Did TOS Premiere One Week Ahead On Canadian TV

[Aike]

In Inside Star Trek The Real Story, there is the following passage:

"To make matters worse, NBC subsequently advised us they´d placed the show on Canadian television. "One small detail," they added. "Canada will be televising the series one week before the States. We hope this doesn´t give you guys any delivery problems." (In a twist of fate, in order to meet the Canadian schedule, an almost wet-from-the-lab 16 mm print of each week´s episode was air-freighted to NBC in New York, hustled by messenger across town to ABC facilities on West 66th Street, and then fed into Canada via NBC competitor´s transmission lines -- an unsusual practice for those, or any other, times.)."

So did the series premiere on September first in Canada? Anyone knows?

 

[GSchnitzer]

In Inside Star Trek The Real Story, there is the following passage:

"To make matters worse, NBC subsequently advised us they´d placed the show on Canadian television. "One small detail," they added. "Canada will be televising the series one week before the States. We hope this doesn´t give you guys any delivery problems." (In a twist of fate, in order to meet the Canadian schedule, an almost wet-from-the-lab 16 mm print of each week´s episode was air-freighted to NBC in New York, hustled by messenger across town to ABC facilities on West 66th Street, and then fed into Canada via NBC competitor´s transmission lines -- an unsusual practice for those, or any other, times.)."

So did the series premiere on September first in Canada? Anyone knows?

Although Star Trek was produced by Desilu Studios and Norway Productions at the behest of the National Broadcast Company (NBC), NBC made much of their programming available to various business partners in other markets. Indeed, some of NBC’s programming was made available to CTV—the first private (non-governmental) television broadcast network in Canada.


In one of those overlooked footnotes in history, Star Trek--The Original Series (TOS) actually made its world premiere on Tuesday September 6, 1966. That evening, CTV aired the episode “The Man Trap” throughout Canada. Star Trek was actually a good fit for CTV for all the same reasons it was a good fit for NBC: CTV had just switched from black-and-white to color broadcasting just a few days earlier—starting September 1, 1966. So all the bright wacky colors of Star Trek would be a real draw to Canadian viewers--who I guess were limited to spending ten months of each year looking at white snow outside their windows--and all of their television time watching The Friendly Giant and Hockey Night in Canada.


Of course, two days later—on Thursday September 8, 1966 at 7:30 p.m., NBC aired “The Man Trap,” in the United States.

So it didn't actually air in Canada one week before its NBC premiere; it was only two days earlier. This one week story stems from the fact that NBC's "premiere week" in 1966 was actually the following week. A relatively last-minute decision was made to air a couple of shows one week before the official "premiere week" and Star Trek was one of those that was "premiered before the premiere." (It's likely that they aired it on September 8th instead of the planned September 15th exactly because it had to be readied sooner for Canada's airing.)

 

[Captain Robert April]

It's still irritating that "The Man Trap" got the nod for the series' premiere. Yeah, I know the reasons, mainly that it was the only episode that was ready for air and wouldn't confuse the first time viewers, but still...

 

[Aike]

Thanks, Greg. Great answer. Where can I read more about it? (Maybe there is more in Inside Trek?)

 

[Timewalker]

Star Trek was actually a good fit for CTV for all the same reasons it was a good fit for NBC: CTV had just switched from black-and-white to color broadcasting just a few days earlier—starting September 1, 1966. So all the bright wacky colors of Star Trek would be a real draw to Canadian viewers--who I guess were limited to spending ten months of each year looking at white snow outside their windows--and all of their television time watching The Friendly Giant and Hockey Night in Canada.

*snort* I remember Canadian TV in 1966, and even though we didn't get CTV where I lived, there was still a hell of a lot more to watch than just The Friendly Giant and Hockey Night in Canada. Mind you, we can still watch those programs 45 years later, as they've never been off the air here!

And no, we don't have snow 10 months of the year - more like 6-7 months (in Central Alberta). Although back in the '60s, we had real winters. What we get nowadays isn't really much to write home about at all.

