Michael Shanks

13-4-13: Stargate SG-1 Season Two

SG-1-S2-Team

Continuing in our Thirteen Weeks for Thirteen Years (13-4-13) trip down memory lane, we arrive at Season Two. The producers and cast already knew that they had Season Two when they got the green light for Season One. As Brad Wright said, that was a rare thing. And then, Showtime gave them two more seasons after that!

SG-1 Season Two

Get out those DVDs or visit Hulu (US readers) to rewatch Season Two and then make your picks in this poll:

Which episodes were your Top 5 choices for SG-1 Season Two?(polls)

Brad Wright

From “Perfect 10” in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine, issue #17 (Jul./Aug. 2007):

“Robert Cooper proved himself on season one and I got my hooks into him as deeply as possible! He’s one of those guys who puts up his hand and says, ‘Give me as much as you can.’ Some producers come in and it’s just a job. They’re not thinking of it as something they’re going to invest in for a number of years. It’s just their job for a year and they move on. Robert loved the idea, loved the franchise, [and] saw the potential. It was me, Rob and Jon who were at the center of that season, and again it was very difficult because we were still doing The Outer Limits. But there were very good episodes—Robert pitched a show called ‘In the Line of Duty.’ It was actually based on a notion that I had about what would happen if a good friend of O’Neill’s became a Goa’uld and Jack had to deal with that? Then Robert got an idea that was better, and it was what if it was Carter? This was after he had already written the first draft, and the remarkable and admirable thing about that was that he knew he was going to have to throw away his first script. But he also knew that the idea that had just come out of his mouth was a much better idea than the script he had written. So he did it again and ‘In the Line of Duty’ is one of the strongest episodes of season two.

“We introduced lots of creatures and beings that just don’t play. The reason the Tok’ra were so effective was that they were essentially a fifth column inside the Goa’uld, and what that gave us was an ally—someone that would share with us, to a certain degree, their power. You never know when a race you introduce is going to take off and become part of the canon for years to come. …

“I think my favorite season two stories are ‘Secrets’ and ‘Serpent’s Song.’ They’re just so full of heart—there is lots of character bonding. But I also quite enjoyed ‘1969’, because it was the first time that we actually succeeded in setting out for the entire episode to be funny instead of just instilling humor throughout a dramatic episode.”

Richard Dean Anderson

From “TV Gen Chat” (Sept. 9, 1998):

“We are in a position now where we have been extended to 88 episodes for Showtime. And of course, with the syndication package, who knows how long that will go on? Now that we have the liberty and freedom to delve into one of the earthbound elements of our earthbound character’s past, we can go home with him. What was established in the movie was the fact that Jack O’Neill had lost his son, so we had dealt with the emotional side of that, and how O’Neill confronted his own sense in a kind of science fiction manner. So obviously the door is open to us to do that for all our characters. And to address things like what happens to O’Neill when he goes home at night, when he disappears from Cheyenne Mountain, who is he with and where does he go. Those kinds of stories we’ll have the ability to explore from this point forward, which in my opinion will be a lot of fun, because of all of the special effects involved.

“What happened when Mike [Greenburg] and I signed on to be part of the project, we had a couple of important meetings with the brass at MGM. We were essentially being asked to be a part of the project. I had done my research, having seen the movie a couple of times, and realized in order to portray the character of Jack O’Neill, there was no way I was going to be able to replicate what Kurt Russell had done. First of all, my hair would not do that, he actually has a jaw, and the character as portrayed by him really didn’t have much of a sense of humor. So for me to be entering into a project that had a future of four years or so, I had to make sure that MGM was amenable to my bringing my sense of humor to the role because life is just too short to be serious for that long. And so, a lot of, some of, the written dialogue gets a little manipulated. I know the voice of the character better than anyone, and bless Jonathan Glassner and Brad Wright, Mike, and the other writers, for allowing me the freedom to bring some humor and a slant on the character that I need. Because it’s not easy to be around me sometimes when the process is taking place, basically, because I tend to try and find things as we are rehearsing.”

From “Meet the Universal Good Guy” in the Vancouver Sun (Oct. 17, 1998):

“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. … You don’t see sarcasm a lot in the military.”

