I was the mischievous, less than a shining example of a nine-year-old, always thrilled to play Robin. My cousin Allen, though a whole 6 months younger, was a brilliant child. He possessed a nearly natural intellect for Bruce Wayne, and because his dad was retired army and owned a string of Radio Shack stores, their garage was full of electronic boxes and gizmos lying around. Al was naturally Batman because he had the Bat Cave!
I still wonder why we were so fixated on Batman rather than St Trek. They both premiered in 1966 and ran about three seasons. Batman showed on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 pm on ABC, and Star Trek was on Thursdays at 8:30 pm on NBC (though it was moved to Friday for its third and final season).
Batman, a kid's show, featured campy humor, cartoon action inserts, and well-known guest stars. It lured the adults to the screen, making it a wholesome and popular family show for the home from work late working class T.V. tray dinner crowd. It was truly comic book stuff and coming to life in our living rooms. We kids just ate it up.
Suddenly we were no longer playing War or Cowboys and Indians, now we were outsmarting the villains of Gotham from our Batcave in Batmobiles and climbing walls with Bat-ropes. Girls were included in the roles of Batgirl or Cat Woman, or any number of overly outfitted feminine roles they might dance into later in the seventies.
Star Trek, on the other hand, was science fiction and aired on Thursdays at 8:30 for an entire hour. It totally eclipsed our critical sleep period. This was a huge conflict for our parents. Our aunts, who doubled as our moms, and my mom who doubled as your aunt, were both very strict on us, their firstborns! They couldn't allow us to stay up past eight. It would set a bad example for the four younger kids.
But then, in its third and final season of Star Trek, a miracle occurred. Star Trek was moved to Friday night!
On these occasions my dad would more often than not grant one of his less occasional, only to make his point clear and to show her that could override his wife's steadfast rules by granting his authoritative permission.
He would say simply, between a bite of a Colonel Sanders chicken breast, "Since it's not a school night, honey" and the man would let me stay up and watch Star Trek.
My sister would join us, we'd make popcorn, and I'd mix a wine cooler for my mom at the start of the show, maybe another at the middle commercial. My cousin Allen began transporting over on Fridays. He would transport over. He became an extended family for the weekend
But can you imagine Cousin Al advancing from Batman to Spock, and maybe me to Captain Kirk? Well, I'm sure we would have worked something out by now.
Keep these coordinates locked, and beam us up when ready.
-dp-
4-10-24
