Ttam Legacy
Well-Known Member
You will have to forgive me, but I don't know why it ended. Was it ratings? I heard so much about how it was the best tv show on at the time. Thanks for your time.
Why did BSG end at four seasons?
- Thread starter Ttam Legacy
- Start date
Well, for one thing, it was on the Syfy Channel, which as we all know doesn't really like or deal with science fiction.
exactly. Hence caprica ending after one season, and SGU being canned most recently.
BSG had a lot of problems. Ratings were dropping for them. It was expensive. They wanted to make sure they were able to tell the whole story they wanted, since they knew with syfy they could be canned at any moment.
The writers strike almost caused the show to end after the 4.0 finale. Yeah, that would have been.. wow.
Thankfully, we at least got those last 10 eps. Really, it was just a culmination of things. So we should just be happy we got the 4 seasons and the 2 movies!
I would rather have that, then have had them go on for six or seven seasons and gradually get worse and worse.
DuneMuadDib
Sr Member
Ron Moore claims that they had the storyline roughly planned out and during production of season 3 (I think) they realized that the story would naturally conclude at the end of Season 4. The network didn't decide to end the show, the producers did.
Even with the dipping ratings I think it was the highest rated show on the network so no reason to can it.
Even with the dipping ratings I think it was the highest rated show on the network so no reason to can it.
We can call ourselves lucky as fans that we got a series with an actual ending to it.
Too many series with ongoing storylines were capped before the viewer got to know how the story archs would be resolved, leaving a lot of questions open. I was bummed about Surface not getting a proper ending, same with Invasion, Heroes, Thattimetravelerseriessorryforgotthetitle...
Too many series with ongoing storylines were capped before the viewer got to know how the story archs would be resolved, leaving a lot of questions open. I was bummed about Surface not getting a proper ending, same with Invasion, Heroes, Thattimetravelerseriessorryforgotthetitle...
JiminSTLouis
Sr Member
I never did understand SyFy's scheduling. The show would come and go for months at a time. When it returned, if I didn't have my DVR set to record all new episodes, I wouldn't even know it was back. I know people that missed almost half a season because they didn't know it was back on the air and they just said "screw it".
robstyle
Master Member
Even that was five minutes too long.
Mara Jade's Father
Master Member
I remember reading back then when the announcement was made about the show ending, that is was at the end of year 3, RDM wanted a 2 year commitment and SyFy was only willing to grant one year at a time. So RDM made the choice to end it after four.
The reason (I believe was mentioned) is that this way he could ensure the story had the proper ending he wanted. It takes time and a lot of story set up to end a show right so you sort of need to know where the end will be. RDM probably was concerned that SyFy canceled shows with little warning like Farscape and SG-1 that were still very popular. He did not want to be in the middle of season 4 in a story that could not be wrapped up if SyFy sprang an cancellation on him.
The reason (I believe was mentioned) is that this way he could ensure the story had the proper ending he wanted. It takes time and a lot of story set up to end a show right so you sort of need to know where the end will be. RDM probably was concerned that SyFy canceled shows with little warning like Farscape and SG-1 that were still very popular. He did not want to be in the middle of season 4 in a story that could not be wrapped up if SyFy sprang an cancellation on him.
MooMooEgg
Sr Member
You know he doesn't like being called that. :cool
Solo4114
Master Member
Curse you, Kerr! You beat me to it. :lol
Cause they were too stupid to end it after 2 seasons.
If it hadn't been answered al;tready,my guess is *dwindling popularity* and the storyline realy deviated from its main path.It got far too political for me and then(all the lame interpersonal drama),I couldn't really understand what the hell they were doing.Basically, the writiers SUNK BSG.It started off with a bang,and ended with a fizzle,sputter and spurt.Kinda like the Star Wars Prequal films and other Sci-Fi films&shows that were good.Its like they ran out of stuff to write about and decided to fill it with nonsense and garbage that had nothing to do with the original plot/story line.
Zombie_61
Master Member
I guess it all depends on whose story you're willing to believe, or who's telling it.
I recall reading Ron D. Moore had a story arc for five-seasons but that after Season 3 the Sci-Fi Channel decided the fourth season would be the last, so they had to squeeze the last two seasons into one (which is why the pacing of the fourth season is so fast by comparison to the previous three).
Whatever the reason, I enjoyed the show but felt four seasons was enough.
Rotwang
Sr Member
Four seasons was about right. Unless they had fleshed out New Caprica or found a really interesting angle to explore, it would have dragged on.
Remember that Moore's team pitched a great bunch of ideas and wrote some excellent characters, but they made up things as they went along which explains many of the oddities in the series.
The danger is that the longer you stretch that method the bigger the chance you paint yourself into a corner or get lost along the way and can't resolve things properly.
Remember that Moore's team pitched a great bunch of ideas and wrote some excellent characters, but they made up things as they went along which explains many of the oddities in the series.
The danger is that the longer you stretch that method the bigger the chance you paint yourself into a corner or get lost along the way and can't resolve things properly.
clancampbell
Sr Member
That's exactly what i thought. The series was interesting and fun for 2, maybe 3 seasons....it just lost it's way and became mired in it's own bullcrap...
Rich
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