From “Stargate Trooper” in Sci-Fi TV (Oct. 1999):

“That show [Season One’s “Within the Serpent’s Grasp” and Season Two’s “The Serpent’s Lair”] incorporated all the elements of what Stargate is supposed to be about. We used the Stargate. We’re out in space. We have the bad guys all around us. You had the cliffhanger aspect that kept you wondering whether or not we would blow up Earth. I was very pleased with it.

“I had a ball [with the Asgard in “The Fifth Race”]. Even though my conversations with the aliens weren’t quite as deep as I would have liked, just the idea of talking to superior beings, the overseers of Thor’s people, was great. These people were telling O’Neill that human beings have the potential to be the Fifth Race, to survive and contribute to the universe. That was fun to do.”

From “Through The Looking Glass” in TV Zone #109 (Dec. 1998)

“In the movie Jackson is a bit of a loner and he establishes this dichotomy from the whole military way of doing things. In the show I think he’s become more of a team player. He picks and choose his battles now and is learning to work with a group of individuals that sometimes do things the way he does and sometimes don’t. So he’s become less of a loner and part of a group.

“There’s an episode called ‘Need’ that we did at the start of this season which I really enjoyed because it allowed me to take an emotional journey when Daniel is faced with an addiction. It was something totally opposite to what I’m usually asked to do so I appreciate that story for the stretch and the push it gave me as an actor.

“In another episode [“Holiday”] we did fairly recently I spent over six hours being transformed by all this prosthetic makeup into a completely new character, so I like that for the acting challenge as well.”

From “Removing the Chains of Gravity” in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine, issue #17 (Jul./Aug. 2007):

“There are other episodes, like ‘Secrets,’ where my girlfriend at the time was pregnant with our daughter, who played Sha’re in the show.”

From “Walk Like an Egyptian” in Frontier (1999):

“I think the stand-out element is the characters. The chemistry between Daniel, Jack O’Neill, Sam Carter and Teal’c. There is an interesting dichotomy between them, an interesting balance. Each character is different, unique. It’s a case of opposites attracting. Daniel’s an innocent, naive optimist whose curiosity often kills the cat and whose energy and excitement are contagious. He’s a little boy who’s opened the biggest Christmas present you could imagine, constantly excited and enthused.

“At the moment, I don’t know where they’re going to take him. I’m curious about what direction the character and the show are going to go in. I have no idea what the writers have in mind. We’re so busy here, working on the show we’ve just filmed, on the one we’re filming now, on the next one, there’s no time to think about it. It’s completely out of our control. I have a much larger dark side than Daniel. It would be fun to explore that in him a little, but not too much. And not regularly. Just a little. What I really like is Daniel’s genuine quality, his caring for people. His honesty and compassion. If they changed that about him then I wouldn’t want to play him any more.”

Amanda Tapping

From “Sense and Sensibility” in TV Zone (Jan. 1999):

“In the second season I enjoyed doing ‘In the Line of Duty.’ Something quite extraordinary happens to my character and she’s possessed by a Goa’uld, so we see how Sam deals with that.”

From “The Genius Club” in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine, issue #17 (Jul./Aug. 2007):

“Episodes like ‘Secrets’ when I first meet Carmen [Argenziano] who played my dad … I don’t think I’ll ever forget the moment I first met him, ever. There was just an amazing chemistry between us, I liked him instantly and he’s still a good friend.

“‘1969’ was such a road trip for us all and we had such a good time shooting it.”

From “Sense and Sensibility” in TV Zone (Jan. 1999):

“Sam is very strong, smart and singular character in that she’s very focused on what she does. She’s highly dedicated to her job and to the team, so, consequently, she has no life beyond Stargate, which is not dissimilar to me at times. I think the beauty of what has happened with the character over the last two seasons is that the writers have really opened her up and made her warmer and more accessible. I told them that it was important to me that she have a sense of humour and they’ve started to develop that side of her personality more.

