Trek didn't survive the '60s. And its ratings were really never very good - NBC didn't try to cancel it twice out of pique, you know (that "bean counter" thing again; if a show is profitable, nobody cares if the beancounters like it). What it had was the first really loyal adult fanbase. Nobody knew what to make of that at the time - they knew what to do when the kiddies loved it (sell them all the ripoff merchandise Taiwan could crank out), but when grownups were watching every episode, even in reruns? They had no idea what that meant. Nobody did, really, not until the Trimbles put together the first ever Star Trek-only convention in New York in 1972. According to Bjo Trimble's account, they expected maybe 800 attendees - and stopped counting at 3000.
it was only canned, because they did not have demographics in the 60's. a similar, yet opposite thing happend in the 80s with Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers...they wanted to market it to kids, yet it was the teens and adults who made the ratings for it, which were quite high.
There's a few more examples of successful SF I can think of, though I'm not sure how they were broadcast:
Blake's 7 ran for 4 seasons with a considered fifth (bear in mind that this is the UK we're talking about, short series are almost a tradition unless it's Who-related or takes place in the village of Nouvion ). Also went on radio after that, and apparently it was successful enough to warrant a reboot - not that that's likely to turn out well, reboots being what they are.
Farscape, which has already been mentioned, had 4 seasons IIRC (maybe five) and a miniseries to wrap things up.
Not sure if Red Dwarf counts, but that one had somewhere around 10 seasons or more.
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
@smokebailey: The same thing is apparently what killed Stargate: even with the more actiony Atlantis they were attracting more women than they were the young men they were aiming their ads at. As if women don't watch sci-fi or buy stuff. *massive eyeroll* I say the correct solution is to buy different ads, not cancel the show.
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
@smokebailey: The same thing is apparently what killed Stargate: even with the more actiony Atlantis they were attracting more women than they were the young men they were aiming their ads at. As if women don't watch sci-fi or buy stuff. *massive eyeroll* I say the correct solution is to buy different ads, not cancel the show.
as a sci fi girl myself, I'll have to eye roll as well with yas.
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it was only canned, because they did not have demographics in the 60's. a similar, yet opposite thing happend in the 80s with Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers...they wanted to market it to kids, yet it was the teens and adults who made the ratings for it, which were quite high.
Blake's 7 ran for 4 seasons with a considered fifth (bear in mind that this is the UK we're talking about, short series are almost a tradition unless it's Who-related or takes place in the village of Nouvion
Farscape, which has already been mentioned, had 4 seasons IIRC (maybe five) and a miniseries to wrap things up.
Not sure if Red Dwarf counts, but that one had somewhere around 10 seasons or more.
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
as a sci fi girl myself, I'll have to eye roll as well with yas.