Doctor Who fans dispute SG-1 listing in the 2007 Guinness World Records as the "longest-running science fiction show (consecutive)", as 695 episodes of the British show were produced but not shown consecutively between 1963 and 1989.
Doctor Who fans dispute SG-1 listing in the 2007 Guinness World Records as the "longest-running science fiction show (consecutive)", as 695 episodes of the British show were produced but not shown consecutively between 1963 and 1989.
The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 science fiction film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich.
Sharon Eberson of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, wrote that "Stargate SG-1s place in the sci-fi universe can be measured in longevity, spot-on cast chemistry, rabid fans who call themselves Gaters and the tough subjects it has tackled", going on to note that the show "had rarely been a critical darling". Despite the lukewarm reaction to the pilot, various critics and publications later recognized that SG-1 had surpassed the 1994 film on which it was based.
Tucker enjoyed the SG-1 arch villain Apophis so much that they named their discovered near-Earth asteroid "99942 Apophis". Reflecting on SG-1 in 2020, Dean Devlin, co-creator of the 1994 original film, recalled that initially he had been very hostile to the series, likening his experience of it to "watching someone else raising your child" and pointing out that the full-frontal nudity featured in the pilot episode was not what he thought Stargate should be about.
She joins SG-1 after giving birth to the new leader of the Ori at the beginning of Season 10 and appears in both direct-to-DVD films. ==Production== ===Conception=== Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner had worked together on the MGM television series The Outer Limits since 1995.
The American subscription channel Showtime made a two-season commitment for 44 episodes in 1996.
Lead production designer Richard Hudolin joined the project in October 1996.
Bridget McGuire, SG-1's art director since the pilot episode, took over as lead production designer in Season 6. Hudolin flew to Los Angeles in 1996 to gather material from the feature film as reference and found the original Stargate prop stored outside in the Californian desert.
The series premiered on Showtime on July 27, 1997 and moved to the Sci Fi Channel on June 7, 2002; the final episode first aired on Sky1 on March 13, 2007. The story of Stargate SG-1 begins about a year after the events of the feature film when the United States government learns that an ancient alien device called the Stargate can access a network of such devices on a multitude of planets and in space.
Principal photography began in Vancouver in February 1997. ===Casting and cast changes=== After Anderson accepted the part, Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner reviewed several thousand taped auditions and invited approximately 25 promising actors to screen tests in Los Angeles.
The SGC set and all other sets from the pilot episode were constructed within six weeks in January and February 1997, incorporating some original set pieces from the feature film.
A television soundtrack with Goldsmith's adapted score was released in 1997, followed by a best-of release in 2001.
Sunday slot of July 27, 1997.
The show's July 1997 pilot, "Children of the Gods" received mixed responses from publications such as The New York Times and Variety.
The show was consistently the channel's most-watched program (including theatrical movies), so Showtime ordered a third and fourth season of 22 episodes each in July 1998. Since Stargate SG-1 was expensive to produce, MGM arranged an agreement with Showtime that SG-1 could air in syndication six months after their premiere on Showtime.
The Sci Fi Channel made its largest single programming acquisition of $150 million in 1998 by buying the exclusive basic cable rights to the MGM package Stargate SG-1, The Outer Limits and The Legacy.
From 1999 to 2001, ROC published four Stargate SG-1 novels written by Ashley McConnell.
Somebody smart from MGM is going to figure it out and something will happen." ===Home media=== Stargate SG-1 was first released on DVD in some European nations in volumes of typically four episodes each, beginning with "The Best of Season 1" as Volume 1 in the United Kingdom in 2000.
In 2000, the series was first released in the United States on DVD with only three episodes.
A television soundtrack with Goldsmith's adapted score was released in 1997, followed by a best-of release in 2001.
Stargate SG-1 was also nominated for two VES Awards in 2003 and 2005 and for two Hugo Awards in 2005 and 2007. ===Fandom=== Brad Wright used the term "Gaters" to refer to fans of Stargate SG-1 in 2001, but the term did not become widespread.
From 1999 to 2001, ROC published four Stargate SG-1 novels written by Ashley McConnell.
The series premiered on Showtime on July 27, 1997 and moved to the Sci Fi Channel on June 7, 2002; the final episode first aired on Sky1 on March 13, 2007. The story of Stargate SG-1 begins about a year after the events of the feature film when the United States government learns that an ancient alien device called the Stargate can access a network of such devices on a multitude of planets and in space.
Addressing rumors that it had forced Shanks's departure, Sci Fi said in February 2002 that the network had "absolutely never requested that any cast changes be made...
In Season 1 Episode 7, "The Nox", the music that played when The Nox appeared was Spinning The Silk from the album Chrysalis by 2002. ===Opening title sequence=== Stargate SG-1 has had several opening title sequences, which are generally preceded by a teaser act.
