Originally published on Facebook, 12/29/09 (We skipped to #48, because #47 was a review of Avatar that I just couldn't get to work.)
There are a select few television shows that make the transfer from the small screen to the big screen successfully and there are even less that translate the other way. M*A*S*H is probably the most successful example of the latter phenomenon, being a wildly successful movie first and an even more successful television show that ran for ten seasons and whose finale remains one of the true, national television events in American history- but another, often overlooked television phenomenon that had success as a movie, followed by a wild bout of success on the small screen for ten seasons that has bred several DVD movies and (so far) two spin-off shows is equally as fascinating, because although it lacks the wild popularity of M*A*S*H and other genre shows, quietly flying below the radar, the Stargate Franchise has been wildly successful and yet remains somewhat less than connected to the overall cultural zeitgeist.
This fascinates me: the original Stargate movie, with James Spader and Kurt Russell was released in 1994 and made about $141 million which was a hefty return on its initial $55 million budget. They made a television show, Stargate SG-1 which ran for ten seasons, had one spin-off Stargate: Atlantis, which ran for five and just launched another spin-off Stargate: Universe which has already been picked up for a second season by the Sci-Fi Channel (or SyFy or whatever its called now.) Despite all this wild success however (and this is sort of mind-blowing) you're still more likely to meet a Trek Fan, A Star Wars Fan or a Doctor Who fan. Stargate remains one of the most successful television franchises (never mind science fiction franchises) in television history and yet remains oddly under the radar of, as I mentioned, the cultural zeitgeist- not to mention under the radar in general.
I remain a self-confessed geek and lover of good science fiction- and a lover of good television in general. There's nothing like a show whose writing is so good it practically crackles across the screen at you (Battlestar Galactica, The West Wing, Gilmore Girls) or shows whose characters you get invested in with ease (Firefly, Doctor Who) or even shows that are comedic gems (Arrested Development, Fawlty Towers)- yet despite making no bones about the fact that they aren't out for great television, Stargate is wildly entertaining. I think I've decided that it's because sometimes, people look for foie gras, steak and a four star meal when they watch television- and sometimes, they just look for mac and cheese.
And that, I think is the secret to the success of Stargate. Critics and reviews that I've seen often accuse it of being derivative- or of not being original- and perhaps that's true. After all, you can watch an episode of Stargate SG-1 and an episode of Trek and probably see a similar format with different players. There's nothing mind-blowingly original or ground breaking about it, yet it's just comfort food for your television. To be fair: Richard Dean Anderson helps a lot. If you're trying to entertain people, who better to help you out than the crackin' wise star of MacGuyver?
(And also, in a side note, there is a short-list of people with whom I'd like to have a boozy evening of mayhem with and Mr. Dean Anderson makes that list.)
Stargate SG-1 is the vanilla, the original flavor mac and cheese- but it is Stargate: Atlantis that for some reason I just find incredible engrossing and entertaining. Again, nothing fancy, nothing eye-popping, just genuinely good television- and to this day I'm not quite sure what it is about Atlantis that I find so entertaining. I think it was the pilot episode that did it for me- the launching of an expedition to another galaxy really is portrayed by the show as a true adventure, a true exploration of something totally alien. And that theme of exploration is something that runs throughout the whole body of the show and I guess it appeals to me. The other thing about Atlantis: the bad guys look like Edgar Winter. No really, that's what the Amazon.com review says- and it's totally true: Edgar Winter + an alien vampire = the Wraith! Which I find hysterically amusing!
But as a cultural phenomenon, Stargate remains elusive. Does it qualify as a phenomenon? Is it embedded in the cultural zeitgeist? Why is such a successful show, so oddly 'below the radar'? Stargate remains the most successful television show since M*A*S*H to jump from the big screen to the small screen. It claims the title of being the 'longest running science fiction show in North American history' (something that die hard Whovians contest) and for most of the past decade, it's been quietly expanding its corner of the television universe- and as science fiction shows go, it's never reached the popularity of Trek, but it doesn't have too--
Some people want foie gras when they watch television, some people just want mac and cheese- and the entire Stargate Franchise remains just that: consistently good entertainment- the mac and cheese of television.
No comments:
Post a Comment