What is it about TOS that makes it look so distinctly 1960s?

[Temis the Vorta]

Has anyone pointed out yet that at the time TOS debuted, color TV was in its infancy and TV shows were popping up in outrageous day-glo colors in order to help justify the new medium?

Even at the time, I'm sure people realized it looked pretty absurd. They didn't walk around in a day-glo world in the 60s.

 

[Chrisisall]

Has anyone pointed out yet that at the time TOS debuted, color TV was in its infancy and TV shows were popping up in outrageous day-glo colors in order to help justify the new medium?

Yeah, I did.

 

[Christopher]

According to Inside Star Trek, color TV was the reason ST stayed on the air as long as it did. Its ratings were too weak to justify the renewal of such a costly show by themselves, but it was the top reason why people were buying color TV sets, and the patent for color TV was owned by RCA, the parent company of NBC. So the money NBC was losing by broadcasting ST was offset by the money RCA was making because of people buying color TV sets to watch ST. And that, so say Solow and Justman, was the real reason it got a third season -- not the massive letter-writing campaign that's usually given credit and which was largely an urban legend manufactured by Roddenberry. (It happened, but was nowhere near as large as he claimed and was organized by Roddenberry himself rather than being spontaneous on the fans' part.)

I imagine ST being in color from the start helped its ultimate popularity. It was in syndicated reruns that it really built its audience, and shows like Lost in Space, Bewitched, and Gilligan's Island that started out in black & white before switching to color often had the B&W episode skipped over in reruns. (At least they did by the '80s; not sure if that was so in the '70s, since I didn't have a color TV in that decade.) So if ST's first season, say, had been in monochrome, it might not have been shown as often and there would've been less ST to follow in reruns.

Although it would've been cool if we'd gotten a season of ST in black & white. Talk about your distinct period looks -- there's something about the black & white cinematography of '60s TV that gives it a distinctive character. The monochrome first season of Lost in Space just looks so much classier than the garishly colored campfests that were its latter two seasons.

 

[Lord Garth]

So if ST's first season, say, had been in monochrome, it might not have been shown as often and there would've been less ST to follow in reruns.

That's why I'm glad Star Trek began when it did.

If the series premiered in 1964 with its pilot produced in 1963, it would've started out B&W for sure and ended before color TVs became more popular.

 

[Chrisisall]

Although it would've been cool if we'd gotten a season of ST in black & white. Talk about your distinct period looks -- there's something about the black & white cinematography of '60s TV that gives it a distinctive character. The monochrome first season of Lost in Space just looks so much classier than the garishly colored campfests that were its latter two seasons.

I actually liked Wild Wild West better in B&W also, but that may have been due to the seriousness, like Lost In Space's first season. Trek was one of the few 60's SF series to be serious AND in colour.

DANGER, DANGER, MY CLAWS ARE RED!!!

 

[Hober Mallow]

And the author of the article really nails it about William Shatner's facial acting ability, and how he was the "antithesis" of the 1960s television hero. One of the reasons I disliked Enterprise, even though I so very much wanted to like it, was Scott Bacula's bland, wooden acting. It seems now that Bacula was portraying the starship captain as we would expect. Sort of like Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Pike.

I never thought of Hunter as wooden, but I don't think his character worked. He's a guy who doesn't want to be in his position, at least in the pilot. Certainly in the 60s you didn't want a swashbuckling hero who'd rather be living a quiet life on Earth. Can anyone imagine Captain Kirk wanting to quit starfleet and give up everything he had? Of course not. It wasn't until DS9 and the 1990s that, IMO, they made that character work.

 

[scotpens]

Even at the time, I'm sure people realized it looked pretty absurd. They didn't walk around in a day-glo world in the 60s.

Some of us did.

 

[Tribble]

This article goes a long way toward explaining the unique and distinctive look of Trek TOS, and why it's so firmly rooted in the 1960s:

Minimalist Magic: The Star Trek Look

That's a great article! It nails lots of what I like about TOS. The reference to Minimalist theatre was very interesting! For me the parts about sparking the audience's imagination, and about improvising and the resulting energy ring especially true.

 

[Christopher]

I never thought of Hunter as wooden, but I don't think his character worked. He's a guy who doesn't want to be in his position, at least in the pilot. Certainly in the 60s you didn't want a swashbuckling hero who'd rather be living a quiet life on Earth. Can anyone imagine Captain Kirk wanting to quit starfleet and give up everything he had? Of course not.

Don't you remember Kirk in "The Naked Time" yearning for "a beach to walk on," an escape from the burdens and loneliness of command? At the start, Kirk was essentially the same character as Pike, just as McCoy was the same character as Boyce (who was even called "Bones" in the original premise). Roddenberry just changed the names when he changed the actors, perhaps because he anticipated that he might get to reuse the pilot as "historical footage" at some point. It was only as the show went on and the characters were developed by their performers and writers that they became distinct from their forerunners.

And the point of Pike's arc in "The Cage" was to show him starting out tired of the burdens of command and wanting an escape, but coming to learn he was better off where he was. I really don't think he'd have been like that throughout the series, if he'd continued.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Don't you remember Kirk in "The Naked Time" yearning for "a beach to walk on," an escape from the burdens and loneliness of command?

