It might not have as widespread and dedicated a fanbase as something like “Star Trek” or the cultural caché of “Star Wars,” but the “Stargate” franchise is surprisingly expansive. Though it began with a single film directed by Roland Emmerich, the saga quickly grew to incorporate multiple TV series, direct-to-home-media movies, comics, video games, and books. Which for the uninitiated, must make it seem almost impossible to figure out the correct order to watch the “Stargate” franchise.
Thankfully, the best “Stargate” is early “Stargate,” which is to say Emmerich’s film and the very first TV spin-off “Stargate SG-1.” Envisioned as a sequel to the movie, “SG-1” debuted on Showtime in 1997 and followed the same special operations team from the film as they traversed the universe via the titular artifact. Instead of Kurt Russell, who refused to return as Colonel Jack O’Neil for the show, “SG-1” cast Richard Dean Anderson in the role, which no doubt helped the series immensely seeing as the man was already a TV legend for playing MacGuyver in the show of the same name.
Though Anderson would step back from being the series lead as the show went on, he helped solidify its standing as a cult sci-fi hit, which lasted a full 10 years before its cancellation. During that time, “SG-1” also managed to break a Guinness World Record that was ultimately smashed again by none other than the Man of Steel just a few years later.
Stargate SG-1 broke a Guinness World Record
During its time on the air, “Stargate SG-1” switched from Showtime to the Sci-Fi channel (now “SyFy”) for its sixth season. It also has an impressive legacy, spawning further TV shows including the animated series “Stargate Infinity” and the live-action shows “Stargate Atlantis,” “Stargate Universe,” and “Stargate Origins” — not to mention two direct-to-home-media films. So, even though the Sci-Fi channel canceled “SG-1” after its 10th season, that’s a heck of a run, considering the show not only extended the “Stargate” mythos and spurred further entries in the franchise, but also comprised a full 214 episodes during its 10 years on the air.
What’s more, “SG-1” managed to break the Guinness world record for the Longest Consecutive Running Sci-Fi TV Show. Fan site Gateworld reported on the feat back in 2007, noting how the show had “run without a break” for nearly 10 years at that point. The episode that pushed “SG-1” over the edge was its 203rd, “Company of Thieves,” which first aired September 15, 2006. At that time the other longest-running sci-fi series, “The X-Files,” had run from September 10, 1993 to May 9, 2002 and comprised 202 episodes.
As time went on, “The X-Files” would actually top its former rival, adding more installments to bring its total number of episodes to 218. But those episodes weren’t consecutive, so “SG-1” would have held onto the record had it not been for another long-running show…
Superman took down SG-1… sort of
“Smallville” may have been a superhero story at heart, but it qualified as a sci-fi series to the folks over at Guinness. In May 2011, Gateworld reported that “Smallville” was set to wrap up, having taken the record for Longest Consecutive Running Sci-Fi TV Show from “SG-1” the month prior. Like “Stargate,” the hit WB/CW series had run for 10 seasons, and surpassed its rival with its 215th episode. By the time “Smallville” ended it had racked up 218 installments, matching the aforementioned “X-Files.” However, unlike that other seminal sci-fi series, the Tom Welling-led show had been produced consecutively.
As Gateworld noted at the time, the main reason why “Smallville” beat out “SG-1” despite both shows lasting for 10 seasons was because “SyFy reduced its standard episode order from 22 to 20 per year, beginning with the eighth season,” while the network that hosted “Smallville,” The CW, “continued the more industry-standard practice of 22 episodes each year.” Interestingly enough, both shows were produced in Vancouver, Canada, with Lois Lane actor Erica Durance making an appearance on “SG-1” as Teal’c’s next-door neighbor, Krista, in the season 8 episode “Affinity.”
All of which is great, but it seems Guinness stirred some controversy with this particular record, as “Doctor Who” fans cried out for their show, which in its original run comprised 694 episodes, to be recognized. The British series has since been handed the world record for “Most consecutive sci-fi TV episodes ever,” with Guinness noting how “Doctor Who” — which returned for a new run of episodes in 2024 — aired “694 episodes consecutively across 26 seasons” between November 23, 1963 and December 6, 1989 and was “on air for 26 years 14 days.” How this didn’t qualify the show for the “Longest Consecutive Running Sci-Fi TV Show” record remains unclear, but at least things seem to have been rectified somewhat in the years since “Smallville” claimed the win.
