Legend of the West
SFX Profile: Richard Dean Anderson
SFX PROFILE: RICHARD DEAN ANDERSON
Patty and Selma's pin-up boy
gets ready for Stargate's farewell season...
Having a phone conversation with Richard Dean Anderson is a little like being a child again. You feel as though you're seven years old and stuck in a room with some distant, fabulous uncle you've never met before, who answers every one of your questions with such deadpan humour that half the time you don't know what to believe.
Everything Anderson says is usually accompanied by a twinkle in the eye. And, of course, twinkles don't travel down phonelines. It makes life very difficult; you have to read the nuances of his voice to see if he's getting a bit shirty or not. For example, ask him about fame and he says, "It doesn't freak me out. I'm a big boy." He proclaims that the oddest thing he's ever read about himself is "the truth. That's the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me. Once I gave this interview and the guy actually wrote what I had said. He hadn't interpreted it or put his own spin on it. That was just bizarre." Is he just trying to be funny or is he delivering a thinly veiled warning about this interview? Anyway, we've since dropped our cunning plan to cut and paste his words together until he says, "I'm a big girl's blouse". Oh well.
Anyway, Anderson has spent five years playing Colonel Jack O'Neill on Stargate SG-1, and as we speak he has just embarked on its final season. "After six years things are pretty much in order," he says happily. "We have a new character in the show; there are some growing pains there, while we're making the transition. Michael Shanks is coming back for an extra episode. Everything's cool." Does he find it a bit weird, filming without one of the show's original actors? "Well, obviously it's different, but weird probably isn't the word. Michael and I worked very well together; we knew each other's rhythms. And Daniel Jackson was a really good character."
He has high hopes for Corin Nemec, Shanks' replacement -- although, to be honest, Anderson's not going to be around that much. The last year of Stargate SG-1 will be O'Neill-lite. "It's complicated," he sighs. "Given that there was a request of six years for me to do the show, and I'd done a series before for seven years, I was kind of... well, not running out of gas, but... I have a three-year-old daughter, and I wanted to spend some time with her. That was my only requirement about doing a sixth series: I needed more time at home. I didn't need more money or anything like that, I needed time."
Whilst we admire his commitment to his family, and also the many environmental causes that have sent him gallivanting around the world to highlight Earth issues (in fact, he has just returned from a trip to Chile), his attachment to SG-1 isn't over yet. There seems to be a movie on the way; possibly, a whole series of them. Anderson sounds oddly underwhelmed by the idea, although he could just be playing "inscrutable" again (an eye twinkle would have been welcome at this point to really suss him out).
"These features... has that been firmed up? I don't know," he mutters, with rather frustrating elusiveness. Luckily, he soon changes tack and sounds just a little more enthusiastic. "Nothing has been worked out yet. We've got a go ahead; Brad Wright is writing the script but it remains to be seen. I tend to be sceptical about those things."
He's also extremely evasive about the supposed spin-off show, Atlantis, and the (subsequently confirmed) rumours of an animated series: although he does confirm that he'd be happy to help out with it for Brad Wright (Stargate's executive producer).
There can be no doubt that, during its run, Stargate SG-1 has been extremely successful; it even reached its 100th episode, "Wormhole X-Treme!", last year ("I seemed to be the only one that was sceptical about the reception to that, but in the end I was delighted," he declares, with refreshing honesty). You can't help but wonder what the future holds. What will O'Neill be doing 20 years from now?
"Shovelling coal from his wheelchair?" Anderson muses down the line. "I dunno..." We suggest that stand-up comedy would probably be his forte, seeing as O'Neill is never short of a quip or two. Rather like the actor playing him, actually.
"I can't help myself!" Anderson laughs, of his pathological tendency to pun as though his life depended on it. "I don't know what that is. It's an affliction! It's a psychological problem. We have really very extreme..." He pauses, appalled at what he's just said. "'Really very extreme'?" he repeats, in a silly voice. "Don't you dare write that down! Anyway, we have wonderful writers who write, for the most part, really incredible dialogue, but -- and I hope this doesn't sound arrogant -- I know the voice of my character better than anyone, except maybe Brad Wright. Once I get a hold of it; I dunno, the rhythms, the tone or the attitude... I tend to know." He pauses, before adding: "In real life, I'm a bit of a smartass."
"Really?" we ask, pretending to be amazed.
"I'm glad you giggle at things like that," says Richard Dean Anderson, sounding insulted at our flippancy. At least, we think he is. It's so hard to tell if he's joking, you see
SFX #92. June, 2002
Isabelle Meunier talks to head honcho Richard Dean Anderson.
Lordy, won't Marge Simpson's sisters be jealous?
Occasionally plucking sweets from a Styrofoam cup strategically placed on his chair, Richard Dean Anderson takes a break while the crew sets up for the next scene on Stargate SG-1... at least, the actor does, as the executive producer is seldom off duty. He may appear relaxed and his usual merry self on set to the casual observer, but Anderson is in fact much more serious than usual. "I'm not joking around a lot right now", he agrees, "because I have three scripts I'm sort of juggling with. So I'm having to focus more than I like to. But I'm not complaining," he smiles, "just acknowledging."
Given the scripts as the writers churn them out, he then goes over them for any necessary adjustments and in this instance, it seems he hasn't finished all his homework. "I haven't, much to my discredit, and part of the reason is that my two and a half year old baby girl is here... She's so smart and funny, she's gonna be a frighteningly brilliant woman." He beams, his voice softening at the mention of his offspring. As Anderson is likely to also be the protective type, boys should watch out in a few years time when eyeing his daughter. "Trust me on that one," he replies, "I'm a cliché father!"
He gives one of his trademark piercing glances, which you can often see in action when he's deep in thought. They look formidable, but when I point out he's doing it, Anderson initially seems shocked. "I know what happens there -- I go into focus mode!" he exclaims. "If there's a problem looming, it needs to be dealt with in a serious mode so I tend to block anything else out."
It's this kind of focus from all SG-1's producers that has ensured that the series' standards didn't lower over the seasons, and although benefiting from a good network support, Anderson consistently attributes its longevity to the quality work the whole crew delivers. "MGM has been behind the show from day one, pushed it and put money into it while Showtime has been very supportive in picking it up season after season, so we've had that cushion. But if the show sucked, we wouldn't be around. We've been able to quality control it a little bit. It's a well-oiled machine and any actor in my position as an executive producer would be an idiot not to throw credit where it's truly due. It's a cliché, but only truly stupid people say anything derogatory or take all the credit for any given creative entity and the fact of the matter is, the crew and their respective departments are what makes this show happen." At a sometime frightening speed, if the previous day's noon wrap is anything to go by. "It's rare and a pleasant surprise," he nods, "but I personally didn't go home until much later; I was editing and finishing other stuff."
But long working days are balanced by the thought that a short hiatus is just around the corner. "We blessedly had the foresight to schedule-in -- and this is being honest about the basic dynamics of working nine months out of the year -- a two, almost a three-week hiatus, or call it summer break, in the middle of July," he explains. "Everybody can just go off and do whatever they want; take another job if they wish to or, as most of us do, just take a vacation, get rested, reconnect with their family... then come back ready for the final stretch to the end of the season. That, to me, is clarity of thought and wisdom."
A few more episodes will be completed by the time they go on summer break, including the centenary episode for which the self-parody envelope is being well and truly pushed. "I hope we go far enough with it," explains Anderson. "I don't know if you've ever seen an episode of a series I helped produce called Legend. My performance there was almost a characterisation short of being a caricature, but it was the type of performance, production and tone of play that I loved doing, sort of 'over the top' stuff that I'm not known for doing. So I was kind of hoping that's what we'd do with 'Wormhole X-Treme', but I don't think we'll go quite that far, which is probably good because it lends a bit more credibility to the story. I think common sense is going to dictate that we do something that's credible yet light-hearted, sort of mocking ourselves a little bit which is always fun to do. I actually majored in self-mockery," he adds with a sly grin, "but I'm not very good at self-deprecation." Obviously.
Whether or not the show goes for a sixth series, Anderson is keen to put the record straight regarding rumours that he personally doesn't want to do another season and that, without Richard Dean Anderson, there's no more Stargate SG-1. "The bottom line is that ultimately, it's not up to me but MGM whom I've already told I'd be willing to do a sixth season," he unequivocally states. "I guess the impression is -- or is going to be -- that I control all aspects of whether the show gets made or not, which is unfortunate. That's what other people have said, but I've never said that! In fact, I've said the opposite; I've said that it's bullshit and the show could be made with another lead. I helped launch it and it could survive without me, but MGM has indicated to me that they would rather I'd be along and I said, 'Sure, I will.' There's certain criteria I've requested be met to make a sixth year more comfortable for me because being away from my daughter is hard, so all I ask for is sort of an easier schedule. So I don't know how this other stuff gets perpetuated and if the impression out there is that I'm playing hard to get, that's bullshit too!"
On a lighter note; since Marge's sisters have been going nutty over MacGyver for so long, when is he finally going to do a voice-over on The Simpsons? "Oh, anytime they ask!" he enthuses. "I actually went to one of their table readings last year, and what it did for me was rekindle the thought that you can really have a lot of fun doing what you're doing. To me, The Simpsons is the best show on television and being at that table, seeing these people I just adore doing all the voices... I just can't say enough about it!"
So Anderson would be over at The Simpsons like a shot, but meanwhile, what about the guest star appearances he's been in demand for in other series? Granted that he has a heavy schedule, but surely, during hiatus… "Work on hiatus?" he laughs. "What are you, nuts? Out of your mind?" Both. Still wouldn't he work on his hiatus for a Simpsons' voice-over? "For The Simpsons, yes," he grins, "Anything for The Simpsons, anytime!"
SFX #85. December, 2001:
Father Figure
Given that most of the cast and crew of the phenomenal Stargate SG-1 have at one time or another commented on the subtle nature of the sense of humor displayed by Richard Dean Anderson, please spare a thought for the poor writer sent to interview the man. Blessed with the ability to make anyone believe whatever he says - at first - you have to be very quick to catch the twinkle in his eye that lets you know he's leading you straight up the garden path. "You know stuff that I say 'off the record' is really far more interesting... I would imagine," offers the inimitable Mr. Anderson, all wide-eyed and with a little head shake that is very reminiscent of the ones made by his current alter ego, Colonel Jack O'Neill. Luckily, I'm learning to watch for the tell-tale crinkle that shows he's about to break into a grin any second. "No chance!" I reply. "We're going to print every word of wisdom you have to say about this show." "Oh dear," he sighs. The fourth season of any successful production can be the time when lead actors begin to believe the hype cast around the show, which can in turn lead to a certain reticence to speak to the press, or indeed the fans who are responsible for their success. This is definitely not the case with anyone involved with Stargate SG-1, particularly the charming Mr. A. Dashing round fulfilling dual roles as executive producer and actor, he would have every excuse to seek some seclusion during a break in filming. Instead, Anderson modestly asks if I have time in my schedule to chat with him. As a result we're swinging round in chairs in the Control Center above the infamous Gate Room trying to jog his memory with regard to some of his most outstanding moments in Stargate SG-1 over the last year. "Now, see, I'm really bad at chronology," he explains. "You know - the tracking of the show. We've got a franchise here that has a really good core of ideas from which we've created a story bible, but I have such a hard time following it. I couldn't tell you squat about what's happened in the past." Given the twinkle in his eye, it's hard to decipher the truth in that statement. However, prompted to give up any detail about production, whether it be from an actor's perspective, a producer's stance or a personal point of view, Anderston shows just how exeptional he is by going for a more open approach. "There you go!" he nods, "The person. Now you're with me." At a time when most performers jealously guard their private lives and restrict original comments to a minimum, it's refreshing to hear Richard Dean Anderson promote a completely different tack. "Most elements in my life have changed dramatically since the birth of my daughter. She's taken all my really serious focus and all my serious attention and my passion is now for fatherhood. I want to be the best dad in the world." Anderson is so serious about the lovely young lady in his life that he's the first to admit that everything else "kind of slips by the wayside. I get a little distracted when I come here." He shrugs, "Much to my professional discredit." A tad concerned about this result, he says, "I've already apologized to Brad Wright [one of the creators of the show and fellow executive producer] and said, 'Forgive me - I've got some really strong personal aspects of life that are pushing to the fore here.' But he told me - 'Listen, I have a family of my own. I know exactly what you're going through. Don't worry about it.' Brad's feelings mirror those of the rest of my co-workers. It's obvious to everyone that I'm just head over heels, consumed by fatherhood and this wonderful daughter." Grinning from ear to ear, Anderson goes on, "But, much as I was distracted before just by the elements of going from point A to point B in Real Life, now I have a beautiful point C to go to. I do take my job seriously - obviously I'm not performing brain surgery here - but it is a professional environment and I take pride in getting the work done as a producer and as a contributor on several creative levels, but I do find myself drifting off into this reverie. Like right now..." he confides, "...I'm in mid sentence but still thinking about the weekend I just spent with my daughter." Agreeing with the suggestion that life with a toddler can make any other situation seem unimportant, Anderson says, "You know, if the truth be known, any job I've ever done has never been the end all. There's always been something else to distract me, but having Wylie has softened some of the edges that I used to bring to work. The nature of what goes on round here can be frustrating and it's possible to take some of those elements home. But now I find they don't go home with me because I know I have an angel waiting, and it's senseless to come in all keyed up or stressed. The minute I walk in the door she's usually just eating supper and I'll hear 'Daddy!' and it's like, 'All bets are off. Now is the moment.'" Pointing to his heart, Anderson maintains, "Within half an hour of being with her again, all of the angst and anxiety that may have built up here during the week just seems to dissipate and go away." Of course not everyone is delighted with the new, mellow Richard Dean Anderson. "I've lived a very rapid, kind of sordid life for most of my life and some of my colleagues miss that." Laughing at the mock shocked reaction he gets from this revelation, Anderson innocently expounds, "Oh yes, I was very randy, rakish, roguish...but I no longer do that. In fact, some of my more reprobate cohorts here tell me that apparently I had a reputation that preceeded me and though none of that behavior is even a part of my thought processes any more, they are all saying, 'Damn! I wish I knew you when...blah, blah, blah... We need you out there.'" Suggestions that he won't be able to rein his daughter in when she gets to an age where she can be rebellious stops him in his tracks. "Why not?" A gentile reminder that what was sauce for the gander is also sauce for the goose brings a smile. "Well, actually her mom has already said that she's going to tell our daughter with pride about her father's reputation because essentially what it is is that I'm a survivor. I survived those...errors...those changing cultural things that most of us who grew up the Sixties and Seventies were blessed to endure. I hope my history gives her the confidence to survive whatever comes to her future." One thing Wylie's doting dad will do to preserve that future is sound off at every opportunity about the individual's responsibility to preserve the Earth for following generations. A man keen on environmental issues since his boyhood days in Minnesota, Anderson has recently undertaken a prioneering journey down the Filer River in Central British Columbia in order to highlight the North American First Nations' right to protect their land from the logging industry. The trip received much critical acclaim when it was featured on the National Geographic Channel in October. "The whole thing came about becasue I was at a charity auction last winter that was benefiting the Waterkeeper Alliance, and one of the auction items at this fundraiser was a rafting trip. It was pretty special, not least because there was a cause involved, which is to help the First Nations find some kind of solution to the logging problem. There were about 20 of us altogther and we were a pretty heady group, consisting of Kathy Francis, chief of the Klahoose First Nation, Robert Kennedy Jr., whose late father is considered to be one of the founders of the modern conservation movement, members of the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Waterkeepers Alliance. We embarked on a rafting adventure that was fascinating in itself but which brought to the surface many, many emotional elements for all of us." "Aside from being privy to some of the most pristine and elegantly beautiful natural terrain, there was a lot of really poignant discussion about the issues at hand. What the trip has done for me is re-introduce the need for personal education on what people like me can do to promote awareness. I came back from that trip a very emotional person. Everything had so surfaced.
It got right under my skin - the elements of appreciation for the important things on this planet and this added reawareness of what I have to do. Right now, because of my prominence in Stargate SG-1 and other projects I've been involved with, I'm in a position to have some public forum, I can be real mouthy about that kind of stuff and think of it as a priviledge to do so. I don't mean to undermine my involvement or my love for what I'm doing at work, but the environmental issues that I hold dear to my heart are far more important than making little TV movies. Because if we don't take care of what we have, there isn't going to be anyone around to watch shows." Fortunately, although its roots are firmly steeped within the realms of science fiction, Anderson believes there is a symbiotic relationship between Stargate SG-1 and the real-life issues at hand. "It does occur to me that within our shows there will often be a reference to the kind of technology that could help our environment, so there are small threads of connections there. It's all coming together." With less than a week to go before the wrap of season four, Anderson has a few threads of his own to pull together before the long winter break. "It's a little bit crazy here," he grins, "I'm editing two shows, editing a script and shooting the current episode so I'm not quite sure what the hell is going on. It's all getting criss-crossed here but we're winding down for the season and we're hustling instead of pacing ourselves trying to get it all done, so it's getting a bit hectic." SG-1's group leader also suggests, "We're so tired and beat up with the year's experiences and efforts that we're all starting to get a little dopey." Surely not! However, the actor admits that earlier that day "during one of my rants where I was making too much noise and misbehaving and all," some inappropriate and definitely unscripted dialogue came pouring out of his mouth which stunned himself and brought the house down. "We could do nothing for laughing but I have no idea where this stuff came from." Fear of being banned from the set means Mr. Anderson's exact soliloquy will have to remain a mystery. However, a pitiful threat to print it because I'm fed up of writing about how nice they all are at the SG-1 base is met with a snort of derision from Anderson the unflappable. "Well, good!" he shouts, "I don't care! We're making fans everywhere. We're expanding our audience. I'll keep my eye open for anything else likely to destroy our reputation." Before he gets too carried away, Anderson is persuaded to talk about less contentious matters, i.e. what he plans to do with his time in the next few months. "Definitely no work," is his immediate reply. "I'm going to do a lot of skiing. A buddy wants me to go to the Galapagos Islands on a scuba-diving trip but I haven't been diving for 15 years, so I'd have to re-educate myself that way. But definitely skiing. I'm a mountain sort of guy." Considering his affection for one Cheyenne Mountain, no one could argue with
By: Thomasina Gibson
Februray 2001
Richard Dean Anderson Chat Transcript
Monday 23 October 2000
chat hosted by Lycos; sponsored by MGM
- E_Mod: Lycos chat moderator
- R_D_Anderson: Richard Dean Anderson, Stargate SG-1's Colonel O'Neill
- E_Mod: Hi RDA, welcome to Lycos Live Events! How are you? Looking forward to chatting with your fans?
- R_D_Anderson: Hi, I am looking forward to chatting with you. This web world tends to confuse me but I am going to get the hang of it! LOL
- Heru-ur: Question: Hello Richard, permission to barge in? Asking loads here in the hope that one will get asked. How much attention do the writers/producers pay to fans opinions? Bring back Martouf — please don't kill Heru-ur, etc? Does this play a role in the thinking for future episode arcs?
- R_D_Anderson: First off Brad Wright is our head writer and partner in producing as well. He above all looks at our general web sites relating to our show which will include all the characters we have. We just had our first convention; it's called Gatecon. The response was so big that we hope it will be an annual occurrence at which a lot of fan influence was heard. Even though Martouf was killed, it is science fiction, so stay tuned. We will see what happens.
- E_Mod: This comes from carkedit in the VIP club: 'G'day Richard...just wondering, do you find it offensive if people you don't know start calling you by your first name?? I don't mean to offend you if you do..I'm Jules by the way!'
- R_D_Anderson: I am actually more offended to be called Mr Anderson. I am more likely to respond to Rick than Richard but both work for me.
- judyofhamburg: Richard, you were so inspired by Headwall Canyon, did you feel that it strengthened your connection with your Native American roots?
- R_D_Anderson: I never really lost contact of my heritage. The Headwall experience sort of lit a fire under my consciousness. It's an experience of memories that I will have forever.
- AnnPMK: Loved your special on National Geographic with Headwall Canyon. Is there anything that Americans can do to help preserve the canyon in Canada?
- R_D_Anderson: Absolutely, the most obvious way is when buying wood products of any kind ask where it's from and more specifically is it from British Columbia. Also if it's old growth forest don't buy it. And register your concern about your source of wood or wood product. And continue general education about where your products come from. And be vocal about it as well.
- E_Mod: This comes from Jaffa_07 in the VIP club asks: 'Do you think that cult television magazines like TV Zone and Cult Times has impacted the popularity of the show?'
- R_D_Anderson: Probably, from what I have seen they have always been favorable. So it seems that they have been able to recognize a show that is visually dynamic. We are proud of what we put out there.
- E_Mod: This comes from Karin2000 in the VIP Club: 'Hello Richard! Greetings from Bavaria! My question is about the music you compose. I've loved "Eau d'Leo" from the first moment on I've heard it in the Macguyver ep "The Negotiator". It is really good. Is there any chance to hear more of the music you have composed? It might be recorded?!'
- R_D_Anderson: LOL! The only thing I have ever recorded other than that is back in the early 80's and that was with a friend, and he thought that I could sing. I can't! LOL! Any music I compose is for myself or my daughters. But thank you for asking.