“I also feel that my character has changed simply by virtue of the fact that the relationships among the show’s four major characters have grown. Because of this our [Stargate]team has become more cohesive and I think Sam’s a better person for it. I’m constantly striving to keep her interesting not only to the audience but to myself as well.

“I didn’t like my character that much in the first episode. I didn’t dislike her but I thought that her feminist diatribe was a little tiresome and I didn’t want her to be angry all the time. All I could see was this, ‘I’m out to prove myself,’ woman. I wanted her to be a well-rounded individual who is accessible and warm and someone who, especially young girls, could look up to and think, ‘Yes, I can relate to this person.’ Sam has become just that but she still has a ways to go. I think she needs to have a bit more of a personal life and maybe that will come in time, but right now she’s growing and becoming more fun.

“I got quite a bit of mail from women and little boys and the letters from women are pretty amazing because they tell me they’re thrilled to have such a strong female character like Sam on television and I think it’s terrific. I also receive many letters from Europe and British Isles and now I’m starting to hear more from men, which is neat. The fan reaction has been wonderful and for the most part it’s been very much about the pivotal role my character plays in the show and that makes me feel good about what I’m doing.”

Christopher Judge

From “IGN Interviews Christopher Judge” (July 11, 2006):

“[O]riginally, I’m not sure how heavily Teal’c was supposed to be involved from the beginning, but fortunately he was a very popular character just right out of the gate, and I think what has kept him around is his continued evolution and you kind of have to change from year to year, whereas most of the other characters, you know, they come from Earth, so their perspectives will always be an Earth perspective, and I play the only character who does have a perspective that is outside the Earth-based perspective.

“Well, I just don’t know how heavy a role he was originally intended to play. I really don’t know. I know that in the pilot I wasn’t as heavily written in, then I joined the team, so I didn’t know if it was originally intended that he would be a weekly member or if he was a fellow who would come and go, but fortunately for me he is someone who has stayed. (laughs)”

From “Judge not silent about ‘Stargate SG-1’” (Aug. 20, 2006):

“You’re always in a good position when you’re the alien on the sci-fi show. You’re going to have fans strictly from that.

“I think it’s because everyone’s pondering, ‘Is there life out there?’ Well, you are the incarnation of what people wonder about. So how you behave, how you move, everything is something people have debated forever. I think there is a natural attraction to the alien character because you are the visual personification of what they are still wondering about.”

From “TV Gen Chat” (Sept. 9, 1998):

“Actually, this year, I’m trying to… It’s not that Teal’c doesn’t have a sense of humor, it’s that he is very straightforward of purpose. And I think until his super objective of freeing his people and being reunited with his family is achieved, I don’t really think he finds all that much humorous. I don’t think that Teal’c is one to dabble in quips and smart-alecky sayings, because he has so much to achieve, which is the freeing of his world. But this season, as he is achieving his goals, I think you will see a bit of sense of humor appear. I don’t know, though, if you will ever see Teal’c guffaw!”

Solutions

[Many thanks to Joanna of Unofficially and Unequivocally Christopher Judge for help in finding quotes for Christopher Judge’s section of this article.]

Thirteen Weeks for Thirteen Years

SG-1-S1-Team

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We’ve got thirteen Fridays until Stargate Universe returns to Syfy on April 2, 2010, with episode 11, “Space”. Amazingly enough, this number also corresponds to thirteen years of Stargate since Stargate SG-1 made its debut in 1997!

So, to keep us a little occupied until new episodes grace our screens, let’s take a trip down memory lane and celebrate the ten seasons of Stargate SG-1, five seasons of Stargate Atlantis (three of those seasons ran concurrently with SG-1), and the first year of Stargate Universe.

