Galactica 1980

As frequently occurs with a popular show, some characters from said show go on to have their own spinoff.  The Jeffersons were originally neighbours of Archie and Edith Bunker.  Rhoda was a neighbour of Mary Richards of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  However not all spinoffs enjoyed as much success as their parent: AfterMASH lasted two seasons as opposed to eleven for M*A*S*H.  A spinoff of Doctor Who featuring the characters of Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 only had one episode.

Such is the case for Glen A. Larson's Galactica 1980.  Lasting ten episodes, as opposed to 24 of the original Battlestar Galactica, this continuation retooled the series concept somewhat and dropped several characters with no explanation.  After fleeing the tyrannical Cylons for a generation, the Colonial Fleet arrives at Earth in the present day, to discover that Earth's technology isn't advanced enough to help them.  So covert teams are sent down to integrate with the population and work with the scientific community in the hopes of advancing the technology enough to repel the approaching enemy.  One of the teams consists of the adult grandson of Fleet Commander Adama, his best lieutenant, and several Colonial children posing as a Scout troop.

The new concept might have worked had the writers not included some of the more fantastical elements.  For example, the children began to exhibit superhuman powers because of their different physiology in Earth's lighter gravity - something within the realm of possibility but taken too far.  Another strange twist was that Commander Adama, played by Canadian actor Lorne Greene, relied a great deal on the advice of a teenage prodigy who seemed to have complete knowledge of a planet that he'd never seen.

Reception of the series was poor: fans of the original didn't like many of the changes or the lower production quality.  After running on ABC between January 27th and May 4th 1980, the show was cancelled during the filming of what would have been the 11th episode.  All ten episodes were subsequently rolled into syndication along with the original series.

In 1981, three of the episodes were stitched together to create a movie called Conquest of the Earth that was shown in cinemas in Europe and Australia.  This film was released to VHS as a limited edition and has long been out of print.  Universal released a DVD set of all the episodes of Galactica 1980 in 2007.