- hockeyblades7: Hi Ricky from the Maclist in Sonora Calif- was the reference to magnets intentional or ad libbed on a recent sg eppy??
- R_D_Anderson: More than likely it was ad libbed. Brad Wright is a brilliant writer part of what makes any collaboration with him possible and creative is the fact that he starts out as a great writer and secondly he listens to my input. Chances are it was either ad libbed or written.
- E_Mod: This comes from Pam3 in the VIP club: 'What was the funniest blooper of the 4th season? And who out of the main cast seems to initiate these bloopers the most?'
- R_D_Anderson: I sort of have to take blame and responsibility for most bloopers. Because I tend to be more easily distracted than the others. I can't pinpoint any one blooper, there are so many. It's like you almost have to be there. Sometimes I wish we could air the bloopers. But that's another show!
- Heru-ur: Question: (Jaclyn Dartford, Kent - UK) Have you consciously stopped using our fave one liners such as Oh For Crying Out Loud etc?
- R_D_Anderson: I have tried to temper it a little bit. The origin of that is from my Minnesota upbringing. Well that was intentional. The dumbing down was an attempt to make the character as dense as possible. It gives the characters a fun venue to play against each other. It also makes the character less overdently heroic to me it makes him more human. That was a very insightful question. It also forced me to give away a secret about the show.
- tocarielle: Where do the writers from sg-1 get their ideas?? The variation is always great which tends to be a problem in some sci-fi shows.
- R_D_Anderson: Well you can find a germ of an idea for a story anywhere. But the fact that we have the stargate as our springboard and it can take us anywhere gives us a lot of latitude. We have also created a very dynamic franchise. It also helps to have a great writing staff.
- E_Mod: This comes from Sahara_MJ in the VIP Club: 'Hi from QLD Australia, Richard!! I was just wondering if you ever have those days where you wake up in the morning and think to yourself, "I don't wanna go to work today"? Or is everyday like a fun new adventure and you just can't wait to get to the set? '
- R_D_Anderson: The schedule is exhausting. I get up every morning at 5:30 am and will work into the early evening for 9 months. I also have a 2 year old which pleasantly complicates things. So yes, there are a lot of days I wish I didn't have to go to work. But it is fun!
- Ice_On_Fire_AE: Hi Rick: There have been rumors that you may appear in the third Jurasic Park movie. Any truth to the rumors?
- R_D_Anderson: Not that I know of. My agent will be pleasantly surprised! LOL
- Pooka1190: Has a line in the series ever been written that you thought was so out of context of the character that you had it changed?
- R_D_Anderson: Oh yes! That goes back to the comment I made about Brad Wright being open to writing changes and the flexibility he gives us.
- E_Mod: This comes from Tracereau in the VIP Club: 'Hi! Thanks for taking the time to be here with us! Do you have any plans to play in any more of the Celebrity All Star Hockey games? You've been seriously missed there! I've been hoping to see your teammate Chris Potter on SG-1, I think he'd make an excellent Tok'ra!'
- R_D_Anderson: I don't know if I have completely given up on hockey but my knees complain when I do play. So my focus on recreations is on ski'ing. I miss playing in those games. I haven't seen Chris in a long time. But he is an excellent hockey player. He should wear a helmet!
- Sam8934: I've been hearing about a fan club for Stargate SG-1. Do you know when we'll be able to join?
- R_D_Anderson: Yes the fan club is coming soon. And please visit our website at www.stargate-sg1.com for more details.
- E_Mod: I hate to say it everyone, but we have to wrap this up in a few minutes. Our time is almost up. It's been a pleasure to chat with Richard Dean Anderson!! We'll take just a few more comments or questions.
- space_monkey_7: How much alike are you and Jack O'Neill? Your sense of humour obviously match up, but is Jack the closest character to your own personality that you've ever played?
- R_D_Anderson: There is a combination of qualities in both Macguyver and Jack however both are reluctant heroes and I would never describe myself as heroic but certainly reluctant. I'm not quite as dense as O'Neill.
- lunvjck: Hey Rick! You missed a great time at Gatecon this year! Have your buddies talked you into joining us next year?
- R_D_Anderson: My situation this year dictated my action. I was away from my baby girl for 2 weeks and at this point in her life and mine it was imperative that I be with her. As far as next year, it sounded like fun. And I will do my best to attend.
- E_Mod: Thanks Rick, we had a really great time chatting with you. We'll have to do this again some time!!
- R_D_Anderson: I would love to chat with everyone again. Thank you for continuing to watch the show. And continuing to be patient as you are with me. I know you're there and thank you for your support.
GATE CRASHER
Jack O'Neill is the leader of the SG-1 team, which travels via an ancient space portal, the Stargate, to other planets. They search for evidence of activity by the evil Goa'uld and make contact with the inhabitants of the places they visit, many of whom are descendants of people taken from Earth long ago. Although he has played everything from a sexy Soap Opera surgeon to a crazed abusive husband, Stargate SG-1 marks Anderson's entry into the world of Science Fiction. "My credo is, 'I'll try anything once,' well, virtually, so I would have been a hypocrite if I had said, 'Nah, just forget about it,' " says Anderson. "It was high time that I gave Sci-Fi a shot and this show provided me with the perfect opportunity.
"I'm having a lot of fun with the dialogue and the whole concept and especially with my portrayal of O'Neill. I've been given a wide range to run with as far as polishing my character and bringing my sensibilities, sense of humour and relative intelligence to the part. An actor couldn't ask for any more freedom than I have on this show," notes the actor. "Also, as one of the executive producers I'm obligated to the franchise, so that kind of keeps me in check. In fact, and I've said this before, if you want to keep an actor in line make him a producer and he won't rush off to race cars and jump out of airplanes on the weekends. It's called responsibility! Everything is going great, and even though we're filming our third year right now we're still, I'd say, in the earliest stages of developing story lines and characters."
John Symes, President of MGM Worldwide Television Group, acquired all rights to the 1994 StarGate movie (starring Kurt Russell as Jack O'Neill) and sold it as a series deal to Showtime, initially for a two-year run which has now become four years. It was Symes who approached Anderson about playing the lead. "John and I had worked together on MacGyver when he was over at Paramount Studios. He hired Jonathan Glassner and Brad Wright [the show's executive producers and writers] to develop the programme and called me and said, 'I want you to do this. Do your homework, as I know you will, and over-analyze it, as I'm sure you will,' which I did," he laughs. "I watched the movie a few times and saw it had the phenomenal potential to be a great series as it contained all the elements necessary to sustain interest over a long period of time. We were going to be limited only by our imaginations but, thankfully, we have very creative and prolific writers on our staff.
"However, before I accepted the part I had to make it clear to everyone that there was no way that I could portray Jack O'Neill as Kurt Russell had. Kurt did an outstanding job and he should have all the credit for the character's birth, but for me to take over the reins I had to turn the part into something that would be more fun than I think it was for Kurt. There was a certain wryness to O'Neill that I knew would be interesting to explore and a sarcastic edge as well as an irreverence for authority and, especially, for the bad guys. "At first, my performance may have come across a little too flip for some people, so I fine-tuned things and now everyone seems OK with what I'm doing," continues Anderson. "O'Neill's sense of humour is often subtle while other times it is over-the-top, and essentially that's what you get when you deal with me. It's either a quiet throwaway or an overt, almost poke-in-the-ribs moment, and I felt it was important that I inject some levity into O'Neill's personality. Hopefully, even during the subtlest of times, the audience will notice the slight twinkle in my eye that I'm trying to let come through."
In Stargate SG-1's two-hour pilot Children of the Gods, O'Neill is called out of retirement after the Goa'uld attack the Stargate facility. His new commanding officer, General Hammond (Don S Davis), orders the colonel and Captain Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) to take SG-1 back to Abydos, where O'Neill first encountered the aliens, and destroy their Stargate. They are also to return with Doctor Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks), who stayed behind during the original mission. O'Neill's team receives some unexpected help from Teal'c (Christopher Judge), a Jaffa guard and servant of the Goa'uld who ends up joining SG-1. Working on the episode proved to be quite an eye-opener.
"Because this was the launch of the whole franchise for Showtime we were essentially faced with making a mini-movie with special effects on a limited budget," recalls the actor. "So all the problems that are inherent in creating any television show were magnified, especially when it came to dealing with the early Spring weather in Vancouver [British Columbia], where we shoot the series. For me, though, the biggest thing was getting back in the groove. I'd been doing the odd mini-series and television movie, but because working on a series is such a grind you really have to be prepared mentally and physically, and that took some readjusting for me," he chuckles.
Transition
"Since then, it's all been a matter of making sure the film's transition from the big to the small screen was smooth and credible, especially because of the type of audience Showtime was targeting. I had no idea the movie had such a large cult following, and I was also bringing the MacGyver contingent with me, so together those two groups guaranteed the series a level of success. What truly surprised me, though, is how observant Sci-Fi fans are and, in particular, those who watch Stargate. I've been accused of over scrutinizing, which, I know, can sometimes be a pain in the butt to people around me. Subsequently, I love an audience that not only follows the basic credibility of a franchise or a concept but that also notices when something is out of line. The viewers definitely keep us on our creative toes."
One of the few personal facts revealed about O'Neill in the Stargate film is that he suffered a psychological trauma after his son Charlie accidentally shot himself with the colonel's gun. O'Neill never forgave himself and turned his back on his career, marriage and the world until he was recommisioned to lead SG-1. The programme deals with his guilt in the moving first-season episode Cold Lazarus in which a living blue crystal takes Charlie's form. Anderson gives a compelling performance in one of his favourite stories. "The movie kind of left O'Neill floating in an emotionally unstable state. That's not to say we've solved that problem but in this episode he faced one of his demons, which was the death of his son," he says. "That was good because it tied off some emotional loose ends from the film and served as a springboard for me to leap into the series. We still hung on to the fact that he lost his son, but having O'Neill at least come to terms with it allowed me to move forward with the character.
"I enjoyed doing this episode because it had all the elements that make Stargate what it is. It had a great story with a sentimental edge and a concept that was born of the Stargate itself, so it was true to the franchise. Production-wise the special effects were somewhat arduous to deal with, however, at least they weren't the big, ornate effects that can sometimes overshadow what you're trying to say.
Ageing Episode
"Another episode I like is Brief Candle in which my character ages from 40-something to 100 years old," adds Anderson. "This story was over by 12 minutes and it got butchered in editing. We were kind of powerless to do anything about that and most of the material cut were the scenes with O'Neill adjusting to his ageing, which provided me with a wonderful acting challenge. It's too bad that we were restricted creatively by time constraints because I don't feel the plot was fully realized but as an actor it was truly rewarding for me to do."
While all the other SG teams are made up entirely of military personnel, O'Neill's group includes a subordinate officer, a civilian scientist and an alien, which requires him to be a very different type of leader. He is slightly more relaxed and familiar with his teammates, which suits his personality, and considers them friends and equals. O'Neill's association with Hammond is just as unconventional, but, ultimately, he recognizes and respects the general's authority as SG-1 does his. Anderson considers O'Neill's relationships with the other male characters to be fairly straightforward, but hints that something deeper may eventually develop between the colonel and Captain Carter. "Michael Shanks and I have a wonderful rapport as actors and the writers have noticed that, so they readily provide us with banter that is comfortable and fun for us to do. The relationship between Jackson and O'Neill is a lot like what Michael and I are all about. It's light-hearted and intelligent, although he's much smarter than me," laughs the actor.
Teal'c is Teal'c and everyone deals with him the way he has to be dealt with, pragmatically. There's not a heck of a lot of emotional give and take with him but that's going to be addressed this season and that's a positive thing for Chris Judge. He's a very capable actor and he wants to expand the parameters of his character so he can expose more facets of Teal'c's personality to the audience.
O'Neill's relationship with General Hammond is basically a father/son thing because he's so tolerant of the colonel's irreverence," explains Anderson. "Hammond realizes O'Neill is a potential live wire but he cuts him a lot of slack because he also knows that O'Neill is very good at what he does. So he allows the relative genius in O'Neill to come out while basically covering his ass.
"As for Carter and O'Neill, the writers constantly scan the Internet and they know the audience has a yearning to see some sexual attraction between these two characters, but at this time we believe that's too obvious a choice," explains Anderson. "We're not saying that things aren't going to go somewhere, what we are saying is that it would be a mistake to jump into this situation right now.
"We shot an episode back in the middle of April that's set in an alternate reality and our O'Neill has to relate to an alternate version of Carter. So we deal with that dichotomy and the emotional dilemma O'Neill must go through because he's never really thought of Carter in sexual terms. Obviously, we'll have to face it eventually but for now it's just a matter of laying the groundwork and dropping the breadcrumbs along the trail for the audience to find. Jonathan Glassner and Brad Wright both want to be cautious about approaching it but they pay attention to the viewers, and that's not a sales pitch. So we'll just have to be patient and see what happens."
Executive Producer
Although he is kept busy in front of the cameras, Anderson finds time to further exercise his creative muscles as one of Stargate's executive producers. The actor shares this responsibility with Glassner and Wright as well as Michael Greenburg, his partner in their production company Gekko Film Corp which, in association with MGM and Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions, produce the series.
"Because I'm so involved in the filming of the series I'm not an integral part of the pre-production planning process," says the actor. "I seem to be fairly comfortable at editing or polishing scripts, although I don't write them. Jonathan, Brad, Robert Cooper, Tor Valenza, Heather Ash, who's our newest writer, are just some of the people who come up with the scripts themselves. So I work with my partner Michael in basically an editorial capacity.
"Of course, on any given day it's safe to say I'm in a liaison between the acting contingent and the production team, which is a good thing and sometimes not so good a thing. I have to be responsible to production - the show has to be made - on the other hand I also want to make sure the actors are fine with the script, costumes, make-up and anything else that affects their performance.
"In post-production Michael and I will sit in on the editing and make our suggestions, and after that we try to help with whatever else it takes to get the finished product done. That's about all I have time for. I have an 11-month-old child [Wylie Quinn Annarose], and I don't want to undermine any credibility I have as a working stiff, but, honestly, all I really want to do is be a dad for a while. Once Stargate has run its course I'm sure that's what I'll do, take a couple of years off and be dad."
Well-Travelled
The son of a Jazz bassist father and an artistic mother, Anderson was born 23 January, 1950 and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At 15, he hopped a freight train to California, hiked to Alaska and hitchhiked across the country "doing all those angry young man adventure things," he recalls. "When it comes right down to it I was basically a blind idiot, but thanks to my parents I came from a pretty good gene pool that gave me a semblance of intelligence. I didn't really know what I wanted to do but I did sense that I had this creative bug in me. Unfortunately, I didn't have the discipline, admittedly, to become either a musician or an artist like my parents. As a kid I was a jock and very competitive so I leaned towards sports and anything physical.
"I had always dreamt about becoming a professional hockey player but I had two broken arms by the time I was 16 and that pretty much dampened those dreams. In retrospect, it was one of the best things that ever happened to me because it forced me to really look around and assess my situation far earlier than a lot of people. I fought forest fires in Dawson Creek, British Columbia for a summer and from that experience thought I wanted to be a forest ranger or do something outdoors. It must have been the pine tar in my blood from growing up in Minnesota," jokes Anderson. "However, something eventually swayed me towards the Arts."
Anderson studied drama at St Cloud State University, Minnesota and Ohio University. In 1976 he headed to Los Angeles, and was quickly cast as Doctor Jeff Webber on the popular ABC Soap Opera General Hospital. His character soon became a daytime icon, helping the actor launch his career. He went on to star in two short-lived CBS television shows, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Emerald Point NAS before MacGyver.
"I'm going to start sounding corny but I don't care because I am corny," laughs the actor. "I just have to look at that series as a sweeping experience for me. I got the job on MacGyver on a day where I'd been out riding my Harley. I had the long hair, leather jacket, jeans, the whole nine yards, and was kind of on the verge of saying, 'Things just aren't clicking here.' Then Henry Winkler [series co-producer], John Rich and the people at Paramount and ABC created this show that I became a part of and that is now a global catchphrase. It completely altered the course of my future. I can't even wander into the realm of conjecture and guess what I might be doing now if MacGyver hadn't come along."
Law and Order
Although MacGyver made him an international star, Anderson's most beloved television project is the critically-acclaimed Legend, an offbeat Western series set in 1876. He played Ernest Pratt, a hard-drinking San Francisco dime novelist who assumed the identity of his literary creation Nicodemus Legend, the 'Knight of the Prairie'. With some prodding from Professor Janos Bartok (John de Lancie), who provided him with all types of futuristic gadgets, Pratt reluctantly helped maintain Law and Order on the range.
"I had so much fun being a part of the development process and certainly to a large extent creating the character," enthuses Anderson. "This project was brought to Michael [Greenburg] and me by Mike Piller when were under contract at Paramount. Mike had this script floating around so the studio execs partnered us and out of that came Legend. To this day I'm still sad about its early demise because I don't think UPN really gave it a chance to garner an audience. It had such potential and was one of our babies that I genuinely loved doing."
As he approaches his 50th birthday Anderson could not be happier with his life. He has a hit television programme, a loving partner, Apryl Prose, and a healthy and happy little girl. Not bad for someone who once considered himself a vagabond.
"I've been extremely fortunate to be able to perpetuate a livelihood or 'career' out of acting," says the actor. "However, I had a problem in that I was a workaholic. I was never quite sure why over the years I couldn't hold anything together and kept losing relationships until I realized I was working too much. I had my priorities in the wrong place. So what that's allowed me to do now is to really appreciate the fact that I have this beautiful baby and, at 49-years-old, a new life. That's the payoff for what we'll loosely call my career and I'm very grateful."
Gate Crasher." TV Zone. August, 1999
Movies Made for TV
Transforming a movie into a television series had always been a dicey proposition. For every M*A*S*H- style success there have been at least five Blue Thunder-like fiascos. It seems tough taking a premise that worked on the big screen, then downsizing it for TV and building on it so that it can generate compelling tales every week. Either the cast doesn't measure up to the original film's actors, the stories can't capture the spirit of the movie ot television's production values can't match that of a big-budget motion picture.
Cable television's Showtime has two science-fiction series on its Friday-night lineup that are derived from fairly popular movies--Stargate and Total Recall. And the network is batting .500 in using the films' storylines as guides for weekly adventures. Stargate SG-1, which has been on the air since 1997 and is also available in syndication, has quietly delivered the goods. It has successfully taken the premise of the 1994 feature--a teleportation device serves as a gateway to farflung planets--and expanded it in a logical and smart manner.
Producers Jonathan Glassner and Brad Wright, who also oversaw the successful revival of The Outer Limits for Showtime, wisely figured that if one combination of hieroglyphic-like symbols can "dial up" coordinates for one alien world (as the movie surmised), then there must be thousands of combinations that can send people to thousands of worlds. And yet, Stargate SG-1--which is also served by decent special effects--wouldn't have been around for as long as it has without the right cast. Of key importance is the lead character, Air Force Col. Jack O'Neill. The brooding soldier--originated by Kurt Russell in the film--led the initial mission through the Stargate, while also carrying the emotional baggage of having his so accidentally kill himself with O'Neill's own gun.
Because the movie's O'Neill isn't a happy enough camper for a weekly series, enter Richard Dean Anderson of MacGyver fame. He's a likable and charismatic actor who has made the character his own. He got O'Neill over his son's death and infused him with a wry sense of humor. The result gives the audience a wisecracking yet dedicated hero to root for. The supporting cast--including Michael Shanks as scientist Daniel Jackson (played by James Spader in the movie), Amanda Tapping as an Air Force astrophysicist and Christopher Judge as a sympathetic alien--backs up Anderson nicely. The adventures to strange worlds that this team of explorers undertake each week are interesting and effortlessly expand on the movie's initial premise.