SG-1 Season One

Sure, we could all rewatch the episodes—there’s more than enough time in a week to see the whole of the first season, which is available to our US readers on Hulu, by the way—but let’s take a look at the years through interviews and images. But just so we don’t leave the actual episodes out of the discussion, here’s the poll:

Which episodes were your Top 5 choices for SG-1 Season One?(online surveys)

As always, hearing from you is greatly appreciated. We’re, after all, a fan site that’s built by fans for the fans! 🙂

Brad Wright

From “Perfect 10” in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine, issue #17 (Jul./Aug. 2007):

“Jonathan [Glassner] and I approached MGM [separately], hoping to turn Stargate the film into a television series. We both had our own ideas about how to do that. When MGM made us partners, I thought, ‘Okay—I love working with Jon, it’ll be fun.’ But the problem was, MGM insisted we also executive produce The Outer Limits. So here we were, showrunners of our own series but employees on The Outer Limits. Our time was not our own. We had to steal and beg and borrow time to work on it together. We were in Los Angeles, working all day long with the other writers for season three of The Outer Limits. Everybody would go home and then Jon and I would continue working on Stargate SG-1.

“In the middle of the the pitch [for SG-1 to studio and television executives]—I get kind of excited when I pitch a story and a series idea—I’m animated and I’m telling the story and I’m talking about the structure… I remember saying the words, ‘Imagine teams like the astronauts of NASA going out for the first time through this ‘gate…’ and the fire alarm goes off! The president of Showtime was very annoyed, and turns to his assistant and says, ‘How much is the fine if we don’t leave?’ But his assistant insisted that we leave. So instead of standing there finishing my pitch, I’m standing in an underground parking lot with Jonathan, the president of Showtime, the president of MGM, and Pancho Mansfield, who is now the head of Spike TV—these were a big powerful people to me. I’m standing beside them, confused, hoping this will be over soon, and Pancho leans over and says, ‘Don’t worry. I think he’s already bought it.’ So the good news was that I went back to the second half of the pitch feeling much better about how it was going. At the end of that we knew we were doing 40 episodes of television, which is something that [not] very many television producers can ever say has happened in their life. It was wonderful.

“In terms of the storytelling, to be brutally honest, I thought we started poorly. I know a lot of people love the pilot and the beginning, but I honestly don’t think we found our feet until ‘Torment of Tantalus,’ and got into a nice run of episodes where we were actually writing for the team. Jonathan and I were able to focus more on Stargate SG-1 itself than The Outer Limits at that point. So I’d say that the second half of season one is quite good, but I think we started rather weakly. I’m not crazy about ‘Emancipation,’ ‘First Commandment’ or ‘Broca Divide’—I think they are weak episodes.

“When you’re not happy with the way something is going, you work your butt off to fix it. You can’t throw up your hands! We had MGM’s support, and I had Richard Dean Anderson’s support, eventually. I started getting comfortable, the show started to really improve. Shows like ‘Solitudes’ and ‘There But For The Grace of God’ are good stories. I think that’s where I started saying, ‘That’s Stargate SG-1.’ As soon as I identified what we all knew it should be, we started writing more of it.”

Richard Dean Anderson

From the Foreword of Stargate SG-1: The Ultimate Visual Guide (2006):

“When I was but a wee lad, contemplating a continued life of laziness and inactivity, I lit upon an old friend in the name of John Symes, who, by life’s design, was running the castle at MGM—he in turn introduced me to a couple of fellas, one of whom became a good friend in Brad Wright. I was presented with the pilot script for Stargate SG-1 and was asked to sign on for a two-year stint as Kurt Russell’s stand-in. With the promise of potentially rapid advancement in the company, and, times being what they were, I said no. Then I was told by all my new friends to actually read the script. This was a new concept for me, one normally reserved for kids these days who seem to be perpetually fondling the tendrils of modernity. But heck, I really wasn’t in the mood to cash it all in (it takes real energy to quit) and, times being what they were, I read. And thus the seed was sown.

“From the beginning there was always more to the concept than met the third eye. Once the series found its legs, and subsequently its creative rhythm, it became painfully obvious that we were to be pleasantly mired in the oddly flavored webs of longevity. Out of the gate I recall suspecting enormous potential for the show. Story lines examined foreign life forms, life styles, and forms of life; with particular attention paid to the philosophical, political and spiritual underpinnings of any number of cultures, foreign and domestic. Our heroes made friends, our heroes made enemies. They traveled a lot, garnering enough frequent flyer miles to skin a cat and back again. The ultimate goal then is to assist our viewers in recognizing the great and grand possibilities of a sweeping acceptance of ALL races…throughout the universe and the whole, wide world.”

