'Star Trek' turns 50

Three seasons. Star Trek lasted only three seasons. Can you believe it? This still amazes me. I am a "fan" of some aspects of the show, but it was not a particularly strong show. I think Brady Bunch went five seasons, and it was about some kids in Southern California. Gunsmoke went on forever. Seinfeld. Friends. X files. Buffy. Simpsons is making them all look sick.

As I said, I am not a fanboy, but it is very difffcult to find any show that has made such a strong impact in only three seasons. I have some contenders. Batman and Gilligan's Island also only went three seasons, I am pretty sure.

And of course. Firefly. The greatest show that never was.

Trek till I die.

I can barely believe it. It took a lot of imagination to follow those early episodes. The same kind of imagination one needs to watch aliens, space, and cowboys.

Firefly made an impact in a botched one season. If it had lasted three it would have been monumental. Such is the fate of a show with some good ideas. Something executives learn to fear nowadays

Star Trek had some amazing shows that were quite ahead of it's time. Just recently saw a re-run where the Milky Way was going to be invaded by aliens from Andromeda! Quite the reverse in the upcoming Mass Effect game where the Milky Way is going to be "colonizing" the Andromeda galaxy!

In spite of it's age, Star Trek brought up a lot of really great diplomatic problems that can be and are faced in our world today as well as the sometimes hard choices that have to be made to deal with them. The show was literally decades ahead of it's time.....

The show was literally decades ahead of it's time.....

True.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZFkZzScknc

5SpeedRacer5: Three seasons. Star Trek lasted only three seasons. Can you believe it? ... Simpsons is making them all look sick.

The people have spoken. Beverly Hillbillies, 9 seasons. Family Guy, 14 (non-consecutive) seasons and renewed for a 15th. The Simpson, 27 seasons and renewed for a 28th.

Yes it had an impact....which I acknowledge and qualify....

I cringe when I hear people say that the show did so many amazing things for TV. Roddenberry was a hack who stole from Southern California writers. He took actors and whole plots from Twilight Zone and Outer Limits. He took some of the "deus ex machina" devices too. I am not ashamed to say that I have the complete deluxe box set of every Star Trek show AND the pilot, because ... I do. But people, especially you young-uns, have been duped into looking at the show waaaaay out of its context. It is like saying Steve Jobs invented something. Or Elon Musk. The truth is that THEY acknowledge that they all stole from each other and they all knew it. The greater good comes from the elevation of Science Fiction as a legitimate genre, which made everyone better off.

Turotstat brings up Family Guy. Now there is a story. Like Star Trek, Family Guy was ALSO cancelled and then brought back by fan campaigns. And one would think that if Star Trek had aired with the same kind of "niche network," TIVO, binge watching environment we have today, it might have never been cancelled.

Which brings me back to Roddenberry. By the time you get to the third season, you see that Roddenberry and the writers were already out of ideas. They made some weird episodes because they started reaching... really hard... to get interesting plots. More British accents. More deus ex machina. More Kirk kissing Uhura. I don't think the writing staff had the chops to take it beyond about three seasons. Watch the shows in order, and you will see it. It was cancelled for a reason. And it was put in a late evening time slot for a reason.

And wow. The Beverly Hillbillies. Someone needs to deconstruct that. It says so much about the American psyche. It explains Carter and Reagan and Trump. Acceptance of racism. Distrust of authority and wealth. New money vs. old money. Elitist urban snobbery. The show seethes with class conflict. Still a really dumb show though. Haha. And I am old enough to remember Life in Hell without the Simpsons.

"Three seasons. Star Trek lasted only three seasons. Can you believe it?"

Yeah, but then we had Next Generation with Picard, Deep Space 9 with Sisko, Voyager with Janeway, Enterprise with Archer, and next up, Discovery! plus all the movies! Live long and prosper!