Cinescape Article: Movies Made for TV - July/August 1999 - By: Allan Johnson
SG-1 on location
Hiding somewhere in the woods above Vancouver are a team of people pretending they’re on an alien planet. We tracked them down to check up on Season Three of Stargate SG-1 (on Sky in September), and to find out how far they’ve come since the first episode, due for its UK terrestrial première in August More from this major feature here Get Cult Times #47 for the full interview What do Flash Gordon, an ex-policeman from near Bristol and the team from Showtime’s mega-hit series Stargate SG-1 have in common? Answer – they all met up in a wood above Vancouver to film an episode for the show’s third season called Dead Man’s Switch and invited Cult Times along to oversee the proceedings. We drive up in the crew transport to find the location bathed in glorious sunshine and the cast and crew sweltering in the heat. Michael Shanks (Daniel Jackson) and Christopher Judge (Teal’c) had their overalls slipped down to their waists and were sharing a joke with some of the make-up team whilst Richard Dean Anderson (Colonel Jack O’Neill) and Amanda Tapping (Captain Sam Carter) waved a welcome from their vantage point perched on a slope above us. All around the clearing other members of the Stargate team were sitting next to or under some shade patiently enduring the interminable breaks inherent with any kind of film production. Not that anyone was complaining you understand. Certainly not American visitor Sam Jones, he of said Flash Gordon fame. Whilst the LA native spent most of that film bare-chested and clad in very little, today he is encased in metallicized leather and gilded with bronzed make-up. Somehow he manages to look cool, calm and collected whilst most around him, including yours truly, shed layers of clothing to take advantage of the unexpected warmth. “I love doing this show,” he announced as he lined up for coffee. “These people are a lot of fun to work with and so accommodating.” “I’m playing the bad guy in this,” he smiles gleefully, “I’m kind of an interstellar bounty hunter who gets entangled with the Stargate guys. Catch a look at all my heavy weaponry.” Brandishing a serious amount of hardware, he marches off to join our intrepid heroes who have begun to climb a not inconsiderable slope for the umpteenth time that day. This issue includes interviews with Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge and Don S Davis – all captured on location for Stargate SG-1, and revealing what each would love to do beyond the Stargate Location feature – Part 2 Back to Part 1 In his opinions about the future of his character, Michael Shanks appears content with the way things are working out. “The antagonism between Jack and Daniel has evolved into a bit of a closeness now although they still keep at opposite poles and Daniel himself has developed a little more of an edge. There’s been more of a dark side revealed to the character which I think balances well with the original core.” A tiny bit of Shanks’s own rebellious side surfaces when the assistant director comes in to the actor’s trailer to announce he’s needed on set. “You know... with all this sitting around and waiting it’s difficult to maintain your focus, especially when the hockey play-offs are on. I mean, I even find it hard to get out of the trailer.” Sympathizing with his predicament, I suggest he might like to carry a portable television around. Slapping his head with amazement he agrees, “I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s only for like six months of the year. I’m a star! I’m going to go out there and demand one.” Mumbling something about the producers being totally selfish when they could at least devote one of the monitors on set to sport, Shanks insists, “More tantrums are needed. A little bit of attitude.” Getting into his stride, he jokes, “It’s just too chummy with us – no dirt. What we need is a little controversy. Come back when the show wraps. I’ll give you dirt!” Leaving the man to his ravings I slip into the transport with Amanda Tapping who shakes her head and tuts wisely. “He’s tired and emotional.” she grins. We take the opportunity to chat a bit about her continuing role as astro-physicist Samantha Carter and the milestones which have charted her progress to date. “The first season was all about developing the character and trying to figure out who she was and how she reacted in certain situations. The second season was about these situations and now it would be nice to throw some new things into the mix. I had pretty much everything that I wanted to achieve with Carter happen throughout Season Two and am now really looking forward to seeing what this year will bring. "What I’d really like to see occur more is that occasionally we get to have some fun as a team. It would be great to see the situation on-screen echo what happens on set.” Speaking of the characters she says, “We’ve worked as a team now for two and a half years and you never see us laugh together or see us being goofy together and I’d love to see moments where we as people have that type of closeness...” Thomasina Gibson
Cult Times - august 1999
Behind the Scenes: Portal Fun
Prompting legendary ‘90s SF schlockmeisters Dean Deviln and Roland Emmerich to dub your TV spin on their cinematic concept "like watching somebody murder your children" isn't really the sort of PR executive producer and writer Brad Wright would want of his and co-producer Jonathan Glassner's Stargate SG-1. But then the Godzilla and ID4 supremos, who first hit the Hollywood big time with their SF actioner Stargate, haven't seen the show's ratings. Stargate SG-1 has been a staggering success worldwide.
Currently midway through its second season on satellite here in the UK and on the Showtime cable network in the US, the series is gaining a brand new audience as it launches into syndication across the main American TV networks. And with a four-season commitment from parent company MCM, it's looking in good shape, despite the face-changing necessitated by its new TV-honed home. Richard Dean Anderson has replaced Kurt Russell as Colonel Jack O'Neill and James Spader’s nerdy scientist Daniel Jackson is now portrayed by Michael Shanks. Adding televisual flourish to the mix arc newcomers Teal'c (Christopher Judge), a turncoat warrior from the enemy side, and Captain Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping), an Air Force astrophysicist.
"When Jonathan and I saw the Stargate movie, we knew it would make an excellent TV series," enthuses Wright, "and knowing that it was in MGM's library, we approached them about writing the pilot episode. What I think is fabulous about the concept is that there are 39 symbols on the Stargate, and that means that there are millions of possible combinations and Stargate locations across the galaxy. The idea of a network of them carne to us immediately." Wright, who also worked on the revamped The Outer Limits as well as vampire cop saga Forever Knight, notes similarities with the former on his latest project. "I ended the world a lot on Outer Limits, but we could because it was an episodic show! I always saw its theme as a series of cautionary tales, whereas with Stargate SG-1 we're about embracing the unknown, the adventure and the awe of the Stargate. We have a lot of humour a well - I don't think we had one joke in four years of The Outer Limits!"
Indeed, the producer compares Stargate SG-1's action-adventure blend to that other success story: the original Star Trek. "They embraced humour in that show, as we do. We're so fortunate to have a cast like this. I've worked on a lot of shows and I realise how lucky we are to have a cast who are not only good actors but wonderful people at the same time, and they constantly challenge us to write to their strengths. As an ensemble, they just come together so well." But the first season bad its problems - notably exterior shots filmed in British Colombia looking like yet another Canadian forest... Wright says they've learned some tough lessons. "We've done a lot more in studio for season two, which gives us more range than we ever had." He points out episodes like "Cold Lazarus," shot on location at a sulphur works among alien-looking yellow dunes, and "Message In A Bottle," which opens on an airless lunar surface. "But a lot of our stories take place on Earth-like planets, and those have to have trees! We did a script where a local girl is showing Daniel Jackson around and she says, 'Look - we call these trees...' and Daniel says, 'Yeah, so do we...'"
Another helpful factor is the idea that all these ancient Earth cultures have been transplanted to distant worlds via the Stargates: it gives the writers more creative freedom. "The licence that we have is that these cultures were transplanted thousands of years ago, so we can presume a degree of evolution iv that time. We just did a story featuring a West coast Native American culture, and we could have gone completely by the book in terms of our art direction, but we have to presume there would be changes, so we started at that point and extrapolated. We've done that a few times, plus we have the influence of the bad guys, the Goa'ulds, to consider. The cultural elements are never the whole story." The success of Stargate SG-1 to date has so convinced the Showtime network of its commercial viability that the company has already committed to a full four years of 88-episodes. With such a long lead-time, Wright and Glassner are eager to construct far-reaching arc plotlines.
"We can take them a long way," says Wright. "You're going to see stories grow over the year and you'll see some of them resolving. But we're not that structured. We're very aware of the stories that need to be arced, but we're also going to bring back other elements as well." As an example, he cites "Tin Man," a show that ended with robot duplicates of the SG-1 team stranded on a distant planet. "We're going to go back there. Continuity is something that science fiction fans love, and so do I!" Leading the SG-1 team and the struggle against the evil alien Goa'ulds is actor Richard Dean Anderson as Colonel Jack O'Neill (played by Kurt Russell in the movie). Michael Greenberg, co-executive producer on the series and partner with Anderson in his Gekko Film production company, answers the oft-asked question when the two actors are compared: "I think Richard's O'Neill is more like Indiana Jones and Han Solo than Kurt's."
Anderson himself adds that his take on the character is a lot less serious than Russell's, with the lion's share of cynical quips coming from his mouth. "I'm having an absolute ball playing him. Probably more than I should," he laughs. "I was very up front with MGM at the beginning, stating that I could not replicate Kurt's portrayal of the character. He was more stoic than I want O'Neill to be. But I feel that we have freedom to find new and different aspects of this character than we saw in the movie. O'Neill has feelings that were created and left over from the end of the movie. The series starts after he's had time to ponder his life. He was affected greatly by the events that transpired on Abydos, so a new attitude was born. His inquisitiveness is also piqued by the idea that you can travel to other planets through the Stargate." While O'Neill's attraction to the Stargate comes from a desire to "go boldly," the actor's reasons for taking the role also come from an opportunity to try something new.
"There are a few elements that attracted me to the show. I'd worked with John Stymies (MGM TV's president) when he was at Paramount for MacGyver and he asked me to become involved with the project. I watched the movie a few times and decided that it was the perfect vehicle for a series - the concept alone allowed for expansion into a weekly series. Second, I'd never been a fan of the science fiction genre, hut I've always said that I will try anything once... It would've been hypocritical of me not to consider it." Working on Stargate SG-1 has helped the actor shrug off the typecasting mantle of MacGyver. "I've a lot of affection for that show - it's still very popular in Europe - but it's good to progress." Indeed, even in Stargate SG-1's pilot episode "Children of The Gods," there's a sly nod to Anderson's previous role when Captain Carter suggests she might he able to "MacGyver" the damaged Stargate controls...
As the head honcho of the SG-1 team, Colonel O'Neill also seems to he in the frontline for most of the series' unpleasant special effects: he's regressed into a Neanderthal ("The Broca Divide"), been replicated by an alien crystal ("Cold Lazarus"), prematurely aged almost to death ("Brief Candle") and been trapped in a glacier ("Solitude's") - and that's just during the first season! Anderson sighs manfully at his character's constant confrontation with effects-laden danger. "Acting with effects is just part of the job. It's not the same thing as performing in theatre or doing Shakespeare in the Park, but it's part of the tools that are available to you as an actor. It enables you to create a reality or a fantasy."
FANTASTIC IS THE FURTHEST THING FROM THE mind of stoic astrophysicist and second-in-command Captain Samantha Carter. Fortunately, the actress who plays her Amanda Tapping, thanks to an extensive pedigree as an improve comedienne, is anything hut serious. "I'd heard of the Stargate movie, but I'd never seen it until I auditioned for the role," she recalls, smiling. "I loved it, and I realised straight away that the possibilities for a series were great. I'm thrilled the writers have written a strong female character like this. They're giving Carter a certain equality that is very refreshing to play. It's such a great challenge and I feel a responsibility to all the women out there to play her correctly. "I think I'm a lot like her," she pipes up suddenly. "What the writers have done is take on parts of our personalities and put them into our characters. They've started to write for us and our interpretations of the roles. I identify with her dedication and her single-mindedness." But doesn't dressing in camouflage gear and uniforms week after week cramp her femininity?
"You know, initially I was so pumped by the idea - no high heels, no pantyhose - but after a while I'm thinking, 'Give me a skirt!' I don't always feel attractive in all of that! I never thought I'd say it, but I'd actually love to see Carter in a dress!" Given Tapping's comic talents, is there a chance Carter might get some funny moments as the show develops? "I hope so! I've asked the writers to lighten her up a bit, make her more warm, and they're certainly doing it. I like her a lot more now than I did to begin with." As to the question of a romance between her character and O'Neill, she's adamant there'll be no bump'n 'grind as far as she's concerned. "No, it's a military thing. He's a Colonel and she's a Captain and that sort of thing just doesn't happen." But she does promise that this season features more in the way of stories focusing on Carter herself, elements of which are already appearing, such as die arrival of her father as a recurring character. "That's a wonderful personal relationship," she trills. "There's also some other big stuff coming up. We've gut more aliens and a lot less trees! The concept has been well established so now we're moving forward, so you're going to learn a little bit more about the characters' outside lives."
So how does Stargate SG-1 compare to her other various experiences on genre TV, among them guest shuts in Forever Knight, The X-File's, The Outer Limits and Kung Fu: The Legend Continues? "Well, doing this every day as a series regular is a lot more hard work than being a guest star. It's more like a real job! But having done a lot of episodic work before, I feel I can get a better handle on the character in a regular role. I think this is our generation's way of telling heroic stories around the campfire. Our stories have evolved to the point where our myths are all science fiction. We have these human people with their everyday foibles and characterisations thrust into this world that is pure sci-fi. But we don't just stick to the science fiction elements. We have a lot of human stories as well." She picks out two episodes as her most recent favourites - "Solitudes," where Carter and a critically-injured O'Neill are stranded in a glacier (shot on a refrigerated soundstage) and "In The Line Of Duty," where Carter is temporarily possessed by a rogue Goa'uld.
An "outsider" character in any ensemble show is always a given, particularly in SF, where such a role enables the audience to see humanity from an alien perspective. As Teal'c, the former Goa'uld elite soldier and personal guard of the villain Apophis, actor Christopher Judge has to handle all these elements and more - with only the warrior's stony face to carry it off. "Bring Teal'c day after day is very tough," he admits. "With him, it's all in the small gestures and in the eyes, the tilt of the head. All of that has to communicate his feelings. I'm a big guy, but I can't use that physicality to get my message across, so it's difficult." Not that the actor himself is anything like Teal'c. "I'm always cutting up between scenes because "I'm always so serious on the show! I'm outgoing and gregarious, but like Teal’c at all."
Formerly an American football player during his college years, the actor is no stranger to wearing chunky suits of body armour, as Teal’c is so often called to do. "It's like I'm back in college again - all I need is some cheerleaders, a crowd and a hall to make it all compete!" His opinion of the original Stargate flick, however, is mixed. "I liked the beginning a lot, but I thought the ending fell apart. I felt it could be better. But I heard about the show when a friend showed me a copy of the pilot script. He was auditioning, and after I read it I called my agent and said, 'Get me on this show!' My friend will probably never speak to me again! We're not in space on a starship or spacestation on this show - we're real people from Earth. That's what makes Stargate SG-1 so unique."
He admits that he's never touched the SF genre before. "I was impressed that science fiction fans are very active and they're very articulate as well. They're not afraid to tell you if they think you are good or bad in a particular show." For the second season, Judge reveals that Teal'c will lighten up a little and lose some of his grim streak. "He's at a point now where he realises that there may actually be a light are the end of the tunnel. In season one, he abandoned what he knew for his beliefs and that was really difficult for him, but now he gets his wife and sun back from Apophis [in "Family"] and starts to think that maybe there'll be freedom for his people."
Like co-star Richard Dean Anderson, actor Michael Shanks was also faced with the difficult task of making another actor's character his own when it came to portraying the bookish scientist Daniel Jackson, whose wife has been kidnapped by the Goa'uld lord Apophis. "You just have to deal with it," smiles Shanks. "I admire James Spader's work very much, and I think he did a great job playing Jackson in the film. What I had to do was what theatre actors do all the time: come in and take over a role that someone else has been handling and just play it to the best of my ability. I had to ask myself what was it about that person that I could take on board, what elements would I take into my portrayal. Any actor who takes over a role wants to make it their own."
But he has a soft spot for the character, despite the challenge: "I admire Daniel's naïveté, passion, innocence and curiosity. He's like a little child lost in the universe, trying to find something. He doesn't know what it is yet, but he's enjoying the ride. Initially it was easy to kind of give in to his sense of wonder, but its got harder as time has gone on. Sometimes it's hard to be enthusiastic every day. He 's go t so much excitement for what he does!"
As "an avid reader of books on cultures and myths," Shanks is also eager to bring other elements of his own personality into the role; he's certainly keen to bring out the character's "dark side" after Spader's limp portrayal. Having previously guest-starred on other Canadian-located genre shows like Highlander and The Outer Limits, Shanks also regards Stargate SG-1 as a potent blend of science fiction and action adventure. "We're not just an SF show. We use a lot of those sci-fi elements in the background, but that's largely a vehicle for more humanistic stories about people. We've got some great developments coming up this year, as well."
Well into the next millennium, Stargate SG-1's missions across the galaxy look set to be an established fixture on the SF TV landscape. Executive producer and co-writer Jonathan Glassner puts it best: "We're not bound by reality and imagination is limitless."
SFX Article-Number 47, January 1999
Los
Angeles Times
Talk about good timing. TV's Stargate SG-1, filmed in Vancouver, British
Columbia, goes on hiatus for three months in the winter. The sci-fi
show's star, Richard Dean Anderson (who also starred in MacGyver),
couldn't have asked for a better schedule. "I'm a winter sports fanatic,
so it just fits in perfectly."
His favorites are hockey--"Hockey was my lifeblood growing up in Minnesota.
You sort of skated before you walked, and it was a law"--and skiing.
"I've become more obsessive about skiing than hockey," he said.
QUESTION: You really favor skiing over hockey now?
ANSWER: Skiing has always been second to my passion for hockey, but
now I'm one of those maddened-while-slightly-chastened extreme skiers.
I've had to slow it down a little bit because I've
had a couple of reconstructed knees.
QUESTION: Don't you guys have a hockey team on the show?
ANSWER: Well, we have a group of guys that enjoys a street hockey
match in the parking lot here at our studios or on ice. It's a great
workout, although I have everybody kind of nervous about it. I tend
to get a little aggressive on ice and I shouldn't. I should be a little
more responsible.
QUESTION: Why?
ANSWER: Because I tend to skate as aggressively as an old man can,
and that sometimes entails a little, oh, collision here and there.
QUESTION: You're also a cycling enthusiast, aren't you?
ANSWER: When I'm not working, I'll cycle virtually every day just
because it quiets me but also energizes me, and it's a pretty good
physical workout as well. Mostly I like doing long-distance road work.
When I was 17 I took a 5,641-mile bike trek over three months between
my junior and senior years in high school, through Canada, southern
Alaska and back to Minneapolis. I was on the verge of being a juvenile
delinquent when I was 17, but over 5,600 miles, most of which was
done solo, I had some very nice internal dialogues -- it continues
to this day -- that essentially altered the course of my future, my
perceptions of life, knowing that I was solely responsible for putting
myself from point A to point B.
QUESTION: Do you prepare for the ski season?
ANSWER: Oh, yeah, definitely, because I know my knees are really kind
of my biggest risk at this point. I still have the attitude. I still
have the wherewithal and the desire to go fast and to go steep and
to jump off things. I think I'll stop jumping off of things . . .
but I still like the deep, steep powders.
QUESTION: What do you specifically do to get ready?
ANSWER: I'll go out for a 40-miler just to get my muscles acclimated
to what's about to come. When I'm specifically training for something,
I'll work out six days a week, about three hours a day. I'll get on
leg machines. I'll get on that stair thing . . . which is a little
more thigh-specific and aerobic-oriented, and a couple of machines
at the gym that have a lot to do with compression strength for all
parts of a leg.
QUESTION: Give me a rundown of your diet.
ANSWER: Sure. It's pretty simple. I love and need breakfast. I'll
have a bowl of some kind of grain cereal, a cup of coffee, with a
shot or two of espresso in it to get me to work. And there I'll have
five egg whites and mushrooms, maybe a little bit of a tomato in there.
QUESTION: Is that an omelet?
ANSWER: Well, not real omelet. The way our caterer makes it, it's
just a mumbo jumbo. It's globby old stuff. And I'll have fresh-squeezed
orange juice and then snack later on a high-protein, high-carb supplement
bar. And then lunch is whatever they're serving here [at the studio].
I usually have a big slab of fish or chicken and a lot of rice and
a little salad and, if they have vanilla ice cream, I'll have a glob
of that. I'll eat a lot of grapes, oranges, bananas between lunch
and dinner. And [for] dinner [at] home I'll have this huge salad or
a can of tuna fish with chopped olives and a little mustard or a small
bowl of pasta or chicken or fish, if we barbecue.
QUESTION: Any vegetables?
ANSWER: Not big on the veggies, but I'll scarf down the broccoli.
I'll eat some carrots, some celery and kind of chomp those down grudgingly.
And I drink tons and tons of water and also Gatorade.
The 48-year-old actor and his girlfriend, Apryl Prose, had a baby
-- Wylie Quinn Annarose -- in August.
QUESTION: I don't want to forget to congratulate you on Wylie.
ANSWER: She's the joy of my life. I sort of now have a reason to actually
slow down a little bit. Well, I've already got her first trip planned,
and I have the harness that she's going to be in on my stomach as
I take her down for her first little ski run.
QUESTION: Getting to know her dad.
ANSWER: Yeah, exactly. "Guess what, honey? Get ready. Here comes life
with Dad."
Los Angeles Times - Wedlan, Candace A.
RICHARD
DEAN ANDERSON FOUR QUESTIONS
Richard Dean Anderson has the good looks of a logger and a bad case
of the brand-new father giggles.
His first child, a little girl, named Wylie, was born last summer
and, all of a sudden, TV doesn't seem so interesting.
He still works nine months a year - these days for Showtime on Stargate
SG-1 - a weekly TV version of the hit Kurt Russell movie.
At the age of 48, the actor who played the resourceful MacGyver for
seven long, type-casting years has re-invented himself - using only
the material at hand - as an action hero.
Anderson is the rarest of TV stars: He has never taken himself so
seriously that he thought he had to be a "movie" star or die - where
are you now, David Caruso? And he survived long enough to get a chance
to build a second, lucrative TV franchise.
Wylie Anderson will not have to attend state colleges in a hand-me-down
Buick.
QUESTION: While you were doing MacGyver you said you wanted to start
a family but were working too hard. Have you found the time yet?
ANSWER: Yes. Apryl and I met in New York actually about two and a
half years ago, when I was making a pilot for (Homicide producer)
Tom Fontana actually - I just name-dropped, didn't I?
Anyway, during my stay here, we were set up on a blind date and long
story short, we clicked quite nicely. Out of all that came my daughter,
Wylie Quinn (now three months old).
Actually, we're not married. Apryl's my girlfriend, my companion,
my best friend really. But right now, Kurt and Goldie, Oprah and Steadman
are our heroes.
QUESTION: So what are your thoughts about getting married?
