Standard English is Best

[EddMarkStarr]

Imagine if Star Trek, the Original Series, used popular 1960's slang in every bit of dialog.
Standard English is always preferable to slang because slang quickly goes "out-of-style", and dates a show in an unflattering way.

The only exception is when slang is used as comedy, on purpose.

Try this clip of "I Dream of Jeannie" from 1968. The slang used in this clip was already obsolete by the time of airing!
Commercial television was never hip, because the lingo changed faster than the old fashioned networks could keep pace.

 

[gsdx]

I don't think anything dated a television programme like the 'Eden' episode of Star Trek

 

[unloadonme]

Is this about the Queen's English or the mangled, jarring version known as American English?

 

[gsdx]

^ I would guess be not the Queen's English.

 

[smokeshadow]

I'm guessing that the OP is also referring to Ziva David's malapropisms where she constantly mangles American idioms

 

[pigface]

Is that JR Ewing?

 

[cityboy-stl]

That was Darrin and Samantha's house in the first segment.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

I don't think anything dated a television programme like the 'Eden' episode of Star Trek

During Star Trek's original run, from 1966 to 1969, there was talk amongst my peers that Star Trek dialog sounds like grandma's generation. It wasn't until the series was cancelled that newspaper articles started appearing recounting the tremendous pressure the Desilu/Paramount production staff fought against, over the inclusion of popular idioms into the scripts. 60's "flower power" language was very inappropriate to the world of Star Trek, but the broadcaster, NBC, made it known that Star Trek needed at least one or two episodes that acknowledged the "young generation" and its influence on contemporary culture.

The pressure to "get hip", led to the awful Star Trek episode, "The Way to Eden". which aired in 1969.
Only one thing caught my attention in the episode: Dr. Servin, (Skip Homeier), was a carrier of a genetically engineered bacterium, technology was his enemy.
The planet Eden would cleanse his body, and restore him to an "all natural" state of being, free from 24th century poisions.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

That was Darrin and Samantha's house in the first segment.

You betcha!

Bewitched, and I Dream of Jeannie, were both part of the Screen Gems Production empire of the 60's and 70's.
Screen Gems properties shared locations, as well as production staff.

 

[Peloso]

Imagine if Star Trek, the Original Series, used popular 1960's slang in every bit of dialog.
Standard English is always preferable to slang because slang quickly goes "out-of-style", and dates a show in an unflattering way.

You usually don't hear a lot of slang in science fiction. Also, since Star Trek takes place in the future, it would have to be future slang.

 

[Kahaih]

The show was a military setting, wasn't it? A very serious and professional environment?

Slang/pop culture has no place in seriously professional environments.

 

[cityboy-stl]

You betcha!

Bewitched, and I Dream of Jeannie, were both part of the Screen Gems Production empire of the 60's and 70's.
Screen Gems properties shared locations, as well as production staff.

Morning Glory Circle!

 

[cityboy-stl]

The show was a military setting, wasn't it? A very serious and professional environment?

Slang/pop culture has no place in seriously professional environments.

Yeah, it was - in the same way "Hogan's Heros" was a serious, miliary setting.

 

[Kahaih]

/\ Star Trek was a sitcom?

I had no idea.

 

[cityboy-stl]

/\ Star Trek was a sitcom?

I had no idea.

Sorry, I thought you were referencing I Dream of Jeannie which also involved military in a "sitcom".

 

[Peloso]

I Dream of Jeannie was far superior to Bewitched in my opinion.

 

[gsdx]

^ The network wouldn't let Barbara Eden show her belly button.

 

[Peloso]

^ They could have dressed her in a barrel and I wouldn't have cared. As long as she continued to cause mayhem.

I used to love the scenes that showed her inside her bottle. I wanted a bottle like that.

 

[gsdx]

^ They could have dressed her in a barrel and I wouldn't have cared.

How many barrels would we need for all the Kardashian sisters?

 

[Araucaria]

During Star Trek's original run, from 1966 to 1969, there was talk amongst my peers that Star Trek dialog sounds like grandma's generation. It wasn't until the series was cancelled that newspaper articles started appearing recounting the tremendous pressure the Desilu/Paramount production staff fought against, over the inclusion of popular idioms into the scripts. 60's "flower power" language was very inappropriate to the world of Star Trek, but the broadcaster, NBC, made it known that Star Trek needed at least one or two episodes that acknowledged the "young generation" and its influence on contemporary culture.

The pressure to "get hip", led to the awful Star Trek episode, "The Way to Eden". which aired in 1969.
Only one thing caught my attention in the episode: Dr. Servin, (Skip Homeier), was a carrier of a genetically engineered bacterium, technology was his enemy.
The planet Eden would cleanse his body, and restore him to an "all natural" state of being, free from 24th century poisions.

If anything, this episode looks like a parody of hippie culture. It seems that television in general took a disparaging view of the current youth culture back then. Actually, this seems to be a takeoff of some of the most extreme elements of hippiedom. There were groups like this, which in all actuality were probably cults, and didn't really represent the rank and file of the youth counterculture.