From today’s Sci Fi Wire:
Richard Dean Anderson, who played Jack O’Neill for most of Stargate SG-1’s previous nine seasons, returns for a few episodes in the SCI FI Channel original series’ current 10th season and told SCI FI Wire that it took a little adjustment to play the general again. “It took a couple of hours,” Anderson said in an interview at a party to celebrate the show’s unprecedented run in Pasadena, Calif., over the weekend. He added: “I was a little rusty, I have to be honest. … I didn’t stretch, let’s put it that way. I should have. My wind was a little low. But once I got back over there with the group that I grew up with, let’s say, in the Stargate franchise, everything all just fell back into line, and we all remembered each other right away.”
Anderson’s O’Neill returns in the show’s upcoming 200th episode, and he will also make special guest appearances in a number of additional episodes of both SG-1 and its spinoff series, Stargate Atlantis. “It was by invitation only,” Anderson joked. “[Executive producers] Brad [Wright] and Robert [C. Cooper] both called me, independent of each other. I don’t know if they knew that. Of course they did: They collaborate on everything. But they called and asked if I’d be interested in … being part of the 200th episode, and … I wouldn’t miss that. It’s a milestone. As you may have heard tonight, it’s a record [for an American SF show]. Two different kinds of records, and I think Guinness wants a part of us, too. But yeah, I was fine with that. I wouldn’t have missed that for anything. And then the four more episodes were negotiated, I guess, to be fair about it, and it all fell into place. And I was ready to come back and see the folk. If they hadn’t invited me to come back to work for a little while, I would have been up there anyway vacationing and checking in with everybody. In fact, my daughter and I, Wylie and I are leaving tomorrow to go back up there. We’re going to go up to a friend’s cabin and spend some time north of Vancouver.”
As for where Gen. O’Neill has been all this time? “Good question,” Anderson said with a smile. “You should ask that of more people who work there, because I don’t [know]. In the four … extra episodes that I came back to do, three of them were Atlantis, or Atlanti. But I think the answer was there. We sort of had to make it up while we were standing there. Not a writer to be found. It was basically, he’s been in Washington, sort of hiding behind a desk somewhere in charge of [something]. I think Brad might have told me what it was, but I don’t recall. Apparently he’s in Washington, and they don’t have an answer for me or for anybody when it comes to, I guess, the ultimate question: What’s going to happen to O’Neill, since he is still alive. I’m hoping that, God forbid this show should be over, but if it is, I’d love to be seen just floating away into space naked. Or partially naked. Or CGI naked. … Yeah. Stand-in. Use a stand-in. It would be fun to just float away. But I’m still alive, so I have no answers for you.” Stargate SG-1 is currently airing Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. —Patrick Lee, News Editor