Today in Tech History (September 8th, 1966): The First Episode of "Star Trek: The Original Series" Airs on NBC!

On September 8th, 1966, the first episode of the original "Star Trek" series aired on NBC. The first episode (excluding the pilot with completely different actors), was titled "The Man Trap" and aired from 8:30 to 9:30 PM, during NBC's "sneak preview" block. Reviews for the first episode were mixed. Many big newspapers favored the show, but other big newspapers like "The New York Times" and "Variety" disliked it, with the latter predicting that "it won't work" and calling it "an incredible and dreary mess of confusion and complexities". Due to low ratings and poor reviews of the following weeks releases, NBC was on the verge of canceling "Star Trek" until they received letters from fans begging to keep the show on the air. Due to this, NBC decided to order 10 more episodes for the first season, and a second season in March 1967. Today, "Star Trek" is one of the most successful and iconic franchises of all time!