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dbskylerToday I will answer the question that I have arbitrarily defined as Day 3 on my heavily abridged version of the "30 Days of Television" meme.
Day 3: A show that should never have been cancelled
My answer: Battlestar Galactica, the 1978 version.
Yes, that's right, the 1978 version. Want to know why?
First off, when a network cancels a show, then turns around and almost immediately asks for a sequel to said show, then yes, the show should never have been cancelled in the first place. I hereby proclaim that to be "the Galactica 1980 rule." And yes, Galactica 1980 was a horrible show, no question, but its existence proves that even ABC knew they had made a mistake by cancelling the original Battlestar Galactica. Which most definitely was not a horrible show at all. In fact, it was excellent.
Now I know that the show had its cheesy moments, but so did all '70's-era shows. You can't fault it for being a product of its time. And in so many, many ways it was truly groundbreaking. Know all that stuff in the Galactica remake about civil authority vs. military authority in a time of war? 1978 version, baby; that's where they got it from. It was all in there -- political shenanigans, resentment of the military, clashes between the military and the civilian security forces -- and it was in there in 1978. Also in there were story arcs, and circumstances being different at the end of an episode as opposed to being reset to how they were at the beginning. Again, this was 1978, when shows didn't do that kind of thing. Characters were flawed, and made mistakes. People didn't all agree with each other -- people from different colonies were shown to have different cultures, and different social mores. The show also did a wonderful job of playing with expectations, like in "The Man with Nine Lives" (one of the best episodes, IMO) and the truly shattering "Lost Planet of the Gods." I won't spoil people who haven't seen it, but again, the show did something that simply was never, ever done back then.
Was the show perfect? No, of course not. It had a lot of flaws. But it also had a tremendous number of strengths. It had drama, and adventure, and humor, and great characters, and an underlying optimism. It was a great show. And I still wonder what season two would have been like had we been able to see it.
Day 3: A show that should never have been cancelled
My answer: Battlestar Galactica, the 1978 version.
Yes, that's right, the 1978 version. Want to know why?
First off, when a network cancels a show, then turns around and almost immediately asks for a sequel to said show, then yes, the show should never have been cancelled in the first place. I hereby proclaim that to be "the Galactica 1980 rule." And yes, Galactica 1980 was a horrible show, no question, but its existence proves that even ABC knew they had made a mistake by cancelling the original Battlestar Galactica. Which most definitely was not a horrible show at all. In fact, it was excellent.
Now I know that the show had its cheesy moments, but so did all '70's-era shows. You can't fault it for being a product of its time. And in so many, many ways it was truly groundbreaking. Know all that stuff in the Galactica remake about civil authority vs. military authority in a time of war? 1978 version, baby; that's where they got it from. It was all in there -- political shenanigans, resentment of the military, clashes between the military and the civilian security forces -- and it was in there in 1978. Also in there were story arcs, and circumstances being different at the end of an episode as opposed to being reset to how they were at the beginning. Again, this was 1978, when shows didn't do that kind of thing. Characters were flawed, and made mistakes. People didn't all agree with each other -- people from different colonies were shown to have different cultures, and different social mores. The show also did a wonderful job of playing with expectations, like in "The Man with Nine Lives" (one of the best episodes, IMO) and the truly shattering "Lost Planet of the Gods." I won't spoil people who haven't seen it, but again, the show did something that simply was never, ever done back then.
Was the show perfect? No, of course not. It had a lot of flaws. But it also had a tremendous number of strengths. It had drama, and adventure, and humor, and great characters, and an underlying optimism. It was a great show. And I still wonder what season two would have been like had we been able to see it.