Tag: Richard Dean Anderson

O’Neill Remains Part Of SG-1

Robert C. Cooper, executive producer of SCI FI Channel’s original series Stargate SG-1, told SCI FI Wire that the character of Brig. Gen. Jack O’Neill will remain a part of the show in the upcoming ninth season, whether or not Richard Dean Anderson returns as a regular cast member.

“His character is going to remain very much alive in the Stargate [SG-1] universe,” Cooper said in an interview. “He … is going to be integral in commanding what goes on at the SGC. As to the appearance of Richard Dean Anderson in the series, that’s really still undetermined. We are very hopeful that Rick is going to agree to participate in a number of episodes, but I have no idea as to how many or when that will be resolved.”

At press time, Anderson was still in talks about his status on the show.

Meanwhile, Cooper said the ninth season would introduce new villains and take the show in a new direction. “While we say new direction, … the concept of the series is very much pulled from the mythology of SG-1, and I think fans are going to be very excited about the direction we’re going. … One of the things we’re going to be exploring in season nine is the origin of the Ancients and the Gatebuilders. And it’s something I know fans have been sort of very curious about, and have sort of asked to see. And that is … one of the things we’re really going to be delving into: … Who the Ancients really are, and where they came from, and we may even get a chance to go there.”

Sci Fi Wire article

Richard Dean Anderson, the star and an executive producer of SCI FI Channel’s original series Stargate SG-1, told SCI FI Wire that one of the highlights of his career was shooting scenes in a military helicopter in a glacier in Canada for the upcoming SG-1 spinoff, Stargate Atlantis. “Martin Wood [the pilot’s director] and I took three helicopters and went up to Pemberton Glacier [near Whistler, B.C.,] and shot a sequence … for … the pilot of Atlantis,” Anderson said during a break in filming on the set of the show. It was “just kind of the guilty pleasure of being able to ride around for 10 hours over the glacier, being chased by another helicopter,” he said with a smile.

Anderson, who has expressed a love of outdoor recreation, added: “I had given serious thought to bringing my skis up there. But the snow was so baked, there was no [way]. We actually had a pair of skis up there that one of our guides brought. Somebody tried to come down the hill and could not turn the skis at all, that’s how thick and set up it was. So it was just as well. But stuff like that, again, they’re guilty pleasures that come along with [this], the perks of being … part of a franchise that is action-oriented [and] fantasy-oriented.”

Anderson returns as Col. Jack O’Neill in the eighth season of SG-1. He said that he’s able to keep things fresh after so many years by finding the quirks in his character. “I’ve sort of been blessed with the freedom to play and to find stuff and make things as interesting as possible without fear of reprimand,” he said. “Blessedly I’ve had—how do I phrase it?—it’s almost as though some of my behavior has been condoned by the fact that in changing lines or changing an approach to a scene or bringing really a tilted attitude toward a scene and characterization, that that in itself makes it fresh for me. There’s the written page, the written word. And then there’s the voice of the character, which I know best, but [executive producer] Brad Wright, I think, out of all the writers … has … the voice of O’Neill closest. … Coming to work with what might seem like the same old stuff, [I] try to make it as bright and as interesting as possible.”

Stargate SG-1 kicks off its eighth season with a two-hour premiere at 9 p.m. ET/PT July 9. Stargate Atlantis premieres with a two-hour episode, “Rising,” at 9 p.m. ET/PT on July 16.

SCI FI Wire

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.

SCI FI Wire