ANSWER: Well, Mom (sarcastically).... Actually I called my mother
up when we learned we were pregnant and said: "Mom, how do you feel
about being a grandma?" and she said: "Fine. When are you getting
married?" One of those, y'know, thanks-for-sharing-in-my-joy-things.
My mother is from the old school. I laid it out for her as pragmatically
and articulately as possible. I said "Mom, I don't want the church
or the state to dictate the nature of my relationship. Neither of
us needs to be or wants to be married at this point. We're secure
in our relationship. We love each other." (Pause) First thing out
of her mouth: "That's nice. So when you getting married?" There's
no fighting that.
QUESTION: What's the best job you ever had?
ANSWER: Love that question. The most honest job I ever had - obviously
that wouldn't be in show business - I fought forest fires in British
Columbia back when I could do such a thing, in 1967. I was on this
bike trip and we were staying at this campground when a forest ranger
just came by asking for anyone who wanted to fight fires. A willing,
stupid kid is what I was - no, not stupid. Just willing and adventurous.
Best job I had in my chosen profession was Legend (a series which
ran for just one season on UPN in 1995). I may eventually get tired
of talking about it, but it remains sort of a sour grapes thing for
me - kind of Let-it-go-Rick-it's-time-to-move-on. But I was so enamored
with the potential of that particular franchise, and UPN didn't have
the guts at the time to stick it out. I still have a hard time with
it.
QUESTION: Are there any similarities between you and the character
(Air Force Col. Jack O'Neill) you play in Stargate?
ANSWER: We're both late 40's and about 6-foot-2. After that I don't
know what to say. The character was of course, created by Kurt Russell.
But I don't even try to do what he did. I just made Jack O'Neill as
close to what I do as possible - and so far it's worked. We're going
into syndication this season on the Fox Family Channel. (Into the
microphone) Check your local listings.
New York Post. November 15, 1998.
MEET
THE UNIVERSAL GOOD GUY
Richard Dean Anderson, the irreverent Colonel Jack O'Neill in the
TV series Stargate SG-1, has silenced those critics who thought his
fame would die with the demise of "Mac" MacGyver. Richard Dean Anderson,
former star of MacGyver and lantern-jawed he-man of Stargate SG-1,
is lying flat on his back, blocking a cramped corridor at Burnaby's
Bridge Studios, tossing a rubber ball the length of the hallway while
two black Labradors race pell-mell to retrieve the toy.
"Hi, how're you doing?" he says, with no room to move aside. The dogs,
Tugboat and Molly -- whose names were drawn by their owner, producer
John Smith, from The Beachcombers, which Smith used to produce --
scamper back with the ball and leap on Anderson. Anderson fires it
the length of the hallway again, while secretaries and production
assistants dive for cover.
There's a crackle on a nearby walkie-talkie and an assistant relays
the message: Filming is about to resume on a nearby soundstage. Anderson
gives the dogs one last affectionate rub, stands up and fingers a
military dog tag he is wearing around his neck. "It's a dog's life,"
he says, keeping a straight face.
Anderson has been down this road before. For seven years, between
September 1985 and August 1992, he played "Mac" MacGyver in the made-in-Vancouver
MacGyver, a popular series about a rugged, handsome hero who favoured
paper clips and candy bars over guns and fisticuffs in his fight to
right wrongs and defeat bad guys around the world.
Now Anderson is playing Air Force Colonel Jack O'Neill in the MGM
Television series Stargate SG-1. He is still defeating bad guys, only
now they are scattered around the universe. Anderson's latest series
-- he is one of the show's executive producers as well as its most
prominent performer -- has evolved into one of television's more improbable
success stories of late. After just one year on the air, Stargate
is the highest-rated prime-time series on the U.S. cable channel Showtime.
It was recently renewed for another two seasons, which will result
in a grand total of 88 episodes. The U.S. Sci-Fi Channel has an option
for two more years after that, which could conceivably extend Stargate's
life span to a total of six years.
It has come a long way since Vancouver producer Brad Wright and his
partner, Jonathan Glassner, first floated the idea of an extended
series based on the critically drubbed but financially successful
1994 movie starring Kurt Russell and James Spader. For Anderson, who
co-produces the series with his partner Michael Greenburg and their
company, Gekko Film Corp., Stargate has provided a homecoming of sorts.
It has afforded him the opportunity to silence his critics -- the
ones who said he was a flash in the pan whose 15 minutes of fame would
be snuffed out with the demise of MacGyver -- while renewing his ties
to a city he called home for seven years. "I'm not going to deny that
I've gotten older," Anderson says during a break in filming. "It's
all a matter of adjusting. I still have the stoic, Swedish stamina
that allows me to put up with the hours and rigors of this kind of
work."
Script pages and production notes are tossed around Anderson's trailer,
the workplace of a man juggling two hats. Anderson scans his eye over
the script pages for the next day's filming while taking sips from
a bottle of B.C. mineral water. None of that import stuff."As much
as taking on extra duties is one of the -- and put this in quotes,
please -- 'burdens' of being a producer, it's also one of the joys.
It keeps me thinking, keeps me aware of all the elements of production.
I'm not just 'the actor,' which is good for me in the long run. I
need that kind of stimulation."
There are knocks at the door. Walkie-talkies crackle. Questions are
asked, advice given.
Even at the height of its popularity, MacGyver was never quite like
this. "MacGyver was the springboard to my career. It gave me, I think,
a wonderful perspective on things. It was a seven-year run that launched
me into a perpetual state of employment... I don't hold myself in
any high esteem as a great actor. I've gotten by and I'm fairly comfortable
in my own skin." The man who was MacGyver then makes a surprising
admission.
"I don't really have a mechanical mind. But I'm fascinated by the
technical elements involved in doing special effects, things of science,
the technology involved in doing what we do. It can and does require
interminably long, dull, repetitive hours, but the technical aspects
of putting this show together are as intriguing to me as they are
difficult... I wouldn't have signed on to do another perpetual series
if I didn't think I could handle it, find some joy in the day-to-day
regimen of making miniature movies, which is essentially what we're
doing."
Anderson made it clear from the beginning that he would not play Colonel
O'Neill with the stoic pose struck by Russell in the film.
"I made it a lot easier for myself by bringing my quirky slant on
life to the role. Life's too short not to have a sense of humour about
what you do for a living. With me, it manifests itself in a sarcastic
sense of humour, which is a little inordinate for a military man."
He pauses. "You don't see sarcasm a lot in the military."
ANDERSON BRINGS QUIRKY SLANT TO ROLE
He says life's too short not to have a sense of humour -- whether
the subject is Air Force Colonel O'Neill or the rain in Vancouver.
Then there's the rain. During his MacGyver days, Anderson made an
off-the-cuff quip about Vancouver's dank, gloomy winters. That gave
him something in common with a certain actor from another TV series.
"Hey, [David] Duchovny called me," Anderson says, brightly. "We'd
never met, but he tracked me down through people that we know and
we chatted on the phone. He said, 'Richard, what do I do? Basically,
they're all over me.' "I went through exactly the same thing about
eight years prior, during the early days of MacGyver. I made the mistake
of actually commenting, as he did, honestly about my perception of
Vancouver's weather. I said, 'It rains here. It's cold and wet and
it can get a little dark.'
"From that quote came the perception that I hated the city. Literally,
this was the interpretation of my comments about the weather. "I told
Duchovny, 'You know, you have to, please, take it with a grain, please,
just let it slide,'" Anderson pauses, "'like water off a duck's back.'"
Anderson says he offered some advice, for what it was worth.
"I said, 'Think about what you're talking about, about what's at stake.
You're talking about the weather. This is the weather you're talking
about. You haven't gone at them culturally. You haven't undermined
their nationalism, their love of country, or anything like that.
"You're talking about the goddamn weather. Put it in perspective.'
And part of me was hoping that Vancouverites would do the same.
"You have to have a sense of humour about things. Take pride in the
fact that you live here and can endure such hardships. Take pride
in the fact that you're stoic and made of tough stock and can endure
a cold, hard, wet winter. That's the reality.
"Besides, this has been one of the warmer summers I've ever experienced
in Vancouver. You'll never hear me complain about it being hot in
Vancouver, because I know what the winters are like."
Anderson has noticed a few changes in the Lower Mainland since his
MacGyver days. "First of all there's a new race track for the Molson
Indy," he says, deadpan. "There are the obvious architectural changes.
To be honest with you, things seem to be pretty much the same culturally,
which to my way of thinking, is a plus. "Part of what I love about
Vancouver, and have been so enamoured with over the years, is its
culture -- the symphony, being able to go down to Bard on the Beach,
when I can, when I have time. There's a cultural -- I hate to use
the word cornucopia -- cornucopia here that I find intellectually
invigorating.
"It's not my home country, but I feel like an adopted son to some
degree. I love the country and have a kind of ongoing love affair
with the city -- despite what the guys on KFOX, or whatever it is,
have been trying to rag on me for the last decade. Please, let's move
on boys." Anderson, 48, recently became a father. The announcement
in Variety was brief and to the point: "Actor Richard Dean Anderson
and his girlfriend Apryl Prose welcomed their baby daughter, Wylie
Quinn Annarose Anderson, into the world on Sunday, Aug. 2, 1998...
Father, mother and baby are all healthy and happy."
"I was a bit of a dog," Anderson admits, talking about his younger
days. "I was a misbehaving fool. I was just having a ball, in a relatively
harmless way, right up to the present. "Meeting Apryl and having baby
Wylie was something that had been pending for a while. It was obvious
to me that something was happening internally. My perception of things
was becoming a little softer, a little gentler. I wasn't as hard.
I wasn't the workaholic I had been in the past. I wasn't playing as
hard.
"I know that's a natural part of the aging process and maturation
and personal evolution. I'd always said that I loved working with
kids, with inner-city groups and various charities, and I always said
I wanted them. The opportunity presented itself and it was time to
put up or shut up. Life was calling me on myself.
"And now we have this beautiful healthy baby that right now is the
sole source of emotion and absolute joy. It's made me more sensitive
to my own feelings. It's heightened everything. I'm a little more
aware of what's going on, rather than being the stoic Scandinavian
I've always prided myself on being, hiding my feelings.
"I am finding at this point in time, since [Wylie] is a month old,
that work is getting in the way of my being the dad I want to be.
But you make your adjustments. You keep flexible, as people with children
know. You just kind of bend with things."
RICHARD DEAN ANDERSON
Michael Greenburg, left, shares executive- producer duties with actor
Richard Dean Anderson in the TV series Stargate. Claim to fame: Plays
Colonel Jack O'Neill on the Burnaby-based TV series Stargate SG-1,
the highest-rated prime-time series on the U.S. cable channel Showtime.
Stargate's second season is airing Sunday on CHEK-TV at 7 p.m.
Background: Age 48, born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His
father was a jazz bassist, his mother an artist. He studied drama
at Minnesota's St. Cloud College and Ohio University, then moved to
Los Angeles, where, in 1976, he landed the role of Dr. Jeff Webber
on the daytime drama General Hospital. In 1985, Anderson was cast
as the signature role in MacGyver, which was filmed in Vancouver until
the series' end in 1992.
The acting bug: "When I was six years or seven years old, I would
tag along with my dad to theatre rehearsals. One time, at a rehearsal,
instead of a birthday cake which was supposed to be part of the action,
they brought a whole bunch of Hostess Twinkies. As a kid, you see
a plate full of Hostess Twinkies and you're thinking, 'Okay, I've
come to the right spot.' It was part of a play, with people play-acting.
Somehow I made the association that any job that would allow me to
get free Hostess Twinkies was a job I wanted to do. Obviously, I was
just doing it for the perks."
Strachan, Alex. - The Vancouver Sun. October 17, 1998
Father
Time
Richard Dean Anderson's got a new babe: his daughter.
"I could just sit here staring at her all day," says Richard Dean
Anderson, reclining on his bed. "Actually, I think I have." Improbably,
the notorious ladies' man is not talking about some leggy starlet
du jour. These days the object of his infatuation is Wylie Quinn Annarose,
the baby girl that Apryl Prose, Anderson's girlfriend of two years,
gave birth to Aug.2.
Later, in the kitchen of the four-bedroom Vancouver house the ex-MacGyver
star rents while filming Stargate SG-1, the TV series about interplanetary
explorers (now in its second season on Showtime and airing in syndication),
Prose, 32, warms a bottle while the doting dad places his daughter
in her crib. "When I come home, I immediately take over diaper changing,"
says Anderson, 48. "I love that" -- along with the feeding and the
burping.
This is, astonishingly, the same "Rick" Dean Anderson who outlasted
Warren Beatty as Hollywood's busiest bachelor -- dating such beauties
as Sela Ward, Katarina Witt, Lara Flynn Boyle, Marlee Matlin and Teri
Hatcher. But whenever Anderson found himself becoming too involved,
the self-described "misbehaving fool" would abruptly end the relationship
and move on to someone new. "I can't cringe about those days," he
says now. "If I did, I'd be in a state of perpetual cringe." Apryl
Prose, a former wardrobe and prop stylist for print and TV ads in
L.A., had heard about Anderson's track record. "I thought of him as
one of those actors in their 40's who still can't commit -- the kind
of guy I would never date," she says.
Yeah, right. In the spring of 1996, her friend Michael Greenburg,
who also happens to be Anderson's business partner, arranged for the
two to meet over lunch in New York City, where Anderson was shooting
a TV pilot. "We started flirting immediately," says Anderson. "By
the end of the week, we were very good friends." Recalls Prose: "It
was like Roman Holiday. He was so generous, so sweet. Still," she
says, "I had some doubts. I thought he might just always want to be
a playboy." She called her mother and said, "I've met the man I'm
going to spend the rest of my life with. Don't tell anybody. He's
got a bad reputation."
Yet despite the rep and the couple's long-distance courtship -- by
year's end, he had begun work on Stargate in Vancouver while she remained
in L.A. -- Anderson insists he never strayed. "That was a big change,"
says Greenburg. "I saw this happening right from the start. She's
very witty and fun, and so is Rick."
Then, last November, Prose phoned with the news that she was three
weeks pregnant. "We weren't planning this," she says. "I expected
him to freak out. But he just said, 'Be calm. This is going to be
great.'" "I always said I wanted to be a dad," says Anderson. But,
he says, recalling his feelings just after that November phone call,
"I was hit by the reality of it all" and started to cry. Then he went
out and bought every parenting book he could find. Back in L.A. last
summer, Anderson eagerly went with Prose to a yoga labor-prep course.
Though they have discussed having more kids, neither is talking marriage.
"It's just not something we're in a hurry to do," says Prose. Nor
is Anderson in any rush for his daughter to grow up. "I know all the
tricks," says the ex-serial dater. "The guys who come around for Wylie
are going to have to be careful."
People Weekly. October 19, 1998
By Michael A. Lipton and Craig Tomashoff
STARGATE
STAR HAS NO TASTE OF SCI-FI
RICHARD Dean Anderson stands framed at a window, gazing out over
Washington DC. "There's a seam on the horizon," he observes. Around
him, on a Vancouver soundstage, the Stargate SG-1 (TV2, Fridays)crew
is setting up cameras and lights. Executive producer Michael Greenburg
scrutinises the shot on a video monitor. He notes the backdrop's empty
sky and jokes: "Shall we lay in a death glider, spice the scene up
a little?" With the help of computer-generated imaging, nothing's
impossible, he says. Each week, this studio is transformed into faraway
locations so that Anderson, as airforce colonel Jack O'Neill, can
lead his SG-1 team to adventure through the Stargate, an ancient portal
to other planets. But this scene is purely terrestrial: a clandestine
meeting, no alien death craft buzzing Washington DC... for now. The
script supervisor alerts Greenburg to some dialogue Anderson has reworded.
"If he doesn't say the lines exactly as in the script, he's fired,"
Greenburg ribs. "We'll get another Colonel O'Neill." Hardly likely,
since Anderson is also an executive producer and Greenburg's partner.
Back when Greenburg was supervising producer on Anderson's MacGyver
series, the pair formed their own production company, Gekko Film Corp,
and have been producing television films and series ever since. Their
favourite project to date is the 1995 series Legend, a quirky comedy
adventure with a satirical edge, which screened in New Zealand. Although
Anderson appreciates the production possibilities in Stargate SG-1's
alien worlds and multi-layered visual effects, he admits that, on
an intellectual level, he's not a fan of the sci-fi genre. "I still
don't really seek it out as the major form of entertainment for myself,
as an audience member. The action adventure aspect of science fiction
is what I enjoy: what the adventure is out there." His taste for adventure
goes way back. At seventeen he bicycled from his home in Minnesota
to Alaska, over 8,000 kilometers much of the journey alone. He has
scuba and sky-dived, worked at a Marineland where killer whales snatched
mackerels from between his teeth, and is a fanatical ice hockey player.
Greenburg shares his passion for speed. "We ski and ski race. I used
to ski race as a kid. So skiing, yeah, we ski fast together, but then
he car races, which.. no thanks, no thanks." Still, Greenburg has
notched up a few adventures of his own, like the time he went grocery
shopping with his then wife, actress Sharon Stone, and came face to
face with an armed robber. "I got between her and the gun. I don't
know what made me do that. It's weird. It's weird that I did that!
"We're at the cashier and the gunman comes up with a mask on and holds
a gun on the cashier to empty out the cash register. She's standing
therewith all the groceries, and I'm behind her, and I pushed myself
in between her and the gun guy and he pointed the gun at me. Then
while he was looking the other way, she got real low and crawled down
the aisle and actually called the cops. That was wild. Held up at
gunpoint at a Safeway." The scene is at last set, Anderson now elegant
in airforce dress uniform. The makeup artist and wardrobe supervisor
zero in, touching up his eyes,brushing down his shoulders. "I feel
like I've come in for a pit stop," he laughs. He's a hard taskmaster
when it comes to his own performance, critiquing his delivery as he
goes: "Oh, that was too snotty!" Camera still rolling, he runs the
dialogue again. Between takes, with a restless energy, he slips out
from the crush of camera, lights and crew to talk business with Greenburg,
hug the script supervisor and sing the Canadian anthem. "I'm not a
real studied actor as you can probably tell by my antics around here.
I like the energy to be light and positive as possible, because it's
a grind," he says of the relentless pace of production. "If you've
got some arrogant, snotty-nosed, quote-unquote star that comes flying
onto the set and just rails on everybody for whatever reason, that's
not fun! Who wants to go to work with that kind of energy?" "Rick
is a very funny guy," says co-star Amanda Tapping. "Sometimes heplays
into this character of being a crusty old fart, which he's not. On
set, part of what gets you through a fifteen- hour day is being able
to laugh and enjoy each other's company." Don S. Davis plays the SG-1
team's commanding officer. On the final take, he momentarily forgets
the scene's hush-hush mood and Anderson hesitates to match his gusto:
"Shouldn't you be a little quieter?" Davis looks sheepish: "I'm from
the stage." "There'll be one leaving in 5 minutes," deadpans Anderson.
"All aboard!" The crew moves around the Washington DC backdrop to
a rocky cave on a distant planet, where an alien birth is about to
take place. Anderson's first child is due this month. His voice takes
on a dreamy tone as he talks of fatherhood.*1 "I'm so ready for it.
I've always loved kids, worked with them in the inner city and various
charities and groups, and I've always said that I want to have kids
some day. "I met the perfect woman for me, who has a massive sense
of humour, one of the funnier women I know,extremely capable of doing
things. She's athletic to a point but not an athlete, is tolerant
and patient, and just knows me." He has recently bought a house in
California. "We're moving into it the same time that she has this
strong nesting instinct. So I'm up here gathering the grubs and worms
and she's gathering all the sticks and pieces of string to create
a little..." He subsides into a giggle. "I'm getting on a plane this
afternoon to go down for the co-ed baby shower." "You taking some
scripts for the flight?" asks Greenburg."Five," says Anderson. The
pair set off to work on an episode currently at the editing stage.
They'll be fine-tuning, pushing for quality until it's time for Anderson
to fly home to his nest, the perfect woman, his first-ever baby shower
and the new daughter on her way. He has the air of a man heading into
adventure.
JENNY WAKET - GUIDE July 1998
STARGATE
SEASON PREMIERE
As per the norm in epic sci-fi cliff-hangers, when we last saw Richard
Dean Anderson and his SG-1 team, the fate of humanity was up for grabs
as they were held captive on an alien mothership by some freaky King
Tut-ish baddies hell-bent on destroying Earth. Will our heroes survive?
Well, put it this way: Stargate's been picked up for another 44 episodes.
As cliched as the series often is. I'll say this- it's still consistently
more satisfying than the movie it's based on.
Entertainment Weekly - 438/439 - June 26/July 3, 1998
BEYOND
THE STARGATE
At work and at play, the cast of _Stargate SG-1_ have plenty in
common... Michael Shanks and Christopher Judge obviously abide by
the theory that the cast that plays together, stays together. Despite
working 15-hour days together on the set of _Stargate SG-1_, come
the weekend they'll hit the ski fields or golf courses of Vancouver,
where the science fiction hit is based. Interviewing the pair in an
upmarket Vancouver hotel is like gate crashing someone else's private
party, so keen are they on discussing the following day's proposed
ski trip to Whistler, a few hours' drive away. "Sorry about that,"
apologises Judge, a Los Angeles native with a string of films and
series to his credit, including _Bird On A Wire_, _Macgyver_, _21
Jump Street_ and _Wiseguy_. "We're trying to get some skiing in before
we go back into production." The fact that Judge and Shank, who respectively
play alien escapee Teal'c and scientist Dr Daniel Jackson on the series,
hang out together during their break shows how close they have become.
