Editing Star Trek: The Original Series (section)

===Syndication===
{{quote box|align=right|width=25em|quote=Surprisingly, one show no longer programmed by a network but syndicated to local television stations (''Star Trek'') sometimes appeared among the top-five favorites in areas where the show is carried.|source=—"Students rate television", 1971<ref name="co19710428">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SONFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5243%2C3819872 |title=Students rate television |work=Telegraph Herald |date=April 28, 1971 |access-date=May 12, 2011 |location=Dubuque, IA |pages=6 |archive-date=May 16, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160516104919/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SONFAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iL0MAAAAIBAJ&pg=5243,3819872 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

Although some of the third season's episodes were considered of poorer quality, it gave ''Star Trek'' enough episodes for [[television syndication]].<ref name="teitelbaum19910505">{{cite news | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-05-05-tm-2100-story.html | title=How Gene Roddenberry and his Brain Trust Have Boldly Taken 'Star Trek' Where No TV Series Has Gone Before : Trekking to the Top | work=Los Angeles Times | date=May 5, 1991 | page=16 | access-date=January 24, 2012 | author=Teitelbaum, Sheldon | archive-date=November 6, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151106201722/http://articles.latimes.com/print/1991-05-05/magazine/tm-2100_1_star-trek | url-status=live }}</ref> Most shows require [[100 episodes|at least four seasons]] for syndication, because otherwise not enough episodes are available for daily [[stripping (television)|stripping]]. [[Kaiser Broadcasting]], however, purchased syndication rights for ''Star Trek'' during the first season for its stations in several large cities. The company arranged the unusual deal because it saw the show as effective [[Counterprogramming (television)|counterprogramming]] against the [[Big Three networks]]' 6 pm evening news programs.<ref name="abbott2010">{{cite book| author = Abbott, Stacey| title = The Cult TV Book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gA7qK_VhVH0C| date = March 10, 2010| publisher = I.B. Tauris| isbn = 978-1-84885-026-2 }}</ref>{{rp|138}}{{r|davies2007}} Paramount began advertising the reruns in [[trade press]] in March 1969;<ref name="to20081215">{{cite web | url=http://www.tvobscurities.com/2008/12/star-trek-syndication-advertisements-circa-1969-1970/ | title=Star Trek Syndication Advertisements, Circa 1969–1970 | publisher=Television Obscurities | date=December 15, 2008 | access-date=May 15, 2011 | archive-date=July 17, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717200546/http://www.tvobscurities.com/2008/12/star-trek-syndication-advertisements-circa-1969-1970/ | url-status=live }}</ref> as Kaiser's ratings were good, other stations, such as [[WPIX]] in New York City and WKBS in Philadelphia, also purchased the episodes<ref name="meehan2005">{{cite book| author = Meehan, Eileen R.| title = Why TV is not our fault: television programming, viewers, and who's really in control| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=SEtw4yGRjwUC| year = 2005| publisher = Rowman & Littlefield| isbn = 0-7425-2486-8 }}</ref>{{rp|91–92}} for similar counterprogramming.{{r|pearson2011}}{{rp|121}}

Through syndication, ''Star Trek'' found a larger audience than it had on NBC, becoming a cult classic.{{r|hale19750426}}{{r|abbott2010}}{{rp|138–139}} Airing the show in the late afternoon or early evening attracted many new viewers, often young.{{r|shult19720703}} By 1970, Paramount's trade advertisements claimed that the show had significantly improved its stations' ratings,{{r|to20081215}} and the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' commented on ''Star Trek''{{'}}s ability to "acquire the most enviable ratings in the syndication field".{{r|pearson2011}}{{rp|121}} By 1972, what the Associated Press described as "the show that won't die" aired in more than 100 American cities and 60 other countries; and more than 3,000 fans attended the first [[Star Trek convention|''Star Trek'' convention]] in New York City in January 1972.<ref name="buck19720314">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9y9JAAAAIBAJ&pg=861%2C5406685 |title='Star Trek' Engenders Cult in U.S., England |access-date=March 4, 2011 |author=Buck, Jerry |date=March 14, 1972 |agency=Associated Press |archive-date=May 10, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160510015919/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9y9JAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KYQMAAAAIBAJ&pg=861,5406685 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="shult19720703">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rx0eAAAAIBAJ&dq=star-trek%20syndication%20%7C%20rerun&pg=6303%2C2206524 |title=Cult Fans, Reruns Give 'Star Trek' an Out of This World Popularity |access-date=March 4, 2011 |author=Shult, Doug |date=July 3, 1972 |publisher=[[Milwaukee Journal]] |archive-date=May 6, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506052824/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rx0eAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gX4EAAAAIBAJ&dq=star-trek%20syndication%20%7C%20rerun&pg=6303,2206524 |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{quote box|align=right|width=25em|quote=Since that dark day in 1969 when NBC brought the programming hammer down on ''Star Trek'', there probably hasn't been a 24-hour period when the original program, one of the original episodes, wasn't being aired somewhere.|source=—''Chicago Tribune'', 1987<ref name="daley19870104">{{cite news |title=Staying Power: What Is It That Transforms a Few TV Programs into Cult Classics While Thousands of Others Fade into Oblivion? |work=Chicago Tribune |date=January 4, 1987 |author=Daley, Steve |page=4}}</ref>}}

