Source: BBC
Submitted by: Triplittleminx (SoSF Staff Reporter)
There is some concern over at the BBC with the 2007 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. It would seem that “Doctor Who,” the recognized leader as far as number of episodes, should be listed as the all-time number one SF show on television and should be mentioned as such in this newest record establishing volume. And, while it does have Who listed it isn’t what all fans were expecting.
The BBC went to Tom Spilsbury, assistant editor of Doctor Who Magazine, to figure the stats out for the fans. It would appear that the good Doctor has racked up a prestigious 723 episodes in its 43 year history of on and off again production.
This has fans wondering why Guinness has “Stargate SG-1,” with its 10-year, obviously lower, 203 episodes listed as the longest running scifi show in television history. Not just U.S. history mind you, but all of television history.
While we still await an answer from the fine folks at Guinness who spend their waking hours tallying up these kinds of decisions, it may have something to do with that tricky little word “consecutive” in their decision-making process. While the Doctor has certainly been a fixture in scifi fan’s lives for 40 years now, he has not been consistently on the television airways with new episodes during that entire 40 year period, and that may have played into the volume’s choice.
Regardless of the reasons given, fans are still asking “Why isn’t Doctor Who given this record, when the program had a new series of episodes every year without fail between 1963 and 1989, racking up 695 episodes in the process? Why doesn’t this count as a much longer ‘consecutive’ run? Surely 695 consecutive episodes beats 203, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it?”
Maybe, maybe not. I suppose the same argument could be made for fans of Star Trek. It has been a franchise for 40 years with 5 series all following the same canon and timeline, plus the 10 feature films…but that is a whole other discussion.
We all wait eagerly to hear Guinness’ rationale on the subject.
Shawn S. says
September 26, 2006 at 8:43 pmOf course with Stargate it is quantity not quality… notice all the recycling going on? Atlantis is using old SG-1 pltos now…
Give Who the Kudos!
Michael in Nashville says
September 26, 2006 at 8:57 pmDr Who deserves the title as longest running because the facts point out it is. Sorry to hack off my Stargate brothers, but Who fan for 26 seasons before being put on hiatus back in 1989. Last time I checked, 26 is more than 10 and Who deserves the award.
That said, the Beeb’s web site promises news on this later this week…I am betting Guiness will recant.
Kyle Nin says
September 26, 2006 at 9:04 pmMaybe it was a misprint, it should have said “Stargate SG-1” is the longest running sci-fi show in US television history, which it is.
Brad says
September 26, 2006 at 9:44 pmAs a Stargate fan AND a Who fan I just gotta say this: Who is the longest running scifi series period, and SG1 is the longest running AMERICIAN scifi series.
Could it be that they were looking at the fact that many of the Who episodes were multi-parters and the vast majority of SG1 eps were single stories and they counted each of the multi part eps as a SINGLE ep?
Summer says
September 27, 2006 at 6:34 amDo they have separate books for national records and world records? I didn’t think they did, but that would explain the oversight…
Can you tell I’m trying to give them the benefit of the doubt? 🙂
Kaloo says
September 27, 2006 at 8:39 pmWell… 600-something divided by 2, is still more than 200-something, if we take it as HOURS rather then EPISODES.
Matthew says
September 28, 2006 at 6:07 amAnybody who actually pays valid attention to all of human history will not that Doctor Who should blast that record every year, in Australia, at least, Stargate’s Run was certainly NOT consecutive. Even if it had been, Doctor Who was miles longer that it ever could have been. But, then again, Oprah has also been listed as a longest running show, which is odd, considering Doctor Who was 20 years on Tv when she finally came up. Consider the subject matter of Stargate ironic, because it seems that the Americans have the same delusions of grandeur as the Goa’uld.
Jay Hinkelman says
September 28, 2006 at 4:10 pmYeah. Besides, 203 episodes x 45 minutes per episode is really only 152 1/4 hours.
Sorry, I came late to the discussion and have nothing new to contribute.
Well, unless you count a link to the Wikipedia article on “Lengths of science fiction movie and television series,” which is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lengths_of_science_fiction_movie_and_television_series
Jay Hinkelman says
September 29, 2006 at 5:16 amOK, here’s an update from the BBC site:
“Although the sums involved have sparked much debate, the editor of Guinness World Records, Craig Glenday has this to say: ‘Doctor Who is without question the longest running science fiction show in terms of years. Stargate SG-1 has run without a break since it first hit our screens in 1997, however, so is the longest show with consecutive back to back episodes.'”
Now, I haven’t followed the show (no cable for years now), but as near as I can tell, SG-1 has had reruns, both between and within seasons. But — and this is important — the BBC doesn’t tend to keep a show in weekly reruns between seasons the way American TV usually does. If they do rerun episodes between seasons (er, “series” 🙂 ), they’ll just as likely be in some marathon form. So while Doctor Who produced new episodes every year from 1963 – 1989, it was *not* on every week. That appears to be part of the Guinness Book editors’ criteria.
Hey, know what? I can live with that. As far as I’m concerned, Who still wins. But I might be a teeny bit biased. 😉
Nigel in Melbourne says
September 29, 2006 at 6:39 am“Although the sums involved have sparked much debate, the editor of Guinness World Records, Craig Glenday has this to say: ‘Doctor Who is without question the longest running science fiction show in terms of years. Stargate SG-1 has run without a break since it first hit our screens in 1997, however, so is the longest show with consecutive back to back episodes.’�
Thats still rubish. Between 1965 and 1987 Dotor Who ran continuously on the BBC according to the running scheduale of the BBC. Now what seems to be happing here is the assumtion that the US running Schedule for a show is the correct one rather than the schedule according to the country of origine.
Ryouga says
December 11, 2006 at 10:27 amI’m always curious why Mister Squiggle never gets listed in longest running Science Fiction shows. It ran a new episode every weeekday for almost every week over 40 years.
Alex says
October 21, 2007 at 9:10 pmThe only real argument I can see for SG-1 running long than Doctor Who is if you count each serial of Doctor who as a single episode (157 by 1989) (does this mean that the several two parters for SG-1 should be counted as one episode each as well?).
Tiff Evans says
March 20, 2010 at 7:15 pmStargate SG-1 definitley deserves it, thats the only decent sci-fi out there! Its number 1 mate!
Rose says
June 28, 2010 at 6:43 pm@Tiff sorry mate, this was resolved several years ago, and Stargate lost out 😀 Doctor Who’s number 1, followed by Star Trek, and then Stargate at third.
Derek says
May 5, 2011 at 10:16 pmOk so people there are different points of views cant we just say that both show are good and go on i mean they are good show i like them both i watch a lot of sci fi and i compare other shows to them but i have never compared the two
fred says
September 13, 2011 at 8:00 pmBesides all that sg1 eps are 40 minutes long and majority of DW are 55 (or a ‘BBC hour’) as the BBC don’t show adverts.
I love them all but I have to agree with Rose that the order, all things conidered, should be DW, ST and then SG.