"The Menagerie" - in 1966!

[Christopher]

Or that Happy Days was itself a spinoff, having originated as an episode of the comedy anthology series Love American Style.

Well, that's not entirely accurate. It originated as an independent pilot called New Family in Town, but when the pilot didn't sell to any of the networks, Garry Marshall sold it to L:AS producer Aaron Spelling, who turned it into a segment of his show. A lot of L:AS segments were cribbed from rejected pilot scripts, though this was a case where the pilot was actually shot before it ever became part of L:AS. So it's not really a spinoff of L:AS, it's a show whose rejected pilot happened to get shown on L:AS, and that then got its rejection reversed after American Graffiti and Grease were hits.

 

[WRStone]

I think that MIGHT be stretching a bit, but in some ways it DID change the SF game.

I don't think it's stretching anything. Star Trek was an SF game-changer, and it began with "The Cage." Even though the tone bears more resemblance to a Dragnet-style "police procedural" show than the somewhat lighter series, it introduced concepts and conventions used by all SF that followed.

And one more thing. Occasionally you see some of the fanboys/girls here who HATE the transporter for whatever reasons.

The transporter was a stroke of brilliance, and one of the things that (like the flip-phone) will probably turn out to be accurate. As we speak, cutting-edge laboratories have succeeded in not teleporting matter, but duplicating the energy state of particles at a distance.

I invite one to ponder the significance of duplicating bit-level data at a distance.

In my lifetime, I expect to see the Internet evolve into something where packets aren't routed, but duplicated remotely. I'm unclear that duplicating an entire human being in my lifetime will happen -- but the potential is there.

The really interesting thing is how many people of my generation -- the people who brought you the Internet, thank you -- were inspired by Star Trek. I'm an IT wonk myself, and I can assure you that my career has been inspired by the series. It's 30 years in length and going strong.

Dakota Smith

 

[RAMA]

Alas I wasn't even born yet, but I didn't find out the the Menagerie was based on the Pilot that never aired till I read "The Making of ST" in 1986. Which is not bad, because I wasn't an official "Trekkie" till about 1983(though I watched and enjoyed it and the animated show sporadically in the 70s). I saw the "Cage" Pilot in 1988 when it was aired as part of the "ST: From one Generation to the Next" special in full color. In some ways I was underwhelmed, since I had seen 90% of the footage in Menagerie.

RAMA

 

[Captain Robert April]

Or that Happy Days was itself a spinoff, having originated as an episode of the comedy anthology series Love American Style.

Well, that's not entirely accurate. It originated as an independent pilot called New Family in Town, but when the pilot didn't sell to any of the networks, Garry Marshall sold it to L:AS producer Aaron Spelling, who turned it into a segment of his show. A lot of L:AS segments were cribbed from rejected pilot scripts, though this was a case where the pilot was actually shot before it ever became part of L:AS. So it's not really a spinoff of L:AS, it's a show whose rejected pilot happened to get shown on L:AS, and that then got its rejection reversed after American Graffiti and Grease were hits.

AARON SPELLING WAS A FUCKING GENIUS!

 

[Maurice]

... So it's not really a spinoff of L:AS, it's a show whose rejected pilot happened to get shown on L:AS, and that then got its rejection reversed after American Graffiti and Grease were hits.

I presume you mean Grease the musical play and not the movie, which came out 4 years after Happy Days premiered.

 

[Christopher]

^I think you answered your own question there.

 

[Elder Knight]

I believe that the episode was shown at the World Science Fiction Convention in Cleveland in 1966. I was at teenager at that time, but knew some people who made thye trip.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The Cage was shown at the Worldcon; it hadn't yet been chopped into a two-parter.

 

[Captain Robert April]

Bjo talks extensively about that con in her book "On The Good Ship Enterprise" (she was working that con). The version Gene showed was still the black & white workprint, mainly brought along as an extra in case the folks liked "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (they did, so "The Cage" was shown shortly thereafter).

 

[scotpens]

Or that Happy Days was itself a spinoff, having originated as an episode of the comedy anthology series Love American Style.

Well, that's not entirely accurate. It originated as an independent pilot called New Family in Town, but when the pilot didn't sell to any of the networks, Garry Marshall sold it to L:AS producer Aaron Spelling, who turned it into a segment of his show.

“I did not know that!”

Thanks for the correction and additional info.

 

[plynch]

Someone was touting ambivalently the greatness of the Cage as filmed science fiction.

It is beautiful, humane, and intelligent. It's right up there with anything else I could name.

 

[A beaker full of death]

It's right up there with anything else I could name.

Grant?