The original Battlestar Galactica had trouble deciding if it wanted to be a film or a television series. There are very real budget and story structure differences between the two, under normal circumstances. Battlestar Galactica pretty much kick-started the whole mini-series thing. The miniseries lies somewhere between traditional episodic television and movies. Without Battlestar Galactica, we probably would not have shows today like The Sopranos and all the historical drama series which are the bread and butter of the cable networks. The first episode of Battlestar Galactica cost seven million dollars to produce, so it was given a couple of theatrical releases with the intent of making back all those clams spent on it. In 1978, the theatrical release of the Battlestar Galactica pilot pulled in more Earth currency in most markets than Star Wars. Later episodes ran a mere million a piece. The show was cancelled despite excellent ratings and replaced by Mork & Mindy. This is why I always tell friends not to go into the business side of television; it makes people crazy and stupid. Needless to say, Mork & Mindy did much much much less well in Battlestar Galactica’s timeslot than its predecessor.
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