When Was The First Rerun?

[Michael]

Reading my way through the "What if Star Trek hadn't been cancelled after the third season?" thread, with all the talk about how the show gained a lot of its popularity through repetitions when the series got into syndication, I wondered when exactly the show got its first run after the cancellation. How much time went by before the show experienced its first repetition?

 

[scotpens]

There’s a thread on this topic from a few years ago.

 

[Tribble Herder]

In short, depending on which market you were in, Star Trek started running in syndication as early as September, 1969, with the big craze kicking in around 1972 or so.

 

[Redfern]

Living in Birmingham, AL, I started watching it during August or September of '72 when I was 9. But it must have been airing for a while before the late summer as a friend (a year younger than myself) was already well versed with the premise and characters.

Oddly enough, when the animated series debuted the following September, the live action reruns were dropped and did not return until Fall 1975 when the the cartoon was cancelled.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Tribble Herder]

Sounds about right. It's possible that TAS brought things into better focus.

 

[Neutral Zone]

Now the re-runs are eternal thankfully

 

[Ssosmcin]

There’s a thread on this topic from a few years ago.

Awesome thread! So amazing to know that my favorite station as a kid (WIPX 11 in NY) kicked off the country's syndicated reruns the week after Trek left NBC for good. It just confirms that I was watching Star Trek pretty much my whole life (born in 1967, I don't remember not watching it).

 

[Gojira]

There’s a thread on this topic from a few years ago.

Awesome thread! So amazing to know that my favorite station as a kid (WIPX 11 in NY) kicked off the country's syndicated reruns the week after Trek left NBC for good. It just confirms that I was watching Star Trek pretty much my whole life (born in 1967, I don't remember not watching it).

That was the station I first saw re-runs back in 1975!! I didn't know this station was responsible for success of the re-runs. I cannot remember my first episode but I was quickly hooked and couldn't get enough of original Trek!

I am watching season two right now on DVD!

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

First Rerun (1973)

Second Rerun (1976)

 

[HGN2001]

Off-network runs of "important" shows were a staple of independent channels back then, so the instant that NBC finished running STAR TREK, it began to show up on local channels all over the country, roughly the week following its final rerun on NBC.

In Philadelphia, WKBS-TV Channel 48 picked up the series, and as mentioned in the other thread started as a weekly run on weekends and then quickly moved to strip syndication (five times a week Monday-Friday).

The big deal about WKBS' run of the show was that in the early '70s, I think around 1972, they made a concerted effort to show STAR TREK complete and uncut with the original network break-timing intact. I know they went through the entire series at least once that way. In a way it was "competition" with WPIX in New York, who famously did a lot of editing of STAR TREK to allow for more commercials.

WKBS-TV 48 bragged about its complete and uncut run as a sort-of friendly jab at the controversy in New York STAR TREK circles. Being 90 miles away meant that Central Jersey fans could choose 48 instead of 11 for this complete run.

Harry

 

[Tribble Herder]

I'm still grateful that Channel 4 here in Denver ran the show uncut for years (the only noticeable edit being in "Spock's Brain" when the landing party materializes and Kirk turns to Scotty and says, "Tricorder readings, Mr. Spock...Mr. Scott"; apparently the film broke at that point and had to be spliced, and this didn't happen until well into the run, so the long time viewer already knew what was missing).

That just gave me an idea for the "Debunking TOS exceptionalism" thread...

 

[JimZipCode]

Anyone know when the re-runs would have started in the DC area, or the Baltimore-Washington corridor?
(We got stations from both cities, when I was growing up.)

I was already a hard-core Trek fan when the animated series ran – I remember my dad made it a point to turn on the animated show on Saturday morning, I guess as a surprise for me. I would have been 7 when TAS debuted.

 

[Joe_Atari]

I'm still grateful that Channel 4 here in Denver ran the show uncut for years (the only noticeable edit being in "Spock's Brain" when the landing party materializes and Kirk turns to Scotty and says, "Tricorder readings, Mr. Spock...Mr. Scott"; apparently the film broke at that point and had to be spliced, and this didn't happen until well into the run, so the long time viewer already knew what was missing).

My local station showed uncut episodes as well until the mid-'80s when they went to the Paramount-supplied syndication edits. The video and audio quality was much better, but the missing material -- although carefully and professionally removed by the studio -- was extremely noticeable to me. I haven't watched TOS on TV since.

Don't know if anyone else experienced this, but prior to the syndication edits (which I assume were on tape) my station used what I think were 16mm prints for Trek (judging by the video quality; I still have some old recordings). I noticed this because they would create their own crude promos for upcoming Trek episodes to play during commercial breaks of other programming, just a brief and seemingly arbitrary clip from the episode -- no chyrons or anything, just a static title card at the end. These were apparently made by physically cutting the scene used in the promo from the print, using it for the promo, and reinserting it for the broadcast. When watching the episode you could see the splices in the scene used for the promo from the poor editing job done by the station.