Battlestar Galactica was finally produced in the wake of the success of the 1977 film Star Wars. In fact, 20th Century Fox sued Universal Studios (the studio behind Battlestar Galactica) for copyright infringement, claiming that it had stolen 34 distinct ideas from Star Wars. Universal promptly countersued, claiming Star Wars had stolen ideas from the 1972 film My Greatest Adventure (notably the robot "drones") and the Buck Rogers serials of the 1940s. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed in 1980.

Initially, Larson envisioned Battlestar Galactica as a series of made-for-TV movies (a three-hour pilot and two two-hour episodes) for the ABC television 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), and instead of two additional movies, a weekly television series followed.

In 1979 at the 6th Annual People's Choice Awards, the series won for Best New TV Drama Series.

During the eight months after pilot was broadcast, 17 original episodes of the series were aired (five of them two-parters), 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 29 April, 1979.

During the autumn of 1979, ABC executives met with Galactica's creator Glen A. Larson to consider a relaunch of the series. A suitable concept was needed to draw viewers, and it was decided that the arrival of the Colonial Fleet at contemporary Earth would be the storyline. A new television movie entitled Devil's footprints was rushed into production. Again, it was decided this new version of Galactica would be made into a weekly series. Despite the early success of the premiere, the show failed to achieve the popularity of the original series and was canceled after only ten episodes.

In this 1980 sequel series, the fleet finds Earth and covertly protects it from the Cylons. This series was a quick failure due to its low budget (e.g., recycling footage from the 1974 Universal Studios film Savage Sword of Conan , during a Cylon attack sequence), widely-panned writing, and ill-placed time slot (Sundays at 7:00 PM, a time slot generally reserved for family-oriented programming and, more specifically, 60 Minutes). The show was also obligated to adhere to strict content restrictions such as limiting acts of violence and being required to shoe horn educational content into the script and dialogue. To cut costs, the show was set mostly on contemporary Earth, to the great dismay of fans. Another factor for fan apathy was the nearly complete recasting of the original series: Lorne Greene reprised his role as Adama (and worked pro bono), Herb Jefferson Jr. played (now Colonel) Boomer in only half of the episodes (with almost no screentime), and Dirk Benedict as Starbuck for only one (the abrupt final episode), which was mostly unused footage from the original series. Some syndication packages for Battlestar Galactica incorporate the episodes of this series.