MGM Home Entertainment (Europe) began releasing complete season box sets (including Season 1) alongside the individual volumes in 2002.
In 2003, after spinoff series Stargate Atlantis was greenlit, SG-1 enjoyed more mainstream exposure.
Stargate SG-1 was also nominated for two VES Awards in 2003 and 2005 and for two Hugo Awards in 2005 and 2007. ===Fandom=== Brad Wright used the term "Gaters" to refer to fans of Stargate SG-1 in 2001, but the term did not become widespread.
A Stargate SG-1 roleplaying game and a Stargate trading card game were released in 2003 and 2007.
The Air Force Association recognized Richard Dean Anderson at its 57th annual dinner on September 14, 2004 for his work as actor and executive producer of the show and for the show's positive depiction of the United States Air Force. Several scenes of Season 4's "Small Victories" were filmed aboard and outside a decommissioned Russian Foxtrot-class submarine, which had been brought from Vladivostok to Vancouver by a private owner.
Sci Fi cut the length of an SG-1 season from 22 to 20 episodes from Season 8 onwards. Originally envisioned as a replacement for SG-1, the spin-off series Stargate Atlantis began airing in tandem with SG-1 eighth season in summer 2004, setting a series record of 3.2 million viewers for SG-1 and a Sci Fi record as most-watched episode of a regular series ever (at the time) for Atlantis with 4.2 million viewers.
Several newspapers reported in 2005–2006 that Stargate SG-1 aired in over 100 countries with a weekly worldwide viewership of around 10 million, but The New York Times gave different numbers in 2004, saying that the show was broadcast in sixty-four countries with more than 17 million viewers a week.
The July issue of TV Guide proclaimed on the front cover "Forget Trek! Stargate SG-1 is now sci-fi's biggest hit!". In the show's later seasons, it was broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel on the same night as the 2004 reimagining of Battlestar Galactica.
In 2004, UK-based Fandemonium Press launched a new series of licensed tie-in novels based on Stargate SG-1, although these books were unavailable in North America until 2006 when the license conflict with ROC expired.
Battlestar Galactica joined the two Stargate series in January 2005, making Sci Fi the leader among basic cablers on Friday nights over the summer of 2005.
Season 9's average slipped from 2.4 million viewers in late 2005 to 2.1 million viewers with 1.8 household rating during early 2006, which Sci Fi's Mark Stern attributed to the "tech-savvy, toy-loving, time-shifting audience" whose use of digital video recorders excluded them in ratings compilations.
Meanwhile, the decline of SG-1 2005–2006 syndication household ratings was consistent with the overall decline in syndicated sci-fi action hours.
Sci Fi ordered a record-breaking tenth season of SG-1 in 2005, but announced it would not renew the show for an eleventh season in summer 2006 (see #Cancellation and future).
Several newspapers reported in 2005–2006 that Stargate SG-1 aired in over 100 countries with a weekly worldwide viewership of around 10 million, but The New York Times gave different numbers in 2004, saying that the show was broadcast in sixty-four countries with more than 17 million viewers a week.
In 2005, SG-1 and Atlantis shared the number four spot in a poll about the "most popular cult TV shows" on the British Cult TV website.
Stargate SG-1 was also nominated for two VES Awards in 2003 and 2005 and for two Hugo Awards in 2005 and 2007. ===Fandom=== Brad Wright used the term "Gaters" to refer to fans of Stargate SG-1 in 2001, but the term did not become widespread.
The producers invited him to make cameo appearances in the episodes "Zero Hour" and "200". Until 2005, Gatecon was the main SG-1 fan convention.
SG-1 conventions by Creation Entertainment were also marketed as "The Official Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis Tour", which mostly took place in the United States until Creation Entertainment acquired the license for Vancouver conventions in 2005.
Diamond Select Toys and Hasbro launched a series of toys in 2005 and 2006, respectively.
The planned video game The Alliance was cancelled in 2005 and the futures of the MMORPG Stargate Worlds and the Third Person Shooter from the same studio (Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment) named Stargate Resistance were made clear in November 2010 following MGM's decision not to renew CME's Stargate license.
MGM executive vice president Charles Cohen described Stargate SG-1 and its spinoff series as the television counterpart of their James Bond franchise, being very profitable and improving their image. According to Stan Beeler and Lisa Dickson in their 2005 book Reading Stargate SG-1, the only science fiction shows to exceed the staying power of SG-1 are Doctor Who and the Star Trek franchise, although The X-Files and Buffy/Angel might have comparable longevity.
Season 9's average slipped from 2.4 million viewers in late 2005 to 2.1 million viewers with 1.8 household rating during early 2006, which Sci Fi's Mark Stern attributed to the "tech-savvy, toy-loving, time-shifting audience" whose use of digital video recorders excluded them in ratings compilations.
