46 Years Ago, a Forgotten Sci-Fi Spinoff Devastated Fans With How Bad It Was (Luckily the Franchise Didn’t Die)

It has been 46 years since a sci-fi spinoff disappointed a rabid fanbase and almost destroyed the entire franchise. When Star Wars shook up the world with a perfect sci-fi space opera and Star Trek was heading to the big screen after a popular TV show, it seemed time for other studios and networks to get in on the act. This would include some very disappointing copycat sci-fi space movies and TV shows, but there were also some releases that seemed promising, even if the networks airing them didn’t think so. One of these was Battlestar Galactica.

Glen A. Larson created Battlestar Galactica as an original TV series in 1978. However, it only lasted for one season and 24 episodes, and then ABC canceled it. This frustrated fans, who started a letter-writing campaign trying to save the show. At that time, these campaigns were unheard of, so ABC tried to revive the series with a spinoff series. That series, Galactica 1980, was released on January 27, 1980. It was a massive disappointment, a failure when it was released, and it almost killed the entire franchise.

Galactica 1980 Suffered From Massive Network Interferance

The biggest reason that Galactica 1980 failed was because of ABC. The network has no idea what it was doing and screwed everything up from the start. While ABC wanted to make fans happy, the network decided to ignore what Glen A. Larson was planning, and it forced him to make changes that took away everything that was great about the original Battlestar Galactica series.

The idea was to make the spinoff for less money, so Larson sat down with Donald P. Bellisario, and they decided to set the new series five years after the Battlestar Galactica finale, so they could remove unnecessary characters. Their plan was to bring back Commander Adama (Lorne Greene), Apollo (Richard Hatch), Starbuck (Dirk Benedict), and Lord Baltar (John Colicos). The story would have Baltar suggest using his time travel technology to alterEarth’s history, and when he was denied, he would try it anyway.

Apollo would be the main star, as he would follow him through time and try to stop him from making changes, while Starbuck would stay behind the deal with their superiors. However, Benedict wasn’t available, and Hatch rejected the role because he didn’t like the script. Then ABC stepped in and said they decided they didn’t want the time travel and just had it all set on Earth, with two brand-new characters protecting children on Earth.

Removing the time travel and not having the space opera setting, Galactica 1980 was nothing like the original series, and fans hated it. Fans also hated the new leads and felt they were weak replacements for Apollo and Starbuck. There were only 10 episodes, and ABC cancelled the series during production of the 11th.

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Battlestar Galactica Survived & Thrived Two Decades Later

It seemed like this destroyed the entire Battlestar Galactica franchise. The original series, with the Cylons, was still great, and there was a toy line that went along with it that kept kids excited about the franchise. Luckily, there were ways to keep it going off of television, as there were novels based on the series, comic books, and video games. This allowed Ronald D. Moore and David Eick to bring it back.

In 2003, the two men rebooted it as a re-imagined two-part, three-hour miniseries. It was such a success for Sci-Fi that it ended up getting ordered to series and ended up running for four seasons and 76 episodes. It remains the best sci-fi series that Sci-Fi ever aired, and is considered part of the “Golden Age” of television, along with shows like The Sopranos. The Battlestar Galactica reboot won a Peabody Award in 2005 and an Emmy in 2007, something fans who watched Galactica 1980 never could have expected.

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