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    #16
    Originally posted by Republibot 3.0 View Post
    2) It became too expensive to produce, what with built in raises and production stuff and exchange rates and whatnot.
    Bingo. SfyFy usually puts out extremely cheap-looking shows and TV movies. Consequently, I never bothered with this channel's original programming except for Stargate and Sanctuary. I would say being too expensive is exactly why the show was cancelled. Usually, a science-fiction show is cancelled for being too expensive more often than for low viewership. Knowing the fans would react negatively to the Ori saga being left open, MGM produced two TV-grade movies. The first resolved the Ori saga, the second resolved Ba'al's story and revisited the Goa'uld one last time. The second film was also testing the waters to see if a series of SG-1 movies would sell. Ultimately, the studio went bankrupt and Stargate went under before a third movie could happen.

    Originally posted by Republibot 3.0 View Post
    Yeah, that was Option 2 listed above. I think that's fairly likely, though getting rid of O'Neil would have theoretically reduced the cost quite a bit. Of course bringing in three major new cast members might have offset that.
    They didn't get rid of O'Neill. Richard Dean-Anderson backed out to spend more time with his family. He had such a strong presence that it too three actors to replace RDA and maintain the team dynamic.

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      #17
      Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
      They didn't get rid of O'Neill. Richard Dean-Anderson backed out to spend more time with his family. He had such a strong presence that it too three actors to replace RDA and maintain the team dynamic.
      I meant "Get rid of" in the sense of "He's no longer on the cast." I didn't mean it in the sense that they fired him or he got hit by a bus or anything. I didn't express that well, sorry. My bad. I knew why he left, and it was obviously amicable. Just meant that with him leaving, a lot of money in the budget got freed up.
      Sincerely,

      Kevin Long
      (The Artist Formerly Known As Republibot 3.0)
      http://www.kevin-long.com

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        #18
        Ah, I see what you mean. I'm glad he stuck around in a recurring role. I'm also glad Brad Wright got him back for Continuum, especially since it effectively acts as SG-1's swan song.

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          #19
          After Season 8 the ratings started to decline as costs of the show skyrocketed (in S9 they lost one star RDA - but they had to pay 3 additional stars - Ben Browder, Claudia Black and Beau Bridges). If the ratings would have gone up post S8 enough to counter the increasing costs we would have seen another season. I still maintain my opinion that S10 was filmed not because it was very profitable, but because TPTB wanted to break the record of X-Files

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            #20
            Originally posted by Snowman37 View Post
            Ah, I see what you mean. I'm glad he stuck around in a recurring role. I'm also glad Brad Wright got him back for Continuum, especially since it effectively acts as SG-1's swan song.
            I strongly suspect using Jack so prominently was an attempt to lure back in SG1 viewers who'd drifted away from the franchise. I know people for whom 'Gate *IS* RDA, period, end of sentence.
            Sincerely,

            Kevin Long
            (The Artist Formerly Known As Republibot 3.0)
            http://www.kevin-long.com

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              #21
              Originally posted by siles View Post
              After Season 8 the ratings started to decline as costs of the show skyrocketed (in S9 they lost one star RDA - but they had to pay 3 additional stars - Ben Browder, Claudia Black and Beau Bridges). If the ratings would have gone up post S8 enough to counter the increasing costs we would have seen another season. I still maintain my opinion that S10 was filmed not because it was very profitable, but because TPTB wanted to break the record of X-Files
              That's an interesting theory! Hadn't thought of that. The only thing that makes me question it is that nobody evidently told MGM. The writers and studio were clearly flatfooted by the decision, and were only told halfway through the season.

