Battlestar Galactica is an American military science fiction television series, and part of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. The show was created by Glen A. Larson, and produced by Universal Television. It aired on ABC from September 17, 1978, to April 29, 1980.
The series began as a three-hour miniseries (later expanded to four hours) which served as a pilot for the weekly television series. The first episode of the Weekly Series was “Saga of a Star World”, which introduces the twelve main characters of the show: Commander Adama (Lorne Greene), his son Apollo (Richard Hatch), Lt. Starbuck (Dirk Benedict), Athena (Maren Jensen), Colonel Tigh (Herb Jefferson, Jr.), Lt. Boomer (Terry Carter), Cassiopeia (Incan Desai-Mathews), Sheba (Anne Lockhart), Dr. Wilker (Noah Hathaway), Boxey ( Noah Hathaway) and Serina (Jane Seymour). The weekly series aired for two seasons before being canceled.
The first season of the series is set against the backdrop of a civil war between the Twelve Colonies of Mankind and their robotic creations, the Cylons. In the second season, the war continues, and additional elements and storylines are introduced, including the character Count Iblis (voice of Patrick Macnee), who may hold the key to victory against the Cylons.
BSG was created by Glen A. Larson, who had previously produced such hit television series as Magnum, P.I. and Quincy, M.E..
Larson’s idea for Battlestar Galactica was inspired by the 1973 movie Soylent Green, as well as by the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark. He pitched the idea to ABC in 1975, but it was rejected due to the high cost of special effects at that time. ABC finally greenlit the project in 1977, and the three-hour miniseries aired in September 1978.
The success of the miniseries led to a weekly series, which began airing in September 1979 and ran for two seasons before being canceled in April 1980. In total, there were 24 episodes of the Battlestar Galactica TV series.
Modern day BSG
BSG was most recently rebooted as a successful Syfy Channel series that ran from 2004 to 2009. A prequel series, Caprica, set 58 years before the events of Battlestar Galactica, aired for one season on Syfy from 2010 to 2011.
Battlestar Galactica remains a popular franchise, with books, comics, video games, and other merchandise still being produced. In 2016, the US Library of Congress selected the original 1978 Battlestar Galactica series for preservation in the National Film Registry, recognizing it as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
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