Do you know what happened on Sept. 8, 1966? Well, neither do the TV networks. Or cable channels.
Because there's a big anniversary Thursday. And no one on the tube seems to be taking note of it.
Gene Roddenberry's culture-shifting space series Star Trek debuted 45 years ago -- Sept. 8, 1966 -- on NBC.
Before that, there was no Mr. Spock. No warp drive. No beam-me-up-Scotty. No dancing blue slave women. No "He's dead, Jim" or "I'm a doctor, not a [whatever]!" No Scottish-accented ahcahnuddooitcaptinn!
And, it truly seems impossible, NO tribbles!
Never mind not much social/political allegory on network TV anywhere, despite percolating Vietnam war protest, racial conflict, generational gulfs and other swirling controversies of the tumultuous '60s. And we haven't even mentioned how so many of today's sci-tech whizzes took their career cues from the show's visionary engineering.
Okay, so this year isn't yet the big five-0 for the concept, and no Trek TV shows are currently premiering, and even the movie reboot's on hiatus. But c'mon, people -- it's STAR TREK! The show that launched a thousand cultural conversations, series spinoffs, feature films, merchandising motherlodes and, lest we forget, that whole fan convention thing of people wearing pointed ears and speaking Vulcan.
But on TV Land? Nothing. Syfy? Nada. Anybody? Anywhere?
The 1966-69 Star Trek series is MIA on TV, totally. (The '80s Star Trek: The Next Generation is repeating on Syfy, BBC America and local stations. UPN's Enterprise is on Syfy, too.)
It's left to the Bio channel -- home of the unjustly neglected and no-kidding surprisingly great talk show Shatner's Raw Nerve -- to salute the 45th anniversary of the start of this influential franchise.
Three days late.
Bio's Sunday slate for Sept. 11 includes William Shatner's guide to the original series, Star Trek: Captain's Log (Sunday at 10:28 a.m. ET); Shatner's several-series interview special The Captains of the Final Frontier (11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. ET); 1996's anniversary celebration Star Trek: 30 Years and Beyond (1:30-3:30 p.m. ET); and costar Leonard Nimoy's 2009 sitdown on Shatner's Raw Nerve (3:30 p.m. ET, all on Bio).
At least the '60s Trek is available in other venues. All 79 episodes are streaming from Netflix and on Amazon Instant Video for Prime members. And they're all on disc in various versions, of course, including seasons on DVD and Blu-ray. (I've even got Season 1 on HD-DVD.)
So this Thursday, be sure to give someone the Vulcan salute. You know how.
Live long and prosper.