              I know Sci-Fi told 'em to wrap it up, but they kind of refused. Allegedly the season ended exactly the way it would have, had they been renewed for a Season 11, which evidently they'd thought they were going to be at one point. This probably added to the rumor that they were trying to find another home for the series - on CBS or Showtime or whatever.
              Sincerely,

              Kevin Long
              (The Artist Formerly Known As Republibot 3.0)
              http://www.kevin-long.com

              Comment


                #22
                Originally posted by Republibot 3.0 View Post
                Entirely believable, and hence probably the right answer.
                I would hope it seems reasonable, since that's what actually happened


                Originally posted by Republibot 3.0 View Post
                The 'They wouldn't let anyone else save it' rumors persist, though, and after a while they become self-feeding. I figured if anyone knew it'd be you guys. The (Addled?) logic seems to be that if the show had continued on CBS it would have had vastly more exposure than Sci-Fi was capable of, being a broadcast network, which would have made it popular enough be a huge success and detract from SGA
                There is a kernel of truth in this part of it as well....

                Jelly's right, as far as we know Sci Fi has/had first-right rights for Stargate on TV. To alter the terms of that agreement would probably have been costly to both MGM and to NBC Universal (Sci Fi's parent company). Not to mention that, as you say, another Stargate series was also running on Sci Fi at the time and they would not have been interested in providing their competitors with a proven franchise. There's just no economic viability in that.

                Not to mention that Stargate is an extremely niche show, and probably wouldn't have done well on a network anyway so it's doubtful that even MGM would have been willing to finagle over the costs of having it released from Sci Fi.


                Money money money, makes the world go around.
                "A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After Life

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                  #23
                  Originally posted by siles View Post
                  I still maintain my opinion that S10 was filmed not because it was very profitable, but because TPTB wanted to break the record of X-Files
                  The powers that be would be the SciFi Channel executives. SG-1 was cancelled right after "200" aired, the night the cast and crew were celebrating 200 episodes, just six episodes into a twenty-episode season, and after the network promised an eleventh season.

                  Originally posted by Republibot 3.0 View Post
                  I strongly suspect using Jack so prominently was an attempt to lure back in SG1 viewers who'd drifted away from the franchise. I know people for whom 'Gate *IS* RDA, period, end of sentence.
                  Originally, O'Neill was only going to be seen in the alternate timeline. It was RDA's idea to have a larger role in the movie, appearing with SG-1 at the beginning and end of the movie for Ba'al's extraction.

                  Originally posted by Republibot 3.0 View Post
                  The only thing that makes me question it is that nobody evidently told MGM. The writers and studio were clearly flatfooted by the decision, and were only told halfway through the season.
                  Bingo. Actually, cancellation was announced during the filming of 10-16 "Bounty."

                  I know Sci-Fi told 'em to wrap it up, but they kind of refused.
                  Not really. Brad Wright wanted to end the show on a cliffhanger to lead into a movie which MGM was already willing to produce at this point. SciFi wanted a finale, not a cliffhanger. The compromise was an open-ended series finale. We get an ending (Asgard die, Earth get's their legacy, SG-1 is trapped in a time bubble for fifty years), but then it leaves the story open for movies (time bubble gets reversed, Teal'c stays old, SG-1 can now realistically fight the Ori).

                  Allegedly the season ended exactly the way it would have, had they been renewed for a Season 11, which evidently they'd thought they were going to be at one point.
                  Evidently, "Talion" and "Family Ties" were already written and ready for production, otherwise they would have focused more on closing story lines. Had the show not been cancelled, I suspect that "Dominion" would have played out differently, and we would have had an entirely different finale instead of "Unending." Stargate: The Ark of Truth was suppose to be the Season 10 finale and the either the 11th season or at least the opening 5-10 episodes.
                  Last edited by Snowman37; 21 October 2011, 06:54 AM.

                  Comment


                    #24
                    A lot of half-truths and (seemingly) outright guesses in the post above that need addressing...
                    • Sci Fi did not promise them an eleventh season at any point. They gave the go-ahead to re-sign the crew and (IIRC) at least some of the cast, but that's far, far cry from promising anything. That was insurance that they would have people to work the show if they had decided to renew it.
                    • We know that the cancellation news came out during their 200th episode party, around the time that 200 aired. We do not know what episode was filming at the time.
                    • Sci Fi did not tell Wright et. al to 'wrap it up'. Sci Fi had first-airing rights for the movies that were to follow, so it didn't matter to them if the series was the period at the end of the sentence or not. Unending was TPTB's baby to write a final episode for their 10 season series
                    • Ark of Truth was never to be the Season 10 finale in any way, shape, or form. But it was indeed made up of elements that were to be told across a potential Season 11
                    Last edited by DigiFluid; 21 October 2011, 08:24 AM.
                    "A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After Life

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                      #25
                      Originally posted by DigiFluid View Post
                      A lot of half-truths and (seemingly) outright guesses in the post above that need addressing...

