Where No Goolie Has Gone Before: Original “Star Trek” Pilot- “The Cage”-Tonight!

Tonight on MeTV, it's a night of special programming, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the "Star Trek" TV show- it all begins with the first episode of "Star Trek" that aired on NBC- "The Man Trap"- being presented in the normal "Trek" timeslot ( 9 pm eastern /pacific, 8 pm central)- followed by our Svengoolie show, featuring the original pilot  (or example) show  that was presented to the Peacock network in 1964 but never aired- "The Cage"!

In this show, we meet what was proposed as the original Enterprise crew-which featured only ONE character we know from the series as it finally aired- Mr. Spock! The Enterprise answers a distress signal from an unexplored area of the galaxy, only to find that it's a trap- and the ship's captain, Christopher Pike, becomes a prisoner in a sort of intergalactic "zoo"to be part of the experimentation of a group of aliens!

Other than Leonard Nimoy's Spock, this pilot episode does have  some familiar characters that Trek fans may know from the original series' two part episode "The Menagerie"- because parts of this pilot were used as "evidence"  in that story's court martial of Spock. We'll give you plenty of background information on the pilot and its actors, along with the history of the evolution of the show. We'll also give you a look at a portion of  an adventure from the animated "Star Trek" series from 1974! Plus- due to the amazing response- we will be giving an encore performance to Freddy Cannon's "Svengoolie Stomp" song- with one additional celebrity cameo! (We had previously planned on presenting a recent interview we did with Malcolm McDowell -but due to some content changes, we'll be showing that to you in a program down the line.)

This is a little bit of a departure from our usual show- but MeTV was given this rare opportunity to show the rejected original pilot in full-color form, in which it has never been aired. Please note that this is a one-time only showing- and, is NOT planned to be repeated for our local Chicago viewers the following Saturday on our sister station, WCIU.

"The Cage" starts at 10 pm eastern/pacific, 9 central, or check your local listings for channel and time where you are (or , check that at www.metv.com). Our Chicago viewers get a second look at the "Frozen Ghost" (with the premiere version of the "Svengoolie Stomp") at 11 am on WCIU.

We're looking forward to our return to the J.J. Blinkers Joke Magic and  Costume  Shop in Antioch, IL, tomorrow, the 11th, from noon to 3 pm. It's the perfect place to shop for everything you'll need for your Halloween costume, while getting a chance to visit with me! All the information for the event is here on our site,under the "appearances" tab. (Make sure you check that regularly from now on, since our big public appearance tour for the Halloween season is coming up, with a few last-minute additions and media appearances sure to be coming up along the way!)

We hope you'll join us for a fascinating look at the early history of "Star Trek" tonight on MeTV!