From “A Multidimensional Actor Likes ‘Stargate’ Challenge” (Sept. 19, 1998):

“I liked the franchise; all the elements kind of fell into a good place. I said, why not give it a shot?

“You can’t fool an audience with smoke and mirrors. You can throw up all kinds of special effects and blow things up every few minutes, but the audience sees through that. I know I do. I get bored. If it’s a good story, you can paint. You’ve got the canvas—you just dab in the explosions here and there.”

From “TV Gen Chat with Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Greenburg” (Sept. 9, 1998):

“I am a little torn on this one, because my favorite one to do as an actor was ‘Brief Candle,’ when I got to age to 100 years old, and went through all the stages of makeup, etc. The episode itself was never fully realized in my opinion, because we had mistimed it, and basically it got edited down to the point where a lot of that process was not seen.” [According to Michael Greenburg in the same interview, “We had to cut out 16 minutes, which is a quarter of a 42-minute show.”]

“‘Cold Lazarus’ was kind of fun to do as an actor because there was a duality of role that I was able to play, and it also had an emotional story line to it in the discovery and confrontation with O’Neill’s lost son that was fun to play. It also had a motion control special effect that allowed me to talk to myself. We’ve done that a couple of times actually. We’ve also done a split screen, I forget the title of the episode, where I got to play two different O’Neills [‘Tin Man’]. That was fun to do.”

Michael Shanks

From “Removing the Chains of Gravity” in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine, issue #17 (Jul./Aug. 2007):

“I had just finished my second year at Stratford, in Ontario, and I was couch-surfing at various friends’ houses and my girlfriend’s place in Toronto, when this casting came up. I thought, ‘This is a great role, they’ll never give it to me.’ I watched the movie again, because I’d seen it originally when it came out, and then I auditioned. I thought that it was one of those things that would go a little while and give me some nice experience or whatever…

“One of my favorites is ‘The Torment of Tantalus.’ It’s been said by different people, but I really felt that when I was doing it, it was a neat show and a good episode. I watched it in its finished format and I said, ‘We’re singing here, this is where we really sit well.’ Our show is about mysteries unraveling and contemporary interaction intermingled with this enigmatic exterior of a world that we’re really exploring. It’s not about repeating some formula, or the Neanderthal of the week, or the big fight. It’s all about intellectual understanding of the nature of science fiction, which is about the ‘what ifs?’ We’re really about to probe into the nature of human existence, through these ‘what ifs?’ even if it’s completely projected and completely our own idea, people get really enraptured by that.

“The show is based on mythologies, mythologies that are unexplained, and we’re able to project our own comprehension of what those might be. That was the fascinating part about the movie, about the nature of Ancient Egypt, that maybe these pyramids were ancient lightning pedestals. It’s a pretty simple concept but then you take that and develop it because there are so many mythologies on this planet that we can take and just say, ‘Hey, what if it was this?'”

From “Guardian at the Gate” in Starlog #245 (Dec. 1997):

“Daniel is a dreamer, an idealist. 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.

“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.”

From “Through the Looking Glass” in TV Zone #109 (Dec. 1998):

“The relationship between O’Neill and Jackson was pretty much outlined in the movie. There still is and always will be, I think, that strong polar opposite relationship that existed from the beginning. They’re just two very different people, but because of these differences and their dependence on each other for things the other is incapable of doing there’s also a trust and a respect as well as friendship that’s developing.”

Amanda Tapping

From “The Genius Club” in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine, issue #17 (Jul./Aug. 2007):

“Long story short, I had to wait and wait because I guess that everybody wanted me except for one executive. I was cast, finally, and I had two weeks to pack my bags and move to Vancouver and start filming, it was pretty crazy. And then, as the story goes, this particular executive phones shortly after the first week, I guess, and had seen all the dailies and said, ‘I have never been wrong in my career before, but I’m wrong now. You guys made a great choice.’

“Season one sticks out in my mind very vividly as so exciting. It was a season of discovery and enjoying each other and new friendships and moving to a new city. Everything was new. Season one was pretty magical and the shooting of the pilot episode was amazing.

