Originally conceived as Adam's Ark in the late 1960s, Battlestar Galactica was finally produced in the wake of the success of the 1977 film Star Wars. Initially, Glen A.Larson envisioned Battlestar Galactica as a series of made-for-TV-movies(a three-hour pilot and two two-hour episodes) for the ABC TV Network. A shortened version of the three-hour pilot Saga of a Star World was released in Canadian theaters (before the series aired) and American theaters (after the series aired), instead of 2 additional movies, a weekly television series followed.
The initial episode of the series was broadcast on September 17th 1978. However, approximately 60 minutes into the first episode, the broadcast was interrupted for a significant period (almost an hour)by the announcement of the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli Camp David Accords deeply marring the broadcast as much of the initial episode was not seen. During the eight months after the pilot was broadcast, 17 original episodes of the series were aired (five of them two-part shows), totaling 24 hours of broadcasting. Citing declining ratings and cost overruns, ABC cancelled Battlestar Galactica in April, its last episode "The Hand of God" premiering on April 29, 1979.