As 31-year-old Judge explains, Shanks, 27, has become a best friend
and a younger brother to him since they started working together last
year. "I've worked on a lot of shows where I've done the job and gone
home and not spoken to the other people until I've gone back to work,"
says the tall, well-built actor, dressed for Canadian winter in a
black leather jacket, grey shirt, jeans and boots. "But here it's
like a big love-in." The admiration is not only shared by the cast
of _Stargate SG-1_, which also features Richard Dean Anderson and
Amanda Tapping as a group of renegades who roam the universe via a
cosmic wormhole, the stargate of the title. A quick glance at any
number of fan-driven websites on the internet reveals a devotion to
the series and the cast which borders on obsessive. "Science fiction
fans are the most intelligent and perceptive and loyal fans you can
have," says Shanks, a Vancouver-born former business student who fell
into acting when he took theatre classes to build up his credit points
at university. "The intricacy and the detail we need to have in our
scripts to keep the fans interested is so amazing. They are discerning
viewers. They spend so much of their lives waiting with bated breath
for each episode to air and then they want to talk about it afterwards.
You can't let them down." Judge, who only got internet access last
Christmas, is equally surprised by the dedication to the series. "It's
exciting that people care," he says, noting that websites were filled
with pages of discussion when producers used a slightly different
stargate in one episode. "But that is the thing about the science
fiction genre. It seems like they are the most passionate fans there
are. Along with us letting our imaginations run wild, so do they.
They have the chance to live vacariously through these characters."
Fans go as far as to submit story ideas on the internet sites, driven
by the mind-boggling potential of a series which visits a strange
new world each week. "This show is unique," says Shanks, unshaven
and wearing the casual jeans and parka look. "We're not tied to a
city or a hospital or a police station. The possibilities are limitless
for something like this. It just depends on your imagination and your
budgets." _Stargate SG-1_, based on the 1994 Roland Emmerich film
and with a budget of $2 million an episode, is the most expensive
science fiction show yet made. The pilot, a ratings winner across
Australia when it aired last year, cost $7.5 million alone. Oddly,
neither is a huge fan of the science fiction genre. Shanks even admits
to finding the _Stargate_ feature film "a little disappointing". "Well,
when I was a kid I loved _Space 1999_, _Battlestar Galactica_ and
_Star Wars_," he offers. "They were so different from things like
_Starksy & Hutch_. But I got over it as I got older." But they are
both overwhelmed by the reaction to _Stargate SG-1_ and hope its success
continues as they enter their second series of 22 episodes. "I'm looking
forward to doing my first nude scene this year," says Judge mischievously.
"Or, at least, a love scene because everyone else has done them except
me." Love-in, indeed. - Rachel Brown
TV Now magazine - June 7, 1998
CHICAGO
TRIBUNE
Say what you will about cable--high monthly rates, sometimes poor
or nonexistent, reception--it nonetheless knows how to treat its product,
which helps the fans of that product. Some cable networks have no
problem showing loyalty to the shows they place on the air,a practice
not often mirrored by network television, slave that it is to the
almighty Nielsen ratings system. A great example of cable loyalty
is Showtime's "Stargate: SG-1," a science fiction series that has
its second-season premiere Friday at 9 p.m. Based on "Stargate," the
hit movie about planet-hopping explorers, and featuring popular "MacGyver"
star Richard Dean Anderson, the series initially was in the midst
of a two-season, 44-episode commitment from Showtime. Pleased with
the popularityand quality of the show, the network increased its commitment
by two additional seasons, for a total of 88 episodes. Contrast that
with the usual 13-episode commitment to many network series, and it's
no wonder cable is more appealing to a lot of TV producers. Cable
isn't as concerned with ratings as the networks, so it is in a better
position to offer longer deals. The promise of a full season is a
great lure, and two seasons is a bonus. It gives producers a chance
to better plot how a series is going to develop with greater creativity,
without the threat of cancellation hanging over their heads. Some
networks have followed cable's lead in bestowing long-term commitments
to a few shows. The returning "Homicide: Life on the Street" just
finished a two-year pact with NBC, for example. Most viewers would
agree that if only more shows were deemed worthy, fans could feel
some measure of stability. Friday's new episode gives ample reason
why "Stargate" will be around for a while. The episode is a fast-paced,
action-packed resolution to last season's finale, where the SG-1 team
is on a warship belonging to a hostile alien race, the Goaulds, which
is about to attack Earth. Showtime replays the two-part finale starting
at 7 p.m., with a "making of" special on the series airing at 8:30
p.m.
By Allan Johnson, Tribune Staff Writer. CHICAGO TRIBUNE - June 1998
ON
THR BRINK OF ARMAGEDDON
The sci-fi series return for a second season. The tense episode
finds Col. Jack O'Neill(Richard Dean Anderson) and the SG-1 team on
a suicide mission aboard a warship poised to invade Earth. Before
they can destroy the ship, however, the team is captured by Goa'uld
leader Apophis (Peter Williams),who orders their deaths. Meanwhile,
back on Earth, Gen. Hammond(DonS. Davis)prepares for the worst by
sending the "best" of American society through the Stargate to a safe
location. But O'Neill, who keeps muttering about what "a bad day"
he's having, finally gets good news from an unlikely ally. Skaara/Klorel:
Alexis Cruz.
TVGUIDE - Washington Edition - June 1998
STARGATE
SG-1
As per the norm in epic sci-fi cliff-hangers, when we last saw Richard
Dean Anderson and his SG-1 team, the fate of humanity was up for grabs
as they were held captive on an alien mothership by some freaky King
Tut-ish baddies hell-bent on destroying Earth. Will our heroes survive?
Well, put it this way: Stargate's been picked up for another 44 episodes.
As cliched as the series often is. I'll say this- it's still consistently
more satisfying than the movie it's based on.
Entertainment Weekly - June 1998
On
the set of STARGATE SG-1
After years of starring as TV's intrepid hero MacGyver- a man who
needed only rubber bands and paper clips to save the day- it seems
the universe had unfolded according to a master plan when Richard
Dean Anderson was cast last summer as the lead in Stargate SG-1. Anderson
seems the perfect choice to star as retired military hero Colonel
Jack O'Neil; the role returned him to Vancouver, where he spent seven
years working on MacGyver; and Stargate offered the actor a comeback
on prime-time TV, where he has enjoyed his greatest successes. Fans
of the movie Stargate, on which the series is based, will find Anderson's
O'Neill a more amicable character than the dour-and sour caricature
of a military man played on the big screen by Kurt Russel. Now approaching
the end of its first season on TV. Stargate SG-1 has attracted a loyal
audience. Its future is certain, as two seasons of the series were
confirmed at its outset. Even before the words "Quiet on the set"
were first shouted to signal the start of filming, and it7s been reported
that seasons three and four were recently ordered. As shooting began
on this season's final episode, I had the opportunity to spend a day
on the set. The atmosphere was, to say the least, tense and strained,
which isn't surprising as most of the cast and crew had been working
outrageously long hours for months. Still, I was not prepared when
my visit started with a publicist advising me. "We can't guarantee
Rick will talk to you. They've been really busy and he's really tired.
And we had a TV crew on set yesterday." What am I- paparazzi? I just
want to talk to the guy to write something about his series. I thought
that was the deal. Interesting story for me...publicity for him...get
it? I decided to hang round in the hope that Anderson would make time
for a chat. For those who haven't seen the series, much of its action
takes place in the secret military installation that house the stargate,
an ancient portal with hieroglyphic codes that can be programmed for
space travel. Stargate travelers don't get beamed up, they get whooshed
through from Earth to far flung planets. O'Neil's fellow space explorers
are an alien called Teal'c (Christopher Judge), scientist Dr. Daniel
Jackson (UBC grad Michael Shanks) and military officer Captain Samantha
Carter (Toronto native Amanda Tapping). On this day, cast and crew
were shooting a scene in which the members of SG-1 are debating whether
or mot they'll go through the gate on a highly dangerous mission.
As Tapping headed to the observation room above the Stargate, where
the scene is set, she stopped for a quick introduction and hello.
"It's the first day of shooting the last episode ," she said cheerily.
"So you might find the atmosphere a little strange." No kidding.In
between takes, I spoke to Christopher Judge, whose warm and ebullient
personality seems the polar opposite of his alter ego, the silent
and stoic extra-terrestrial being Teal'c."It's not that Teal'c is
monosyllabic,it's just that he says what needs to be said and only
that, "he explained," It's hard because , in a scene that touches
me as a human being, I have to stay in character and at least convey
something to the audience. The hardest scenes are the ones in the
boardroom where all this conversation in going on, and I rarely have
a line. I'm usually reacting to three or four pages of dialogue without
saying anything.. I'm ready to be able to laugh and joke again..."
During the next shooting break, the publicist let me know that Rick
was ready to talk. In an area that doubled as a hospital room, Anderson
and I pulled up and gurney. Knowing that he's quizzed up the ying-yang
about space travel and aliens, I decided to start at beginning. Anderson
was born January23,1959, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is the eldest
of four sons born to Stuart and Jocelyn Anderson, a teacher and artist
respectively. We're all shaped by the environment in which we're raised
and Anderson's personality no doubt was influenced by his formative
surroundings - he grew up in a creative family, he competed with three
younger brothers and the late 1960s were turbulent and confusing times
for anyone coming age. "At 17, I was on the verge of becoming a juvenile
delinquent," he recalled. Rather than falling into trouble, the spirited
young man embarked on a 5,641-milw bicycle trip that took from his
home in Minnesota through Canada's Yukon and into Alaska. "I was not
an experienced cyclist. It truly did change me. I became more reflective
and conscientious." Following his return, Anderson studied drama.
Still, becoming an actor was "a matter of elimination more than anything.
I never felt like I was making a conscious effort to find a path.
I was never worried about what I was going to do next. Now I am. But
then I was bouncing through life making decisions based on what I
wanted at the time and who I met along the way." Anderson's earliest
goal was to be a professional hockey player. He has a love of hockey
so profound that he must certainly qualify for Canadian citizenship.
His dream was cut short when he suffered two broken arms. During our
conversation, Anderson was friendly and at ease. He seemed happy to
recall his youth, even appreciative of the bread in routine. When
he was called back to the set, I spent the next hour milling about,
observing Anderson in conference with the director. As he sat waiting
for his next cue, his voice suddenly pierced the air with anger. At
first I thought it was a joke, that he was putting someone on, but
as he shouted, "You know how that sets me off!" I realized I was witnessing
a genuine, unbridled temper tantrum. Where did the nice man go? Things
got worse when shooting began on the next scene. It became apparent
that someone had screwed up. A plan had been changed and the right
people weren't informed. Production came to a grinding halt, which
meant Anderson now had time to finish our chat. Yikes. I was no longer
sure that was a good thing. I opted for the compassionate approach:
"You look tired. Are you sure you want to continue?" Truth is, I was
nervous as hell and worried I'd "set him off." "Yeah, sure. I'm a
little distracted, but I'm here," he responded with half a smile.
Anderson is, if nothing else, a professional. He obviously doesn't
suffer fools well, and his pragmatic nature likely influences his
somewhat surprising feelings about his series. "I've never been a
huge fan of science fiction," he said. "But I'm a massive fan of science
fact. Astronomy, the possibilities of space...I have a massive curiosity
about those things, but quite skeptical about things I can't see and
prove. We seem to be telling stories about alien beings based on conjecture
or the idea of what an alien might be." As for lending his personality
to the role of O'Neill, Anderson commented, "Before signing on, I
made sure they were receptive to my input. I try to bring a wry wit,
a slightly irreverent, cynical sense of humor, some sarcasm- things
that just make life a lot easier." For the sake of stability, Anderson
no longer keeps a home in Los Angels, as he did when working on MacGyver.
He has settled into Vancouver with his dog, Zoe, and one of his brothers.
On life in Vancouver, he said, "Despite what some dickheads at CFOX
keep saying, I love Vancouver. I love it up here. And please feel
free to quote me [on that]." Done. And on that note, the interview
came to its logical conclusion.
By Alison MacMillan (TV WEEK/Canada 1998)
The
Gatekeepers
When STARGATE was released in Autumn 1994, it not only captured the
imagination of audience world-wide - it sparked the creative muse
in writers Jonathan Glassner and Brad Wright - at that time co-producers
of the highly acclaimed The Outer Limits. Thomasina Gibson ask them
how they feel the series has developed. "Given that we have an award
winning team of visual and special effects; the actors; the location
itself, it was easy, a joy, to progress form where the movie left
off and launch into new adventures," Wright says "The Stargate is
our ticket to experience other worlds. Thought these adventures we
will learn more about what I means to be human and how unlimited the
future is; it give us great scope as writers to rise to the challenge
of bringing this across to an audience." "It stands to reason our
guys are not going to be right every time," Glassner adds. "We don't
feel people want to see us every week, so while there will be some
information and scenarios carried forward through the series, each
episode will stand on its own." "It's a daunting challenge but fun
for us too. We want people to enjoy the ride. We want people to be
enticed and entertained but occasionally we'd like to think we offer
some education too," Wright states. Between them, the two producers
have redefined the characters from the movie, and added new ones (Teal'C
and Samantha Carter). How do they feel about he characters individual
development and their relationship between them? "We feel the characters
are all very strong in their own right," Wright answers quickly. "And
though lots of on going story arcs, the audience is invited to peel
back the layers to find out more about them," Glassner jumps in. "We
hope we can make it addictive." "There is also tiny bit of teasing
gong on," Wright grins. "When you have two strong team member who
have superiority in very different fields, and who happen to be male
an female, there is bound to be some tension there. But we want it
to be light, fun." In these politically correct times, STARGATE has
taken a chance with some of its casting: it's unusual to have a black
character as the main villain. "We're not afraid to go out on a limb,
but I need to be balanced," Wright replies. "Our guys aren't going
to win every time. That bad guy isn't always going to be the obvious
nor the most politically correct." What sort of reaction has the series
had from the public? "We've had a fantastic reaction in Canada from
the public and press," Glassner says. "Reaction has been mixed in
the US. Canadians are generally more aware and caring in their attitudes
- we possibly have a less sympathetic audience in the US." "Farther
afield we have had tremendous interest from other countries, particularly
Europe," Wright fines. "Everyone is really enthusiastic."
Dreamwatch Magazine (British) February 1998
Animated
Stargate
Animated versions of television series "Stargate SG-1" and "The Outer
Limits" top children's development at MGM Animation, which will roll
out "Robocop: Alpha Commando" and "The Lionhearts" in syndication
in the fall. MGM's animation slate for potential network launch in
1999 also includes "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," based on the
classic movie from the studio's library, and "Tiny Tank," a spinoff
of an MGM Interactive game. MGM has already cleared "Robocop" -- based
on the film of the same name and for distribution by Summit Media
-- and "Lionhearts," to be distributed by Claster Television One,
in 85% of the country. MGM's syndicated "All Dogs Go to Heaven: The
Series" will also return for a third season on the Fox Family Channel
in the fall with 13 new half-hour episodes.
Lynette Rice (Holywood Reporter)
Michael
Shanks Interview
Starlog -- December 1997
It's no small irony that Michael Shanks is co-starring with Richard
Dean Anderson on Showtime's action-adventure series Stargate SG-1.
While enrolled at the University of British Columbia, Shanks happened
upon a location shoot for MacGyver (which starred Anderson). "Being
from a small town in Canada, I had never seen a TV show being filmed,"
the 26-year-old actor recalls. "I watched Richard work a bit, and
it got me excited about the possibilities of becoming a professional
actor. I didn't change majors based on that alone-it makes it sound
like Richard was the wind beneath my wings!" he laughs. "After spending
a year dabbling in theater part-time, I decided to switch out of my
business program. I haven't looked back since." An appearance as a
reckless teen on The Commish led to a small part on Highlander (in
"The Zone"), in which Shanks played "a miner's son trying to stop
his corrupt father from preventing the workers from getting what they
were owed. I die tragically." Fortunately for Shanks, his character
was also a friend of Duncan MacLeod's, which means the fledgling actor
got the opportunity to work with series headliner Adrian Paul. "He's
a great guy. He's a very talented man, and I had a good experience
working with him.' That in turn led to Shanks' feature film debut
in Call of the Wild with Rutger Hauer. "I only worked a few days on
it," he says. "I played a gold miner. The best part was getting to
work with Rutger, who's a really interesting guy and one of my favorite
actors." Pressed to offer his less-guarded impressions of the Blade
Runner star, Shanks is slightly more forthcoming. "Rutger is a bit
of a perfectionist; he has his own way of working. He doesn't work
to screw up other people, he works to further his process and to better
the product. Personally, I was really tickled to work with him. Landing,
the role of linguist Daniel Jackson on Stargate SG-1 was as matter-of-fact
as auditioning for the part-Shanks is almost apologetic that the story
behind his hiring isn't more interesting. "I was living in Toronto
and finishing my second year at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival
when the opportunity to audition for Stargate SG-1 came up. I did
it, and I guess they saw something on my audition tape that they liked.
They flew me down to LA for a series of screen tests-I must have tested
for everybody at MGM and Showtime, as well as for the producers [Jonathan
Glassner and Brad Wright]. It was very nerve-wracking. A few months
later, I was in Vancouver shooting the series. I got on with Richard
very well, so that was part of it, too." Gate Keepers. It didn't hurt
that he bore a slight resemblance to James Spader's Jackson from the
StarGate film, but Shanks feels that his other attributes were more
helpful in snaring the part. "As an actor, I have qualities that match
up well with the character, who sees life from a thoughtful, romantic,
young person's point-of-view. All that came pretty close to what they
were looking for." Shanks' research for the role led him to a local
natural history museum, where he boned up on Egyptology. But, as he
puts it, "that and 25 cents would have gotten me a cup of coffee,
for all the various cultures we explore in the series. Daniel is constantly
researching various ancient histories. I couldn't possibly get into
that much detail when I was studying about them, so I skipped along
the surface. I'm finding that I have to do catch-up work as we go
along."Daniel is a dreamer, an idealist," offers Shanks. "He has a
boyish curiosity and a love of humanity and life. He's driven to search
out the best in people, and he has a very romantic viewpoint when
it comes to history, life, love and people. He's a consummate optimist.
He's always looking for answers-for what made us who we are today,
what we've learned, what we can learn from others around us. At the
same time looking for a home he can call his own, a place where he
can hang his hat "But Jackson isn't exactly a pacifist, the actor
points out. "He's surrounded by military people, so he looks like
a pacifist. But I see it differently: In a given situation, he tries
to understand people. Instead of just hitting them over the head with
a hammer, he tries to figure out what makes them tick. He doesn't
take the confrontational approach right away. He's the one who, when
faced with a conflict, looks to find a mutual resolve as opposed to
finding a way to simply conquer a given situation. He tries to work
[cooperatively], with an eye toward mutual understanding." When it
is suggested that Jackson may signal the era of a kinder, gentler
action hero, Shanks laughs appreciatively. "The best way to describe
it is, while Stargate SG-1 is an action series, he is the character
who you would least expect to take action. He tries to find every
possible way around a violent confrontation."That doesn't mean Jackson
can't be counted on in a pinch," Shanks says. Just as Jackson found
himself picking up a gun to do battle with the alien oppressors in
the film, his TV counterpart is slowly getting more comfortable with
the idea of carrying a firearm. "Daniel now carries a gun because
it's illogical for him to be going to all these planets inhabited
by potential hostiles and not be armed. But if Daniel does take an
active part in the fighting, it usually only revolves around the bad
guys we're fighting-the ones who have taken his wife. It's mainly
due to his anger towards them, and the growing recognition that there
is no other way to deal with them. "In the two-hour SG-1 pilot, "Children
of the Gods," Jackson's wife, Sha're, is kidnapped by snake-helmeted
aliens who turn her, against her will, into their new Queen. The script
lays the groundwork for a continuing storyline by suggesting that
Jackson joins the SG- I reconnaissance team-assembled to determine
potential threats to humankind and, if possible, make peaceful contact
with the races they encounter-principally to find his lost love and
bring her back to Earth. Explains Shanks, "It's one of Daniel's main
quests: To get back Sha're. I'm hoping the stories don't go solely
in that direction, but I know his passion for her rescue is a pivotal
reason for my character's involvement. It's a continuing storyline,
but hopefully it won't take away from the magic of what we find on
all these worlds we visit." Shanks was well aware when he stepped
into Stargate SG- I that his Jackson would be compared to Spader's.
But after filming 13 episodes, he feels his interpretation of the
character can stand on its own. "No two actors are going to play a
role the same way, of course. I could only come at it with what I
had at my disposal: My life experience, the kind of person I am, my
knowledge. James had a much more worldly perspective in his interpretation.