“…but for me, ‘Singularlity’ was the first time that my character showed any emotional depth and I will always remember playing those scenes. Going on to the glacier and shooting up in Pemberton on this crazy glacier, those kind of moments are memorable. […] There are episodes I think were really great like ‘The Torment of Tantalus,’ which wasn’t a huge episode for my character, but it was an amazing episode.”

From “No Nookie on Stargate SG-1” (Dec. 2, 1997):

“When we first started the series, there was talk of starting up something between Jack and Sam, or Sam and Daniel, and we all [nixed] that. Richard and I right away said, ‘Never.’ A, it could never happen because he’s her superior officer, and B, we don’t want it to kill the show. I think the beauty of the relationship between the four of us on the team is this great friendship that we have, and this wonderful respect and admiration for each other. Adding anything into that mix would be silly, because I think right now it works as a team of really good friends.”

From “Doctoring the Gate” in Frontier (1998):

“[Sam Carter is] incredibly smart, determined, very loyal, and warm. She’s warming up. I wouldn’t have said that at the beginning. But I think her best trait is that she’s incredibly loyal. Very singular and very determined. I did research about the military, and the obvious research on astrophysics, which I didn’t delve too deeply into because I had this set piece to learn. I watched Stargate the film, and then I tried to find a warmth that wasn’t written. I tried to find an accessibility that wasn’t in the lines. I did the scene from the pilot where she first meets Jack O’Neill, and a scene with Daniel Jackson where we discover all the different stargate addresses. They were very straightforward scenes, so I had to find—especially in that first scene with O’Neill—the warmth, and that for me was the challenge in the audition. To go in and hopefully give them something completely different from what was written. What I tried to do was add a certain warmth and sense of humour to her and give her a different dimension. When I got the script I thought you could play this one way, this very singular military, almost bitchy determined woman, but she had to have some more layers than that. And once I got the part, the challenge for me has been finding those layers then talking to the writers about discovering some different layers of this character so that she is a proper representation. With an all male writing team, it can be a challenge.”

Christopher Judge

From “TV Gen Chat” (Sept. 9, 1998):

“As I understand it, they had pretty much seen all the actors in LA and New York and Canada, and I kind of heard about the audition through a friend, called my agent, and told him to get me in. So I actually came in on one of the last days of casting. I read, they put me on tape, and two weeks later I went in for my screen test, and pretty much found out at the screen test that I had got the part. It was obvious to me, because everyone else that had come in to screen test, they sent home. So I had a pretty good inclination that I was going to get the part.

“Honesty. I think that’s what I admire most. With him there is no gray area. With him, it is either it is or it isn’t. He has such an advantage over some of the other characters, because everything to him is either right or wrong, and there is no in between. So every question that he takes is clearly defined by those parameters.

“I think that’s one of the nice things that the writers have allowed me to do, is to bring what they refer to as ‘Teal’c-isms’ to any situation that might occur. Because they do give me the credit of having fleshed out Teal’c more than they have. So they give me a pretty wide berth when it comes to interpreting my lines. And also subtextually, they are always open to what Teal’c might be thinking underneath what he says, even if it’s exactly what they had in mind. So I’m very fortunate in that regard. I just hope that we are living up to what our viewers think the show should be, and could be. I hope that we continue to expand and grow, and flesh out everyone’s characters and personal developments, because this show has the unique opportunity of touching on the “what if”, but still being launched from reality, and I certainly hope we live up to that.”

From “Living Among the Gods” in Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: The Official Magazine, issue #17 (Jul./Aug. 2007):

“Well, he started as a guy who was monosyllabic He was basically a child—here was a character whose first moments of free thought and free expression were episode one. Before that he didn’t have the ability to think for himself. He followed orders; he was a soldier and a slave on top of it. So you really saw his genesis as a free-thinking, free-willed person. As humans you start to develop as children, but for Teal’c [it started] when he was—how old? I think 97 [laughs].”

