Cat's Paw--- was that the one where some of the characters might have been spun off in their own show?

No, you're thinking of "Assignment Earth" with the trip back into the 20th century. It was intended as a backdoor pilot for a show about the Gary Seven character.

"Catspaw" was the Halloweenish/Haunted Castle episode with the extragalactic aliens who menaced the Enterprise with sympathetic magic.

It was intended as a backdoor pilot for a show about the Gary Seven character.

With Teri Garr as his winsome sidekick.

And, of course, "I, Mudd." Harcort Fenton Mudd must have a place in your pop culture lexicon

Of course, "Mudd's Women" was the episode that introduced the character.

There wasn't exactly continuity, but there were recurring characters.

Riley comes to mind here, as well. And I haven't seen anybody mention "The Naked Time" yet. Which TNG did an homage to way, WAY too early in their run (i.e. before the characters were established well enough, though Data did get to sleep with Tasha Yar).

Ooh, CW and TV Land show a couple episodes every week! Thank you, DVR. I will take Scola's advice and try not to explode if I skip an episode and wait to watch it on my television.

Thank you, DVR

ALL HAIL DVR!

Seriously, it's changed my life.

Yeah, I can't believe I used to program my VCR. This is so much better.

Of course, "Mudd's Women" was the episode that introduced the character.

Which is airing next Sunday! So I'll wait for it.

And I haven't seen anybody mention "The Naked Time" yet. Which TNG did an homage to way, WAY too early in their run (i.e. before the characters were established well enough, though Data did get to sleep with Tasha Yar).

That's what I'm watching tonight. And it was the fourth episode aired of TOS! How much earlier can you get? Well, you can get earlier, but I think this is way too early for this sort of episode too (then again, Dollhouse did it pretty early as well).

And it was the fourth episode aired of TOS! How much earlier can you get?

Wow, really? I never followed the order of episodes all that much. I just know that while "Where no man has gone before" was blatantly the first episode (the original pilot aside), they debuted with "The Man-Trap" which was a lame-o monster of the week episode (though it gave Bones some good stuff to do). But, yeah, that's just about as early as the TNG episode. Huh.

And I also know that "Turnabout intruder" was the last one aired. I guess Shatner channelling his inner "woman" killed the show (in quotes because I always got the feeling he was actually imitating a flamboyant drag queen).

Granted, there are arguments to this day which order the Prisoner episodes should really be in, which also was mostly (aside from first and last two episodes) a continuity free show, recurring actors be damned (Leo McKern excepted).

I just know that while "Where no man has gone before" was blatantly the first episode

It was so weird, though, because it didn't really feel like a pilot at all. There was no explaining who anyone was or anything; it was just like...and here we are on a ship with these characters, welcome to the show, already in progress.

Granted, there are arguments to this day which order the Prisoner episodes should really be in, which also was mostly (aside from first and last two episodes) a continuity free show, recurring actors be damned (Leo McKern excepted).

Wait, really?? I always assumed it was very continuity-heavy. Granted, I know next to nothing about it (and plan to keep it that way until I get around to seeing it).

There was no explaining who anyone was or anything; it was just like...and here we are on a ship with these characters, welcome to the show, already in progress.

No mollycoddling in those days, we were expected to hop on the story train and hang on and be happy about it, damn it. None of this psychological underpinnings and trauma in his youth or tragic background story. You had a bunch of guys in the space navy and what happens to them. And we liked it!