The second longest running sci-fi show is Doraemon. The first, of course, is Super Sentai.
Of course, “longest running sci-fi show” is like “tallest building”—you end up having to decide issues of which side you measure from if the building is on a hill, whether spires and antennas count, whether structures that are unoccupied are buildings, etc.
And I found Star Trek: The Next Generation much more objectionable. The episode that made me quit was the one where they unthaw 20th century people and it turns out that the future people don’t have the concept of money, let alone capitalism. That seemed like a blatant attempt to sell ideology to the audience, and it’s not as if that was the only instance.
As for the cloning tech, one of the things that impressed me was that at least in the early seasons of Stargate they were very careful to ensure that whenever some strange device was introduced that would lead to questions of why they didn’t use it every other episode, the device was always destroyed, ran out of power, unreproducible and in limited quantity, or otherwise incapable of being used in future episodes. I can think of lots of cloning technology in the Stargate universe, but not much that’s freely available to use whenever they want, let alone in quantities of 10000.
No, it’s because of the “is it the tallest building if the height is only greater when measured from the low side of the hill” question.
Doraemon is on its 35th year. It’s a Japanese cartoon about a robot cat from the future. Is that scifi? Moreover, it aired one season on a different network several years before its current run—does that count as part of the same show considering they used the same source material? Is a cartoon considered a “show” at all? (And is the Doctor Who year where they just had a couple of specials considered a year of the show?)
Super Sentai is on its 38th year and is the Japanese show used as source material for Power Rangers. Is that sci-fi? Each year they change the cast and part of the premise, but keep the general premise of five people in colored costumes who have giant transforming robots. Is that “a show” or several separate shows? (Bear in mind that no live-action show is going to last 38 years with the same people being the stars, anyway.) Is the answer changed by the fact that each show is referred to by the umbrella Super Sentai title as well as the title of the individual series? Is the answer changed by the existence of crossovers which feature both of the “separate” shows?
Also, both Doraemon and Super Sentai started later than Doctor Who but didn’t have large hiatuses. If you go by time since first episode, Doctor Who is longer, but it’s not really fair to count the 17 year hiatus as part of the length of the show.
It’s possible I actually heard it referred to as the “oldest sci-fi show still running” or some such distinction; after all, if it makes your show sound important...
As for the definition of “sci-fi” and “show” … I’m willing to leave that up to whoever is trying to get attention for their favorite.
In other news, I learned about Super Sentai, the premise, link to PR etc. just the other day—completely independently to your referencing mystifying me. Funny how that often seems to happen.
(Old thread, I know)
The second longest running sci-fi show is Doraemon. The first, of course, is Super Sentai.
Of course, “longest running sci-fi show” is like “tallest building”—you end up having to decide issues of which side you measure from if the building is on a hill, whether spires and antennas count, whether structures that are unoccupied are buildings, etc.
And I found Star Trek: The Next Generation much more objectionable. The episode that made me quit was the one where they unthaw 20th century people and it turns out that the future people don’t have the concept of money, let alone capitalism. That seemed like a blatant attempt to sell ideology to the audience, and it’s not as if that was the only instance.
As for the cloning tech, one of the things that impressed me was that at least in the early seasons of Stargate they were very careful to ensure that whenever some strange device was introduced that would lead to questions of why they didn’t use it every other episode, the device was always destroyed, ran out of power, unreproducible and in limited quantity, or otherwise incapable of being used in future episodes. I can think of lots of cloning technology in the Stargate universe, but not much that’s freely available to use whenever they want, let alone in quantities of 10000.
Funny, I’d always heard the longest-running sci-fi show was Doctor Who. Maybe it’s because DW went on hiatus for a while?
No, it’s because of the “is it the tallest building if the height is only greater when measured from the low side of the hill” question.
Doraemon is on its 35th year. It’s a Japanese cartoon about a robot cat from the future. Is that scifi? Moreover, it aired one season on a different network several years before its current run—does that count as part of the same show considering they used the same source material? Is a cartoon considered a “show” at all? (And is the Doctor Who year where they just had a couple of specials considered a year of the show?)
Super Sentai is on its 38th year and is the Japanese show used as source material for Power Rangers. Is that sci-fi? Each year they change the cast and part of the premise, but keep the general premise of five people in colored costumes who have giant transforming robots. Is that “a show” or several separate shows? (Bear in mind that no live-action show is going to last 38 years with the same people being the stars, anyway.) Is the answer changed by the fact that each show is referred to by the umbrella Super Sentai title as well as the title of the individual series? Is the answer changed by the existence of crossovers which feature both of the “separate” shows?
Also, both Doraemon and Super Sentai started later than Doctor Who but didn’t have large hiatuses. If you go by time since first episode, Doctor Who is longer, but it’s not really fair to count the 17 year hiatus as part of the length of the show.
Wow, thanks for that comprehensive response.
It’s possible I actually heard it referred to as the “oldest sci-fi show still running” or some such distinction; after all, if it makes your show sound important...
As for the definition of “sci-fi” and “show” … I’m willing to leave that up to whoever is trying to get attention for their favorite.
In other news, I learned about Super Sentai, the premise, link to PR etc. just the other day—completely independently to your referencing mystifying me. Funny how that often seems to happen.