When I was in college in the late 70’s, Star Trek TOS was
in the midst of its first great boom of syndicated popularity, and a group of us used to gather to watch it
whenever classes and other constraints permitted.
But there was one girl in the dorm who said her parents
had forbidden her to watch it when she was growing up. Other than that it might have been too late for her to stay up then, or that the writers sometimes made egregious errors
of mathematics or context, I can’t think of any reasons for
a parent to have such strong, negative opinions about
a show like Star Trek. What’s more this was well before
it became trendy to ration your kids’ TV viewing.
Did anyone else’s parents forbid Star Trek, and why?
I can’t imagine this. My entire family watched Star Trek together; we mocked Kirk and made fun of the science and continuity errors. My Dad mounted a pair of tweezers on a stand and labelled it “Nitpicker of the Week Award”. Whoever pointed out the most screwups got to display it in his room for the week. OK, so we’re all weird! We had fun!
Was this girl from an odd, or particularly strict religious background, maybe? Or do you suppose her parents didn’t want her to see Kirk making out with every recognizably female creature in the Galaxy?
If its any consolation to your friend, I was also forbidden to watch Star Trek during its initial run on TV. My dad said it was past my bedtime, but I think he just hated the show so this was a convenient excuse. Remember that SF wasn’t mainstream at that time, it was generally considered “junk” by most people.
The only controversy I can think of revolved around the first interracial kiss on US television, between Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner in an episode called “Plato’s Stepchildren”. I don’t think it was a huge controversy though, partly because their characters were compelled to kiss by a powerful being.
Perhaps Christian fundamentalists were offended at the suggestion that there could be intelligent life on other planets. It’s not mentioned in the Bible, after all.
Bjo Trimble’s memoir, “On the Good Ship Enterprise,” talks about some of the VERY early reaction to the show. What with the whole civil-rights stuff being VERY new and different to some people, there were those who felt very strongly about the black woman, the Asian man, the RUSSIAN man, not to mention the Satanic-looking alien. It was the first time any kind of halfway intelligent, creative science fiction had been seen outside of books, and the peaceful, one-Earth concept was too radical for some people. As clunky and silly as it looks today, this was heavy-duty stuff.
Then there were those of us who just grew up with it. I was 3 in 1968 and I started watching it just for the pretty colors and the blinky lights, and because I wanted to do whatever my big brother was doing. I completely accepted the concept of men and women, and different races, and different species, working together without problems (well, most of the time).
We weren’t exactly forbidden to watch it (this was when it was in syndication in the 70’s), but there was a certain amount of discouragement on the grounds that it was junk. Dad in particular had little patience with the show; he used to refer to it as “The Rover Boys in Space.”
Don’t know about her background, and I’ve long since lost contact. But she was very German looking and her last name was Nord. Maybe it was a religious thing if she happened
to come from an rural area like the Dakotas, where it seems
fundamentalism runs rampant among the German-descended
farmers.
We weren’t exactly forbidden to watch it (this was when it was in syndication in the 70’s), but there was a certain amount of discouragement on the grounds that it was junk. Dad in particular had little patience with the show; he used to refer to it as “The Rover Boys in Space.”
And say, who were those parents who didn’t ration their kids’ TV viewing back in the 60’s? My bro was born in '62 and I in '63, and we were rationed right from the git-go; nothing but Sesame Street and the Electric Company, and The Pink Panther on Saturday mornings, and the occasional nature show or classic movie together with the entire family, particularly if it had Alec Guinness or Charlie Chaplin in it. This draconian policy didn’t change till we hit high school, IIRC.
My parents adhered to some pretty strict (fundamental) religious beliefs. One of our favorite shows was Star Trek. For me, it would have been in syndicated re-runs.
And yes, even back then, parents did ration TV viewing. Big time in my case. I thank them for it, actually. Being encouraged to read, play games, and have family time served me better than being allowed to sit in front of the TV for hours on end (Star Trek excepted, of course!)
I would guess it was because of the skimpy outfits on the alien women. In those pre-Baywatch days, when it was forbidden to show the female belly button on television, the Star Trek costume designers were very creative in doing the most with the least. As I recall, some of the outfits appeared to defy gravity; I believe it was script writer David Gerrold (“The Trouble with Tribbles”) in his book Inside Star Trek who revealed that many of the costumes were held in place with tape from the inside. My fourteen-year-old friends and I were rooting that the buxom beauty on Triskelion would bounce right out of her silvery titslinger. No wonder the more prudish parents were banning the exploits of the Enterprise.
If I ever have children, I’m going to be very careful about letting them watch Star Trek: the Orignal Series. I’m going to carefully screen each episode, and make my decision on a case by case basis. However, I’m generally going to forbid them from watching most of the Original Series’ third season.
This has nothing to do with objectionable content, other than bad writing: I want my kids to have taste!
I also will make a particular effort to keep them from seeing “And the Children Shall Lead” (terrible episode and I don’t want them admiring the “Friendly Lawyer”–Melvin Belli) and “The Way to Eden” (another episode that should have suffered a slow, painful death). Before I let them contaminate their minds with these two episodes, I think I’d rather them watch porn.
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THAT’S A JOKE, FOR ANY OF YOU HUMOR DEFICIENT PEOPLE!
Seriously, I guess I was too young to be restricted when the series first aired. My parents didn’t have objections to my watching in syndication when I was 8 or so. I did have a friend whose parents forbade him from watching “Three’s Company” or “Charlie’s Angels” (They were religious and a bit prudish to boot.)
perhaps it was just too close to the truth for them. they realized their daughter might find out their true origins and not be able to tolerate being what she is. Maybe they missed home so much they couldn’t bare to watch a reminder of their origins though badly written that so much of it was…
I had a religious nutjob aunt who wouldn’t let me watch the Smurfs or Pinwheel (a very young kids show that I would watch to waste time when I was around 10) when I would stay with her because they featured spawns of Satan. Star Trek wasn’t on at that time.
I can’t help chuckling at this one. I’m only slightly younger than Star Trek (although I haven’t aged as gracefully). In the early-to-mid '70s, I was allowed to watch all the Star Trek I wanted. But The Untouchables, which came on immediately after ST, was right out. Way too sexy and violent. Later I learned that my folks thought I was watching Lost in Space all that time.
I was allowed to watch Star Trek TOS, but almost nothing else. My mom was a religious nut too (sigh).
She actually threw the TV away after catching me watching a forbidden show, and we (my siblings and mom) had no TV for almost 4 years after that.
Side Note:
Who else here remembers being a human remote control? You stood by the tv, flipping the channels one at a time until your mom found something to watch. (and don’t spin that UHF dial, you’ll strip it! Too late, get out the pliers now.)
I remember seeing a TV show a few years back on the history of Star Trek or somesuch fluff (perhaps it was a promo show for the latest movie or something), and they said that before the first season aired, there were objections from TV stations “in the Bible belt” that Mr. Spock looked Satanic. So the producers held back Spock-heavy shows early in the season. After a few weeks went by and Spock proved to be one of the most popular characters, they released eisodes which featured him more prominently.
But my mom has often told me of being forbidden to watch Star Trek on religious grounds (she snuck over to a friend’s house to watch).
I was personally required to burn a book on religious grounds as a kid (no reading of fiction). Quite traumatic for a kid who had had bought his first Superman minibook.
