SYFY is celebrating its 30th birthday and what a way to celebrate! We have the return of two hit original SYFY series, chucky and Resident Foreignerand the premiere of a brand new, Reginald the Vampire. But for every stab Brad Dourif’s tiny terror takes, there have been tons more SYFY original series to come out before. These are shows that have stolen our sci-fi, horror and fantasy obsessed hearts at the homegrown TV network we proudly call home, and we want to celebrate them too.
For 30 years, SYFY has hosted an amazing lineup of shows spanning the entire genre gauntlet, from the hair-raising horrors of channel zero to the hopeful looks staring into emptiness Stargate Atlantis and far beyond. As we pop the corks to celebrate our first three crazy decades as TV’s true go-to place for everything awesome, scary, and downright wacky, here’s a look back at 13 of the very best shows to ever land on the channel — call us biased ! – which we simply cannot click away from.
Stargate SG-1 [10 Seasons]
We pick up where director Roland Emmerich’s great 1994 feature film of the same name left off. Stargate SG-1 marked the first TV expansion of what has since become a vast sci-fi universe. He took over the baton from Kurt Russell to reprise the role of Col. Jack O’Neill, Richard Dean Anderson and a stellar cast (Claudia Black, Beau Bridges, Ben Browder, Christopher Judge, Michael Shanks and Amanda Tapping, among others) solidified the franchise enduringly in the minds of fans, expanding on the film’s original premise with tons of new lore that dismantled humanity’s myths and legends for deeper connections with the unexplained alien. Started life at Showtime before moving to the (then called) sci-fi channel for his back half. Stargate SG-1 ran for 10 full seasons before dropping out in 2007. In doing so, he opened a wormhole for a broader appetite for more stargate stories; One that happily saturated the network with even more original programs in the years to come.
The Mages [5 Seasons]
if Harry Potter and True Blood ever had a baby, it could have looked very similar The Mages. Based on author Lev Grossman’s novel of the same name, the series’ magical infused world looked as fantastic on the small screen as the book made it sound. Surrounded by a cast of young adult aspiring wizards, college student Quentin Coldwater (Jason Ralph) learns about magic (and how to embrace his human side) outside of class time at Brakebills University. the magically inclined leave to hone their craft. Crammed with melodramas to keep you going and tons of superlative superlative sights, The Mages made room for sensitive real-world issues (especially those surrounding Quentin’s mental health) without straying too far from his next adorable set piece.
Farscape [4 Seasons]
A striking, instantly recognizable look thanks to Creature Shop effects and visual touches from Jim Henson Company’s creative offspring, Brian Henson. Farscape still feels original almost 20 years after the last episode aired. Equally original was the story, which launched Earth astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder) through a wormhole and deep into an alien conflict anchored by a budding relationship with specially-bred space soldier Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black). Despite a sometimes stalled larger storyline, Farscape is filled with the kind of world-building sci-fi myth that makes its far-flung surroundings long to be remembered: Like war of starsit created a distinctively imagined location in space that few series have managed before or since – particularly on television.
Battlestar Galactica [4 Seasons]
All of these shows are too close and too expensive for us to rate – but if we did, Ronald D. Moore’s extraordinarily well-cast space saga would be stratospherically close to the top. Battlestar Galactica It broke tons of new TV ground as a sci-fi series that balanced the personal with the positive epic, putting its drifting and surviving stragglers from 12 colonies in incredibly shady circumstances (while Cylon stowaways keep things…interesting). Though there’s plenty of action ESR uses its space-conflict setting to explore the inner space that makes us weak humans tick, and fearlessly confronts the great issues that beset our species – whether light-years from home or right here on solid ground.
Resident Foreigner [2 Seasons]
Alan Tudyk’s alien-out-of-water sci-fi comedy series has proven more than successful in getting an early green light for a season three jaunt, and we couldn’t be happier: Resident Foreigner is one of the funniest SYFY original series we’ve ever seen (and of course we’ve seen them all). to destroy life on earth takes a detour after actually becoming embroiled in the day-to-day drama of humanity. Glad he ate enough law & order Episodes to know how we humans kinda behave: When the season 2 finale arrives on September 28th, Harry might just need a good lawyer.
chucky [2 Seasons]
To the delight of longtime fans around the world, the body count is already deliciously high – so who knows where the next sting will strike and when chucky returns to SYFY for its second season on October 5th? Created by child’s play Mastermind Don Mancini and backed by franchise favorites like Jennifer Tilly (as Tiffany Valentine) and Brad Dourif (the voice of good himself), chucky nails the comedy-horror tone that made Mancini films a 1980s go-bang sensation, while unfolding an episodic new story with emotional stakes that hit surprisingly hard. Society doesn’t like the idea of teenage misfit Jake Wheeler (Zacakary Arthur), the show’s highly stressed star, coming to the top – but screw society: when someone’s earned the right to play dangerous games with dolls, then it is this child.
