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In lugnet.cad, Steve Bliss writes:
> On Wed, 7 Apr 1999 17:29:14 GMT, "James Brown"
> <galliard@shades-of-night.com> wrote:
> > Its a model of the Battlestar Galactica, from the show of the same name -
> > aired in 78-79, and then got canceled, due mostly to a seriously competative
> > timeslot, combined with a really high cost-per-episode (estimates go from
> > $750,000 to $1 million per ep)
>
> You don't think the cancellation had anything to do with the fact that the
> show was highly derivative, completely innane, and generally lame? (I can
> say these things, I used to *love* Battlestar Galactica)
>
> Steve
Nope. At the time, the writing and acting was as good as anything else to
come out the late 70's, but it does come across to a modern audience as fairly
cheezy. On the other hand, by today's standards, everything written in the
70's is completely innane, and generally lame. ;-)
ABS put it into a highly competetive network slot (8:00 Sunday), and the show
that it was replaced with (Mork and Mindy - at the time the highest rated
sitcom) also performed abysmally in that timeslot.
My personal opinion is that it got canceled because it was so frakking(1)
expensive - in '78, a million bucks an episode was a huge budget. In
comparison, Babylon 5 ran about $800,000/ep, and DS9 averages about 1.6
million/ep.
ABC canceled it when it was rated 24th in the top 100 shows, which is quite
high, and many fans feel that the cancelation was in part due to ABC having
phenominal ratings the year before (nearly every show in the top 40)
When you mention 'derivative' I assume you are talking about Star Wars? There
are some similarities, but I think Glen Larson said it best:
Battlestar Galactica is quite different. When it comes to who are our
characters and what our story is, I would have to say that if you were
trying to compare Shane to Gunfight at the OK Corral, you'd say, "Yes,
they're both westerns," but I doubt if you'd find many parallels beyond
that. (2)
When Lucasfilm attempted to sue Universal over similarities between SW and BG,
they failed, and the judge ruled them 'disimilar in theme and content'(3)
Much of this post is personal opinion and memory, but the rest of it
(including most of the hard data) comes from the FAQ at cobol.com.
(I can say these things - I still love Battlestar Galactica) ;-)
James
http://www.shades-of-night.com/lego/
1: gotta love those "dodging the censor" swears!
2: Science Fantasy Film Classics (October 1978)
3: paraphrasing, because I don't have (easy) access to the actual wording of
the ruling.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Microfig Battlestar Galactica
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| (...) You don't think the cancellation had anything to do with the fact that the show was highly derivative, completely innane, and generally lame? (I can say these things, I used to *love* Battlestar Galactica) Steve (26 years ago, 7-Apr-99, to lugnet.cad)
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