First off, as a not-so-closet BG fan, I need to remind y’all that Galactica <ptooie> 80 did not, in fact, ever happen. It was all a delusion. Forget what the episode guides say. It was a horrible, horrible mistake. And I have the episodes to prove it (I keep them for watching when I feel the need to do penance for some egregious behavior). OK, I will acknowledge the existence of the horribly misnomered “The Return of Starbuck” episode, if only because it had Dirk Benedict in it. However, I do need to make one correction…
AWB posted
Not quite. Starbuck did not actually physically father Dr. <spit> Zee. The woman was pregnant when the Cylon found her. She claims the kid is his “spiritual” kid. Whatever. I always thought it was very, very strange until I talked to an ex-Mormon. I can’t recall the particulars but I learned that a LOT of what happened in that episode and in “War of the Gods” (the one with Patrick MacNee) was related to some of the more “secret” aspects of Mormon Theology. Glen Larson being a member of the LDS church, this sort of makes sense. There are actually a lot of parallels between the series and LDS theology. I think some of the information can be found on the FAQ at http://www.kobol.com.
DSyoungEsq complained"
Ha! Dream on.
In actuality, it’s never been off the air for any substantial length of time since it aired. For many, many years it was run in syndication. Then the SciFi Channel picked it up (they still rerun it now and then, though they commit the terrible sacrilege of snipping scenes to make room for commercials…grrr). Yes, it’s hardly the world’s greatest Science Fiction series. In fact, when it comes to the “science” part of science fiction, it’s pretty poor. Probably because Glen Larson knows jack-felgercarb about even the most basic aspects of astronomy and he tended to interfere with the show writers all the time. For me it’s a guilty pleasure. The fact that I was only 8 when the show aired probably helped me enjoy it. And, FWIW, it was the most successful space-based science fiction series that ever aired on network TV. Despite what naysayers will tell you, it ranked somewhere in the 20s for the year. It got canned largely because of costs.
There was 24 hours of the first and only season aired. Some of the episodes have been released on VHS but not all (and, alas, not the best ones). A “widescreen” version of the theatrical version of the pilot is available, but since the show wasn’t filmed in widescreen this just means some of the top and bottom of each frames is cut off. Oh, and in Canada a series of “telemovies” was created…these are very, very odd cut-and-paste versions of the original eps, complete with bad voice overs to link the unrelated stories together. Scary. But, as a BG fan, I can claim to have those on tape, too. 
As for the revival, well, the less said about that, IMHO, the better. It’s a 20 year old show, and Mr. Hatch hasn’t managed to do anything useful with his career since then. He’s written two books, and they’re atrocious. Personally, I’d rather just remember the show as a nostalgic guilty pleasure and leave it at that.
Michele