'Wagon Train to the Stars'? Really?
- Thread starter Michael
- Start date
cough *ahem* A long time ago I once rented a videotape of a '60s soft core skin flick. Among other things, there was a sequence showing a topless female rock band. Now that's what I call Bare Naked Ladies.
Robert
Some of my thoughts about the episodic nature of earlier TV series like from the '60s.
One thing that's hard to imagine these days is how there were no VCRs not to mention DVD players, etc back then. An episode was broadcast once and repeated once in the off season. And if a series had more than 26 eps a season, some eps were shown once and that was it. And you had to watch it at a time they chose so it was easy to miss episodes and your only hope is maybe it'll get picked up for syndication maybe years later.
So considering this it'd be pretty dicey trying to present long multi-episode story arcs. It'd be pretty annoying considering how easy it was to miss eps here and there. Also it would be hard to pick up new viewers after the story's already started. No one wants to start halfway through a story.
Hard to imagine these days but I remember how frustrating it was to miss an episode or be late tuning in. I used to curse shows that used the teaser fomrmat All it took was to be late a couple minutes and you missed the damn thing. Very often, I missed the Star Trek teaser and sometimes it was years later in syndication before I saw them for the first time.
We were slaves to that damn box with a glass front.
Robert
One thing that's hard to imagine these days is how there were no VCRs not to mention DVD players, etc back then. An episode was broadcast once and repeated once in the off season. And if a series had more than 26 eps a season, some eps were shown once and that was it. And you had to watch it at a time they chose so it was easy to miss episodes and your only hope is maybe it'll get picked up for syndication maybe years later.
So considering this it'd be pretty dicey trying to present long multi-episode story arcs. It'd be pretty annoying considering how easy it was to miss eps here and there. Also it would be hard to pick up new viewers after the story's already started. No one wants to start halfway through a story.
Hard to imagine these days but I remember how frustrating it was to miss an episode or be late tuning in. I used to curse shows that used the teaser fomrmat All it took was to be late a couple minutes and you missed the damn thing. Very often, I missed the Star Trek teaser and sometimes it was years later in syndication before I saw them for the first time.
We were slaves to that damn box with a glass front.
Robert
Excellent point, one I overlooked. It would be hard to follow a continuing serial without video recording. True, soap operas were able to pull off continuing narratives for years, but they were geared toward housewives who were home most of the time. Prime time shows would have to compete with family dinners, social events, sports, and other distractions.
Good point, Hofner.
And I thought the stem bolts were one of the funnier things that DS9 came up with.
And I thought the stem bolts were one of the funnier things that DS9 came up with.
Not hard to imagine at all, I actually miss those days, back when watching a show was special, something you waited for and planned on. If you were lucky like me, the family would gather at 8 to watch The Six Million Dollar Man, then Kojak. Then I got sent to bed. But there was something really nice about TV before there were DVDs, tapes, DVRs and 500 channels.
TV Guide was really good at the time with episode descriptions and even titles, so I would scan the week ahead to see if my favorite episode was on (that way I'd be sure not to miss it). I appreciated shows more when I didn't have them at my fingertips. Even now, there's no buzz of anticipation for many shows coming back for a new season. if I miss it, I can rent it from Netflix later on. I miss fun TV.
To ssosmcin
Yes. I wasn't necessarily trying to paint the bad old days as being horrible. I too have fond memories of the family gathering around the TV during prime time, especially Sunday nights with the Ed Sullivan show and Wild Kingdom. (Marlin Perkins: Jim Fowler will now try to capture the leopard while I sit here safely in the truck...) We got our first color TV in the summer of 1968 and I highly anticipated the premire of Star Trek's third season and what did we get? 'Spock's Brain" Oh well, lucky there was no such thing as an unwatchable Star Trek episode back then.
Robert
Yes. I wasn't necessarily trying to paint the bad old days as being horrible. I too have fond memories of the family gathering around the TV during prime time, especially Sunday nights with the Ed Sullivan show and Wild Kingdom. (Marlin Perkins: Jim Fowler will now try to capture the leopard while I sit here safely in the truck...) We got our first color TV in the summer of 1968 and I highly anticipated the premire of Star Trek's third season and what did we get? 'Spock's Brain" Oh well, lucky there was no such thing as an unwatchable Star Trek episode back then.
Robert
I remember the excitement of hearing that opening 5 second riff before a CBS "special." Sigh. It signaled something rare and good. Wizard of Oz. Charlie Brown. Now everything is available everywhere everywhen.
Once there was a way to get back homeward.
That seems to be mine as well. Most of my favorite shows feature a primary story that generally resolves itself by the end of the show, and a secondary story or two that evolve over the season. With the secondary story becoming primary in some episodes to examine it more closely, while being nearly absent in others.
Each episode is satisfying itself while still making you anxious to see the next one.
Mark
I'm still mad at Barenaked Ladies for raising false hopes...
When my nephew was really young he didn't understand the word 'barenaked' and kept pronouncing their name as "Barnacled Ladies".
Mark
To get back to the original intent of this post:
You're all misreading the sales line. What Rodenberry was pitching was an anthology series with a fixed set and recurring stars -- just like "Wagon Train." If you read his original proposal, he makes a great deal of amortization. That was necessary, if only to explain the staggering cost of the ship sets.
You're all misreading the sales line. What Rodenberry was pitching was an anthology series with a fixed set and recurring stars -- just like "Wagon Train." If you read his original proposal, he makes a great deal of amortization. That was necessary, if only to explain the staggering cost of the ship sets.
^Actually that's part of what we've been talking about all along. Nobody's misreading anything. You're just focusing on a different facet of it. Overall, the point was that he wasn't saying "a wagon train to the stars," but "a show like Wagon Train but in space."
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