Yes, but I still can't see Kirk ever seriously considering leaving Starfleet. He knows the drawbacks to the life he chose, but he also knows, as Boyce said in "The Cage," that there is no other life for him. That's my take anyway.

I see Pike as similar to Sisko, a guy who really does want to escape the life he chose.

Let me put it another way: the difference between Kirk wanting another life and Pike wanting another life is, to me, the difference between a Greek tragedy and an English/Shakespearean tragedy.

In the Greek tragedy, you have a character meet a fate that is always destined to happen, and nothing anyone does can change it. So when the inevitable tragedy occurs, the attitude of the audience is, "It's too bad it had to happen that way."

The Christian/English/Shakespeare tragedy, colored by Christianity, says we make our fate, that if we follow the Christian teachings, we will be rewarded, but if we don't we will be pubished. So when something tragic happens in the English tragedy, the attitude of the audience is, "It's too bad that happened, because it didn't have to happen that way." The tragedy is that the character's own choices led to his undoing.

I see Kirk wanting another life as the Greek tragic figure ; he may lament what he doesn't have, yet this was his destined path, no question. Pike is more the Christian tragic figure; his choice may have been wrong, that he should have simply made another choice, and that perhaps he still can.

 

[Christopher]

Well, I'm sure that if Pike had continued on, he would've been written pretty much the same as Kirk, at least initially. Since "The Cage" was the only Pike story we ever saw (up until last year), Pike's yearning for another life in that episode looms as a defining trait of his character. If we'd seen him in 70-odd episodes depicting various facets of the man, we'd probably just see it as a temporary phase, like, say, Kirk's Ahab turn in "Obsession."

For what it's worth, I never took Pike's yearnings in "The Cage" as indications that he really wanted to leave Starfleet. He'd just come off a disastrous mission that had killed three of his crew, including his own yeoman. He was weary and depressed, and so he fantasized about leaving it all behind. I mean, the whole point of the story was that they were fantasies, daydreams that the Talosians brought to life as temptation. But the temptation failed. So I don't think it was more than just a phase, a reaction to the recent loss and trauma on Rigel VII.

 

[Chrisisall]

I see Kirk wanting another life as the Greek tragic figure ; he may lament what he doesn't have, yet this was his destined path, no question. Pike is more the Christian tragic figure; his choice may have been wrong, that he should have simply made another choice, and that perhaps he still can.

Nice.

 

[plynch]

I never thought of Hunter as wooden, but I don't think his character worked. He's a guy who doesn't want to be in his position, at least in the pilot.

Yeah, but that's the set up for his reveries/memories in the cage. He's fatigued and having a bit of existential angst. We see him literally swashbuckling on Rigel. I am sure Hunter/Pike woulda been fine. No way 1965 was going to see a pensive, angsty hero on network toob.

EDIT: Oops, sorry Christopher, I posted before reading all posts including yours above. You said about the same thing. No plagiarising intended!

NOW something original, I hope. In answer to the OP: slenderness of objects, especially supports (of bridge railings, chairs, etc). Space age materials in real life were allowing slenderness, and you see it in Star Trek a lot.

 

[maryh]

Looks like nobody has mentioned the look of the computers in TOS. When I saw them in "Menagerie" and one they beamed down to the planet in "Miri", and in "Return of the Archons" they are SO 60's looking. They are all main frame boxes with blinking lights, light gray colored. Exactly from the 60's. The crew don't seem to interact with them visually through a terminal either. Most of the interaction is audio, spoken, or paper printouts. I see this as a very 60's idea of what computers would be like in the future.

 

[jtkirk]

Every show from the 60's has that distinct look to it. It's probably one of the few eras when you can turn on the tv set & whether it be a tv series or film, immediately say "it's from the 60's" without a second thought.

 

[Christopher]

^No, I think the same goes for any decade.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Every show from the 60's has that distinct look to it. It's probably one of the few eras when you can turn on the tv set & whether it be a tv series or film, immediately say "it's from the 60's" without a second thought.

The 70s are pretty distinct, too. Jerry Seinfeld had a joke about how the shows in the 70s were all yellow for some reason.

 

[Kain]

I would say the use of lighting. If you look closely, in TNG and later series the light seems to come from everywere. In TOS, you can tell where the lamps are. It would seem that TOS have fewer lamps than the later series, and less distributed.

 

[plynch]

Every show from the 60's has that distinct look to it. It's probably one of the few eras when you can turn on the tv set & whether it be a tv series or film, immediately say "it's from the 60's" without a second thought.

The 70s are pretty distinct, too. Jerry Seinfeld had a joke about how the shows in the 70s were all yellow for some reason.

70s -- I am picturing the look of comedies "taped" in front of a live audience, like the Norman Lear shows. Wait, wait, there it is in my head, the Sanford and Son theme, a Bud Yorkin show if i recall. Thanks for the memory.

 

[CaptainStoner]

There was a good thread on this a few weeks ago, an article linked in there was one of the best reads I've seen on the art style of TOS. I've dug around but can't find the thread -- useless post is useless --