While it may not have as extensive and dedicated a fanbase as the cultural cache of Star Trek or Star Wars, the Stargate series has an astonishingly wide reach. Although it began with a single film directed by Roland Emmerich, the story quickly grew to include multiple TV series, home media movies, comics, video games, and books. For beginners, figuring out the correct order to watch the Stargate series can seem nearly impossible.
Thankfully, the best “Stargate” is the early “Stargate”: Emmerich’s film and the first television spinoff, “Stargate SG-1.” Conceived as a sequel to the film, “SG-1” premiered on Showtime in 1997 and followed the same special operations team from the film as they traverse the universe via the titular artifact. Richard Dean Anderson was cast in SG-1 to replace Kurt Russell, who had refused to continue playing Colonel Jack O’Neill, but he was already a legend in the role. There is no doubt that this role made a great contribution to the series. MacGyver appears in the show of the same name.
Although Anderson stepped back from starring in the series as the show progressed, he helped solidify the show’s status as a cult sci-fi hit that lasted a full decade until its cancellation. During that time, “SG-1” also managed to break the Guinness World Record, which was eventually broken again just a few years later by none other than the Man of Steel.
Stargate SG-1 breaks Guinness World Records
“Stargate SG-1” switched from Showtime to the Sci-Fi Channel (now “SyFy”) for Season 6 during its run. It also has an impressive legacy, spawning further TV shows such as the animated series Stargate Infinity and the live-action shows Stargate Atlantis, Stargate Universe and Stargate Origins. So, of course, are the two home TV shows. -Media Movies. So even though the Sci-Fi Channel canceled “SG-1” in Season 10, not only did the show expand on the “Stargate” mythos and encourage further entries into the series, but it also Episode 214 was broadcast.
Furthermore, “SG-1” succeeded in breaking the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous broadcast of a science fiction television program. fan site gate world reported on this feat in 2007, noting how the show had been “running non-stop for nearly a decade” at that point. The episode that pushed SG-1 to its limits was episode 203, “Company of Thieves,” which first aired on September 15, 2006. At the time, there was another longest-running science fiction series, The X-Files. aired from September 10, 1993 to May 9, 2002, and consisted of 202 episodes.
Over time, “The X-Files” actually outperformed its former rivals, adding more installments for a total of 218 episodes. However, since those episodes were not consecutive, “SG-1” would have remained at the top. If it weren’t for another long-running show, this record would be…
Superman defeated SG-1…like that.
“Smallville” may have been essentially a superhero story, but to those in the Guinness world it qualified as a science fiction series. In May 2011, gate world reported that “Smallville” is scheduled to end, taking the record for longest running sci-fi TV show from last month’s “SG-1.” Like “Stargate,” this popular WB/CW series lasted 10 seasons and topped its rivals with 215 episodes. By the time “Smallville” ended, it had garnered 218 installments, rivaling the aforementioned “X-Files.” But unlike other seminal science fiction series, the Tom Welling-led show was in continuous production.
As Gateworld pointed out at the time, the main reason “Smallville” beat out “SG-1,” even though both shows lasted 10 seasons, was that “SyFy’s standard Meanwhile, the CW, the network that hosts “Smallville,” “continued with the industry standard practice of 22 episodes per year.” The show is also produced in Vancouver, Canada, and Lois Lane actor Erica Durance appears in the SG-1 season 8 episode “Affinity” as Teal’c’s neighbor Christa.
All of that is great, but Guinness’s recognition seems to have been controversial due to this particular record, with Doctor Who fans initially clamoring for the show to be recognized after 694 episodes. Since then, the British series has held the world record for “most consecutive science fiction television episodes in history.” Guinness “Doctor Who”, which returned with new episodes in 2024, aired “694 consecutive episodes over 26 seasons” from November 23, 1963 to December 6, 1989, and was “broadcast for 14 days over 26 years”. I pointed out that it was done. It’s unclear why the show didn’t hold the record for “longest-running science fiction TV show,” but at least things seem to have rectified somewhat in the years since “Smallville” claimed the title.