                      Sci Fi did not promise them an eleventh season at any point. They gave the go-ahead to re-sign the crew and (IIRC) at least some of the cast, but that's far, far cry from promising anything. That was insurance that they would have people to work the show if they had decided to renew it.
                      Ah, I just assumed that re-signing actors meant the network had decided to renew the show for an eleventh season only to back out soon after. Thanks for clearing this up.

                      We know that the cancellation news came out during their 200th episode party, around the time that 200 aired. We do not know what episode was filming at the time.
                      "On a separate note, this was also the episode which, when we were filming, we found out that we had been cancelled." (Actor Michael Shanks, in a post at his TVGuide.com blog)
                      [source]

                      Sci Fi did not tell Wright et. al to 'wrap it up'.
                      The writers originally planned to end with a cliffhanger finale, anticipating another renewal. But when word came in August of 2006 that SCI FI did not want an eleventh season of the show, they had to rethink how to end SG-1's run on the network without ending the premise entirely -- similar to the challenge faced when the show ended its 5-year run on Showtime in Season Five.

                      The network did not want a cliffhanger, Cooper said, and "out of respect for the fans we wanted that episode to have a little bit of a spirit of closure, a sense of ending without it being an ending. And thus we called it 'Unending.' It's one of those fun science fiction concepts that allows you to have a window into one possible version of the future for these characters."
                      (GateWorld news report)
                      [source]

                      Ark of Truth was never to be the Season 10 finale in any way, shape, or form. But it was indeed made up of elements that were to be told across a potential Season 11
                      "That's going to be the story that [Robert Cooper] wanted to end the season with. It's going to be a big, splashy feature film. ... It is a great story. It's a big story. It involves travelling to the Ori galaxy."
                      (Executive producer Brad Wright, in an interview at StargateSG1.com)
                      [source]

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                        #26
                        Originally posted by DigiFluid View Post
                        Sci Fi had first-airing rights for the movies that were to follow, so it didn't matter to them if the series was the period at the end of the sentence or not.
                        Sky One in the UK aired Continuum first, before SciFi.
                        sigpic

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                          #27
                          He meant in the USA.

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                            #28
                            10.16: Corrected! It was a fair safe bet that I was on board with, but I wasn't about to commit to it without some sort of proof. Thanks for providing.

                            Cliffhanger: The network doesn't have to be happy about what they do. They'd already funded the entire year and cancelled them out of the following year. Moreover that's talking about the showrunners wanting to do an ending episode, not being forced into it at Sci Fi's demand.

                            AoT S10v11: Hm, that's not much of a tidbit. It looks like an out-of-context quotation, but I can't find the interview to check since "stargatesg1.com" appears to be defunct. Does anyone have it saved?

                            dips: Yeah, Snowman is right by what I meant there, US first-air rights. I should have been clearer.
                            "A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After Life

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                              #29
                              Originally posted by DigiFluid View Post
                              Cliffhanger: The network doesn't have to be happy about what they do. They'd already funded the entire year and cancelled them out of the following year. Moreover that's talking about the showrunners wanting to do an ending episode, not being forced into it at Sci Fi's demand.
                              The fact that the network had to step in and ask them not to do a cliffhanger suggests that was the original plan. I figure the network didn't care what the producers did with the finale so long as it wasn't a cliffhanger. It's a reasonable network request, no?

                              AoT S10v11: Hm, that's not much of a tidbit. It looks like an out-of-context quotation, but I can't find the interview to check since "stargatesg1.com" appears to be defunct. Does anyone have it saved?
                              I have the DVD, I could watch the making of the movie special to see if it's mentioned there.

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                                #30
                                I suppose I could too, but then honestly I don't even really care that much
                                "A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After Life

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