How come Stargate isn't more main stream?

[mja71889]

How come stargate in general isn't main more main stream. I live in the US right and in college and most people are talking about lost which i saw a preview for and it looks dumb but few are talking about stargate but my friends from outside the US know all about it. I mean stargate sg1 and stargate atlantis not only have action, adventure, comedy but actual intelectual aspects. Let me simplify what i'm trying to say: Dispite all the qualities of stargate that make it a incrediable show how come it isn't more popular than 24 or lost which is the genre i'm trying to focus on. Lets not drift out of the genre of action adventure. Those two shows i can't stand it's over dramatic and they have no intelectual aspects to it. Well to be fair i only watced 24 for 5 minutes then got bored and lost i've only seen the preview. But on itunes i did see a couple of times and on amazon unbox that STargate atlantis was in the top 10. So the question I am asking is why isn't stargate more popular? What makes it less appealing to the main stream?

[Drax]

I guess because it's science fiction (which, I'm sorry to say, doesn't appeal to everyone's tastes) and it's on cable.

[Xiphias]

"Tell your friends about this show." Narrator, Arrested Development.

[Xinc]

As mentioned... science fiction does not appeal to everyone...
Due to the fact they'd have to contemplate a lot of different (often times, high) concepts.

Whereas with reality shows, they can gossip, and bad mouth people all they want along with other members in those programs.

Besides... close to real life drama is a lot easier for the general populous to relate/and associate to, than something happening 500 million light years away... let alone across the globe.

To each, his/or her own.
(Heck I read a lot more books, than I do spend time paying any attention to reality/action/adventure shows. )

[Killjoy_Zero]

People tend to care more about drama and other things that require little thinking. Look at our mainstream media. Its mostly reality and reality like TV shows. You have shows about court cases, dating scenarios, idiots on an island and people choose that over something relaxing. I dont know what it is about reality TV that draws people in, I think its the cake they give you whenever you watch.

[Jedi_Master_Bra'tac]

I guess for a lot of people, STARgate = STAR Trek = Sci fi = Geek = No life = Nerd etc etc etc. Alot of my friends won't even give the show a chance, though the ones that do borrow my DVDs and end up borrowing them all (or liking it if they don't have time to watch them all).
I think if more people gave it chance more people would like it. I'm not much of a fan of alot of other sci fis, but I love SG (never been much of a trekkie, don't even get me started on BSG and DW).

[KindlyKeller]

With Stargate, there's an awful lot you need to know to be fully aware of what's happening on the screen. Other shows -- Law and Order being a good example -- are easy to go into cold. That doesn't explain the Lost phenomenon, of course, but I think it works as a general rule.

[Puddle-Jumper]

Its cos its science fiction, which Im sure has already been said, but there are alot of people that won't watch a show purely cos its sci-fi. Which angers me! Like fair enough stargate is a sci-fi show but its still fantastic! Also so many of my friends won't even consider watching the re-imaging of BSG cos they say its sci-fi! Which it is not! Well I suppose it is but there are so many other things happening in it and its not even that science-fictiony......Then you have a show like lost which is very very very science-fictiony and just cos it hides it better does well

[Mike3121]

Yes, I agree, some people just shy away from anything science fiction no matter how well done. Others, like has been said, love all of the emotion, arguments, screaming, that sort of thing. There is also another category that like to see hunky bad guys and sexy bikini babes rolling around in the sand.

[DigiFluid]

Does this question really need to be asked? We all love it, but get a little perspective. "Stargate" is usurped only by "Farscape" and "Battlestar Galactica" in terms of colossally nerdy-sounding show names.

[SylvreWolfe]

Does this question really need to be asked? We all love it, but get a little perspective. "Stargate" is usurped only by "Farscape" and "Battlestar Galactica" in terms of colossally nerdy-sounding show names.

Farscape sure as hell beat Space Chase for a name.

My take on the reasons...
Regardless of what many scifi fans tend to want to believe, scifi is not that popular, it does not require more intelligence than other genres to enjoy or watch or to understand, and a lot of scifi is really two dimensional and flat, like many other shows in other genres. It relies heavily on CGI and SFX instead of actually telling a story, which is one of my big gripes about entertainment, in general.

[jenks]

Some of the most popular shows are scifi, Heroes? Lost? I think the real problem is all the space ships and stuff, people just see it and think CHEESE.

[Cmdr_Thor]

My questions is what about Star Wars? What about the many other sci-fi movies that have been done and have enjoyed such great success. I've had conversations with some friends that tease my love of stargate and star trek, saying that they just don't like or enjoy watching shows with aliens that look weird in them. That was one of their reason for not liking stargate. That completely irritated me because Stargate is the least "alien-ed" show out there. Considering the galaxy is populated with humans, the main badguys were basically human with a snake in their head, and the Jaffa were genetically altered humans. Yet, these same people love Star Wars which is rich in wacky looking aliens. I mean on Tatooine alone, there are hundreds of types of alien species. Why can people take and accept the space ships, aliens, and sci-fi weaponry of Star Wars and other successful sci-fi movies, but not give Stargate a chance?

[kymeric]

How come stargate in general isn't main more main stream. I live in the US right and in college and most people are talking about lost which i saw a preview for and it looks dumb but few are talking about stargate but my friends from outside the US know all about it. I mean stargate sg1 and stargate atlantis not only have action, adventure, comedy but actual intelectual aspects. Let me simplify what i'm trying to say: Dispite all the qualities of stargate that make it a incrediable show how come it isn't more popular than 24 or lost which is the genre i'm trying to focus on. Lets not drift out of the genre of action adventure. Those two shows i can't stand it's over dramatic and they have no intelectual aspects to it. Well to be fair i only watced 24 for 5 minutes then got bored and lost i've only seen the preview. But on itunes i did see a couple of times and on amazon unbox that STargate atlantis was in the top 10. So the question I am asking is why isn't stargate more popular? What makes it less appealing to the main stream?

Are you kidding? Stargate is probably the most main streamed scifi property outside of star wars. Just look at the demographics and the international distrabution of the show.

[heliosphere]

Are you kidding? Stargate is probably the most main streamed scifi property outside of star wars. Just look at the demographics and the international distrabution of the show.

I doubt that. People would recognize a Vulcan way before they'd recognize a Jaffa.

It matters on if pop culture picks it up for niche shows to be recognizable to main stream. And I could swear there was a thread like this a while back because I think I said the same thing.

And I also think expecting RDA's name to pull in the mainstream viewers doesn't work either because he's definately a recognizable household face, but a lot of people I know don't even know his name as an actor. It's always, "look, it's McGuyver! or It's the McGuyver dude!" He definately pulled in a huge hunk of the viewership of Stargate, but he's still sort of not as out known as say, William Shatner (who is probably well known in mainstream for his, how do you say this, acting ability or lack thereof and self-acknowledgement of).