 

[KirksStuntMan]

It's still irritating that "The Man Trap" got the nod for the series' premiere. Yeah, I know the reasons, mainly that it was the only episode that was ready for air and wouldn't confuse the first time viewers, but still...

After airing "The Man Trap", it's a miracle that NBC didn't pull the plug on ST after only 1 episode. I only watch "The Man Trap" when I have insomnia and...*poof*...it puts me to sleep fast, fast, fast.

 

[plynch]

1. I actually like the eerier, slower (realer) pace of dialog in the early shows. To each his own.

2. GRR! So I have been celebrating two days to late.

I just told my son that the switchboards lit up at NBC due to Shatner's grammar error in the spoken intro. Is THAT incorrect, too? Better not be!

 

[Captain Robert April]

Are you referring to his pronunciation of the word "civilizations"? He said it one way in the first season, with a short i, and with the long i for the second and third seasons. Either way seems acceptable.

 

[CoveTom]

Could also be the famous "split infinitive" issue of "to boldy go" instead of "to go boldy." However, most objections to using a split infinitive have been dropped in modern English guides.

 

[erastus25]

Could also be the famous "split infinitive" issue of "to boldy go" instead of "to go boldy." However, most objections to using a split infinitive have been dropped in modern English guides.

Rowan Atkinson makes a joke about that in The Thin Blue Line. Love that show...

 

[Christopher]

Could also be the famous "split infinitive" issue of "to boldy go" instead of "to go boldy." However, most objections to using a split infinitive have been dropped in modern English guides.

In fact, there's no such thing as a split infinitive. The idea that the infinitive in English is two words is a myth invented by proscriptive linguists in the 18th or 19th century who were trying to force Latin grammatical rules onto English, thereby creating absurd and arbitrary rules that didn't reflect how the English language actually worked. Other such illegitimate rules included banning prepositions at the end of sentences and using "they" as a singular pronoun, both of which have precedents stretching back through Shakespeare, the King James Bible, Chaucer, etc.

The fact is, the infinitive in English is only one word, with "to" being a helper word, not actually a part of the infinitive. So the infinitive isn't "to go," it's just "go." The only way to split it with "boldly" would be "to gboldlyo."

 

[RAMA]

Wow 16mm? That's the same reel that they sent out to stations they couldn't send the 35mm feed to. Couldn't have been a great picture, but I guess with tvs of the time it didn't matter much.

RAMA

 

[plynch]

Yes, I was referring to the split infinitive without expressly referring to it, to see what was known out there. Regardless of the propriety of the rule, I learned long ago that Kirk's use of it "lit up the switchboards at NBC." THAT's what I was wondering about, not whether the rule is dumb. Anyone else know of the switchboard thing? I'll google it, I guess.

BTW, Another 60s pop culture/grammar thing I learned (and I hope it too is accurate) is that some people had a cow about the grammatically incorrect cigarette jingle, "Winston tastes good like a [clack clack] cigarette should." Any knowledge out there on this one, too?

 

[Christopher]

BTW, Another 60s pop culture/grammar thing I learned (and I hope it too is accurate) is that some people had a cow about the grammatically incorrect cigarette jingle, "Winston tastes good like a [clack clack] cigarette should." Any knowledge out there on this one, too?

Hmm, I guess the grammar issue is that it should strictly be "as" rather than "like." But I don't know if there were complaints about it (and there are far worse things about shilling cigarettes than getting your grammar wrong).

And using "like" for "as" is nothing compared to some modern abuses of grammar in advertising. Like Syfy's "Imagine Greater," which doesn't make any sense.

 

[plynch]

Nevertheless, it was a different era, people took grammar more seriously (like many things), and I'm pretty sure people freaked out about it. And yes, it was the use of "like," rather than "as."

A la Syfy's message, the dear, departed Mr. Jobs' fruit company used the slogan, "Think Different."

Be well, and thanks for playing.

(Hey, what about my actual question about NBC's switchboard being clogged due to the split infinitive? No one else heard of it?)