My name is Dan Hartung. I edit Wikipedia as Dhartung.
I was a teenaged fan of the original BSG, even though it was difficult to watch. My hometown is between two TV markets and Galactica was on the one network that is most difficult to get from either of them, so there was a lot of messing with the antenna, and one emotionally scarring night was spent watching Count Iblis through what appeared to be a massive snowstorm.
I tried to get a haircut that was half Apollo's, half Starbuck's (don't ask me now, but I suspect it resembled a mullet). Had equal parts love and recoil for the show at times. The cheesiness of the storylines and occasionally acting, the robot daggit, the word "felgercarb" ... but there were sublime moments as well. One of my favorites was the murder where the ship's door kept trying to close on the dead man's hand.
I was forced to watch the miniseries during a post-dinner-party, and as a result it made little impression on me. I liked bits of it, but had a hard time hearing Olmos and following the plot arc. I'm no purist, and had no objection to a female Starbuck (or Boomer!) and was pleased nothing was embarrassing, but I decided it was an interesting experiment and wrote it off. To my surprise, it got picked up, and I tuned in to one of the later episodes, forgot which one. I admit it wasn't until "33" won the Hugo that I decided I had to pay attention.
So off to ... er, the place you get them from. "33" was hands-down fantastic, one of the best sf TV episodes I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot of them). I was really drawn into Baltar's character, conflicted in so many ways and seemingly near mad, yet oddly sympathetic. I decided I like this Starbuck a lot and figured out what Olmos was doing with his taut underacting. So I caught up with the Miniseries and I've been trying to get caught up completely ever since!