I've only seen the first two episodes so far (I'm streaming the series on Netflix) and they are deeply intelligent. How representative they are of the series as a whole is something I don't know yet, but I'm wondering if the children who tuned in on Saturday mornings in the mid-1970s understood the stories. Is there any documentation on this?
Thanks!
I think it was more of a case of the Filmation folks not really understanding that Trek was more than just an adventure series, or, if they did understand that, then their hopes were high for making it last as a long running Sat morning TV Kids' fair.
shareI don't think it was to "bright" or I was just a really bright child when this aired. I was just 5 when it first aired and I loved it and understood it just fine.
shareSome people think that this was really a 4th season of the OS in animated form. I agree with this. It continues the 5 year mission that started in season 1 of the OS. Some of the scripts were already writen for a 4th season of the OS-but since that was canceled-they used them for this series. The Scripts had to be condensed and adapted for this format.
The writers obiously thought that Children were bright enough to understand the stories.
Conspiracy therories are cleverly thought out to evade the real truth
Jay
Too cerebral for
Saturday morning cartoons
In my opinion
Yet too cheaply done
And a cartoon, so the fans
never embraced it
I grow more tired
Minute by minute. I hope
It won't last too long
I watched this as a kid in the 70s and I loved it. I was also a fan of the original series that I discovered when it became big in syndication during the 70s. I was born 6 months after the original series started, so I don't remember it during it's original airing, but I do remember getting up to watch this one every Saturday morning and watching the reruns of the '66 series in the afternoons during the week.
(knock,knock,knock) Penny (knock,knock,knock) Penny (knock,knock,knock) Penny
NO. The STAR TREK cartoons were NOT "too intelligent". At the time, the bulk of Saturday mornign shows were horribly "dumbed down" because network execs and censors believed kids were stupid. They also believed kids liked watching the same shows over and over and OVER again, which is why TV seasons on Saturday mornign shows were so short, and much shorter if they ever came back for later seasons. Myself, I always got bored if I saw the same epsode twice in under 6 months, so that kind of behavior inspired me to switch channels.
I was 7 years old when STAR TREK debuted. I instantly loved it... but I have to admit, at that age, a lot of stuff on the show went right over my head. I never minded!! And as it turns out, when I became a teenager, and was able to watch reruns of the show in the 70's, the show GOT BETTER, as I found myself picking up on a lot of things I'd totally missed as a kid. (I noted at the time the same phenomena with ROCKY & BULLWINKLE.)
If you'd actually loved thru the 60's, and saw what happened to make Satuyrday mornings SO AWFUL in the 70's, you'd realize that, at the time, the Filmation STAR TREK cartoons were the best damn thing on the air on Saturday mornings. Only the 1st season of LAND OF THE LOST was in the same ballpark.
I'm with you. I was 9 when the animated series came on. It was much better than 99% of the era's kids shows like Hong Kong Phooey. Also loved The Thunderbirds, UFO and Moon Base Alpha later in that decade so Star Trek set me on the sci fi path.
Kids aren't idiots, and they hate being treated like they are. Give them something that's "over their head", that they have to reach for, and they'll love it.
I agree that is an uncommonly smart cartoon that is still accessible to kids. It's just a shame about the terrible production values.
The story I read was that Hanna-Barbera and Filmation were practically in competition to see who could do cheaper and cheaper TV cartoons. My impression is that H-B continued to get cheaper and cheaper-looking all thru the 70's, while Filmation got tired of that and tried to go the other way.
If you compare Filmation's JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1967) with STAR TREK (1973), you can actually see ST was a BIG improvement! (Really!) THE NEW ADVENTURES OF BATMAN and TARZAN, later in the decade, continued this trend, but their shining triumph was the feature film FLASH GORDON: THE GREATEST ADVENTURE OF ALL (1979). While shown in theatres in Europe (distributed by Dino DeLaurentis' company-- it actually inspired him to do his own FG live-action film a year later), they were unable to find distribution for it in the United States, because of the extrememly narrow-minded attitude in America that "cartoons are for kids-- and ONLY for kids". And the FG movie was WAY too serious, too intense, to violent, and in one scene, surprisingly, too SEXY for kids!
So instead, they redid it as a weekly TV series, but most of the film never made it into the TV episodes. The feature film itself finally aired on TV in 1982 (in prime-time), by which time the heavy-duty censorship of the late 70's was becoming a thing of the past.
I always wished they'd done more STAR TREK cartoons. They did 16 the first year, but only 6 the 2nd, and that was it. Imagine if they'd done a measly 16 EACH year, and kept at it for 4 of 5 years... With the slowly-rising quality of some Filmation shows in general, each season might have been an improvement over the previous one.
I don't think Star Trek is so complex that kids can't follow it. There's certain themes they might not appreciate but there's still a lot of basic action-adventure there (despite what some fans may think).
shareThere are themes that kids will miss, but there are enough action/adventure elements that I would think most would enjoy it.
To me, giving kids complex shows to watch isn't really a bad thing. As long as it finds a good balance, kids can maybe stretch their minds a little and have some fun. Actually, TOS struck perhaps the best balance of any of the Trek series in that regard. I loved it as a kid, I know kids today who like it. And yet, I still feel like I can discover new things about the show and be given some good food for thought (in many of the episodes anyway) whenever I rewatch. The Animated Series obviously isn't as good, but it does have some interesting/quality episodes and concepts.
Finally, while later Trek series may have had some complex stories filled with technobabble, the original Trek was never complex in the sense of "hard to follow". The Animated Series is similar in that regard.
Why don't we just wait here for a while... see what happens.
I first watched The Original Series when I was 10 yrs old and completely understood it, except for a few political and philosophical parallels. Okay, I was a bright kid, I also read the Greek myths when I was 9.
"A voice from behind me reminds me. Spread out your wings you are an angel."
I wasn't a bright kid (nor am I a bright adult), but I loved Star Trek as a kid.
shareI saw one episode of this as a young child. It was one of my earliest exposures to Star Trek. I was too young to see it in '73 or '74 so it had to be in sindication, but it might have been the first Star Trek I saw though I suspect I saw The Motion Picture first. I saw one other episode years later while still a pre-teen. (The rest I saw as an adult.)
I definately had no trouble following those episodes as a child.
I don't find the series to be deeply intellegent on the whole, and a child can follow the plots even if they have themes the child misses.
I don't think so. however it should be a part of star trek cannon along with the other series.
shareI was one of those children who tuned into this television show on Saturdays during the early seventies. I also have asked this question because I as an adult find this series not juvenile in the least. Unfortunately I don't remember what my thoughts were on it or if I understood it . I'm assuming I must have had some kind of understanding or else I would have avoided watching the show as a child.
I have another theory, our society has been so dumbed down by the present media that this seventies television show for children is on the level of what we now watch on television as adults. Not a good thing at all.
Live Full & Die Empty. Tap Your Potential and Realize Your Dreams!