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How Canada Beat The U.S. As Star Trek Officially Turns 60 On Tuesday
There are few shows that debuted in the 60s that are still relevant today - but Star Trek certainly fills that bill. The iconic show has spawned countless spin-offs, hit movies, comic books, cartoon shows, memorabilia and more. Even cookware. And it shows no sign of slowing down.
The article below celebrates the show where no man had gone before, but it's almost a throwaway sentence that got my attention:
"NBC aired that first episode on September 8, 1966 (the world premiere was broadcast two days earlier, in Canada)."
In those pre-cable, pre-simulcast days, Canadian stations would often show new TV programs out of pattern with the U.S., creating a kind of DVR-like opportunity to see a different show when it was running down south.
So Captain Kirk technically landed here before any other TV audience got to see it. Another first that this country can, you should pardon the expression, "Klingon" to.
60 years later, 'Star Trek' continues to 'live long and prosper'
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Speaking of Star Trek and Capt. Kirk, did you know that one of William Shatner's first TV roles ever was on the CBC version of "Howdy Doody?"
His "Ranger Bob" persona was so long ago, that even Shatner himself barely remembers it.
"I've heard many times that I did 'Howdy Doody,' but the whole experience is wiped out of my head," Shatner quipped, noting that he likely took the gig due to financial necessity. "I must have been striving to survive as a young actor in Canada at that time ... 'Howdy Doody' must have been my survival mode."
One Of William Shatner's First TV Roles Was On An Iconic '50s Children's Show
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Thread Starter- paterson1
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Re: How Canada Beat The U.S. As Star Trek Officially Turns 60 On Tuesday
Not only did CTV debut Star Trek two days before NBC, but they also scheduled the program one hour earlier at 7:30. This could have been why Star Trek was always more popular in Canada than the US when it originally came out. The thinking was that 7:30 was considered the "kids time" for evening TV viewing by many parents. NBC scheduled the series at 8:30 in the first year, and that was getting into the time when more adults would be controlling the TV. Star Trek by many was considered a kids show and by 8:30 a fairly large chunk of TV's wouldn't be tuned to a kids program. Some of Star Trek's potential audience could have been doing homework or even getting ready for bed at 8:30.
CTV had only begun broadcasting some programs in colour a few days ahead of September 6, 1966. Here is an article from Bill Brioux from 2021 about the debut of Star Trek. Really interesting the prime time schedule he posted on the date. Amazing how a lot of programming was still in B&W even on the Buffalo channels. Also interesting how much freedom the affiliates had in the evening to run their own schedules. Who knew that The Dick Van Dyke Show ran on CBC at 9pm? Captain’s log: Star Trek boldly began two days earlier in Canada – brioux.tv
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Re: How Canada Beat The U.S. As Star Trek Officially Turns 60 On Tuesday
paterson1 wrote:
Not only did CTV debut Star Trek two days before NBC, but they also scheduled the program one hour earlier at 7:30. This could have been why Star Trek was always more popular in Canada than the US when it originally came out. The thinking was that 7:30 was considered the "kids time" for evening TV viewing by many parents. NBC scheduled the series at 8:30 in the first year, and that was getting into the time when more adults would be controlling the TV. Star Trek by many was considered a kids show and by 8:30 a fairly large chunk of TV's wouldn't be tuned to a kids program. Some of Star Trek's potential audience could have been doing homework or even getting ready for bed at 8:30.
CTV had only begun broadcasting some programs in colour a few days ahead of September 6, 1966. Here is an article from Bill Brioux from 2021 about the debut of Star Trek. Really interesting the prime time schedule he posted on the date. Amazing how a lot of programming was still in B&W even on the Buffalo channels. Also interesting how much freedom the affiliates had in the evening to run their own schedules. Who knew that The Dick Van Dyke Show ran on CBC at 9pm? Captain’s log: Star Trek boldly began two days earlier in Canada – brioux.tv
Looking at that Star television listing reminded me of why I never liked their guide. Who came up with the insane idea of listing the Toronto channels first? The real TV Guide and the one that appeared in the Telegram listed all the channels in order from 2-13. Just like your set is designed. As for Star Trek appearing on CTV before NBC why was it only shown on CFTO. Was CKCO Kitchener not required to carry it or maybe they had the option of choosing other programming. When it comes to American programs in general airing in Canada before the U.S. nets, that was one of the requirements the Canadian Networks requested when program shopping in Hollywood, To the Studios a sale is a sale. Pre-release rights? No problem. They didn't care if this policy caused problems for border network stations.
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Re: How Canada Beat The U.S. As Star Trek Officially Turns 60 On Tuesday
I remember really liking the pre-release policy, because in those pre-VCR days, you could see more shows you wanted to watch. It was great. (And if memory serves, primetime back then started at 7:30 PM.)
My only real complaint, though, was that in those days, Canadian TV stations always added more commercials than the U.S. networks. And that meant cutting out up to 120 seconds from the shows to make space for them. And the Canuck editors would often butcher them, especially if a program was heading to an emotional climax. In my experience, they ruined more shows doing that than I can count.
That always, always bugged me and it's why to this day I still prefer to watch a show on its originating network. Old habits are hard to break, I guess. So it ended up being both good and bad.
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Thread Starter- mace
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Re: How Canada Beat The U.S. As Star Trek Officially Turns 60 On Tuesday
I remember really liking the pre-release policy, because in those pre-VCR days, you could see more shows you wanted to watch. It was great. (And if memory serves, primetime back then started at 7:30 PM.)
My only real complaint, though, was that in those days, Canadian TV stations always added more commercials than the U.S. networks. And that meant cutting out up to 120 seconds from the shows to make space for them. And the Canuck editors would often butcher them, especially if a program was heading to an emotional climax. In my experience, they ruined more shows doing that than I can count.
That always, always bugged me and it's why to this day I still prefer to watch a show on its originating network. Old habits are hard to break, I guess. So it ended up being both good and bad.
Couldn't agree more. being an OTA guy you don't have to worry about the dreaded simsub. Being with Rogers my escape is PVRing everything out of Seattle. I can't do anything about some NFL games and Award Shows, but Award Shows have never been my thing.
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Re: How Canada Beat The U.S. As Star Trek Officially Turns 60 On Tuesday
Good points mace, but I never actually noticed the difference in the guides listings since our family never bought TV Guide. We were both Telegram and then Star readers and I remember both of those newspaper guides as excellent with a lot of great articles. After the Telly went belly up, The Star's guide became even better IMO with even more content.
For many years the highlight of reading the paper on Saturday for me was the Star's Wheels section and StarWeek. Sadly now I rarely buy a Toronto Star and both the TV guide and Wheels feature are pretty lame. In fact I don't even look at their TV listings or bulky guide.
As mentioned before affiliated stations seemed to have a lot of freedom when they ran shows, even imports. I have no idea when CKCO ran Star Trek. I noticed that Channel 13 didn't play any shows at the same time as CFTO on guide from the article.