Dean's World

I find myself wondering if this will turn out to be the first dramatic series to start on cable to get picked up by a major broadcast network.

God, I hope not. IMO, that would ruin any or all 3 of them (BG, SG1, SGA). I like them right where they are, on that channel, and in those time slots. They are about the only shows we watch on any regular basis. We have DirecTV, so each are shown twice.

If only the Sci-Fi Channel had picked up "Enterprise"...

I'm guessing one is Nielson and another is some other company. I don't know who else does ratings but I'm pretty sure Nielson isn't the only one.

The networks are doing more and more innovative programming all the time. Television shows these days are smarter, better made, better written, and with better acting than most of what was on 20 or 30 years ago, and there's a reason: it turns out audiences actually do like quality. (They also still like stupid stuff of course. Nothing can please everybody.)

It's clear from listening and reading the stuff from the creative staff on Galactica that they would never ink a deal where they had to change the show to satisfy the network. Furthermore, there's no reason for the big networks to be looking to pick up Galactica if they didn't see its potential. Why buy an existing show when you could just rip off its ideas and add whatever stupid things you thought would make it more appealing to kids?

They've picked up the Galactica miniseries and so far there's no evidence they plan to change it significantly (although I'll bet I know one scene they remove). But if that miniseries does well, then Moore et. al. will be in the cat bird seat: they've got a show that's successful where it's at, and have kept complete creative control doing it, and can stay where they're at and be assured of at least a couple more years of success. Thereofore, if a major network wants them, it's going to have to either offer a ridiculous (and frankly unjustifiable) amount of money, or, they're going to have to ink a deal that says Moore et. al. keep complete creative control and that the network honchos keep their hands off.

Such arrangements were once unheard of for the networks but now they are quite common. A number of production companies now have deals like that.

Stargate Altlantic...shudder.

"I find myself wondering if this will turn out to be the first dramatic series to start on cable to get picked up by a major broadcast network."

Monk went from USA to ABC.

You're right. Monk is still on USA. But after a successful season on USA, ABC started showing the reruns of Monk...

There have been other series to go from cable to broadcast TV. I can't think of one right now, though.

Jerry: Bill Maher's show did it. This is why I specified dramatic series and not just "show."

Local stations control their own programming, and when you see a show in syndication on a local affiliate it's almost certainly *not* something the network picked up, but rather, something the local affiliate decided to carry. It generally has nothing to do with the networks.