When did Star Trek first air?
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series ("ST: TAS"), originally aired as Star Trek and as The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek, is an American animated science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry. It originally aired from September 8, 1973 to October 12, 1974 on NBC, spanning 22 episodes over two seasons. The second series in the "Star Trek" franchise, it is the first sequel to "". Set in the 23rd century, when Earth is part of a United Federation of Planets, it follows the adventures of the Starfleet vessel USS "Enterprise" as it explores the Milky Way galaxy.
Star Trek: The Original Series
NBC—which used such anecdotes in much of its publicity for the show—made the unusual decision to announce on television, after the episode "The Omega Glory" on March 1, 1968, that the series had been renewed. The announcement implied a request to stop writing, but instead caused fans to send letters of thanks in similar numbers.
NBC at first planned to move "Star Trek" to Mondays for the show's third season, likely in hopes of increasing its audience after the enormous letter campaign that surprised the network. But in March 1968, NBC instead moved the show to 10:00 pm Friday night, an hour undesirable for its younger audience, so as not to conflict with the highly successful "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" on Monday evenings, from whose time slot "Laugh-In" producer George Schlatter had angrily demanded it not be rescheduled. In addition to the undesirable time slot, "Star Trek" was now being seen on only 181 of NBC's 210 affiliates.