I was 9 years old on September 8, 1966 when Star Trek premiered.
The working schedule at Desilu Productions was a total mess. Scripts were incomplete, actors were available then were unavailable, delays caused episodes to be completed out of air date order.
NBC staged an early rollout of its Fall Lineup of shows with a surprise "Sneak Preview" premiere, one week earlier than customary. CBS and ABC were caught off guard but so was Desilu Productions!
Only three episodes were broadcast ready and none of them were the pilot episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was still filming. NBC's program schedulers picked the episode with the monster in it hoping to give viewers the expected "sci-fi" experience, not the "high-brow" experience Gene Roddenberry was promoting. So the first Star Trek episode on TV turned out to be episode four, "The Man Trap".
I opened my OTOY online account last year, curious to see what's in store for Star Trek, guided by the Roddenberry Archive.