I look at the character from a more boyish perspective. He's a bit
more innocent, and less cynical. That was the direction the producers
wanted to go, as opposed to my doing an imitation of Spader. I found
it a bit of an obstacle to get around people's expectations of what
they think the character should be. James' interpretation was so successful
that it was difficult for some people to accept anything else. "The
relationship between Jack O'Neill and Jackson in the movie was strongly
adversarial-in the "hawk vs. dove" mold. Shanks concurs that the war-mongering
colonel (Anderson in the series) has been humanized by SG-1 writer/producers
Wright and Glassner in the hopes of making him more palatable on a
weekly basis. "It was just the two of them in the movie, and they
were polar opposites. The film's point-of-view was equally balanced
between them. The series is being told more from Jack's view. There
is sometimes a little friction between the two, but there is also,
growing out of that, a friendship and a mutual understanding of their
common desire to get back the people they love. The way Rick is playing
the character, Jack is more of a softie. He still has a cynical edge,
but he's more likable." -Gate Crashers- It's a logical segue to Shanks'
thoughts about his stalwart co-star. "Richard's great. I'm working
with a real prowho knows the medium extremely well. Oftentimes, he
knows more than some of the directors. He's a great mentor to work
off of, because he knows the television audience and how to play to
the camera. He has a lot of pull with this show, but he's not afraid
to be generous with the other actors." What has Daniel Jackson learned
as a result of his missions thus far? "Everyone on the team is learning
about the amazing possibilities of the universe," Shanks replies.
"Each world is a totally unique experience. Some are related to Earth,
and some are different worlds completely, and teach us things about
ourselves that we didn't know. As I go through the different storylines,
I find that it leads one to a sort of pagan belief in the system of
gods. We keep describing all of man's early belief in gods as actual
alien contact. They were humanlike and chose to enslave people and
be worshipped, as opposed to being actual god figures. That's a synthesized
version of everything we've figured out. We're still discovering things,
trying to learn about all the various aspects of life outside our
own knowledge." It's no secret that StarGate creators Roland Emmerich
and Dean Devlin (who noted his feelings in issue #244) aren't thrilled
with SG-1. How, then, does Shanks feel about Devlin and Emmerich's
original film? "I loved the first half. In my opinion, some rather
formula elements ate up a lot of screen time in the second half. It
was like they were trying to turn it into Lawrence of Arabia. Those
elements took away from what people came to see-the intrigue of what
was on the other side of the StarGate." On the other hand, the film's
premise is what lured Shanks into a 44-episode contract with the series.
"I came because of the setup," he enthuses. "I loved the concept.
I thought it was an amazing idea, imaginative and very thought-provoking.
The film had me for the first hour, but somewhere along the line,
the worm turned." That said, how is the series avoiding similar pitfalls?
"It's a completely different stab at the concept, in a very similar
way," Shanks offers with a smile. "We're unfortunately forced to move
the story along and wrap everything up in 44 minutes, so we must take
short cuts to get where we're going. We're focusing more on the people
element. We get to evolve the characters slowly as opposed to hitting
you over the head with an entire storyline all at once. Also, that
discovery process happens every time we set out on a new mission:
What kind of history are we going to unlock? What kind of civilization
are we going to encounter? What kind of interesting situations are
we going to uncover? As long as that keeps intriguing the audience,
and provoking thought as well as being entertaining, we have a good
shot at being successful." Shanks is comfortable with performing his
own stunts-to a point. "I don't mind the idea. I used to be into sports
and consider myself to be an athletic person. They haven't asked me
to do too many rigorous things so far. If anything remotely dangerous
has to be done, of course, they bring in a stuntman. They don't want
to risk the actors getting hurt. You could injure your leg and start
limping, when later you're supposed to be running. A lot of stamina
is required to do this day in and day out, so I understand the necessity
to be healthy through the whole thing." Considering that he has been
in the business for less than four years and already has a co-starring
role on a TV series, one could safely say that Michael Shanks' career
is going well. "It's a good feeling. I've been very blessed; I've
had a lot of good luck come my way." As for Stargate, he is "interested
in doing it as long as the work remains compelling. It has been a
wonderful learning experience, and a chance to work with great people.
I will be here as long as the show is around."
Richard
Dean Anderson Reopens the Stargate
It's a great concept, trekking to other planets without a starship.
That's the premise of the 1994 hit film Stargate, which envisioned
an ancient portal bridging Earth and the planet Abydos. But what if
the portal could send travelers to other planets as well? Why, you
could visit a planet a week! Add a charismatic star like Richard Dean
Anderson, bring back some of the film's most endearing characters,
create a few new ones, provide first-rate special effects and bad
guys who seem a cross between humans and Alien, and you've got Showtime's
new weekly series, Stargate SG-1. The series premieres with a two-hour
episode Sunday, July 27th (8 p.m ET), going into its regular one-hour,
Friday-night slot beginning August 1st (10 p.m ET). As Air Force Colonel
Jack O’Neill (spelled, for no apparent reason, with one more "l" than
in the movie), Richard Dean Anderson of MacGyver fame plays an action
hero with a sardonic sense of humor. It’s a much lighter take than
Kurt Russell gave the character in the original film. "I told MGM
(which produces the series) and Showtime that there’s no way they
were gonna get a portrayal similar to what Kurt gave them," says Anderson,
"‘cause I can’t make my hair do that for one thing [Russell had a
serious military buzz-cut]. But also, Kurt’s rendition of the character
was." He pauses, looking for the word. "Not humorless, but at this
point in my life as an actor, there’s got to be an air of fun." Not
that Stargate's any 3rd Rock from the Sun. The movie ended with Egyptologist
Daniel Jackson remaining with the locals on Abydos, after having helped
O'Neil and his platoon nuke the retreating spaceship of fake sun-god
Ra, a conscienceless alien occupying a host body. Now the retired
O'Neill's been recalled to head reconnaissance team SG-1 after new
aliens come through the Stargate to kidnap an Earthwoman. Still, opportunities
for fun remain: Co-star Amanda Tapping, who plays astrophysicist Capt.
Samantha Carter, ad-libbed a cute homage to Anderson’s famed TV hero
MacGyver a secret-agent Mister Wizard who'd use everyday objects to
whip up anything from a compass to a bomb. "The scene," she says,
"was originally written where I said something to the effect of 'jerry-rig
a control system for the Gate on Earth.' Just for fun, I said, 'MacGyver
[a control system],' just to see what Richard would do. And they ended
up keeping it!" Clowning around on the SG-1 set in Vancouver is a
way that the cast lets off steam on a breakneck shooting schedule.
"It’s perpetual for me," admits Anderson. "I mean, I try to keep a
sense of humor through the whole thing, ‘cause the days are arduous.
I’m kind of the 47-year-old kid. I can’t settle down, I get a little
antsy. I have a behavioral problem, that’s all there is to it," he
jokes. For someone who admittedly is not a science fiction fan, Anderson's
grasped the fantastic tone of Stargate while depicting O'Neill as
a regular guy. Unlike Star Trek: The Next Generation, there's a wonderful
balance here between the techno-babble of scientists Jackson (Michael
Shanks) and Carter, and O'Neill's "speak English" sensibility. "When
I say I’m not a fan of sci-fi," explains Anderson, "it’s more or less
that I went through most of my career as an actor thinking [every
action had to be] conceivable or possible. You know, MacGyver was
stretching things a little bit, but we had credibility all the things
we did you could actually do. In science fiction you have to relinquish
a little bit more of your credibility." The SG-1 special effects,
though, are as credible as any on television to date; co-star Christopher
Judge is practically a special effect all by himself. His character,
Teal'c, is an extraterrestrial marsupial, his pouch containing a parasite
that peeks out of his belly from time to time. "I'm actually an incubator
for these godlike characters who are parasitic beings needing host
bodies to survive. As of the pilot [episode], I’ve actually carried
around 12 of these ghouls in my body. ...It’s kind of disturbing."
The concept behind SG-1 isn't particularly fresh. The 1960s show The
Time Tunnel had a similar motif, and the series Sliders features a
team of do-gooders dimension-hopping into alternate realities. "It’s
not sliding," insists Shanks. "We’re 'gating.' It’s totally different."
Indeed unlike virtually any other show on TV, Stargate SG-1 came with
a 44-episode commitment by Showtime. Is Anderson ready to start attending
sci-fi conventions and posing for Col. O’Neill action figures? "I’m
not really of that mind to be honest with you," he says, "going off
to a convention to sell a kewpie doll of myself." Besides which, he
adds, as pragmatic as Angus MacGyver, "I’m not quite sure what my
merchandising share on the back-end is."
by Len P. Feldman
Heaven's
Gate
By Edward Gross
Despite disasters like Casablanca (starring David Soul!) and Working
Girl: The Series, the networks continue trying to turn hit movies
into hit television series.
This fall, look for CBS to bring Fargo -- yes, Fargo -- into its
weekly lineup, while poor, desperate ABC has decided to spin Jean
Claude Van Damme's TimeCop (without Van Damme, naturally) into its
regular schedule. Will either make it through the entire season? Don't
bet your universal remote on it. But unlike the networks, when cable's
Showtime turns a feature film into a series, it provides the budget
and the time to develop the property properly. It's a common-sense
formula that's worked for The Outer Limits relaunch and, to a lesser
degree, for Poltergeist: The Legacy. Now the cable net is turning
its attention to the 1994 Kurt Russell-starrer Stargate.
The series, titled Stargate SG-1, takes a mix of characters new and
old and sends them on weekly adventures to other worlds via the ancient
Stargate, a portal that zaps our heroes throughout the galaxy. Jonathan
Glassner, who serves as executive producer with Brad Wright, explains
that the series picks up about a year after the events of the movie.
"The movie, if you really study it, has a lot of holes in it, which
actually turned out to be to our benefit because we found that filling
those holes gave us a whole mythology to explore," he says. "For instance,
there are 39 symbols on the Stargate and it takes a combination of
seven of them to work, one being the point of origin. If it only goes
to one planet, why are there 39 symbols on it! Why not just seven!
That led us to say, 'It must go to a bunch of other places and there
must be a reason they haven't figured it out yet.' Well, we figured
out that reason."
And what our SG-1 heroes discover in their travels is that human
history hasn't taken place solely on Earth.
"One of the things we're spinning off from the movie is the conceit
that humans were not just kidnapped from ancient Egypt thousands of
years ago [as revealed in the feature]," says Brad Wright, "but, in
fact, many of the lost civilizations from ancient times are lost because
they were purloined [by aliens]."
Leading the SG-1 team is once again Col. Jonathan "Jack" O'Neill,
played by Kurt Russell in the feature and by Richard Dean Anderson
in the series. Wright notes that Anderson's O'Neill will offer a change
of pace -- he won't be consumed with angst like Russell's O'Neill
was.
"Kurt Russell was on a suicide mission in the film," says Wright.
"He was fully intending to blow himself up; he wanted to because of
the death of his son. By the end of the movie, he's learned something
about himself and the universe and has come out of a long, dark tunnel.
That is the starting place where Richard Dean Anderson has taken the
character, and he's now a very funny, energetic guy who is probably
more like the man he was before his son died,"
James Spader is replaced by Michael Shanks as Dr. Daniel Jackson,
an expert in ancient cultures, linguistics, anthropology and archeology
-- all of which is a tremendous help when you go to a planet and find
a culture which is based on, say, the ancient Mayans," says Glassner.
"He understands why they're doing a lot of what they're doing, their
superstitions and so on, which makes him a huge help to the team.
Dr. Jackson serves very much the same function as he did in the movie."
Also on the team is Amanda Tapping as Dr. Samantha Carter, the one
person (at least the one Earthling) who is an expert on the Stargate.
And Christopher Judge is Teal'C, a being similar to the. Egyptian-like
demi-god Ra (Jaye Davidson) from the film. But the creature isn't
the villain: Teal'C has swung over to our side.
"We've created a whole mythology explaining what exactly Ra was in
the first movie, and one of his rivals [Teal'C] shows up in the two-hour
premiere," says Wright. "Teal'C is basically a marsupial human who
carries in his pouch an infant form of the parasite race that Ra is
or was. In the movie it's fairly clear that Ra's race is parasitic
and chooses a human host. We've expanded that to make humans, in fact,
the host of choice of this race."
Many of the early episodes of Stargate SG-1, which premieres in July,
have the team traveling to other worlds to free the masses from some
sort of tyrannical hold. But if some of these episodes seem similar
to the original Star Trek series, don't be fooled.
"One of the things we're priding ourselves on is trying to stay as
different as we can from Star Trek," Glassner says. "Let's face it,
both shows go to other planets, but one of the huge differences between
the two series is that Stargate is set. in the present, and the people
who are traveling through the gates are not exactly trained or prepared
for it. There hasn't been time to create policies like the Prime Directive
and things like that. Our team is having to make decisions on their
own on other planets where there's no way they can call home and ask
for orders or advice. They screw up sometimes."
"And that will be both the source of stories and the resolution of
stories," Wright interjects. "We're not the perfect, flawless human
beings of the 23rd century that Roddenberry conceived, which makes
our show more accessible. We call go for a ride through the Stargate
much more easily than we can fly along as a member of the Federation,
in terms of how we relate to the characters. No one is as perfect
as Jean-Luc Picard. As a result, our influence on these planets is
going to snap us in the ass as often as it's going to succeed."
And that's something that Showtime's 44-episode commitment will allow
the duo to fully explore.
"That enables us to build a complex mythology," Glassner concludes.
"Every week we discover a little more about what happened way back
when and who's behind it all and why. It's a little like Babylon 5
in that the more you watch it the more you'1l understand.''
Cinescape
The
man at the gate
Imagine yourself in a long corridor. Each side of the hallway is
lined with several doors. As you turn the knob of any one of the doors,
you immediatly step into a new world of adventure and exploration.
That is the situation set before Richard Dean Anderson in the Showtime
original series, Stargate SG-1, which premieres July 27. The show
costars Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping and Jay Acovone.
Stargate SG-1 continues the storyline begun in the 1994 science-fiction
feature film Stargate, which also airs this month on Showtime. In
the surprise blockbuster hit, scientist Daniel Jackson (James Spader)
discovered an ancient portal in Egypt that was actually the doorway
to an Egypt-like planet called Abydos. Air Force Colonel Jack O'Neill
(Kurt Russell) was assisnged to lead a team accompanying Jackson on
an exploratory mission through the Stargate.
In Stargate SG-1, Col. O'Neill, now played by Anderson, returns to
Abydos with a new team called "Stargate SG-1", which includes his
former comrade Kowalsky (Acovone) as well as a new member, astrophysicist
Samantha Carter (Tapping).
Arriving on Abydos, they encounter Jackson (Shanks), who had remained
on the planet since the last expedition. The team finds that Jackson
has made a very important discovery -- a map of many Stargates through
the galaxy, making it seemingly possible to travel throughout the
galaxy.
Talking by telephone from the series' water-logged Vancouver sets,
Anderson explains, "We're fighting the interminable rain situation.
We're on sunny planets with pouring-down rain. Go figure."
Best known for his portrayal of the title character in the long-running
"MacGyver" TV series, Anderson welcomed the opportunity to try something
different. "I've never done science fiction, and that's why I decided
to become a part of this. I did some research on the Stargate franchise
itself and realized that it was a perfect vehicle for a series."
Part of Anderson's research included viewing the original film several
times and deciding not to mimic Kurt Russell. "When MGM came to me,
I had to tell them and be very honest with them that they weren't
going to get a Kurt Russell performance. As much as I admire Kurt
and his work, there was no way I was going to re-create his character.
And I told the people at MGM and Showtime that what they were going
to get was my slant on the character, with a little more sense of
humor, a little greater irreverence towards authority and the whole
process."
Anderson also feels that Showtime allows more room for creativity
than network television. "The parameters are opened up to a point
where you can be a little more graphic with your language, the content.
You can take some chances and do some grittier things. I've always
wanted that. One of the thorns in my creative side has always been
the inability to use language the way it's meant to be used, to communicate
ideas and emotions. The potential is far great than it has been for
me in the past."
Stargate SG-1 promises to feature some of the most impressive visual
effects yet seen on television, thus creating endless story possibilities.
"You're dealing with science fiction, so you're only limited by what
your imagination can do, because just about anything can be done with
the technology that's available for production now," Anderson says.
Anderson points to one particular plot highlight he has enjoyed so
far. "I caught a virus at one point that turned me into a primitive
Neanderthal being, which I had a lot of fun playing with."
Richard Dean Anderson is ready for anything that comes his way during
the production of Stargate SG-1. "I'm off and running. Now it's up
to me.
Article copyright 1997, PrimeStar
by Raj Manoharan
Adventures in time and
space
If there was a pivotal point in the industry education of Vancouver,
it was back at the beginning of the decade, on the day that the city
discovered that television series could be cancelled. Within a week,
three series were cancelled and for many people it signalled an end
to the industry. Cannell Films, which had provided the city with many
of its productions, was without a series and a local paper went so
far as to suggest that the dream had died.
The industry's collective sense of security was boosted a year ago
when MGM and the British Columbia government announced that the government
would make a direct contribution of $1.5 million to the building of
a new sound stage while MGM would contribute the remaining $3.5 million
in order to house a series called Stargate SG1, for which it was making
a two to five season commitment. Since most series are cancelled after
a matter of weeks, long before most people get a chance to see the
program, the MGM decision brought with it a sense of security for
both the industry and the producers.
Producer Michael Greenburg, who cut his series teeth on the B.C.-shot
series MacGyver, says that he thinks having both the time and the
place guaranteed to the series will make for better television. Greenburg
and his Gekko Productions partner, MacGyver's Richard Dean Anderson,
had just had a bad experience with a show called Legend and both were
attracted to the security of working on a series that had been guaranteed
44 episodes. "It (security) can't help but give us an advantage" he
says. "It's very rare. We had just done Legend and it was our passion.
But it was cancelled after 13 episodes. It was cool and hip and Richard
loved to play it but there was a regime switchover at UPN. We were
really down about it. Then, last summer I got a call from John Symes
from MGM and he asked me if I had seen the movie Stargate. I said
that I had and that I had loved it. "He said 'I've got a 44 episode
commitment for a series' and I said 'I'm in.' I ran it by Richard.
He sparked and the big part for him was the 44 episodes. And the concept
is really cool and lends itself to a series. The story-telling potential
and long term commitment was something we could sink our teeth into.
You can focus on telling stories."
Stargate SG1 takes up where the movie Stargate, starring James Spader
and Kurt Russell left off. Their characters, Egyptologist Daniel Jackson
and Colonel Jack O'Neill are back - this time played by Vancouver
actor Michael Shanks and Anderson - and they are again using a pyramid
artifact as a portal to the universe, an opportunity to discover literally
thousands of planets.
The long term possession of the sound stages gives the series the
ability to create the planets. Richard Hudolin, the show's production
designer, says that given the fact that Vancouver's few studios and
warehouse spaces are occupied by productions almost every day of the
year, it is unlikely a show the size of Stargate would be able to
shoot here without the new sound stages. Even with their availability
he has had to create some sets in a Burnaby warehouse and is almost
always running out of space. (According to Greenburg, the show will
take over a third Bridge Studio sound stage in June when The Outer
Limits wraps for the season.)
"Stage 5 is totally devoted to the Stargate complex so we have to
try to keep the unit in there at least one or two days an episode
which lets us build for the next stage. We in fact need three stages
to make it work. Five is a dead stage for me because I can't put anything
in it. It's not just the stages, it's all the things around it that
I need. Technical things. I have to be able to leapfrog one show after
another which means that one stage is always in transition.
"Stage five is as high as I can build it. When you have 200 crew
in there you're not going to get any more huge sets in there. Just
linking sets. I can't look back at episode five (the current episode.)
I have to look ahead to shows six, seven and eight already. While
I'm doing that I'm thinking 'Where am I going to put the set?' If
we only have two stages we're shooting ourselves in the foot. Let's
say we started shooting on stage five to shoot the Stargate complex.
We're now going to stage six. I now need to go somewhere for the next
show."
Since Stargate is set in space, the needs of the show are unlike
those of most existing series. There Won't be a lot of trucks parked
outside of local neighbourhoods. The show uses a mobile set for its
portal and moves it up to Seymour Mountain's demonstration forest.
The rest of the time it has to be inside a sound stage.
Says Hudolin, "We're not building offices and we don't have car chases
and we don't have traditional sets. Look at this one set for an upcoming
show. It's 60 feet across and twelve to fifteen feet high. That's
almost 25 feet in the air, that will almost fill one stage, and with
blue screens around it that's pretty well the end of the story. I
was saying to the producers, I need more and more and more and I don't
need it, they need it for the stories. It's a big complex show."
The show has several producers. Greenburg and Anderson's Gekko Productions
is co-producing the show with executive producers Brad Wright and
Jonathan Glassner. Glassner and Wright met while working on The Outer
Limits. Glassner was the executive producer of the show while Wright
was co-executive producer. Wright says MGM brought the two writers
together because they believed they could bring their hands-on creative
approach to Stargate. He says that built-in to their approach is the
understanding that a 44 episode commitment allows creative risks that
would not be possible on most series.
"If you have six episodes you are worried that every one of those
six episodes has to be the one that hooks the audience. With 44 we
know that we can try a story that is risky for dramatic reasons or
character reasons or whatever that we wouldn't otherwise do if we
didn't have the opportunity."
