Where Did "The Original Series" Retronym Come From?

[LMFAOschwarz]

I just find it confusing sometimes when someone starts out with "Rented BTTF last night, then I read a few issues of OHOTMU. Then watched some Star Trek, LTBYLB was on."

It took me a while to figure out that middle one, and I was determined to decipher it without looking it up. The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe?

It's interesting that you mention that one, Christopher. That was the very acronym that made me realize the problem, when I first encountered it. I used to work in the industry, and yet I had to think about it for a minute to realize what they were talking about.

Come to think of it, I should have added above "Then watched some TOS", just to add more noodles to the recipe for online alphabet soup.

 

[Robert Comsol]

That's what's often missing in online conversations. I just find it confusing sometimes when someone starts out with "Rented BTTF last night, then I read a few issues of OHOTMU. Then watched some TOS, LTBYLB was on."

The problem is, of course, that often people won't ask for a translation ("Am I supposed to know this acronym, do I look out of touch should I ask?) and just miss what the conversation is about.

The acronym user should be mindful whether he or she wants to restrict the conversation to insiders at the expense of (confused) outsiders.

The German band "The Fantastic Four" actually managed to compose a song almost entirely consisting of acronyms, revealing the depth of the acronym hysteria.

Bob

 

[Marsden]

I was refering to 70s sitcoms like Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley, they were not serialized. Niether was Gilligan's Island or Brady Bunch, or F Troop, Mayberry/Andy Griffith Show, or dozens of others I used to watch. Nobody really ever changed, and when something dramatic happened it was all better at the end, like Fonzie getting is eyesight back. I do not dispute your post, I just wonder what shows beside Beverly Hillbillies, which I don't remember being serialized, you are refering to.

Also, as a slightly different point, please don't try to tell me studios haven't made very many decisons because "it would confuse the audience", just don't.

And it isn't my parents that watched those shows, it was me, I watched them, and I am not looking down on anyone but the studio execs that think I am too stupid to know this is a repeat Happy Days Again when it's on at 4 in the afternoon 5 days a week and 11am on Saturday or a first run Happy Days when it's on at 8pm on Tuesdays.

Yes, I used to watch all seven episodes of Happy Days on each week, I remember the lyrics of the Happy Days theme refering to the days of the week and I thought that's why it was on every day, at the time.

 

[Harvey]

I Love Lucy became more and more serialized as it went along.

 

[Christopher]

Also, as a slightly different point, please don't try to tell me studios haven't made very many decisons because "it would confuse the audience", just don't.

I'm not saying they didn't. I'm just saying it's a mistake to assume that's the only reason why episodic storytelling was once preferred over serialization. Just because the latter is more fashionable now, that doesn't mean it's intrinsically, objectively better.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Really...who would confuse reruns on some independent channel with the first run episodes the audience were conditioned to its network position?

You could very well be right. However, bear in mind this little tale from those days: Back in early December, 1977, we were treated to a rare (in my area) display of the northern lights. It was an awesome sight. The next day, I asked a friend on the school bus (who lived near me, and had a better exposure to the norther sky than I) "Did you see the aurora borealis last night?", to which she replied "No, what channel was it on?"

Even worse now in the era of text message and tweet inspired acronyms, which some people just assume everyone knows. I wrote for magazines way back when and what you describe is how we did it. You didn't just write "SCSI", you wrote "Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI)" to make sure everyone understood what the acronym was. For instance, I could say "I attended a PGA event last week" but would most people know I meant "Producers Guild of America" instead of "Professional Golfers Association" unless I prefaced it?

Excellent observation about the tweet-inspired abbreviations, Maurice. Both sad and true, in equal proportions.
And your point made itself: when I saw the 'PGA' as I read, the first thing that came to mind was golf!

The acronym user should be mindful whether he or she wants to restrict the conversation to insiders at the expense of (confused) outsiders.

Clarity is so important. On occasion, I can't even tell who someone is responding to. We are readers, not mind readers!

The German band "The Fantastic Four" actually managed to compose a song almost entirely consisting of acronyms, revealing the depth of the acronym hysteria.

That's one I'm going to have to look up!

I do not dispute your post, I just wonder what shows beside Beverly Hillbillies, which I don't remember being serialized, you are refering to.

A couple I remember were on Green Acres. In one episode, Oliver was so frustrated with the Hooterville phone service, he complained so much about it, the owner of the phone company ended up giving it to Oliver. That ended up being a three-episode, separate-but-connected storyline. Another was when he opened a law office in town, and took on a young law school graduate as a partner. I think that lasted four episodes.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I just find it confusing sometimes when someone starts out with "Rented BTTF last night, then I read a few issues of OHOTMU. Then watched some Star Trek, LTBYLB was on."

It took me a while to figure out that middle one, and I was determined to decipher it without looking it up. The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe?

It's interesting that you mention that one, Christopher. That was the very acronym that made me realize the problem, when I first encountered it. I used to work in the industry, and yet I had to think about it for a minute to realize what they were talking about.

Come to think of it, I should have added above "Then watched some TOS", just to add more noodles to the recipe for online alphabet soup.

OHOTMU sounds like a Kirby monster from the 50s. Ohotmu, the guide book that walked like a man!!

 

[Marsden]

OHOTMU sounds like a Kirby monster from the 50s. Ohotmu, the guide book that walked like a man!!

That's great! I loved that.

It's the Dread Dormamu's brother-in-law, OHOTMU!