Sci Fi ordered a record-breaking tenth season of SG-1 in 2005, but announced it would not renew the show for an eleventh season in summer 2006 (see #Cancellation and future).
It aired in India on STAR World India and in Israel on Channel 1. ===Cancellation and future=== On August 21, 2006, a few days after the premiere of SG-1 milestone episode "200", the Sci Fi Channel confirmed that Stargate SG-1 was not being renewed for an eleventh season.
Brad Wright confirmed the production of two direct-to-DVD films in October 2006, and Amanda Tapping joined the Atlantis cast for their fourth season.
The box sets of the first eight seasons were re-released with slim packaging in all regions, beginning in the United States in summer 2006.
More than 30 million copies of DVDs had been sold by 2006. On June 15, 2020, Visual Entertainment re-released the complete series, without the films, on DVD.
On December 18, 2020, the company released the entire series, again without the films, on Region A Blu-ray. ===Online distribution=== New episodes of Stargate SG-1 were first released on iTunes in the US in August 2006, each time one day after their premiere on the Sci Fi Channel.
In 2004, UK-based Fandemonium Press launched a new series of licensed tie-in novels based on Stargate SG-1, although these books were unavailable in North America until 2006 when the license conflict with ROC expired.
Diamond Select Toys and Hasbro launched a series of toys in 2005 and 2006, respectively.
By SG-1 tenth season in 2006, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis were said to have brought US$500 million in production to British Columbia.
The series premiered on Showtime on July 27, 1997 and moved to the Sci Fi Channel on June 7, 2002; the final episode first aired on Sky1 on March 13, 2007. The story of Stargate SG-1 begins about a year after the events of the feature film when the United States government learns that an ancient alien device called the Stargate can access a network of such devices on a multitude of planets and in space.
The final SG-1 episode, "Unending", premiered on Sky1 in the UK on March 13, 2007 and attracted approximately 2.2 million viewers on the Sci Fi Channel on June 22, 2007. ===International broadcast=== According to Wright and Cooper, the worldwide popularity of science fiction was a factor in SG-1 success and the good international reception helped keep the series on the air in the beginning.
A complete series set was first released in the United States in October 2007, containing 50 discs from the ten seasons of Stargate SG-1 and four bonus discs with content not part of the original sets.
A release on iTunes UK followed in October 2007.
Stargate SG-1 was also nominated for two VES Awards in 2003 and 2005 and for two Hugo Awards in 2005 and 2007. ===Fandom=== Brad Wright used the term "Gaters" to refer to fans of Stargate SG-1 in 2001, but the term did not become widespread.
A Stargate SG-1 roleplaying game and a Stargate trading card game were released in 2003 and 2007.
Doctor Who fans dispute SG-1 listing in the 2007 Guinness World Records as the "longest-running science fiction show (consecutive)", as 695 episodes of the British show were produced but not shown consecutively between 1963 and 1989.
Davis died from a heart attack in June 2008, making his appearance in Stargate: Continuum his last. Corin Nemec as Jonas Quinn (Season 6 main, Seasons 5 and 7 recurring) – A humanoid alien and scientist from the country of Kelowna on the planet Langara.
Davis left Stargate SG-1 after Season 7 for health reasons, but appeared in a recurring capacity until his death on June 29, 2008. Due to prior engagements, Claudia Black of Farscape fame could not accept the offers to guest-star on Stargate SG-1 until the Season 8 episode "Prometheus Unbound".
The SGC set would be largely dismantled in late 2008 to make room for the Icarus Base set of Stargate Universe. ===Make-up and costumes=== Most of the main SG-1 characters are US airmen and wear authentic United States Air Force uniforms.
The first film, The Ark of Truth, was released in March 2008 and wraps up the Ori storyline.
The second film, Continuum, is an alternate time-line time travel story and was released in July 2008.
A special edition of the two-hour pilot episode "Children of the Gods" with re-edited scenes and a different score has also been produced. In April 2009, MGM confirmed a third new SG-1 film that Brad Wright had first announced in May 2008.
Amanda Tapping confirmed her appearance in this SG-1 film and the first Atlantis movie in September 2008, and Michael Shanks (Daniel Jackson) confirmed his and Richard Dean Anderson's participation in January 2009.
All ten seasons of SG-1 were available on iTunes and Amazon Unbox by January 2008.
British company Big Finish Productions began to produce Stargate SG-1 audio adventures in early 2008, voiced by members of the SG-1 cast.
MGM eventually insisted on using Arnold's score in the pilot episode instead of Goldsmith's, but Brad Wright's 2009 direct-to-DVD recut of Children of the Gods uses Goldsmith's original score. For each episode's score, Goldsmith simulated a real orchestra with a synthesizer palette of an eighty-piece symphony orchestra for budgetary reasons, although he occasionally used two or three musicians for added orchestral authenticity.
