In a recent interview from the Daily Dragon Jamie Bamber from Battlestar Galactica says that he strongly dislike that the show is on SciFi.DD: The downside of science fiction is that it's often categorized as a "marginal" genre. Battlestar Galactica is by far one of the best, if not the best show on television and yet doesn't have the ratings of a more mainstream series like The Sopranos. Do you find it frustrating that some people might not watch the show simply because of the label "science fiction"?
JB: Yes, of course I do. I really believe in the show. I believe in the stories we're telling. I believe that they're great characters, and it's great entertainment, too. So yeah, it's frustrating that we do have that stigma attached to us. The fact that we can call it a genre says it all, really; it's not just people, as a drama, as a series; it has to be characters. I think that's a problem that science fiction has that it will always marginalize itself by calling itself SF. It's unfortunate that we're on the SCIFI channel; we can't even get away from it. We couldn't brand the show as anything else because of the network we're on.
I also think that we're a grown-up show that demands something from the audience. And audiences, by and large, don't want to be demanded anything of. They want escapist entertainment, and that's why movies like Syriana don't do as well as movies like Spiderman 3.
That's the truth. If you're going to make grown-up shows that challenge people, then only a few people are actually going to be appalled.
Sad but true.
http://www.dragoncon.net/dailydragon/2007/19.htm
At the MegaCon 2007, held February 16-18, 2007 in Orlando, Joel Cooke spoke to Jamie Bamber, better known as Major Lee "Apollo" Adama on the Battlestar Galactica 2003 series. He talked to him about his part on the series, but also about the rest of his career and especially his time on Hornblower.
