09/08/2026
DUD'S DOODLES (goofy stuff to pass your time with since 1973) Part 1 of 2:
BORN ON THIS DAY: BERNIE SANDERS ( a spry 85 today), Jonathan Taylor-Thomas (the kid from "Home Improvement") is 45. How old does that make you feel? PINK is 47, and "Big Boy" is 57.
60 YEARS AGO TODAY: The very first "Star Trek" debuted on NBC. It debuted 2 days earlier in Canada. The show was one of the last 2 that were produced by Desilu Productions, (Lucille Ball) along with "Mission Impossible", before she sold the company to Paramount. "Mission Impossible" debuted in the same season, on September 17, 1966, and was an instant hit that lasted 7 seasons, and won 10 Emmy Awards, including 3 for Barbara Bain as Best Actress. I never liked the show much after she and husband Martin Landau left. "Star Trek" ran for only 3 seasons (1966-1969) and had poor ratings. However, once it hit reruns in 1969, all of that changed, and it finally started to catch on. It was a very unique show that had a message to it, besides both good and bad aliens. The show's creator, Gene Roddenberry shot the first pilot episode in 1965, and only contained Leonard Nimoy from the cast you know. Jeffrey Hunter was first cast as Captain Christopher Pike, plus a number of people you've probably never heard of. NBC turned down the pilot, but Roddenberry re-shot it the following year with the cast that made it famous: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, De Forrest Kelly as "Doc" (my favorite), Nichelle Nichols, as Lt.Uhura, George Takai as Sulu, Walter Koenig as Chekov, and James Doohan as "Beam me up Scotty". The creator didn't want The Enterprise to be a U.S. starship. He wanted it to be part of an intergalactic project with an international and integrated cast. Nichelle Nichols wanted to leave her role after the first season, when she was talked out of it by none other than Martin Luther King, a year before he was assassinated. She stayed for the rest of the series and the movies that featured the rest of the best-known classic cast.