At a guess maybe it was a Canada print from the time?
Was the episode "Where no man has gone before" produced before "Charlie X" despite being aired after
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I'd put a "shrug" emoji here if we had one.
Canada being as much a part of English-speaking North America as it is of the Commonwealth of Nations, I have no idea whether Canadian usage of the word "corn" follows U.S. usage or British usage. And replacing "corn whiskey" with "gin" would only be necessary to accommodate places where the phrase "corn whiskey" is either completely unknown, or a tautology, or both.
I had no idea about the corn thing. 
Replacing "corn whiskey" with gin is a bit of a headscratcher as the two things are very different AFAICT. IMO, replacing "corn whiskey" with bourbon would have made far more sense as while they're not exactly the same thing, but they're at least broadly similar.
Except that the exchange was (in the original US version) something to the general effect of
So the point of the substitution wasn't gin being even roughly equivalent to corn whiskey (which it rather obviously isn't), but that it's (1) not scotch, which we already know they don't have, (2) not bourbon, which we already know they do have, and (3) plausible for a bar in 19th century Tombstone to actually stock (which rules out vodka, schnapps, aquavit, cognac, &c.)
Actually I remember watching Get Smart's first episode "Mr. Big" back in 1965, the first of all. And Wikipedia says "Mr. Big" aired first, on September 18, 1965. The IMDB also says that "Mr. Big" was aired in 1965, and on September 18.
I think that you are incorrect saying that nobody ever saw "Mr. Big" until the Get Smart DVD set.
When Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea came on in 1964, I wondered what a space series by Irwin Allen would be like, and I pictured something like Voyage to the Top of the Sky. And "Where No Man Has Gone Before" seemed a lot like an imaged episode of Voyage to the Top of the Sky.
I did notice and wonder about some differences between it and other episodes.
And then in 1965 you found out what a space show from Irwin Allen would be like...
And a year after that probably wondered what the hell was happening to it.
Fair enough, I can't speak for all kids. I let those things go when I was younger - and later I had absorbed enough about TV production to get it. It used to be fun to play "spot the pilot episode" before the internet.
Jumping in late:
Speaking of FX, there is a story in Herb Solow's book (so I'm automatically suspicious but it might be true) that the FX were so late that even the title sequence was cut together at the last minute with what they had. I don't know if the plan would have been to have shots filmed specifically for the titles? And how this squares with the music being recorded I don't know. But it's a fun story.
Anyway f you look at the season 1 titles it's all shots from The Cage and Where No Man Has Gone Before EXCEPT for the one shot from The Man Trap of the Enterprise orbiting the planet.
Funny thing is that for season two and three the titles are 100% shots from the two pilots. They got rid of The Man Trap and replaced it with a shot from Where No Man Has Gone Before.
I wonder how old I was before I realized that WNMHGB was different? Younger than I was when I realized that there were a few different versions of the Enterprise in TOS to be sure. (Probably when I read Strangers from the Sky.)
Speaking of FX, there is a story in Herb Solow's book (so I'm automatically suspicious but it might be true) that the FX were so late that even the title sequence was cut together at the last minute with what they had. I don't know if the plan would have been to have shots filmed specifically for the titles? And how this squares with the music being recorded I don't know. But it's a fun story.
Anyway f you look at the season 1 titles it's all shots from The Cage and Where No Man Has Gone Before EXCEPT for the one shot from The Man Trap of the Enterprise orbiting the planet.
Funny thing is that for season two and three the titles are 100% shots from the two pilots. They got rid of The Man Trap and replaced it with a shot from Where No Man Has Gone Before.
I wonder how old I was before I realized that WNMHGB was different? Younger than I was when I realized that there were a few different versions of the Enterprise in TOS to be sure. (Probably when I read Strangers from the Sky.)
I remember as a kids we noticed the difference. My buddies and I hypothesized it must have been the first mission we see with Kirk, since it looked like Pike's era from "The Menagerie". I'd say that was probably around second grade or so, because we would have had to have seen the show enough times in reruns to make the connection.
With regard to noting the different versions of the Enterprise model, that one is a bit harder to pin down (probably because i cared more about that kind of thing than my friends, so there was never a discussion). Even then, the only actual difference I remember was vents vs globes on the back of the warp engines, stuff like the taller bridge, larger sensor dish, etc., went completely unnoticed. I recall mostly being kind of confused at the vents/globes difference, which was probably reinforced by the AMT model my dad built for me in first grade having the vents, so in my brain that should have been the definitive version. I assume when I got the Blueprints in 1975 is when I decided that the globes were what it was supposed to look like and the vents must have been stock footage of an earlier version.
A few years back, I downloaded the pilot of Constantine, and when it came out on TV, they had diverted away from it completely, rewrote the ending, wrote off someone that was supposed to be a regular, literally reversed a plot point in the process, and I think changed another actor as well.