They also have the luxury of making a television Series based on
existing material. Stargate the movie has a following that should
help the ratings of both the two hour pilot, which airs on Showtime
in August, and the series, which will air immediately following the
pilot. The series will then be syndicated a year later. (It will premiere
on WIC-owned stations across Canada in October.) Wright says that
when he first started working on The Outer Limits, there were concerns
that the budgets for the show would not allow it to keep up with the
look of modern science fiction movies. He says that is even more of
a concern with a series based on a modern science fiction movie.
"In 1962 with (the original) The Outer Limits you could put on a
rubber suit with a giant eye and scare the hell out of the audience
by going 'Ooga booga!' Nowadays audiences have seen Terminator and
Aliens and they expect more. Our standards for creature and visual
effects have to be much higher than they would have been in the 1960s.
In Stargate we also have continuity of story and continuity of characters
that we have to deal with meaning that Stargate SG1 takes off where
Stargate the movie left off. We have Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson
as two of our four lead characters plus the gate itself and the premise
of gate travel. Also we have the scope of Stargate to live up to because
this thing was an epic and we're trying to do a TV show. Obviously
when we were doing our two hour premiere of the series we had to do
something with scope and I think we delivered that.
"We're definitely not going to be able to deliver massive scope for
44 episodes. We are, however, going to mix and match the levels of
scope in terms of going to planets that have vistas and some where
we'll be in caves. My favorite episode after the pilot takes place
at the Stargate base. It's a million dollars in sets and if it were
Outer Limits it would be our biggest episode ever."
Wright sought Stargate because of his love for science fiction. A
Canadian with credits on the Vancouver production Neon Rider,
he felt that he and Glassner could take the experience they had gained
working on The Outer Limits and use it to help create scripts
that would satisfy their own tastes for science fiction. "I only proceed
with Stargate and The Outer Limits as a fan of science
fiction myself" he says. "I don't try to predict what fans would like
to see. I just do what I would like to see. With Stargate I
respond to the material personally. I responded to the movie and I
was excited with the project when I knew that MGM was considering
it and went knocking on their door because I thought it could be a
good series. I think that Stargate will fill a niche in science
fiction because unlike Star Trek which is a huge franchise
and fans love, this is not set in the future, this is set in the present
day. And so in a sense it's not some heroic Star Trek star
fleet character going off on all these adventures it's people like
you and I, and so they succumb to all the mistakes that you and I
would make. They're trained professionals and they are learning as
they go but they're not the perfect human beings of the Federation.
We have no 'prime directive'."
For Richard Hudolin, making television shows for people who are expecting
to see sophisticated science fiction is a serious business. He says
that he would expect that the pilot, which had a much higher budget
than the individual episodes, will get people interested but that
the series will have to keep them interested by coming up with sophisticated
sets.
"Obviously if MGM wants to do Stargate it's because the movie has
a great following. And it's a great premise and it's a great vehicle
for great stories. It's perfect for television. You want to grab that
audience and take it with you. I think the audience has a pretty high
expectation. They're pretty sophisticated and they know how things
are done. You have to keep that level high every week. You can't keep
going back to the same forest and call it a different planet. They're
not going to buy it. They'll say 'I've seen it.' I know where that
is. It's the same with Star Trek. The fans know how the sets are flipped
over. They're Sophisticated people." Hudolin says that working with
an executive producing team composed of people with the kind of series
experience brought to the table by Wright, Glassner, Greenburg and
Anderson, helps him get the most out of his episodic budgets. He says
that they will find a way of getting the scene that is in the script
on the television screen if it is at all possible.
"We're still feeling our way in terms of the budget and when I get
a script I put the calculator aside and read the script and I do the
design the way that I think it should be. I sit and create the visual
the way I think it should be and I don't care about the money at that
point. I then have an illustration done or a plan or a model and I'll
bring in all the people who have to build it: the construction coordinator,
the paint department, the set decorators, props and I can trade-off
bits and pieces of a set and I can say 'If you've done this and this
in the close-up then we've done the selling job and I don't have to
create a full studio full of crystals. I can do it through the visual
effects and I can do it a different way.'"
"We have a great group of producers up here. The executive producers
are very savvy in terms of film techniques and visual effects and
on how you can cheat a shot and what you can do to the point where
we'll decide what is important to the scripts. If we don't need that
shot or we don't need that scene, we won't use it or we'll do it the
way we think it should be.
"So it's a different way of thinking but at this point you put the
calculator to one side and you do what you want to do to make it convincing
because it's such a strong visual effects and design show that you
have to pay for your look."
Copyright 1997, Reel West.
Gate
Crasher
"Old man, look at my life, I'm a lot like youuuu arrrre!" Richard
Dean Anderson croons in a quavery Neil Young falsetto. The actor is
patiently enduring a three-hour makeup session in a trailer in Vancouver
one morning. Thanks to an assortment of wrinkles and liver spots,
the 47-year-old star of the new Showtime series Stargate SG-1
will soon look like a centenarian. The series is based on the 1994
Kurt Russell movie, and, as Air Force Colonel Jack O'Neill, Anderson
will leap through cosmic "wormholes" to kick alien butt on other planets.
In the episode he is being made up for, "people age 250 times faster
than normal," says Anderson. Like Aerosmith? "Yeah, exactly!"
Looking ancient has made the former MacGyver star nostalgic
-- he's thinking back on the lucky, um, breaks that got him where
he is today. "When I was 15, I wanted to be a pro hockey player,"
recalls Anderson. "I busted one arm, and three weeks later I snapped
my [other] elbow -- bones sticking out everywhere." He spent three
months in a hospital patrolled by nuns and buxom nurses. "It sucked
because I had lost my virginity at 14. Can you imagine discovering
the wonderfulness of the opposite sex, then getting laid up? I couldn't
even touch myself!"
Once out of traction, Anderson put his hockey plans on ice and hopped
a train to Free Love Central: Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco. "I
was part of whatever was the most fun at the time," says Anderson.
"I had some fairly... interesting days imbibing. Timothy Leary and
Hunter Thompson -- those guys trained me. Friends I knew in my teens
are surprised I lived to be 40."
But even a hippie has to make a living, so after stints in L.A.'s
theater scene and Marineland (performing an act in which killer whales
grabbed mackerels from his teeth), Anderson landed the part of Dr.
Jeff Webber on ABC's General Hospital (1976-81). Prime-time
success came in 1985, with MacGyver, the action drama in which
the actor used jury-rigging wizardry to solve crimes (ingeniously
improvising keys from paper clips, and such). "[Richard's] not like
that at all," confides Anderson's producing partner, Michael Greenburg.
"He can't program a VCR or dial a phone."
By 1992, "I was kind of fried," says Anderson. "MacGyver was
seven years of being in virtually ever by frame that was shot and
having absolutely no life at all." Well, he did manage to date the
likes of Sela Ward, Lara Flynn Boyle, Marlee Matlin, and Katarina
Witt, not to mention his squeeze of the past year, "a woman I adore
who has a sense of humor, is beautiful and smart," says Anderson,
flatly refusing to name her. "But someone told me a long time ago
about relationships in this business: If the egos don't get you, the
distance will."
And even if you survive the distance, you've got the pace to contend
with. Each ambitious, special-effects-laden Stargate episode
(44 hours have been preordered) is shot in seven and a half days --
half the time an X-Files episode can get. To maintain his sanity,
Anderson persuaded his brother Jeff, 46, to move up from San Diego
and "help look after my personal life," which, as it turns out, could
use some tending: Richard recently shred his foot bones in a 60-mph
Vail ski crash.
Physically spent is how a still artificially aged Anderson looks
after a full day of shooting. But the sight of Stargate costar
Bobbie Phillips (she of Murder One and Showgirls fame)
in a peekaboo tunic perks him right up. "He's having a real good time
being the dirty old man," says Phillips. "Pinching everybody's behinds."
Anderson plays along with a mock old-man leer. "Your true self is
coming out -- this is how you're gonna be when you get older!" squeals
Phillips.
"Are you kidding? This is the way I am now!" Anderson replies, before
breaking into song once again -- this time a parody of Bill Murray's
lounge-lizard take on the Star Wars theme: "Star-gate,
just look at that Star-gate, waiting for youuuu!"
Entertainment Weekly. August 1, 1997
By Tom Appelo
Everything
is cool with Richard Dean Anderson.
As he relaxes in his trailer on the Vancouver set of the new Showtime
series Stargate SG-1, Richard Dean Anderson opens up about
a painful subject: hockey. During a recent game, the former MacGyver
star took a whack at the puck and popped a couple of ligaments in
his ribs. "I just nailed this slap shot," Anderson says, smiling at
the memory. "But the follow-through took me to places I've never been
before."
Ouch. Coming from a man whose lifelong pursuit of the sport has
resulted in two broken arms, a surgically repaired knee, and a cracked
bone in his foot that is still causing him to limp, that's really saying
something. But though it takes a little longer to heal these days, Anderson
rejects the notion that it might be time to kick back some. "I haven't
completely fallen apart yet," says the 47-year-old actor. "I can still
leap tall buildings, though not in a single bound. Maybe two."
He should have plenty of chances in Stargate. Based on the
1994 hit movie, the sci-fi series features Anderson as Col. Jack O'Neill,
a veteran Air Force officer in charge of a team of commandos and scientists
who venture through the Stargate -- an alien-designed "portal" that
leads from Earth to the planet Abydos -- in order to chase down some
nasty parasitic aliens and rescue their would-be hosts. "The show
is one giant recon mission," explains executive producer Jonathan
Glassner. "It's not one of those weird science-fiction things with
a big spaceship. It's us, today, finding a piece of technology we
don't understand and [getting] into situations we don't know how to
handle."
O'Neill will undoubtedly find a way. But while MacGyver was that
rare action hero who favored brainpower over firepower, Anderson's
latest alter ego is a different sort. "MacGyver was quite the pacifist,"
says the actor, decked out in combat fatigues for the two-hour premiere
episode. "Now I'm playing a military guy who openly carries a gun."
Anderson adds that his take on the character is a little lighter than
the dour tough guy Kurt Russell portrayed in the original film. "Life
is too short," the actor says. "If there isn't a fun factor then I
really don't want to be a part of it."
And the fun is guaranteed to last two seasons, thanks to a generous
commitment from sci-fi friendly Showtime (the cable network's Poltergeist
and The Outer Limits are filmed next door). Knowing that there
will be at least 44 episodes in the offing, the producers have spent
lavishly on elaborate sets. And the creative folks have the freedom
to develop characters and storylines without worrying that the ax
might fall just as they're getting started.
That's exactly what happened to Anderson with the 1995 UPN series
Legend, which lasted only one season. Anderson calls the show
his "favorite project ever," and he still faults the fledgling network
for not giving the offbeat Western more of a chance to build an audience.
"When you start a new venture like UPN, no one's going to get the
[high Nielsen] numbers," argues Anderson. "One of the reasons I heard
it was canceled was that Legend was just too 'dusty.' Well,
it's a period Western, for heaven's sake -- you think there's going
to be a little dust? It was not a pleasant parting at all. I was very
disappointed."
The Roseville, Minnesota, native learned early what it's like to
get smacked around by forces beyond his control. For one of his first
showbiz gigs after moving to Los Angeles in the early 1970s, he starred
in a Marineland show with a killer whale that snatched mackerel from
between his teeth. The first time Orky came barreling out of the water,
Anderson flinched. "Nailed me right in the forehead," he says, wincing.
"It was like taking a shot from a boxing glove. I had a bruise for
weeks."
Anderson quickly moved on to swimming with sharks -- the Hollywood
kind. In 1976, he embarked on a five-year stint on General Hospital.
In 1985, he landed MacGyver. The series ran for seven years
on ABC and made him a star, but the show took its toll. "The only
reason it went off the air was that everybody was ready to move on,"
he says. "I was physically exhausted and had no life."
Even an action junkie like Anderson occasionally needs to chill out.
When he's not chasing pucks, racing cars, hurtling down ski runs,
or performing in front of a camera, Anderson likes to hang at his
lakefront cabin in upstate Minnesota. "I just settle into this northern
Minnesota guy who likes to split logs, seed grass, and clean out the
boathouse," says Anderson. "I'm more comfortable up there than I am
anywhere."
He's also growing more comfortable with the idea of settling down.
"I've lived a very selfish lifestyle," says the longtime bachelor,
who's been linked in the past to a long list of well-known women,
including Sela Ward, Lara Flynn Boyle, Marlee Matlin, and Katarina
Witt.
"I've come to a different stage in my life," he continues, "where
my family is very important to me." Still, the idea of a family of
his own gives him pause. His new dog, Zoë, required quite a bit
of training, he says, and it was a tiring experience. "I called my
mom and said, 'How did you raise four kids?'" jokes Anderson. "I'm
having problems with a dog, for crying out loud."
For now, the actor's attention is focused on the challenge of Stargate.
But Anderson's eyes do light up over one of the fringe benefits of
filming in Canada: It's easy to get a hockey team together. In fact,
he's heading off later this evening for a little midnight ice time.
"We've got some major skaters on this show," boasts Anderson. "We'll
beat the dickens out of Outer Limits. And we'll be happy to
take on Poltergeist and Helen Shaver, too -- get her in the
corners and see what she can do."
Note to Ms. Shaver: Take it easy on the old guy -- he bruises easily.
TV Guide. July 5, 1997
By Mark Nollinger
Anderson
is at home in all worlds.
Richard Dean Anderson is the rare actor who actually likes working
in Vancouver.
"I know where all the ice rinks and off-road bike trails are. You
know, all the important stuff"; says Anderson, who taped the last
few years of his ABC MacGyver series in Vancouver.
Other actors complain about the bitter cold of the Canadian city,
which is home to many TV shows and movies. But Anderson, 47, a self-described
"vagabond" doesn't mind being outside the din of Hollywood.
So when Showtime executives approached him about returning to Vancouver
to star in a new series, Stargate SG-1, location "was one of
the pluses."
Based on the 1994 sci-fi feature film, Stargate picks up where
the Roland Emmerich movie left off as a military team travels to other
worlds through a portal known as a stargate.
The Showtime series premieres with a two-hour movie Sunday at 8 p.m.
ET/PT, then moves to its regular Friday at 10 p.m. ET/PT time slot
on Aug. 1.
"I hadn't seen the movie, I'm not a science-fiction fan and I had
never done anything remotely science fiction," says Anderson, who
assumes the role of Air Force Col. Jack O'Neill, played in the film
by Kurt Russell.
"But I've always kind of touted the credo, 'I'll try anything once.'
"
In the film, Russell played an officer whose son had recently died.
In the series, Anderson will be allowed to bring some levity to the
role, staring down aliens and other creatures with a "been there,
done that" cynicism.
Anderson is known off-camera for his cynical sense of humor. He lightened
the mood on the MacGyver set after his pet Australian shepherd
died by standing in the middle of the soundstage with a leash tied
to the ash-filled urn of the dog's cremated remains.
"In Stargate, Richard Dean Anderson has the strength of a leading
man but it's a strength that is combined with an acerbic comic edge
that viewers may not have seen much of," says John Symes, president
of MGM Television, which is producing Stargate.
With more than 240 special effects in the premiere, Stargate
should appeal to sci-fi buffs. But the producers say the series is
down to earth, at least in a figurative sense.
"We don't have a giant, high-tech ship that we travel in," says executive
producer Brad Wright. "Once we go through the stargate, it's just
us, these people from the 20th century, going on an adventure."
And not all the worlds visited by Stargate are teeming with
aliens. Many are populated by cultures similar to those that existed
on Earth centuries ago and "for some reason were not allowed to progress,"
says executive producer Jonathan Glassner. So the show is historical,
he says, as much as it is futuristic.
Why did Anderson commit himself for two years to a pay cable network
that's seen in less than 15% of U.S. homes?
Anderson says he'd rather be working than waiting around for a better
offer.
"I thrive on the activity of being in production, as harsh as it may
be," he says, calling himself more of a laborer than an artist. "I
don't presume to be a spectacularly deep actor, but I do work my a
- - off in any job I take."
He'd already "been through the wars" trying to pitch ideas at the
broadcast networks. In his most recent go-round, producing and starring
in the Western Legend for UPN in 1995, he'd been stung - badly.
When UPN executives told him they were losing money on the series,
he replied, " 'Well, guess what, you're starting a new network - you're
going to lose money.' "
The drama was canceled after 10 episodes, and Anderson says he felt
the worst for the crew, who had toiled through summer on location
in the parched Arizona desert.
But now he's back in chilly Vancouver, on the Stargate set.
He has another Australian shepherd, Zoe, and he's happy.
"I love dogs," he says. "They're my favorite people."
By Alan Bash, USA TODAY
WATCH
THIS SPACE
As MacGyver, Richard Dean Anderson could fix anything with a toothpick
and a piece of string. In Stargate SG-1, a new spinoff series from
the 1995 film of the same name, Anderson could not be more hi-tech
as inter-galactive superhero. He plays Col. Jack O'Neill, the central
character played by Kurt Russell in the movie, a soldier who specialises
in combating aliens. The series takes up where the film ended, with
O'Neill recalled to duty after invaders break through the stargate,
a magical corridor to other planets, and kidnap a female guard. O'Neill
confesses to his superior that on his previous trip through the stargate
he disobeyed orders by not destroying the planet he visited because
he befriended the inhabitants. He also reveals that Daniel Jackson
(Michael Shanks), a scientist believed to have died on that mission,
is still living on the planet with an alien wife. Somewhat reluctantly,
O'Neill reforms his combat unit, including astrophysicist Capt. Samantha
Carter (Amanda Tapping), to return to the planet to invesitgate. The
result is a do-or-die rescue mission with O'Neill's team on a deadline
to return through the stargate before authorities on Earth send a
nuclear warhead to obliterate the rogue planet. Anderson is prefectly
at home in the macho role and the special effects, as one would expect
from an MGM production, are impressive. A brief, unexpected nude scene
late in the pilot episode seems out of place and sci-fi purists might
have hoped for a little more devil in their aliens but, for the most
part, Stargate entertains. After tonight's movie-length opener, the
series begins a one-hour weekly format from tomorrow night.
Written by GARRY MANSFIELD of the Herald Sun (Television Eye, page
95) 3 Dec 97
GATEWAY
TO A NEW HORIZON
Richard Dean Anderson is up to his neck in it, and loving every
minute. It doesn't rain in northern Vancouver's Demonstration Forest
- it pours. And with the deluge comes plenty of mud. Richard Dean
Anderson calls it "the office". It's where he films much of his new
series Stargate SG-1. "Pretty sweet, isn't it?" he asks. "The glamorous
aspect of the business is definitely overblown. In places like this
you must have a sense of humour." Anderson says there's no place he
would rather be - trudging through the mud and cracking jokes with
the crew. "This is one aspect of the job I actually like," says Anderson,
whose MacGyver series won worldwide popularity. "This is more blue-collar
than any other part of showbiz. I love hanging out with the crew.
I'm real comfortable here."
Anderson has considerable clout in the TV arm of showbusiness. He
tends to win more battles than he loses. Stargate SG-1 is based on
the movie Stargate, which starred Kurt Russell as grim-faced air force
colonel Jack O-Neill. O'Neill leads a military team from Earth through
a time-and-dimension travel portal to a desert planet and battle with
a morphing pharaoh. Anderson says he never wanted to play O'Neill
in the way Russell did, despite being pressured to do so. "When MGM
approached me to do this and laid out the whole package before me,
I had to make it clear to them for a two-year commitment it would
be senseless maintaining (Russell's) level of intensity," he says.
"Kurt did a great job in the film, but over two years I couldn't maintain
that level of gloom." "It's too late in my life or career to stop
adding a touch of humour to all the dryness around me." A positive
reaction after a test-screening of the TV pilot proved Anderson right.
He believes one of his strengths is being aware of his limitations
as an actor.". "I'd be bull****ing myself to think I could fool anybody
that I was a great actor. That's what gets people into trouble." "My
abilities allow me to make a fool of myself in front of millions of
people, and so far so good."
Written by PETER HOLDER of the Herald Sun (Home Entertainment Guide,
page 5) 17 Dec 97
Glitter
and Grit
Wednesday, July 16, 1997
By Ellen Vanstone
There are two kinds of people touting the coming fall shows at the
Television Critics Association's summer press tour: slick industry
professionals (actors, producers, directors and executives) and real,
live human beings, usually the subject of a reality-based drama. Slicker
than slick is Richard Dean Anderson, a.k.a. MacGyver, a name that
has now entered the language as a synonym for "jerry-rig," because
of the TV character's genius for getting out of scrapes with whatever
utensils and doodads were at hand. Anderson was here to promote Stargate
SG-1, a science-fiction series (based on the Kurt Russell movie) from
Showtime that looks very silly indeed. As Air Force Colonel Jack O'Neill,
Anderson leads a team through an ancient portal to remote planets
and disciplines unruly aliens. After repeated questions and defensive
half-answers about a seemingly gratuitous nude scene in the pilot,
Showtime's president of programming Jerry Offsay explained that the
scene was integral: "The aliens are choosing a host and they're choosing
it based on the beauty of the body." Anderson's, and perhaps the series',
saving grace is his sense of humour. He faked indignation with expert
timing when his Canadian co-star Amanda Tapping said she ad libbed
in the pilot the word MacGyver when she was supposed to say "jerry-rig
a control system for the gate on Earth." He also explained his newfound
interest in the sci-fi genre: "I was intrigued by the mystery of it
. . . and I also saw the potential for a phenomenal franchise."