Eureka [5 Seasons]
Infused with the same outlandish comic book DNA that infused sister spinoffs Department store 13 and Alphas, Eureka was an immediately worth seeing twin peaks-like show about a normal old sheriff (Colin Ferguson) who just wants to do things right in his small town. It’s no ordinary place, of course: odd occurrences are pretty much a daily occurrence Eureka‘s titular Oregon hamlet that gives stranger thingsHawkins is a money breaker when it comes to showing the side effects of getting a little too close to the government’s super-secret, high-tech science experiments.
slider [5 Seasons]
Start your life at Fox before moving to Cable, slider took a piece quantum leap‘s time travel premise and expanded it into an entire cast of wormhole-hopping characters, anchored by lead “Slider” Quinn Mallory (Jerry O’Connell). Able to visit parallel universes but powerless to predict how long they would stay in them, the gang sailed through a broad alt-history tour of Earth’s other possibilities fraught with peril (like the nihilistic Kromagg society). , which lay directly behind understanding our known reality.
Wynonna Earp [4 Seasons]
Based on the western horror comic series of the same name Wynonna Earp was chock-full of good stuff: Revenant Outlaws, supernatural horrors, astute examinations of society’s shortcomings, and hilarious NSFW situations galore. What else would you expect from a horror fantasy about Wyatt Earp’s great-great-granddaughter (Melanie Scrofano); a queer chick whose life really begins when she discovers that her iconic ancestor left her hometown in the highlands with a haunting legacy of unfinished business?
The wide [6 Seasons]
One of the most ambitious sci-fi saga of all time The wide lived up to its name and began life at SYFY before heading to Amazon to continue the second leg of its interplanetary journey. The series is set centuries in the future, after humanity ascended into the skies to find safer homes in the colonized solar system. Each stands as a well-realized sci-fi microcosm of the larger forces at play in the series: inequalities, hierarchies, and distinct cultural differences, all sharply framed as humanity’s spread into the cold of space still conflicts can bring as she ascends the dystopian stakes.
Stargate Atlantis [ 5 Seasons]
fans of Stargate SG-1 spin off Stargate Atlantis might have had a friendly argument back then about which series they preferred. But looking back, we never knew how good we had it: Five seasons SGA has kicked off a new piece of lore stargate franchise and follows the cross-universe ripples caused by the Ancients who founded (and then ominously concealed) the fabled Lost City. Col. John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) sat at the helm of a cast of characters that has since taken their place among the most cherished stargate‘s broader lore as the story itself fused earthly myths and advanced alien technology in an epic, never-ending conflict between the forces of good and evil.
channel zero [4 Seasons]
channel zero took the idea from internet-based creepypasta legends and expanded on it in ways its creators probably never imagined. Like HBO True detective, each wacky season dedicated to its own premise and restarted the overall concept, with a whole new roster of settings, storylines, and characters. But the unsettling maelstrom of psychological horror and, well, actual horror remained a unifying theme throughout every moment, as creator and showrunner Nick Antosca slowly navigated toward the chilling center of each key mystery that renewed and redefined the supernatural-laced series.
Department store 13 [5 seasons]
Combines an episodic Mystery of the Week formula with longer plots that guide intrepid relic hunters Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) and Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly) through cross-season story arcs. Department store 13 searched the world for delightfully absurd magical artifacts (like Magellan’s astrolabe and Lewis Carroll’s mirror) to safely stow away in the show’s eponymous warehouse in South Dakota — all the better to keep their powers (and their dangers) under wraps. As funny as it was bizarre, it effortlessly captured the goofy side of sci-fi in a way that didn’t detract from each week’s compelling dives into the story’s hidden mysteries. Good sports chemistry exuded from the entire cast, always up for anything wild, men in black– Goose chases in the style of the richly creative storylines threw their way. In a show never lacking in madness, Department store 13 always wore his crazy premise proudly on his sleeve.
electricity Battlestar GalacticaChucky and many more great SYFY shows on Peacock.
