KTLA's Star Trek marathon - 7-5-1982 (and other such experiences)

[Neopeius]

When I was 8 years old, living in El Centro, CA, KTLA (locally channel 5, but channel 6 in El Centro) showed 15 episodes of Star Trek starting at 7am and ending at 10pm.

The episodes shown (and I believe the correct order) was:

Errand of Mercy
I. Mudd
Catspaw
Patterns of Force
Who mourns for Adonais
Plato's Stepchildren
The Apple
Changeling
Tholian Web
Is there in truth no Beauty
Enterprise Incident
Spectre of the Gun
Mirror Mirror
This side of Paradise
Yesteryear

The episodes were cut for syndication, and the commercials got pretty repetitive -- I particularly remember Shasta and Toyota as ad buyers. When it was all done, Hal Fishman and the rest of the KTLA news team came on with News at 10, the biggest news being the lunar eclipse underway.

I remember that the marathon marked the end of regular Trek broadcasts on KTLA, and I thought of the lunar eclipse as mourning the end of an era.

We taped all 15 episodes onto four tapes (I remember missing the first 20 seconds of "Adonais" because I couldn't swap the tapes fast enough in our lone VCR). It was summer break, so my brother and I watched the whole thing, but my dad was at work for most of it.

For the next four years, until KCOP Channel 12 started showing Trek again (edited for syndication), those 15 eps were all of Trek I had my hands on, and I watched those episodes to death.

Anyone else have memories of that marathon, or of marathons from that era?

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

When I was 8 years old, living in El Centro, CA, KTLA (locally channel 5, but channel 6 in El Centro) showed 15 episodes of Star Trek starting at 7am and ending at 10pm.

Ahh, KTLA (Ch. 5 in Los Angeles, where I lived) was the home for Star Trek for the latter half of the 70s until around 1982. In the early 70s, it was on KCOP (Ch. 13).

The episodes were cut for syndication

..and then some. With older relatives who were there to see TOS on NBC, they remembered some missing scenes, and pointed out the occasionally bad editing jobs inflicted on syndicated TOS.

Paramount never officially edited "The Menagerie" into a "movie" (in the way Fox did with episodes of The Time Tunnel or the Planet of the Apes TV series), but it did not stop KTLA from running "The Menagerie" as a well-advertised special "movie event" (while the series was on their regular schedule), which was just another indicator of how popular the series was in the 70s.

For the next four years, until KCOP Channel 12 started showing Trek again (edited for syndication),

In L.A., KCOP picked it up again in the early 80s (around 1983), and though the episodes were edited for syndication, the prints were the the best available since its run on NBC. At this point, it aired the hour-long special Leonard Nimoy's Star Trek Memories, filled with so many great clips of Spock-centric episodes (obviously), with a brief focus on "Space Seed" & TWOK. Needless to say, KCOP was milking the resurgence in Trek's popularity as much as possible.

Anyone else have memories of that marathon, or of marathons from that era?

KTLA had a long tradition of running their 4th of July Twilight Zone marathon, while their week-long themed movie programming block ran the aforementioned Planet of the Apes TV series (10 of its 14 episodes turned into movies) under the umbrella title "Back to the Planet of the Apes Week". That was a fun surprise, as the series had not aired anywhere (due to its lack of sufficient episodes to meet the then-standard syndication package requirement) since its CBS run ended.

KDOC (Ch. 56 in Anaheim) ran The Time Tunnel "movies" in a similar, 5-days a week format.

 

[Neopeius]

Thaaaanks for the memories..

That's great -- I didn't realize KCOP started running Trek so soon after KTLA stopped. I wonder why it took us so long to find that (or maybe my memory of the year is off--years are much longer when you're a kid).

It's funny. I grew up with marathons, but they were brand new when I was achieving consciousness. I think the first was in 1980, and I think KTLA started the process.

By the way, wasn't KTLA just a great station? Tom Hatten on Sunday, News at 10 with its groovy theme...

In El Centro, we had KECY (El Centro/Yuma) Channel 9, and it was legendarily awful.

ETA: I think I saw the Nimoy special. I remember thinking that "Space Seed" was actually a Star Trek movie, and that Khan had starred in it. I also assumed Khan was a rebellious crewmember since the clip of him was in the Enterprise tunic.

 

[mb22]

Paramount never officially edited "The Menagerie" into a "movie" (in the way Fox did with episodes of The Time Tunnel or the Planet of the Apes TV series), but it did not stop KTLA from running "The Menagerie" as a well-advertised special "movie event" (while the series was on their regular schedule), which was just another indicator of how popular the series was in the 70s.

That was also done at least once in both Baltimore and New York. (sorry about the image quality)

 

[Ssosmcin]

WPIX 11 n NY (11 Alive as above) loved Star Trek, popping it on their schedule the Monday after the final rerun aired on NBC. I remember some of the 90's Trek marathons, but I am trying to remember...I think they would run marathons around one of the holidays. The Honeymooners and The Twilight Zone got the big holidays but I could swear Trek had a couple in the 80's. Mostly the show just ran daily, 5 or 6 days a week depending on when. The show would take short breaks but come back and stay for a long while.

