On Thursday, September 8, 1966, the first episode of the science fiction TV series created by Gene Roddenberry aired on NBC. The first episode, named "The Man Trap", easily got a 40.6 share as it aired at 8:30 p.m., competing with reruns.
Star Trek: The Original Series logo.
Reviews and awards
The Philadelphia Inquirer and San Francisco Chronicle liked the show, The New York Times and The Boston Globe were very skeptical about it and Variety concluded that "it won't work", calling the show "an incredible and dreary mess of confusion and complexities" (source).
The series was first nominated for the Outstanding Dramatic Series Emmy Award in 1967, but it didn't win it. It was also nominated for more than 10 others Emmy Awards from 1967 to 1969, but it didn't win any of those.
Fun facts
- The series was actually first seen on September 6, 1966, on the canadian network CTV, but it wasn't until it aired on NBC two days later that it was given much attention.
- Even though "The Man Trap" is still considered the first episode of the series even today, it wasn't the first episode ever produced.
- There is a lot of confusion about the "correct" order of the episodes. Therefore, there are three possible ordering types: the official production of episodes (first episode: "The Cage"), that of the first airing on the NBC (first episode: "The Man Trap") and the one based on the "stardate" (first episode: "Where No Man Has Gone Before").
More information here.
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