After a very long, and by no means neccessary, break between first run episodes the shows Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis are returning to American television. It seems the decision makers at Sci-Fi channel thought they had 'wisdom' in breaking the Stargate shows into mini-seasons separated by six months, and fill the time with complete and total crap programming. I wish I could make those kind of idiot decisions and be paid big money to do it. What a nice little scam.
I remember when TV shows were not even aired until most of the episodes were already 'in the can'. Then the episodes were aired each week with perhaps a week or two of repeats late in the season. After the season was over, the repeats of that season held you over until the next started in late September. Yes, late September. Not only that but a complete season consisted of 26 - 32 episodes - not the 20 (or if you are lucky 22) episodes today's television shows boast.
I find it wonderfully ironic that some of the longest running (and still classic) television shows in history - Gunsmoke (635 episodes in 20 years), Bonanza(430 episodes in 14 years), and Dark Shadows (1225 episodes in 5 years) - ran longer seasons, more episodes, were as a whole more entertaining then nearly all of today's television programming, and still produced new episodes all the time. No re-runs in those days.
