Richard Dean Anderson, the star and an executive producer of SCI FI Channel’s original series Stargate SG-1, told SCI FI Wire that he has reduced his shooting schedule in the upcoming eighth season, but not necessarily his appearances in the show’s episodes. Speaking in an interview on the show’s Vancouver, B.C., set, Anderson (Jack O’Neill) said that he has reduced the number of days he shoots in Canada to allow him to spend more time at his home in Southern California, where he cares for a 5-year-old daughter.
“We worked out a schedule that has me working essentially three weeks out of the month and then having a week off,” Anderson said. “And even, like, three or four days per week that I’m working, and then that one week off. So I have weekends with my daughter, and then I’ll have some time in midweek. … So it became very workable and acceptable.”
Anderson added that he appreciated that the show’s cast and crew have accommodated his schedule “by creating nothing but hardship for themselves, primarily.” Among other things, producers schedule scenes featuring Anderson’s character from several episodes on the days when he’s in Vancouver and work around him on other days. That allows O’Neill to appear in almost all of the episodes.
Anderson also discussed a few spoilers for the upcoming two-hour season premiere. By the episode’s end, O’Neill wins a promotion and a new job. “The cliche that I reference in talking about the character now in his current position is that of a fish out of water,” Anderson said. “O’Neill, on paper, really doesn’t belong in [that] position. … But he’s, you know, embraced it as much as he can. … [But] in so many ways [he] would rather be on the front lines. He’d rather be a man of action than a man of great thought or great organization. … But … we’ve made the adjustment, I think, and accommodated the character quirks that I’ve developed over the years, and to a great degree I think that it’s been successful. People are pretty happy. The writers were having a ball in the beginning, because they all know me well enough to know that I’d be putting a certain twist to it. But I still wanted to be respectful to the Air Force.” Stargate SG-1 returns with a two-hour episode at 9 p.m. ET/PT July 9.