Canada does have regional dialects but, as an Albertan, the only time I've ever heard anyone be confused over what "corn" might mean is when we're studying American history and wondering why the Empire was taxing it. (Corn, that is, not American history.) Oh, and city people sometimes use "Taber corn" as a synonym for "normal" (ie, sweet) corn, not realising that Taber is an actual place and "Taber corn" is corn from Taber, which has a reputation for being the best corn.
Back to the core topic - I have a memory of reading a memo discussing when they should slot in WNMHGB to buy some breathing room in the production schedule, not if. If my memory is correct, this implies that the plan to air that pilot occurred very early in production, if not right from the beginning. Unfortunately, I can't find most of my reference books and it's not in Making of Star Trek, so this all hinges on my increasingly fallible memory.
Hmm. The only completely unaired pilot I can recall seeing, for a series that sold, and lasted, would be the one for Get Smart.
I'd always thought "Our Man in Toyland" was the pilot: it had such generous helpings of both early-installment weirdness and broad coverage. But no, the pilot was a less-than-full-length black-and-white episode called "Mr. Big." It starred Michael Dunn as a KAOS leader known only as "Mr. Big," and Vito Scotti as Professor Dante, inventor of a heat weapon called "Enthermo." Like most GS fans, I never saw it until it came out on the DVD set.
I've seen lots of spin-off pilots, and movie-of-the-week pilots. Of course, I suppose the very nature of unaired pilots means that most people have never seen them.
I'd always thought "Our Man in Toyland" was the pilot: it had such generous helpings of both early-installment weirdness and broad coverage. But no, the pilot was a less-than-full-length black-and-white episode called "Mr. Big." It starred Michael Dunn as a KAOS leader known only as "Mr. Big," and Vito Scotti as Professor Dante, inventor of a heat weapon called "Enthermo." Like most GS fans, I never saw it until it came out on the DVD set.
I've seen lots of spin-off pilots, and movie-of-the-week pilots. Of course, I suppose the very nature of unaired pilots means that most people have never seen them.
Do really wish "Where No Man Has Gone Before" aired first, don't dislike "The Man Trap" (and like a lot "Charlie X") but unfortunate that such an obviously early-set episode, and I think really good, better than "TMT" introduction, did air real early but not just air first.
WNMHGB is one of my favorite Star Trek things of all time. But I don't know that it's a better into to The Series than The Man Trap. The Man Trap is fairly run of the mill, sure. But it gets you all of the characters (Uhura even has several good scenes) and it gives you Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. I enjoy WNMHGB more but it doesn't do those things.
I'm not sure what episodes were really available to them in September. (I'm sure I knew and forgot, and I'm sure that others have not forgotten.) Of the three that I think were possible (Charlie, Where No Man, and The Man Trap) then I think they actually went with the best choice.
You can compare The Man Trap with The Devil in the Dark in terms of Star Trek philosophy and conclude that Devil is closer to "true" Star Trek, but Nancy was trying a lot harder to kill them. The Horta didn't need them to die, she needed them to leave. Nancy needed to eat them.
Obviously the best "Series Pilot" would have been The Corbomite Maneuver. But that was never going to happen.
Heck, Errand of Mercy might have made a damn good series opening.
I'm not sure what episodes were really available to them in September. (I'm sure I knew and forgot, and I'm sure that others have not forgotten.) Of the three that I think were possible (Charlie, Where No Man, and The Man Trap) then I think they actually went with the best choice.
You can compare The Man Trap with The Devil in the Dark in terms of Star Trek philosophy and conclude that Devil is closer to "true" Star Trek, but Nancy was trying a lot harder to kill them. The Horta didn't need them to die, she needed them to leave. Nancy needed to eat them.
Obviously the best "Series Pilot" would have been The Corbomite Maneuver. But that was never going to happen.
Heck, Errand of Mercy might have made a damn good series opening.
You might say it cleared the way for McCoy and Uhura to start just afterward. They didn't exist yet, but crew replacements were needed. And it's a critical beginning for the Kirk-Spock combo as well.
THE MAN TRAP does give you Kirk, Spock and McCoy, though that's rather like praising TIME magazine for having a red border. In fairness, it has the single most upsetting Kirk-scream-sequence of all.....plus early-shouting-Spock at his loudest ever. Not all the standars characteristics were firmly in place yet.
I like shouty-Spock. Yes, it goes against his line about Bailey raising his voice in Corbomite. Or maybe not. It was unnecessary for Bailey to raise his voice because it wasn't the time.
I always liked the formality that Nimoy brought to it when he shouted commands or status. As far as Spock was concerned, if this is the way it is done then this is the way he shall do it. Kind of like in Wrath of Khan when he says in otherwise clipped and perfect diction: "Take 'er out, Mr. Saavik." He made dropping the H into part of the process.
I always liked the formality that Nimoy brought to it when he shouted commands or status. As far as Spock was concerned, if this is the way it is done then this is the way he shall do it. Kind of like in Wrath of Khan when he says in otherwise clipped and perfect diction: "Take 'er out, Mr. Saavik." He made dropping the H into part of the process.
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