Why is the original series has bin canceled?
- Thread starter Xenoween
- Start date
The easiest way to sum it up is this:
It was simply ahead of its time. It gained in huge popularity after it was cancelled.
Fans fought tooth and nail just to get it to the 3rd season but by that time the "Network" wanted to kill it off due to ratings and expense.
I think it was due to being placed on Friday nights back in the day which was suicide back in the sixties as people liked to go out on that night and only real fans stayed in to watch! The series was virtually cancelled at the end of season two but a letter writing campaign saved the show for a third year! The campaign failed to arrest a cancellation the following year and a fourth season was not commisioned!
JB
JB
Most cable shows today would kill for the audience share Star Trek was getting in it's third season.
Well, having all of three options helped.
I read somewhere that if they'd accounted for certain demographics in the ratings system used back then, it might have stayed on the air. TNG, for example, was the #1 show on television for the male 18-49 demographic during its original run.
They were aware of the demographics even then. They knew it was popular with the target audience they were aiming for. But I think the demographic they were aiming for then might not have carried the same weight it does today.
The ratings can certainly be cited as a contributing factor to NBC eventually cutting the show loose. But it's interesting that when the show went into syndication after its cancellation it started to catch on with an ever growing audience. This might be partially attributed to stations airing the show in time slots they thought were more advantageous and better suited to the show.
When the series was in production NBC dictated when it would air. Afterward in syndication individual stations decided when they would air the show. Back in the early '70s I recall TOS being available in the afternoons, the evenings and late nights. On weekends it could be seen Saturday and Sunday mornings and afternoons (from different stations). The show was everywhere (in the Greater Toronto Area) and I can imagine it was similar in many parts of the U.S. That being the case it made the show pretty accessible.
The ratings can certainly be cited as a contributing factor to NBC eventually cutting the show loose. But it's interesting that when the show went into syndication after its cancellation it started to catch on with an ever growing audience. This might be partially attributed to stations airing the show in time slots they thought were more advantageous and better suited to the show.
When the series was in production NBC dictated when it would air. Afterward in syndication individual stations decided when they would air the show. Back in the early '70s I recall TOS being available in the afternoons, the evenings and late nights. On weekends it could be seen Saturday and Sunday mornings and afternoons (from different stations). The show was everywhere (in the Greater Toronto Area) and I can imagine it was similar in many parts of the U.S. That being the case it made the show pretty accessible.
When I was a kid a local station ran Trek at 3:30 pm weekdays, so I could watch it right after school. If it'd been on in the evenings I'd have been competing with my parents to try to watch it when they wanted to watch something else. I think a lot of the show's audience growth was exactly because it got moved non prime-time timeslots where it could be easily discovered and watched 5 days a week.
Well, there's also that it had mediocre ratings that were drifting ever-downward, and that it could command advertising rates that weren't any better than average for NBC, and this for a show that was quite expensive.
Thanks guys
you know my mother was a fun and she tolled me how much she got angry and sad because of canceling it
i felt so bad about it
but thankfully the show got much better in TNG and the other tow after it
it's good that it came back to life again
it well always remain alive
even when I watch the original i laugh at the way the imagine the future computer back then but i also appreciate it and i also enjoy watching it
this is why it well always remain alive.
you know my mother was a fun and she tolled me how much she got angry and sad because of canceling it
i felt so bad about it
but thankfully the show got much better in TNG and the other tow after it
it's good that it came back to life again
it well always remain alive
even when I watch the original i laugh at the way the imagine the future computer back then but i also appreciate it and i also enjoy watching it
this is why it well always remain alive.
It's amazing how famous ST is and how long it has endured when you think about it. None of the series have been ratings successes and few of the TOS or TNG movies made much money in the theaters.
"TNG had the highest ratings of any Star Trek series and became the #1 syndicated show during the last years of its original seven-season run." (link)
It's tough to compare ratings for syndicated shows with network shows of the same period, but it's not really that "none" of the shows were ratings successes.
How long do you think TNG would have lasted on a major network? I'd guess 2, maybe 3, seasons. Being the highest rated syndicated show is like being the tallest midget.
To be fair, you didn't qualify it by writing, "None of the series have been ratings successes by big 3 network standards."
No one knows how ST:TNG would have done on a major network since no Trek show has been on one (UPN doesn't count) since the animated show. And a lot of a show's success depends on timeslot (Mork & Mindy tanked when ABC moved it) and how much a network promotes the show.
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