Anybody remember Star Trek PRE The Motion Picture ?

[thunderbolt]

Of course I do, I grew up on it and Batman. Used to watch it in reruns out of Peoria with my pop right before dinner every afternoon.

[jaypiscopo]

ah, when life was sweet-- and the corn was green.

[Mikey]

Funny thing is - and a lot of people don't think about this ...... The term "Trek nerd" really didn't come out until the 80's after the Motion Picture.
I'd say after Star Wars got big.

In the 70's loving Star Trek was a lot "cooler" then it is today.
Since it was an old show, it was more of a cult thing back then that everybody got into.

[david_b]

Ah.. I don't know, Type1, at least to grownups, we were regarded as nerds back in the 70s as well.. I remember my first pangs of Trek-love, about '71 or so.. I was trying to love the Packers (with my 'new' stepdad..), but I took one look at Trek one day and there went all the Packer posters.. I was hooked!

I remember saving up and buying each/every Blish book, the 'Spock Must Die' being so cool, since it wasn't a novelized story.. I always thought the spacey cover art for those Blish books were so cool and sophisticated. 'Course saving up for the AMT models were just as important. Everything else seemed a bit like junk, even for me at that age (10/11yrs old), but the books and models totally ruled. 'Course this was all pre-Mego.

My 'best friend' had ALL the new Mego toys, so I just spent alot of time playing with his figures, my parents wishing not to have me buy much of it..

The tough thing was trying to find decent, high quality magazines with Trek at the grocery store; this was still pre-Starlog and pre-Poster Book days, so it was usually cheap fan magazines or features in some hollywood monster magazine.

The Poster Books TOTALLY ruled when they came out..!

[jasonmego1277]

I was a little too Young as it Was reruns at that point. I do admit having seen the classic eps on TV, and before I ever saw the Motion Picture, Star Trek II or Star Trek III. I guess I am a lucky one to actually got so see this on order. Even after the Original airings.

[Gorn Captain]

I remember those days well.
In those days, without internet, DVDs, even tapes, all you could do was try and find a "live" showing.
I made a custom outfit for my Mego Andorian, and had to do it from memory.
Pretty funky outfit, believe me.

I remember the very first tapes you could buy.
Man, actually OWNING an episode...

I taped all the episodes from the BBC, that was another giant leap.

But you know what?
Sometimes, it feels better to just watch something live.
Instead of gearing the whole concept to your every need, to just wait for the movie or show to come on, and when you go for a pee, you have to ask "hey, what did I miss?"

So I do remember those prehistoric days.
In those days, when a show came on, it was an event!

[cjefferys]

Oh yeah, I watched the TV show all the time as a kid in the 70's. Also watched the cartoon, read the Alan Dean Foster novelizations based on the cartoon, and the Gold Key comic books. Had a few Trek Megos too.

[johnmiic]

I remeber those days. The cartoon kept the dream alive in the years no new Trek was released.

The question of the cartoon's cannon arises from Gene Rodenberry telling Richard Arnold he was not entirely happy with how it turned out when TNG was starting up. However I defer to David Gerrold who said, "The writers got paid; the actors got paid, so it's cannon!"

[Nostalgiabuff]

I remember it well. They used to play it every Saturday in my area around 5 or 6. I was raised on Trek. Had all the Mego's except the second series aliens and had all the playsets. I don't remember the cartoon as a kid though, I think it was orignally aired the year I was born, '72? I don't remember it ever being in reruns until the 80's.

[shyndman]

I must be older than most folks here but I remember watching classic Trek when it was new! I thought it was amazing (and became a lifelong fan of anything Trek) but I clearly recall my mother thinking it was silly and that the uniforms looked like pajamas. It was a bit after my bedtime but my parents took pity on me and let me watch it because I was so hyped up about the show - just like I was earlier with Fireball XL-5!

[kryptosmaster]

Well I remember back when we used to gather 'round the radio...LOL...Just kidding...I'm not that old.
I don't recall the first-run of Star Trek but I do remember watching reruns throughout the 70's and I also did watch the cartoon on Saturday mornings when it was first-run. I think that was also the last time I saw it, LOL.
I think there are still epsodes from both series that I have never seen. For some reason I never saw the Tribble episode till maybe the 90's even though I had heard all about it. It's like they never, ever played that episode where I lived! LOL.
I also had the Mego enterprise playset and Kirk but never got any other figures. My friend had McCoy & Spock and my cousin had the enterprise & all 6 first series guys. I never even knew about the Aliens till maybe the 90's and I wasn't really collecting Megos again until 6 months ago so had no money for them or interest in them anyway.
I remember when the movie came out but we didn't go see it. I think I saw it HBO or something for the first time. I seem to recall that it wasn't really that big a hit but obviously enough to restart the franchise.
Rich

[Bionic Joe]

Oh yeah that was when i first saw the cartoons on sat moring and watched the reruns of the tv series every mon thru fri on UHF, There we the goldkey comics the first STAR TREK novel i saw was log vol1 which adopted the cartoon series and cost 75 cents brand new but it still counted for book reports there were the MEGO figures and AMT model kits and that was about it other then rumors about bringing back the TV series which ended up being the motion picture and no one ever heard about a STAR TREK CON and MR SPOCK hosted a tv series called in search of

[wyldpny]

Yup, I remember those days very well

[david_b]

Yup, I remember those days very well

Same here.. Like mentioned earlier.., we all got so excited when a {gasp} new show would premiere.., like Space:1999. Wow, brand new, first generation-watcher. I also remember syndicated shows like 'In Search Of'..

Got to hate most of the meager offerings between Trek and 1999 since they only had exciting space graphics for like, what, the first ep, then it was all planet-bound (to save $$), like 6M Dollar Man, POTA (TV series), Land of the Giants, etc. FINALLY a new, high-budget SPACE show arrived..

Incidentally, for all you vintage mid-70s Trek fans, you can watch/enjoy the Tom Snyder Star Trek cast interview on Youtube.com. I have most of it downloaded into my iPod now.. I remember watching it live, but to see DeForest and James Doohan talking about the show (pre-TMP) makes you miss them all the more. It also featured Walter Koenig (still sporting the bad Davy Jones haircut), Harlan Ellison, and a Trek convention organizer. Lots of smoking as well, which was prevalent at the time.

It's pretty cool to watch again.

[Mikey]

Ah yes, the Tom Snyder Star Trek episode

Ellison acted like a jerk in that.

Even though he always acts like a jerk -- this episode was the first to show it to the world.