Some shows do run too long - e.g. Friends (one joke show), Buffy (Monster of the week show), The X Files (had bad leading actors and ran out of plot ideas halfway thru the 1st season), Voyager (very weak plot show - sold with sex - i.e. 7 Of 9), Enterprise (should've been canned after the 1st episode), Alias (too many unrelated plots running consecutively), Lost (they've lost the plot on that one) etc. I'm actually dreading JJ Abrams take on Star Trek, considering just how badly Alias & Lost deteriorated in quality of writing over their runs.

I much prefer the old non-pc Battlestar Galactica, there's just way too much politics in the 're-imagined' version (i hate that term), and I also hated the way they changed the gender of some of the major characters (Starbuck, Boomer, Commander Caine etc.).

I'm currently enjoying Heroes (yes it has multiple sub-plots, but they're all gradually converging into 1 major plot thread), the acting is very good, with characters you care about & it's intelligently written.

I guess that Robin Williams, Sir Laurence Olivier, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Dinero, Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, and a few dozen other superb, legendary (or at least good) but not beautiful actors must've been really lucky! ;)
It has been shown time and time again - acting has nothing to do with how beautiful you look.  Rather, it tends to be just the opposite - the better looking, the more they should have left that person in the diner from where they were scraped.

For instance - but on a slightly different track - , Sanjaya on American Idol is surviving solely on his looks and not his singing abilities.  But this is American Idol and people get what they want.  Same for movies.  If people want porn-level acting from vivacious beauties hacking well written lines, well they get what they deserve. ;P

Personally speaking (and I'm just jumping in feet first here because I saw people talking about other Sci-Fi shows...) there's never been anything to touch Babylon 5 for pure dramatic depth.  It was the "War and Peace" of TV Science Fiction as far as I'm concerned.  Characters and scenarios could repeat and refer back throughout the 5 series' which demanded some sort of commitment (not to mention a retentive memory) from the viewer.  I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did considering it's target demographic, but I'd still be watching it now if it wasn't for people with the collective retentive memory of a bowl of goldfish.

2 quick things....
1)  Morgan Sheppard on BSG and Firefly. (As well as CSI and others)  On BSG he seemed taller than the rest of the cast, looking down on both Baltar and Apollo, Yet on Firefly he seemed short even compared to KayLee, which means either the BSG cast are strangely small or Everybody on Firefly is freakishly tall.
2)  Claudia Black, Mimi Rogers, and... Mini Driver.... seperated at birth?

Now wouldn't that make for some kind of show. 3 Space traveling sisters. Looking for revenge. You fill in the rest. LOL.

Slinger, There are alot of people that feel the same way as you do, so many at one time there was a rumor of a sort of a Bab. 5: TNG style show, but I think it never got off the ground.

which means either the BSG cast are strangely small or Everybody on Firefly is freakishly tall.

Adam Baldwin - 6'4"
Gina Torres - 5'10"
Nathan Fillion - 6'1.5"
Alan Tudyk - 6'
Jewel Staite - 5'5.5"
Morena Baccin - 5'7.5"
Sean Maher - 5'10"
Summer Glau - 5'6.5"

Average Male Height - 6.07 feet
Average Female Height - 5.61 feet

Edward James Olmos - 5'10"
Jamie Bamber - 5'9"
James Callis - 5'8"
Grace Park - 5'9"
Tricia Helfer - 5'10"
Katee Sackhoff - 5'6"
Michael Hogan - 6'
Mary McDonnell - 5'8"

Average Male Height - 5.81 feet
Average Female Height - 5.69 feet

So yes, the male cast of Firefly on average significantly taller.  The main women on Galactica beat out the women of Firefly.

Just for comparison, the average North American (and pretty close to the same for the UK) is 5'8.5" for males, 5'3.5" for females.

Quote - Who were these other more qualified actors that applied or wanted to do SG1 but were leapfrogged over? Since you know that there are many of them and you know of their qualifications, you must know who some of them were.

Would you mind explaining the logic of your question's premise?

Quote - I guess that Robin Williams, Sir Laurence Olivier, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Dinero, Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, and a few dozen other superb, legendary (or at least good) but not beautiful actors must've been really lucky! ;)
It has been shown time and time again - acting has nothing to do with how beautiful you look.

I agree, acting isn't necessarily joined at the hip with looks.  But, it is obvious that actors need to be outgoing, and extroversion and beauty do tend to be correlated.

Btw, Robin Williams isn't a leading man/romantic lead, he's a comedic actor.  In any case, exceptions prove rules by the fact that they're exceptions.  Though, I do think Black's role in SG-1 suits her far better than her role in Farscape did - the former lets her personality and gift for gab shine through, and she's not a brooding/annoying misanthrope romantic lead but the comic relief; in the latter she brought nothing but her camel face to the role.

Quote - Rather, it tends to be just the opposite - the better looking, the more they should have left that person in the diner from where they were scraped.

Nonsense (btw, you contradicted yourself - first you said acting has nothing to do with beauty, then you said beauty and acting talent tend to be mutually exclusive).

Quote - If people want porn-level acting from vivacious beauties hacking well written lines, well they get what they deserve.

There's that false dichotomy again.

Quote - 2 quick things....
1)  Morgan Sheppard on BSG and Firefly. (As well as CSI and others)  On BSG he seemed taller than the rest of the cast, looking down on both Baltar and Apollo, Yet on Firefly he seemed short even compared to KayLee, which means either the BSG cast are strangely small or Everybody on Firefly is freakishly tall.
2)  Claudia Black, Mimi Rogers, and... Mini Driver.... seperated at birth?

SG-1 has a tall cast too, or at least the original SG-1 cast was tall.  Teal'C (forget his name) is obviously large, 6-4ish; Shanks is 6-2 I think; Anderson is around 6' if memory serves; Tapping is a tall drink at 5-9 (IIRC).

*Btw, Robin Williams isn't a leading man/romantic lead, he's a comedic actor.

• guess you missed movies like One Hour Photo then... where he's the lead and it's not comedy.. or Bicentinial man... no comedy, he's the lead....

Quote - *Btw, Robin Williams isn't a leading man/romantic lead, he's a comedic actor.

• guess you missed movies like One Hour Photo then... where he's the lead and it's not comedy.. or Bicentinial man... no comedy, he's the lead....

Yeah, a nerdy psychopath murder, right?  Hell of a romantic lead for your example. (never seen nor heard of BM, but judging by the Wikipedia entry seems he's not a romantic lead there either.  The number of people who think of roles like OHP and BM when they hear "leading man" is roughly zero).

Then there's the fact that exceptions don't disprove rules (why do so many people have such a hard time with this?  Men are taller than women.  YES, some women are taller than some men, but men are still taller, in general ("in general" is implied in the statement, since it lacks the word "all").)