A special edition of the two-hour pilot episode "Children of the Gods" with re-edited scenes and a different score has also been produced. In April 2009, MGM confirmed a third new SG-1 film that Brad Wright had first announced in May 2008.
Amanda Tapping confirmed her appearance in this SG-1 film and the first Atlantis movie in September 2008, and Michael Shanks (Daniel Jackson) confirmed his and Richard Dean Anderson's participation in January 2009.
No contracts had been signed by April 2009, but Wright stated that he "can almost guarantee we are proceeding with the SG-1 movie this year [2009]".
Stargate SG-1 made its debut on [in March 2009, starting with the first season.
At first, viewers in the United States could only watch episodes of the first seasons, but as of December 2009 all episodes of Seasons 1–10 were available free of charge with a small number of commercials on Hulu, through January 31, 2011.
The pilot episode "Children Of The Gods" though has been replaced with the 2009 updated final cut with updated CGI and the full frontal nudity removed.
Writing for The Guardian in 2009, Emily Wilson labelled the original film "pretty dire", believing that the series had far outshined it.
SG-1 was also included in the list of "17 All-Time Great Cult TV Shows You Say We Missed" by Entertainment Weekly in 2009.
The planned video game The Alliance was cancelled in 2005 and the futures of the MMORPG Stargate Worlds and the Third Person Shooter from the same studio (Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment) named Stargate Resistance were made clear in November 2010 following MGM's decision not to renew CME's Stargate license.
Wright and Joe Mallozzi expressed optimism that production would eventually start, until Wright announced in April 2011 that the SG-1 film project was permanently shelved, along with plans for future Atlantis and Stargate Universe films and a cross-over film incorporating elements from all three series.
At first, viewers in the United States could only watch episodes of the first seasons, but as of December 2009 all episodes of Seasons 1–10 were available free of charge with a small number of commercials on Hulu, through January 31, 2011.
Free access to all SG-1 episodes continued until July 31, 2011, when the episodes were finally removed.
As of February 1, 2011, all episodes of the entire Stargate franchise were available on Netflix's subscription-based online video streaming service in the US.
In 2011, IGN ranked it #19 in their Top 50 Sci Fi Shows of All Time.
With its 202nd episode, "Company of Thieves", Stargate SG-1 surpassed The X-Files as the longest-running North American science fiction series on television, until passed by the final season of Smallville in 2011, which was in turn passed by the eleventh season revival of The X-Files in 2018.
As of August 15, 2012 Netflix removed Stargate SG-1 from its online video streaming service.
As of May 2013, Amazon Video has Stargate SG-1 available for online streaming.
As of August 2014 SG-1 is available on Netflix UK.
As of July 2015, Hoopla Digital, an online library media database, has all ten seasons of Stargate SG-1 available to watch free without commercials, for those who have cards with a participating library.
In September 2017, MGM launched its own online streaming service called Stargate Command, making available all episodes of Stargate SG-1 along with Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe.
Paste ranked it #24 out of 100 on their 2017 list of Greatest Sci-fi television.
With its 202nd episode, "Company of Thieves", Stargate SG-1 surpassed The X-Files as the longest-running North American science fiction series on television, until passed by the final season of Smallville in 2011, which was in turn passed by the eleventh season revival of The X-Files in 2018.
In 2019, Popular Mechanics ranked Stargate: SG-1 the 14th best science fiction television show ever.
Amazon Prime also conducted a user-poll in 2019, with the show voted the 3rd Greatest Sci-Fi of all Time. ===Awards and nominations=== Stargate SG-1 was nominated for numerous awards during its ten-season run.
More than 30 million copies of DVDs had been sold by 2006. On June 15, 2020, Visual Entertainment re-released the complete series, without the films, on DVD.
On December 18, 2020, the company released the entire series, again without the films, on Region A Blu-ray. ===Online distribution=== New episodes of Stargate SG-1 were first released on iTunes in the US in August 2006, each time one day after their premiere on the Sci Fi Channel.
The show returned to Netflix in the United States on December 1, 2020 with a TV-MA rating because of the full frontal nudity in the first episode. ==Impact== ===Critical reception=== Stargate SG-1, particularly during earlier seasons, did very little to attract much in the way of attention from the mainstream media.
Tucker enjoyed the SG-1 arch villain Apophis so much that they named their discovered near-Earth asteroid "99942 Apophis". Reflecting on SG-1 in 2020, Dean Devlin, co-creator of the 1994 original film, recalled that initially he had been very hostile to the series, likening his experience of it to "watching someone else raising your child" and pointing out that the full-frontal nudity featured in the pilot episode was not what he thought Stargate should be about.
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