 

[ZapBrannigan]

There is another reason that so most vintage shows were strictly episodic, with nothing changed at the end of each story. It had to do with the technology of the period.

During production, it was hoped that any given show would eventually go into syndication if it had enough episodes. For a long time, syndication was done by sending actual reels of film to stations around the country, which would broadcast them and send them back.

Most markets would not get the episodes in production order, so the shows had to be viewable in any order. This fact is like the "confusion" argument, except that viewing a serial in random order really is confusing to intelligent people.

Incidentally, I love The Beverly Hillbillies and they did a great job of extending funny plot ideas into little story arcs. But that was an exception to the rule.

 

[Robert Comsol]

The German band "The Fantastic Four" actually managed to compose a song almost entirely consisting of acronyms, revealing the depth of the acronym hysteria.

That's one I'm going to have to look up!

It's "MfG" (acronym for "Mit freundlichen Grüßen", i.e. Yours Sincerely), here is the official YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUV3KvnvT-w

Bob

 

[Christopher]

There is another reason that so most vintage shows were strictly episodic, with nothing changed at the end of each story. It had to do with the technology of the period.

During production, it was hoped that any given show would eventually go into syndication if it had enough episodes. For a long time, syndication was done by sending actual reels of film to stations around the country, which would broadcast them and send them back.

Most markets would not get the episodes in production order, so the shows had to be viewable in any order. This fact is like the "confusion" argument, except that viewing a serial in random order really is confusing to intelligent people.

There's more to it as well. Back then, reruns weren't as common in general, and there was no home video or Internet streaming. So once you saw an episode, you might never see it again; and if you missed it the first time (because home VCRs didn't exist yet), you might never see it at all. Thus, the focus had to be on the parts rather than the whole, on making every episode a complete and satisfying experience on its own, rather than just a fragment of something larger.

The shift to greater serialization, I think, is a consequence of the proliferation of stripped reruns and home video and streaming and episode-guide books and websites. All those things have made it easier to experience a TV series as a unified whole rather than a set of distinct parts, and so TV storytelling has shifted to become more about the whole.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

It's "MfG" (acronym for "Mit freundlichen Grüßen", i.e. Yours Sincerely), here is the official YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUV3KvnvT-w
Bob

Thanks a million, Mr. Comsol!

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

It's "MfG" (acronym for "Mit freundlichen Grüßen", i.e. Yours Sincerely), here is the official YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUV3KvnvT-w
Bob

Thanks a million, Mr. Comsol!

How bizarre. The band sounds sort of like...I don't know, like a cross between Kraftwerk and The Talking Heads!

Thanks again, Robert!

 

[Robert Comsol]

My pleasure, these were mostly German acronyms (strange though that they used a Mercedes star image for the "BMW" line). The main chorus is "We bite the the dust for hollow words". Would be fun to see an Anglosaxon band picking up the idea.

Bob

 

[SoM]

Your question is similar to one of mine, which is just when did the term 'World War I' kick in?

From Wiki (emphasis added):

Speculative fiction authors were noting the concept of a Second World War at least as early as 1919 and 1920, when Milo Hastings wrote his dystopian novel City of Endless Night. In English, the term "First World War" was used in the book The First World War: A Photographic History, edited by playwright and war veteran Laurence Stallings and published in 1933. The term "World War I" was invented by Time magazine in its issue of June 12, 1939. In that same issue, the term "World War II" was first used speculatively to describe the upcoming war. The first use for the actual war came in its issue of September 11, 1939; one week earlier, the Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad used the term on its front page, saying, "The second World War broke out yesterday at 11 a.m."

Ah, but...

The First World War was first named as such in 1918. Lt. Col. Charles à Court Repington wrote in his diary on 19th September 1918 that he met with a Major Johnstone of Harvard University to discuss what the war should be called. Rejected names included "The War" (would not last) and "The German War" (giving too much credit to the Germans). Then Repington suggested "The World War", and they mutually agreed to call it "The First World War", 'in order to prevent the millennium folk from forgetting that the history of the world is the history of war.' In 1920 Repington published a book called The First World War: 1914-18. It had also been known as "The Great War", but before that the other Great War was the Napoleonic War. (Forfeit: 1939; After the Second World War; During the Second World War)

http://youtu.be/WuoOSHipPsM?t=37m57s

 

[Gojira]

I do under stand the need to differentiate the original series from the rest of the franchise. I also don't have a problem calling it the original series when I am in conversation or writing about it in my blog. But I do feel sad that it has lost its pure and simple historical title of "Star Trek" because I grew up with the that name and now for all purposes it is gone.

 

[Christopher]

^Well, at least we're better off than Star Wars fans, because nobody's actually gone back and added the subtitle to the original title sequence itself. (Star Trek: A New Hope?) It's still officially titled just Star Trek, whatever clarifications we've added for convenience. (And so is the animated series.)

 

[BK613]

Well, I know that a Usenet group alt.tv.star-trek.tos has existed since the early 90s (perhaps earlier) and I recall that many of the short acronyms we use now (TNG, DS9, VOY) were used then as a consequence of the pre-broadband Internet.

 

[Gojira]

^Well, at least we're better off than Star Wars fans, because nobody's actually gone back and added the subtitle to the original title sequence itself. (Star Trek: A New Hope?) It's still officially titled just Star Trek, whatever clarifications we've added for convenience. (And so is the animated series.)

Those are good points!

 

[Marsden]

^Well, at least we're better off than Star Wars fans,...

'nuff said