Copyright 1997, GLOBE & MAIL (Canada) .
Going
it alone
Richard Dean Anderson rarely takes life lying down, unless he's
recuperating from reconstructive knee surgery. For a month last winter,
the actor was immobile after blowing out his right knee while skiing.
With little more to do while recuperating than reflect on his passion
for dangerous pastimes (he also races cars), which have resulted in
two back surgeries, a separated shoulder, two broken arms and two
concussions, the now fully healed actor decided it was time to modify
his madness. "I realized I need to make a gesture toward slowing down,"
says Anderson, 46. "I'll be the 75-year-old granddad whose grandkids
keep going, 'Mom, he won't stop making us jump out of the airplane.'
"
Perhaps, but for 23 days last spring, Anderson, who often performed
his own stunts in the ABC action series MacGyver, stayed put in the
mocked-up cockpit of a Boeing 747 while shooting the NBC miniseries
Pandora's Clock (airing Nov. 10 and 11). "This was very different
from what he's used to," says David Israel, who wrote and produced
the four-hour thriller about a pilot whose aircraft is prevented from
landing after a deadly virus is loosed onboard. "He had to sit on
his butt and act, and it worked very well."
Settling down in private life hasn't come as easily. Never married,
Anderson has dated actresses Sela Ward, Lara Flynn Boyle and Marlee
Matlin, and figure skater Katerina Witt, to name a few. "I live a
very selfish existence and go through phases where I disappear into
the woods of northern Minnesota," he says. "It's been hard to find
a mate who goes along with those things." Until now, perhaps. Anderson
says his current romantic interest, who is not in show business, "understands
these aspects of my personality. I'm apt to be intimate with someone
like that." Not that he's getting domestic. Without a permanent address
until recently, Anderson now rents a three-bedroom Los Angeles home
decorated in early frat house.
"I've done so much in my life, but the one thing I've really neglected
is my family," says the actor, the eldest of four sons of Stuart Anderson,
a jazz bass player and retired high school teacher, and his wife,
Jocelyn, an artist. "I've been a vagabond and recluse all my life."
To remedy the situation, Anderson spent much of last summer with his
parents (now divorced) and brothers Jeff, Tom and Jim at the family
cabin in northern Minnesota as well as at his L.A. home. "My brothers
show up and we're just maniacal little boys again," he says.
Growing up in Roseville, Minn., Anderson, like a mini-MacGyver, enjoyed
daredevil stunts such as leaping off the garage roof. "It only took
a couple of broken bones to tell me gravity was not operating in my
favor," he says. At Alexander Ramsey high school, he pursued his passion
for hockey, but his NHL dreams were shattered when both arms -- and
his spirit -- were badly broken during his junior year. At 17, he
embarked on a three-month-long, 6,000-mile bicycle trip through Canada
and Alaska before finishing high school. After dropping out of St.
Cloud State University in 1970, he moved to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury
and eventually to L.A., where he scored his first show business job:
holding mackerel in his teeth at Marineland for leaping killer whales.
In 1976, Anderson, by then a struggling actor, began a five-year run
as Dr. Jeff Webber on General Hospital. In 1985, after a couple of
failed series, he landed MacGyver, which ran for seven years.
With no plans to reprise the role, Anderson, whose 1995 UPN series,
Legend, lasted one season, is contemplating his next move. If it were
up to his Pandora costar, Frasier's Jane Leeves, it would be a sitcom.
"His timing is perfect," she says. "He's an attractive man who can
be downright silly."
For now, Anderson has other ideas. "I can't deny it any longer," he
says. "I've taken up golf. I know nothing about the protocol, so I
still want to play in tennis shorts and a T-shirt. But evidently there's
a code of dress. I'm trying to make the appropriate adjustments."
People Weekly. November 18, 1996.
Pandora's
Clock
ACTION ACTOR TAKES THE CONTROLS IN PANDORA'S CLOCK
If you were trapped in a jumbo jet with a passenger suspected of carrying
a deadly airborne virus and no airport would allow the plane to land,
who would you want flying the plane? James Bond might make a good
first choice. MacGyver wouldn't be bad either.`In Pandora's Clock,
a four-hour mini-series airing at 8 p.m. Sunday and Monday on WMAQ-Ch.
5, NBC went with MacGyver that is, the man who played him for seven
years, Richard Dean Anderson.
Anderson looks pained at the comparison between old and new characters
but quickly agrees, "It's unavoidable. I'll be stuck with those comparisons
for the rest of my life. It's okay. I'm proud of my work on MacGyver.
"But the guy in Pandora's Clock is a former military guy. He has short,
graying hair like MacGyver (and like Anderson himself), but he also
has a problem with authority. He's dealing with what's before him,
but he's a very practical person. MacGyver is more improvisational."
Anderson's former fighter pilot probably could use some of MacGyver's
offbeat ideas. In this medical/geopolitical thriller, based on John
Nance's best-selling novel Pandora's Clock, Anderson must get the
jet onto the ground, plus deal with the passengers, the CIA, the White
House, the press and foreign terrorists. Assisting or thwarting him
are a large cast of characters, including Jane Leeves, Robert Guillaume,
Robert Loggia and Daphne Zuniga.
"All those layers were attractive to me," says Anderson, who has put
on a white T-shirt and jeans and dropped into a West Los Angeles restaurant
for a cobb salad and a chat about the direction his career is taking.
"John Nance talks about when, not if, this kind of crisis will happen.
All the elements are in line. There are new viruses, coming out of
Africa mostly, and in this age of travel there's the ability for them
to be quickly transported. Nance lays it out in very dark terms, although
he adds a grain of humor."
Anderson, 46, responds to humor, maybe because he's pretty funny himself.
He gripes, "There's no market for quirkiness on the major networks.
I go in trying to sell projects that I like. I'll say, 'Think Terry
Gilliam's Brazil.' And they'll say, 'Have you got anything family-driven?'
And I'll say, 'Not unless the family is whacked out!' "
His favorite series, Legend, lasted just 13 episodes on UPN last year.
"I created it and brought it to life," he says of the fantasy Western
adventure in which he played a turn-of-the-century novelist, "and
the network didn't have the slightest idea of what to do with it.
I'm not bitter!" he adds in a self-mocking tone that lessens the sting
of his words.
"I like playing heroes as long as it's a romp or tongue-in-cheek.
What I liked about MacGyver was that he was unassuming. He went about
his business trying to help." After the series ended, Anderson brought
MacGyver back twice in TV movies. "I'm very comfortable in the role,"
he says, "but I'd much rather recreate Legend."
He would prepare the script himself, except, he says, "I don't have
the discipline to write. I have to stop distracting myself with real-life
stuff." He's too busy skydiving, ski racing, downhill racing, car
racing, mountain biking and rock climbing. Idly he asks, "What's left
to do?"
A comedy/drama about Anderson's life would make "must-see TV." The
6-foot-2-inch Minneapolis native rode his 10-speed bike 5,641 miles
to Alaska when he was 17 and hasn't slowed down since. "I grew up
in the '60s and '70s when things were continually changing," he says.
"I made no conscious effort to rebel against anything, but I did recognize
a certain conservatism about my environment.
"I knew there were places to go and see, so I was hopping freight
trains. I got away with murder as a kid. There was nothing I couldn't
do because it was safe and available and a lot more legal than now.
I had a ball growing up, and I'm still having a ball."
Describing what he calls "my parental environment," Anderson says,
"My mother was an artist; she painted, sculpted, wove and was also
a Life Master bridge player. My dad was an educator who taught speech,
English and the humanities, and he was also a jazz musician. I guess
my biggest rebellion, other than the normal anxieties and angst kids
go through growing up, was being a jock.
"I had a lot of energy, emotion and curiosity to go out and explore
and misbehave. My dad said, 'If you get into trouble, call. But I
know you'll get yourself out of it.' In the '60s I was living in Haight-Ashbury.
I'd been gone for 2½ months, and when I called home my brother said,
'Where have you been? Mom and Dad were wondering because they haven't
seen you around.'
"If I'd been an only child, I'd have been an accountant, but I had
three younger brothers to keep them busy." In between his gallivanting,
Anderson studied drama at St. Cloud State College and Ohio University.
His first acting break came in 1976 when he became a regular on General
Hospital. "It was earn while you learn," he says. "I'd love to see
the first two episodes, not that I need to be humiliated and humbled.
I was 26 -- a cherubic 26 -- and at the time the youngest person on
the show was 45. I was the youth movement. Soon afterwards came Luke
and Laura."
Anderson stayed with General Hospital for five years, even though
he says, "After a year and a half I started to burn out. My attention
span is so short and the story lines were so perpetual that every
day was the same. I couldn't stand being indoors all the time."
Nevertheless, he stayed in television, moving to Seven Brides for
Seven Brothers and Emerald Point, N.A.S. before landing on MacGyver
in 1985. "That venue was more exciting and afforded me a lot more
creativity," says Anderson, who eventually rose to the position of
executive producer as well as star. "In addition to being in the action-adventure
genre, we ventured into a variety of issues, and I got to be the guy
who dealt with the bulk of those issues."
Since MacGyver ended, Anderson has tried to expand his range by playing
"increasingly darker characters" in Through the Eyes of a Killer and
Beyond Betrayal. Last spring he shot a pilot -- that is, filmed the
first episode -- for a new TV show, but it wasn't picked up.
At the moment, his main priorities are buying a house and maybe finding
a girlfriend. In the '80s, he had a lengthy relationship with Sela
Ward, but they never married. "I've been walled off," Anderson says.
"I was living in a gated house overlooking Santa Monica Bay. I had
a girlfriend for eight months, but we broke up last November. I crawled
away and moved in with my business partner, but now he's sold his
house."
Anderson, who seems as down-to-earth as an actor can be, is eager
for a nice, normal life and kids. "I'm from the Midwest," he says,
adding, "That's where humility was created."
The Chicago Tribune. November 10, 1996.
Legend
of the West
Our show takes place in 1876. My character is Ernest Pratt, a dime
novelist out of that era. He's essentially 180 degrees from what MacGyver
was," explains Richard Dean Anderson, the former star of the long-running
MacGyver, of his latest character, the central figure in Legend, UPN's
new science-fiction-tinged action-adventure series. "Pratt is a womanizing,
drinking, smoking, gambling wretch of a man. He just wants to be left
alone to make what measly money he can from his dime novels, which
is what they sell for, so that he can spend it in his local bars and
go about like at that level.
"What Pratt has done to garner this lifestyle is create a fairly successful
series of novels called 'Legend.' The novel's main character is named
Nicodemus Legend. Pratt gets drawn, by a number of events, into assuming
the persona, the aura and the personality of the hero he has created.
Consequently, you have this ink-stained wretch of a man having to
assume the role of a very heroic character. He's very reluctant to
start doing these daring sorts of rescues and battling the bad guys."
The reason Pratt must assume the mantle of the heroic Legend has much
to do with the presence of Janos Bartok (John de Lancie, Q of Star
Trek: The Next Generation), a brilliant, eccentric scientist of European
descent who also happens to be an avid reader of the "Legend" novels.
Bartok knows full well that there's a writer behind the books, which
are written in lively first-person style, but he's so fascinated by
the possibilities and the fantasies Pratt has pored into the "Legend"
novels that he makes the contraptions in the books into a reality;
thus the existence in 1876 of a remote-controlled steam carriage,
a hot air balloon and a quadrovelocipede, the first all-terrain vehicle.
In the pilot, "Birth of a Legend", Pratt hears that a warrant has
been issued for Nicodemus Legend's arrest, an interesting scenario
when one considers that Legend is a fictional character.
Upon arriving in Sheridan, Colorado to clear his alter-ego's name,
Pratt meets Bartok, who has assumed Legend's name and persona in an
effort to help his fellow townsmen stop an unwanted land takeover.
Bartok, with the help of his assistant, Huitzilpochtli Ramos (Mark
Adair Rios), tries to convince a reluctant Pratt to take up his creation's
persona from him in order to help fight any antagonists who dare to
show up in Sheridan. After the first successful outing, Pratt, using
Legend's inventions (most of which come directly from Pratt's own
drink-enhanced imagination) and Bartok's scientific know-how, finally
agrees to stick around.
"Bartok is an interesting guy. He makes Thomas Edison look like a
neophyte. He sees the great possibilities for good to be done by Legend,
for helping people and for the discovery of invention. We've based
Bartok, not so loosely, on a real-life person, Nikola Tesla. We've
taken Tesla's persona and his sort of adversarial relationship with
Thomas Edison, and," notes Anderson, "John de Lancie plays it brilliantly.
I knew he was our guy the minute I met him. He had actually done an
episode of MacGyver years and years ago, which we both hardly remembered.
There was a rumor after our first weeks of doing Legend that John
and I were not getting along, that it just wasn't a comfortable situation.
It was the strangest rumor I had ever heard, because John and I hit
it off immediately. We both share a sardonic sense of humor, but he
has a different personality all together, which I love. I work real
big and then I pare it down. John starts very small and works his
way up, so we meet somewhere in the middle. It's working impeccably
well, John's one of the most intelligent men I know.
"Anyway, Pratt and Bartok develop this ying-yang, love-hate, sandpaper-on-wood
type of relationship, Over time it will be a matter of Bartok keeping
Pratt in line and Pratt trying to get away with being Pratt, sneaking
his drinks, having his little cronies around. But Bartok will stay
on top of him. So, we've taken that basic story, Bartok's inventions
and the use of electricity and magnetism, and we've tapped into our
own imaginations, and turned it into Legend. We're shooting the show
out here in Mescal, about 45 minutes from Tucson, Arizona. We're on
a freestanding, period Western set in the middle of nowhere. It's
a little piece of history. Tons of movies were made here. It goes
back to cinematographer William Fraker, who designed the place, actually.
He designed it so that the Sun would rise on one side of the street
and set on the other, so you could use it almost all day long."
Western Icon
Though Pratt assumes the Legend persona -- reining in a bank robber
who'll surrender only to Nicodemus Legend in "Mr. Pratt Goes to Sheridan,"
and kidnapping President Ulysses S. Grant to save him from an assassination
attempt in "Legend on His President's Secret Service" -- Anderson
argues that he's not enacting a dual role. "I don't look at it that
way," he insists. I'm always playing Pratt. I'm always the writer.
Part of the humor and part of Pratt's quirky behavioral aspects come
when he has to assume this role. He has to assume a different posture,
a different attitude. There's a slight voice change and there's supposed
to be an attitude change when he's dealing with the outside world.
But, ultimately, he's still Pratt. So, sometimes he's a fish out of
water. It's an all-encompassing character and, while I like playing
both parts of the character, I see them both as parts of Pratt.
"I've been told by not only my agent but by a bunch of other people
that, at this point in my career, it takes a bit of courage just to
be misbehaving, to be taking this much of a chance with this character.
Usually, at this juncture, actors tend to play it safe. I've just
never been of that mind. After seven years of MacGyver, and then doing
what I could to stretch out a little bit -- I did five TV movies,
playing increasingly darker characters -- it was just time to do something
that, one, I would want to watch and, two, that was a character that
I would want to play for a while. This takes place in the West, and
I love Westerns. I play a fish out of water, a guy with a sardonic,
cynical, wry sense of humor and I'm just having a ball doing it. I
couldn't have helped design a better character for myself.
"Before Legend came along, a whole slew of scripts came my way. The
offers kept coming for more series work. But it all read as very typical
television. Here's the cop. Here's the doctor. There's the detective.
Between you, me and STARLOG's readers, I found that, in reassessing
what interested me, all of that kind of bored me. I decided that what
I wanted to be involved with had to do with action and adventure,
as well as have elements of science, discovery, education and invention.
Those things are intriguing to me. There's a fine line between entertainment
and education, but we can allude to things. The inventions we present
in this show will foreshadow things to come.
"Some of it will come across as science fiction, some of it as science
fact. We have actual gadgetry and inventions of the day and we've
allowed our imaginations to run a bit. That's where the special FX
come in. In fact, when I first read the script, I thought if I could
have any director in the world direct the pilot, it would be Terry
Gilliam. I like the character; I like the genre; I like the scientific
aspects; I like the humor, and all of that lets me have the freedom
to play Pratt a bit broader than you might expect from me," he continues.
"There's a physicality that's also involved in doing action-adventure,
so I use that to play it a little lighter and to do some physical
comedy. It's unavoidable that people are going to say it's MacGyver
in the 19th century, but it's really not. Watch it and you'll see.
Legend is not MacGyver."
To say the very least, Legend keeps Anderson very busy. He's not only
the star of the series, appearing in nearly every scene, but he's
also one of the show's executive producers, a title he takes very
seriously. That means he's on the Arizona set roughly 16 hours a day,
five days a week then in Los Angeles on weekends to supervise the
editing process. He's no "executive producer in name only" type of
guy. "I resist that image, to be honest. This job stresses me out,
has me angst-ridden and totally exhausted. But it's an opportunity
for me and my partner, Michael Greenburg, to really have control of
a show and to have a vision of that show," he states. "In order to
get it done the way I want to see it -- mind you, it's a collaborative
effort with Michael [executive producer of Voyager, Deep Space Nine]
Piller and Bill Dial -- I have to be a part of the decision-making
process. That's why I refuse to just slap my name on it.
"Executive producer sounds real lofty, but the fact of the matter
is I'm on the front line production team here. Greenburg is handling
post-production in Los Angeles. Piller and Dial are running the writing
staff. I have these massive responsibilities down here, making sure
it all gets done and tracking all of the little things that I want
to highlight. I want things to be happening on the periphery. I want
little odd quirks of character and that takes riding right alongside
everything that happens in pre- and post-production, behind and in
front of the camera. It's not a responsibility I take lightly, because
I want Legend to be as good as it can possibly be."
Eastern Hero
Born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Anderson's father was a
speech and English teacher at a local high school. The elder Anderson
also directed school plays, which his son eagerly watched. "I loved
the rehearsals and, subsequently, the finished play. There was just
something intriguing to me about the whole process," he remembers.
"As a kid, it was a dream to make the lead. Later, I found that people
were willing to pay me money to misbehave in front of a camera. I
had no problem with that." By 1976, Anderson's career took off with
a major role as Dr. Jeff Webber on the popular soap opera General
Hospital, where he remained in practice for five years. Two series,
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Emerald Point, N.A.S., preceded
his seven-year run on MacGyver, the action-adventure series in which
Anderson's inventive title character improvised scientific solutions
to escape from a weekly schedule of seemingly deadly situations.
"When MacGyver debuted, it was unique to have a TV hero who tried
to beat the bad guy without shooting him through the head with a .357
Magnum. Remember that The A-Team was on right around that period,
too. We used intelligence, science, improvisation and common sense
to solve problems. That was a very different concept. Initially, people
were attracted to the action-adventure element as it was a very active
show in the early years," notes the actor. "We had a younger audience
that was attracted to that. Beyond that, I started getting letters
from teachers, educators and parents who had come along for the ride.
Kids looked at it and were stoked by this MacGyver guy and parents
and educators recognized what we were trying to do. Later on, we knew
we were in the position to sow the seeds for education and lay down
morals here and there without being heavy-handed about it. So, we
educated and entertained at the same time, and I'm quite proud of
that. As for me, MacGyver was certainly the launching pad for the
rest of my career. It was seven years of 'learn while you earn'."
Prior to beginning Legend, Anderson portrayed MacGyver again in two
TV movies that aired in 1994. MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis
scored well in the ratings, while the subsequent outing, MacGyver:
Trail to Doomsday performed less admirably. "I was pretty much pleased
with them. They were the first things that Michael Greenburg and I
produced under our contract at Paramount. So, that was nice, to have
control of them and do them the way we wanted to do them, back-to-back
in London. It was quite an experience. There was a learning curve
involved, but I think they came out OK. Doing more of them is up in
the air. I don't know if ABC or Paramount want to do any more. In
my mind, I've moved on. That's what you do in life; you learn, you
grow and you move on. That's what I've done and that's where Legend
comes in."
The United Paramount Network has committed to the Legend pilot and
11 subsequent episodes and has already ordered an additional six scripts,
a good sign that the network is fully behind the show which debuted
in mid-April. "I have high hopes for it. We all do. I hope it works.
We're all working very hard. I have no other life right now. It's
really kind of sick, not that I had much of a life prior to this,"
concludes Richard Dean Anderson, laughing a genuine laugh.
"We've been here since December 1994, but I love it and I'm having
a ball. The machinery is working. We've passed the shakedown of the
crew and the show's concept and now things are running smoothly. I
would like for Legend to span the spectrum of an audience. I want
the younger audience to be able to watch it and just have fun with
the action, the inventiveness and the antics of Nicodemus Legend.
And, hopefully, older audiences will realize that there's much more
behind the eyes and words of Ernest Pratt than they had first thought.
I would like to think our show has something for everybody. I guess
we'll find out soon if I'm right, won't we?"
Spelling, Ian. "Legend of the West."
Starlog. July, 1995
