From Somewhere, Volume Two

The two Sci Fi franchises have thrown down in a dispute with the Guiness Book of World Records over which of their respective series has had the longest consecutive run.

The trouble started with the publication of the latest edition of the Book of World Records, which had proclaimed recently-canceled Sci Fi Channel series Stargate: SG-1 as the “Longest Running Sci Fi Series”.

Then the BBC weighed in, crying foul math. Posting to the official Doctor Who series website- the Beeb mentioned Stargate’s record and then openly noted that Guiness had failed to take into account Who’s 1963-1989 run (which itself was incorrect- as the Beeb had put the series on ‘hiatus’ after its 1985 season).

Guiness performed a recount and Stargate kept a slightly altered record : Longest Running (Consecutive) Sci Fi series. Doctor Who got the “Longest Running” honors. And it seems everyone is happy….But let’s go back to that “Consecutive” thing for a minute.

To come up with the “Longest Running Sci Fi Series” record, Guiness went by episode count. And counted all five incarnations of Star Trek as one show.

With that in mind, let’s go over this again….

Doctor Who ran consecutive series every year from 1963 to 1985. That’s 22 years.

IF we going to go by Guiness’ standard, you’d count all incarnations of Star Trek as one show. That makes the run which began with the premiere of Next Gen in 1987 to Enterprise’s 2005 cancellation proper fodder. And that’s an 18 year run.

By its 215 episode count- SG-1 comes in third. 10 years.

The X-Files is fourth by virtue of being a mid-season replacement. 10 years, 203 episodes.

But the Doctor, Starfleet, and members of Stargate Command are nowhere close to being in longest running scripted TV series of all time- that honor goes to CBS’ Guiding Light, The televised version of the daytime soap (which had a long run on radio prior to its TV Debut) has been on the air since 1952, and is still in production.