The Evolution of Television. When CBS announced on November 2, 2015, that they would be creating a new Star Trek series—and that it would part of their new streaming service—many fans expressed concern. However, television has never been a stagnant medium, and the move is in keeping with the ever changing way in which programming is offered to consumers.

In this episode of The Edge, hosts Brandon-Shea Mutala and Mike Schindler are joined by Bruce Gibson and Bill Smith of Trek Geeks to discuss how television has changed over the past half century. We look at how Star Trek was used to promote the sales of color television sets, the rise of syndication, the growth of cable, how The X-Files changed consumption habits, the rise of HDTV, and how Netflix transformed the people thought of television.

Chapters Intro (00:00:00) TV Origins (00:05:26) Recording and Syndication (00:16:06) DVD and Streaming (00:28:06) Pay TV (00:35:07) New Storytelling (00:56:11) Closing (01:05:46) Hosts Brandon-Shea Mutala and Mike Schindler Guests Bruce Gibson and Bill Smith Production Mike Schindler (Editor) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Tony Robinson (Associate Producer) Lisa Slack (Associate Producer) Tom Puleo (Associate Producer) Shoaib Mirza (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)