Infamous Sci Fi TV Cancellations: This ongoing series looks back at some of the most notorious cancellations of sci fi and fantasy TV shows by the broadcast networks, cable channels, and streaming services.
What Is It?
In a distant part of the galaxy, the Twelve Colonies of Mankind have been engaged in a thousand-year war with the robotic Cylons, though an armistice is in the works to end the hostilities. However, the Cylons launch a sneak attack, wiping out most of the humans in the colonies. The lone warship Battlestar: Galactica survives, and its commander and crew are tasked with leading a ragtag fugitive fleet containing the remaining human survivors to the mythical thirteenth colony known as Earth.
Aired: 1978-80, ABC, 2 Seasons (Including Galactica: 1980) Totaling 34 Episodes
Starring: Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, Lorne Greene, John Colicos, Maren Jensen
Created By: Glen A. Larson
Why Was It Cancelled?
This series looked poised to revive sci-fi on the small screen in 1978, just as Star Wars had done for the genre in movie theaters the year prior. And everything seemed on track as it scored strong ratings with its early broadcasts. But then CBS launched a counter-programming strike and moved its sitcom juggernauts All in the Family and Alice to the same hour as Battlestar: Galactica, delivering a blow to the latter’s ratings.
The numbers continued to drop as the season progressed, in part because of the competition but also due to the fact that the network rushed BSG to series after it was originally planned as three movies, resulting in some slipshod episodes. ABC ultimately decided it was too expensive to keep the show going if it wasn’t topping the Nielsens, and it cancelled the series after only one season. This led to a massive letter-writing campaign to save the show, along the lines of the effort that had won Star Trek a third season. The ABC brass did have a change of heart, though it’s uncertain how much the write-in campaign influenced that decision as opposed to the network’s realization that they had far too few episodes for a syndication run, and thus no chance of recouping their costs from BSG‘s single season.
So they made the decision to revive the series the following year in an altered (and more budget-friendly) format and dubbed it Galactica: 1980. This continuation had the Galactica discovering Earth but choosing not to make direct contact with its people right away because humans did not have the technology to resist a Cylon attack. This resulted in several Earth-bound episodes that were much less expensive than the space-based stories of the first season.
However, the new series had also gutted much of the original cast, some because of scheduling conflicts, some for cost-cutting reasons, and some because they chose not to participate in the new version. In addition, Galactica: 1980 skewed more toward a younger audience, airing in the family-friendly Sunday 7 PM EST time slot, and many fans of the original disliked the change in focus. Upon its return, the show debuted to tepid ratings and enjoyed little in the way of accolades from fans or critics, and it disappeared after ten episodes.
Why ABC didn’t try to move the series to a different time slot during its first season remains a mystery. BSG enjoyed ratings success early on, and if they had shifted it to a less competitive time, it might have been able to maintain stronger numbers. But the show faltered against the competition CBS threw at it, and ABC gave up far too easily on a series in which it had invested so much money.
True, they did at least try to keep it going with Galactica: 1980, but that turned out to be too little, too late. And with the cancellation of BSG—along with NBC’s subsequent axing of the big-budget Buck Rogers in the 25th Century the following season—the networks would shy away from ambitious science fiction television for the next twenty years or more.
Keep up with the cancellation/renewal status of all the current sci fi and fantasy shows with our Cancellation Watch posts and page.
Should It Have Continued?
Arguably yes. The original Battlestar Galactica was somewhat campy and may not count among the upper echelon of genre entries, but it did have some charm and a good cast, and it was starting to develop something of a mythology. Given another season, where the creative team would have had more time to plan things out, perhaps this one could have fully explored its potential and turned into the classic many thought it could be.
But on the other hand, if it had continued and carried on for three or four seasons—or even more—that would have likely changed things down the road. That could have made the original a more cherished genre entry, and perhaps the Ronald D. Moore reboot would never have happened. The 2003 version did turn into a sci-fi TV classic with a notable influence on the genre shows that followed, and perhaps we would have been denied that if the property had become too established to put through a reimagining. So maybe the course that the original BSG followed was for the best, allowing us to ultimately get the better version in the 21st century.
Where Does the Property Stand Now?
That’s a good question, and there is not a clear answer at this point. The reboot produced a miniseries followed by a four-season run, along with several movies and two prequels (Caprica and Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome). But since Blood & Chrome aired in 2012 (first as a web series, then combined into a movie), the franchise has been absent from the small screen. There were talks of a new show set in the same universe with Mr. Robot‘s Sam Esmail at the helm, but that ended up not moving forward. There have also been talks of a big-screen version that would deliver a ground-up reboot of the property, but nothing is currently in the works on that front. The franchise appears to be in limbo at the moment, but the entertainment industry can’t stand to let name recognition go to waste–and BSG does have that–so I expect it will return at some point.
Where Can You Watch It?
The entire series has beeen released on Blu-ray and DVD, and you can also purchase it VOD. It is not currently available for streaming on any of the major services.
Why Were They Cancelled? 2nd Ed.
How many times has it happened? You start watching a sci fi/fantasy show, it’s getting really good, and then—out of nowhere—it disappears.
What happened to it? Where did it go? Why were no more episodes produced? Will the story ever be resolved?
The answer to what happened is simple: it got cancelled. And it was cancelled because viewership did not meet expectations, whether that was measured by the Nielsen ratings or whatever metric the network or streaming service uses to gauge its audience.
But why was the viewership low, you ask? It was such a great show and more people should have been tuning in. Why didn’t its network do more to promote it? And why do the companies that produce and air television shows seem to hate sci fi and fantasy so much?
These are questions genre fans have been asking for years, and Why Were They Cancelled? is here to provide some answers. This is the updated and expanded second edition of the book, and it looks at the era of the Nielsen ratings and how that is becoming a thing of the past while also focusing on the more recent impacts of the streaming services and Peak TV.