From interview at Sci Fi Weekly, excerpted at Christopher Judge Online (Aug. 20, 2007):

“When we started, [the producers] didn’t know what Teal’c was. In our screen tests, there were three Daniel Jacksons, three Sam Carters, three Gen. Hammonds, and there were 10 Teal’cs there. And they were all colors. They were not really sure what they wanted this character to be, so they allowed me a great deal of influence in the original shaping of the character. And it has continued through the arc of the show, from the way he talks and the pronunciation of ‘Ja-ffah’ as opposed to ‘Jaffa,’ and ‘Go-a-oould’ as opposed to ‘Goa’uld,’ and things like that. I mean, that was all stuff that when we originally did—and I would save certain words, you could see people go like that, and it actually sounds kind of cooler. It was nice to be involved that much in the building of the character, and [my involvement] continues to this day.

“A lot of science fiction has caught up with us, but in 1997, when we started, there was that new millennium looming over us and there was a lot of wonder, a lot of excitement; and, I think, there was a resurgence of science fiction at that point. We came along at a time where, not to be disparaging, but let’s face it: the Star Trek franchise was dying out, X-Files had peaked and was on its way down, and we happened to come along where there was a gap in programming. There was the right formula, there was a movie that had been successful and that could be expanded on, and you have MacGyver and then three other mooks. And then you have a guy like [longtime writer and executive producer] Brad Wright, who already had success with The Outer Limits [running things], and all the pieces fit; the timing was right and it just all worked. And we were lucky enough to grab a fan base.”

Solutions

Catch Shanks on Sanctuary Tonight!

Don’t forgot to watch Michael Shanks guest star with Amanda Tapping in the Sanctuary “Penance” tonight, on Syfy channel, 10 pm EST/9 pm CST. Michael plays an abnormal named “Jimmy”. Below is a preview of the episode. Let’s give the show good ratings, and maybe we’ll see more of “Jimmy” next season!

New Image of Shanks as Hawkman

Ausiello Files at EW has published new images for Smallville: Absolute Justice that feature Stargate veterans Michael Shanks, Brent Stait, and Britt Irvin in their new roles as Hawkman, Doctor Fate, and Stargirl!

Here they are for us Stargate fans to enjoy, but make sure to visit EW for the rest of the scoop! Smallville: Absolute Justice comes to The CW on February 5, 2010, in a two-hour movie special event.

Green Arrow and Hawkman

doctor-fate-stargirl_l1
Doctor Fate and Stargirl

[PHOTO CREDIT: Jack Rowand/The CW]

Michael Shanks Is Flying High as Hawkman (Updated)

TV Guide’s William Keck has published the first image of Stargate star Michael Shanks as Smallville’s Hawkman, along with an informative interview.

The image has a low resolution, but Keck promises that a better quality picture awaits you this Thursday (November 19) when the next edition of TV Guide hits the stands!

The interview goes into more detail about Carter Hall, aka Hawkman, so if you’re avoiding spoilers, take care when visiting the site. For Shanks fans, though, this quote is worth repeating: “The way things land at the end of it all, there’s an open door for Carter Hall to be revisited and possibly be part of further mentoring Clark down the road.”

Additionally, the premiere date for this two-hour special event, titled Smallville: Absolute Justice, has been rescheduled for February 5, 2010.

No interview with Michael Shanks would be complete without mentioning his time as Dr. Daniel Jackson or the Stargate franchise. Shanks confirmed that he’ll be returning to Stargate Universe for two more episodes this season: “Human” and “Subversion”. His appearance in “Subversion”, episode 18, is also with long-time co-star Richard Dean Anderson.

Make sure to visit TV Guide for the complete interview.

[Photo by Jack Rowand/The CW.]

Amanda Tapping on S4K, Shanks, and ‘Sanctuary’

Tapping-as-Magnus-SYFY
Amanda Tapping as Dr. Helen Magnus of Sanctuary (image from Syfy)

In a wonderfully fun and informative interview, Stargate star Amanda Tapping talked with Jenna Busch of the Huffington Post about her hit show Sanctuary, her newly-launched charity Sanctuary for Kids (S4K), and bringing fellow Stargate star Michael Shanks into “Penance”, an episode of Sanctuary that will be airing in December.