 

[Neopeius]

WPIX 11 n NY (11 Alive as above) loved Star Trek, popping it on their schedule the Monday after the final rerun aired on NBC. I remember some of the 90's Trek marathons, but I am trying to remember...I think they would run marathons around one of the holidays. The Honeymooners and The Twilight Zone got the big holidays but I could swear Trek had a couple in the 80's. Mostly the show just ran daily, 5 or 6 days a week depending on when. The show would take short breaks but come back and stay for a long while.

I definitely remember TZ marathons. Also Godzilla/Gamera marathons around Thanksgiving. Loved those.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I definitely remember TZ marathons. Also Godzilla/Gamera marathons around Thanksgiving. Loved those.

For years, WOR 9 would run King Kong, Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young on Thanksgiving Day (they would shuffle the order from year to year). I would love watching that with my Dad and his brother. I still do it to this day with (you'll appreciate this) 1981 commercial breaks added in to VHS copies of each film to recreate the Thanksgiving Day experience.

The day after would have 3 Godzilla movies. Depending on the year: Godzilla vs The Cosmic Monster, Son of Godzilla, Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster and Godzilla vs. Megalon.

Man oh man...great memories.

 

[mb22]

For years, WOR 9 would run King Kong, Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young on Thanksgiving Day (they would shuffle the order from year to year). I would love watching that with my Dad and his brother. I still do it to this day with (you'll appreciate this) 1981 commercial breaks added in to VHS copies of each film to recreate the Thanksgiving Day experience.

The day after would have 3 Godzilla movies. Depending on the year: Godzilla vs The Cosmic Monster, Son of Godzilla, Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster and Godzilla vs. Megalon.

Man oh man...great memories.

Here is a nice article on WOR:
http://www.dvddrive-in.com/holidayfilmfest.htm

dates not mentioned in the article: NOVEMBER 23, 1972: King Kong 3PM

NOVEMBER 22, 1973: King Kong 10AM

NOVEMBER 28, 1974: King Kong 1PM, Mighty Joe Young 4PM

NOVEMBER 27, 1975: King Kong 1PM

I checked the 1970 listing. No KONG film was shown on Thanksgiving November 26. However, the original GODZILLA was shown at 11:30AM.

The DVDdrive-in article said that KONG (along with other Kong/Godzilla films) were broadcast in 1985. However, the original KONG (and SON OF KONG and MIGHTY JOE YOUNG) were NOT shown in 1986 (probably because of it's sale to Turner). Instead it seems to have been shown on the Cinemax cable channel. WWOR (it changed from WOR in '85 or '86) did not show any monster films on Thanksgiving (it had the Adam West BATMAN movie and Laurel & Hardy's WAY OUT WEST) but did air KING KONG VS. GODZILLA at 1PM and KING KONG ESCAPES at 3PM on Friday, November 28, 1986. In 1987, WWOR had it's first George Reeves SUPERMAN marathon on Thanksgiving and again showed KING KONG VS. GODZILLA and KING KONG ESCAPES on Friday (November 27, 1987). 1988 was the first year that there were no King Kong or Godzilla related films shown at all on Channel 9.

 

[shapeshifter]

Back in the olden days, before UPN took over, began airing VOY and ENT, my local place for all Trek series was the FOX network. TOS, TNG and DS9 were all loved and respected by them. Preempting never occurred for sports!

I recorded every TOS, TNG, DS9 first run from them on VHS. They would often have mini marathons of TOS, before UPN took over and spoiled all the fun with its stick up the rear management. At least locally, that was my experience.

One thing really stood out though as the height of Star Trek Fandom Adventure...

Sit Long And Prosper!

I lost the ticket stub so a web copy was used.

Besides the films a couple other cool things happened that day. These were on sale for $1 each. Missed out on getting all, including the Borg Queen, but they've kept well in the freezer all these decades!

The chocolate is still in them, not sure if it's edible though.

Another highlight that day was this special guest...

One heck of a day!

 

[Kor]

Back in the olden days, before UPN took over, began airing VOY and ENT, my local place for all Trek series was the FOX network. TOS, TNG and DS9 were all loved and respected by them. Preempting never occurred for sports!

I recorded every TOS, TNG, DS9 first run from them on VHS. They would often have mini marathons of TOS, before UPN took over and spoiled all the fun with its stick up the rear management. At least locally, that was my experience.

One thing really stood out though as the height of Star Trek Fandom Adventure...

Sit Long And Prosper!

I lost the ticket stub so a web copy was used.

Besides the films a couple other cool things happened that day. These were on sale for $1 each. Missed out on getting all, including the Borg Queen, but they've kept well in the freezer all these decades!

The chocolate is still in them, not sure if it's edible though.

Another highlight that day was this special guest...

One heck of a day!

Was there a Borg Queen wrapper for sure? The info I'm finding on the interwebz seems to indicate that the complete set was six total, with the five you have there plus Worf.

Kor

 

[shapeshifter]

Actually, I don't recall ever seeing her bar with my own eyes, but I do remember a buzz existing about it. I always just assumed it had sold out.

What a kick that would be, to now find out all those decades of regret were for nothing.