Fans of the show became increasingly organized, gathering at conventions to trade merchandise, meet actors from the show, and watch screenings of old episodes. Such fans came to be known as "[[trekkie]]s",{{r|hale19750426}} who were noted (and often ridiculed) for their extreme devotion to the show and their encyclopedic knowledge of every episode.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=startrek | title=Star Trek | publisher=[[Museum of Broadcast Communications]] | access-date=August 11, 2012 | archive-date=June 29, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629005037/http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=startrek | url-status=live }}</ref> Because fans enjoyed re-watching each episode many times, prices for ''Star Trek'' rose over time, instead of falling like other syndicated reruns.{{r|pearson2011}}{{rp|122}}<ref name="ei19720506">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qG1IAAAAIBAJ&pg=3950,1720002 |title=Star Trek Rechanneled |work=[[Evening Independent]] |date=May 6, 1972 |access-date=May 12, 2011 |location=St. Petersburg, Florida |pages=3A |archive-date=May 20, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160520105748/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qG1IAAAAIBAJ&sjid=61cDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3950,1720002 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="sedgeman19720529">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UcVaAAAAIBAJ&pg=6958,3634972 |title=Fan of Star Trek Works At Getting TV Show Returned |work=[[St. Petersburg Times]] |date=May 29, 1972 |access-date=May 4, 2011 |author=Sedgeman, Judy |archive-date=November 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117212214/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UcVaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JGEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6958%2C3634972 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="hale19750426">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LnBkAAAAIBAJ&pg=2771,3366878 |title=Believing in Captain Kirk |work=[[Calgary Herald]] |date=April 26, 1975 |access-date=May 14, 2011 |author=Hale, Barrie |page=10 |archive-date=September 25, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925104804/http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LnBkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nX0NAAAAIBAJ&pg=2771,3366878 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="montgomery19730311">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=WhpXAAAAIBAJ&pg=4866,3596265 |title='Star Trekkies' Show Devotion |work=The Ledger |agency=The New York Times |date=March 11, 1973 |access-date=May 12, 2011 |author=Montgomery, Paul L. |location=Lakeland, Florida |page=34 |archive-date=May 12, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512204655/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=WhpXAAAAIBAJ&sjid=a_oDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4866,3596265 |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[People (magazine)|People]]'' magazine commented in 1977 that the show "threatens to rerun until the universe crawls back into its little black hole".<ref name="darrach19770725">{{cite news |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20068391,00.html |title=Leonard Nimoy Beams Himself Aboard 'Equus' and Out from Under Mr. Spock's Pointy Ears |work=People |date=July 25, 1977 |access-date=March 2, 2015 |author=Darrach, Brad |archive-date=March 2, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150302023847/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20068391,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> By 1986, 17 years after entering syndication, ''Star Trek'' was the most popular syndicated series;<ref name="harmetz19861102">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/02/arts/new-star-trek-plan-reflects-symbiosis-of-tv-and-movies.html?pagewanted=all |title=New 'Star Trek' Plan Reflects Symbiosis of TV and Movies |work=The New York Times |date=November 2, 1986 |access-date=February 11, 2015 |last=Harmetz |first=Aljean |page=31 |archive-date=February 12, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150212145559/http://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/02/arts/new-star-trek-plan-reflects-symbiosis-of-tv-and-movies.html?pagewanted=all |url-status=live }}</ref> by 1987, Paramount made $1&nbsp;million from each episode;{{r|davies2007}} and by 1994, the reruns still aired in 94% of the United States.<ref name="cerone19940402">{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-04-02-ca-41242-story.html |title=Trek on into the 21st Century |access-date=March 7, 2011 |author=Cerone, Daniel |date=April 2, 1994 |work=Los Angeles Times |archive-date=November 17, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117212215/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-04-02-ca-41242-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

From September 1 to December 24, 1998, the Sci-Fi Channel broadcast a "Special Edition" of all the original series episodes in an expanded 90-minute format hosted by William Shatner. Now titled ''Star Trek: The Original Series'', these broadcasts restored scenes that had been edited out of the syndicated episodes.<ref name=tos/><!-- cites previous sentence only --> In addition to introductory and post-episode commentary by Shatner, the episodes included interviews with members of the regular production team and cast, writers, guest stars, and critics (titled as "''Star Trek'' Insights"). The episodes were broadcast in the original broadcast sequence, followed by "The Cage", to which a full 105-minute segment was devoted. (For details on each episode's original airdate, see [[List of Star Trek: The Original Series episodes|List of ''Star Trek: The Original Series'' episodes]].) Leonard Nimoy hosted a second run from December 28, 1998, to March 24, 1999, but not all the episodes were broadcast because the show was abruptly canceled before completion.{{citation needed|date=January 2012}}{{original research inline|date=January 2012}}