The End?

Battlestar Galactica and Bionic Woman executive producer David Eick walks back the comments Edward James Olmos made about season 4 being the last.

"For those of you who have been paying attention over the years, this is not the first time Eddie has made an announcement about the possibility of the show's end," chuckled Eick. "I promise you that when [executiuve producer] Ron [Moore] and I make a decision about Galactica's future, we'll let you know."

BSG producer Mark Verheiden also says:

"I'm presently in Vancouver B.C. attending to the pre-production on the first episodes of next season, so as far as I'm concerned, we're just gearing UP. And the stories we have so far for the season are really, really interesting/fun/dark/exciting/cool. As far as anything else goes, I'm just trying to make the best show(s) possible and I'll leave it to others discuss "the future." I got enough on my hands with the present!"

That being said, everything I've heard indicates season 4 will be the last, unless Eick and Moore are expecting an order for a 13 episode 5th season, or something. But, that seems unlikely. There is something to be said for arc heavy shows with a serialized mythology like BSG and Lost to set a firm end date. ABC and Lost's producers made a brilliant move by revealing that there are only 48 more episodes of Lost to be produced over the course of the next 3 seasons of 16 episodes each season. (Much like HBO shows that run 13-16 episode seasons or even less.)

Episodic shows like Law and Order can run for 20 years. But, series that are basically telling one story like Lost and Battlestar Galactica have to arrive at a proper ending at some point.

But, it's made all the more complicated as other major problems loom on the horizon.