10. They're out socializing, doing their thing and trying their best to get into bed with one another. … The only fans we had left were the very young ones… actually, the only fans we had left were the young ones whose parents would let them stay up late and watch the show.
That was me.. 10 years old in 1969 and only too happy to be home Friday nights with TOS. Mom, dad, and older brothers (Trek fans all) - nowhere to be found :cool:
 
Same here. If it had been on a 10pm any other night I would have been screwed because that was past my bedtime on a school night. But I got a special accomodation from my parents since it was Friday night.
 
I hate conversations like this because it makes me realize I'm even older than Mallory. :scream:

I'm one of those who had trouble watching the third season. First season, no problem. Second season, I usually lost out to my folks and had to watch Star Trek on the B&W TV in their bedroom. But by the third season, I was a sophomore in high school and real life got in the way. Football alone meant I saw none of the fall season.
 
Well, I didn't glom onto Trek until syndication (and the Blish books) but I sure remember the 'dry' years of the 70s and how psyched I was when rumors began to circulate in '78 that a movie was a distinct possibility.

That was also a time when the only form of Trek was the early Bantam novels, usually about two a year.

Ah, how times have changed, eh?

;)
 
I hate conversations like this because it makes me realize I'm even older than Mallory. :scream:
I'm gaining on you. I just have a sticky wheel on my walker. :(

The 70's seemed like a real dry stretch, but at least we had the Blish novelizations, TAS and the resulting ADF novelizations. Still though, I was one of the first ones in line when TMP was released.
 
Same here. If it had been on a 10pm any other night I would have been screwed because that was past my bedtime on a school night. But I got a special accomodation from my parents since it was Friday night.

Lucky you. My bedtime back then was 8:30. 9 P.M. if something very special was happening, or if my father was out-of-town.

I didn't get to stay up 'til 10 P.M. 'til high school.
 
Still though, I was one of the first ones in line when TMP was released.


Mallory, do you recall if TMP opened on the 7th of December or the 21st where you were at? For some inexplicable reason, Cleveland theaters weren't able to debut the film until Friday, December 21, a full two weeks after most of the country had it, due to the fact the film was unavailable for screening prior to 12/7/79. I saw it for the first time that Sunday, the 23rd.

I just wonder if there were other cities that had a two-week lag like we did.
 
Funny you gave me that attribution, which should have been Mallory's. I, too, was in line for the first showing of TMP, although in my case in Rochester, MN. And it wasn't delayed for us, Procutus.

We would have stayed for the second show to see it again but that was sold out, too.
 
Des Moines, Iowa at the River Hills Cinerama with the 90-foot curved screen and full Dolby Stereo (which was still pretty new at the time).

December 7, 1979...3 days after my birthday. 7th in line, freezing my ass off for hours.

Yeah, I was there. :techman:
 
Mallory, do you recall if TMP opened on the 7th of December or the 21st where you were at?
I'm pretty sure it opened on the 7th where I was. The 21st was my parent's anniversary and I surely would have been somewhere else opening night if it had opened then.
 
This era was good for me. Not because I was born yet(I wasn't), but because it saw the creation of StarFleet Battles, which creating the art for is my job currently. :techman:
 
Mallory, do you recall if TMP opened on the 7th of December or the 21st where you were at?
I'm pretty sure it opened on the 7th where I was. The 21st was my parent's anniversary and I surely would have been somewhere else opening night if it had opened then.

I guess it was just Cleveland that was forced to wait two weeks. Of course, I had already read GR's novelization (ghosted by ADF) a month before.


:lol:
 
I saw TMP on my birthday, December 14, 1979 at the Cinema in Shelby, North Carolina. I was a broke college freshman so I couldn't afford to go. One of my dorm mates was the projectionist at the only cinema near college. He was talking about the movie and I told him how lucky he was and I wish I could go. We soon realized we were the only Trekkers we knew at school and became friends. He brought me to work with him & I got in to see it. Had to stay through both showings (not that I minded!) until his shift was over. Then I saw it again the next Saturday (along with several other movies)!
 
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