The interview is full of all kinds of goodies for Tapping and Shanks fans, including two large images of Shanks in his Jimmy role. Be careful when visiting there since the article’s title doesn’t include the word “spoilers” for nothing. Here are a few—non-spoilery—highlights:

On having Michael Shanks guest star in Sanctuary:

Oh, it was awesome to have him. And there is actually a really cool scene where Helen and Jimmy, the character that Michael plays, see each other for the first time in the episode, and it’s so genuine. We’re both just grinning from ear to ear. It was really sweet. It was a really nice moment for Michael and I. But what we did … we really wanted to get him on the show because he’s such a good actor and a friend. And we didn’t want it to be the Amanda and Michael show. We didn’t want it to be Daniel and Sam. We didn’t want to fall into those old rhythms. And for Michael too. He felt the same way that we did. We wanted to bring him back but not make it just about the two of us. So in actual fact, we don’t have a lot of scenes together. Most of his scenes are with Agam who plays Kate Freelander. […spoilers…] You find out a lot more about Kate’s backstory, and a lot about Jimmy’s backstory. It’s a really sweet episode. It’s a tough episode. But he blew us away. He did a great job.

On directing, acting, and producing at the same time:

It’s not my first choice of things to do. [laughs] You just feel so schizophrenic, Jenna, because I’m acting in the episode and I’m directing it, so I’ve got to see the whole thing and then I’m also producing. When we initially talked about me directing, it was November, it was in LA, we were meeting with the network…Mark Stern (SyFy’s Executive Vice President for Original Content) said, ‘Hey, that would be great.’ And I was like, yeah! Because I was relaxed and we’d finished the season and everything was good. But as it became closer to the time I was directing, I turned to Martin (Wood) and Damian (Kindler) and said, ‘Forget it. I can’t do this. This is ridiculous. I’m too busy.’ Helen is insane this year. As you’ve seen so far this season, it’s pretty torturous for poor Helen. And so, by the time we came towards that episode, I was freaking out.

For me, the biggest thing is prep. I have to know my shot list, know how I’m going to edit the show and so when I go into shoot it, I’ll explain to the DP exactly what I want. I’ll set it up with second team and then I’ll go in. The beauty of the episode that I directed was that Helen […spoilers…]

On joining Twitter:

I got roped into Twitter. I actually quite enjoy it! But I don’t go on as often as some. But Ming-Na (Stargate Universe) said to me, when we did this Stargate ladies lunch, she said, ‘You’re not on Twitter? What, are you crazy? You’ve got to get on Twitter! You’ve got your charity coming up, your show…it’s great! It’s so much fun! Oh my god! It’s not that hard. It doesn’t take a huge amount of time.’ Because I’m a luddite. I’m happy chiseling my grocery list into a rock. Like, I have an iPhone and it tells me what I’m supposed to do. It speaks to me. ‘Amanda, today you have to…’ Because I’m not a technology-driven girl, which is astounding. But Ming-Na got me onto Twitter. And I enjoy it. It’s quite fun. I don’t follow a lot of people right now. I’m still trying to figure it all out. I tweet!

On filming two guest appearances in Stargate Universe as Sam Carter:

Well, I’ve done two episodes. I did their first two-parter and I’m at the very end of their season. And I just shot that a few weeks ago. So I started their season and I’m ending their season, which was very cool. But I didn’t get to play with anyone. That was my one, you know…if they were ever to have me come back, I’d want to be with people. [laughs] I’m kind of off on my ship, which I think is awesome. I have to say, when I got to work, and I saw the uniform and the General Hammond crest on it, I teared up. I think it’s a great honor to, not only Don, but to the character. (note: Don S. Davis, who played Major General George Hammond passed away in June 2008.) So that was very cool. But I’m up in my ship and I don’t get to play with anyone.

About how her fans’ generosity inspired the creation of her new charity Sanctuary for Kids (S4K):

And every time I’ve done a fund raiser, I’ve been blown away by the amount of money and the generosity that our fans have. So I thought, here we have this opportunity to not only work with the show Sanctuary and with that fan base, but with the Stargate fan base and the people I’ve met around the world, and actually make a difference with small charities.

Make sure to visit the complete interview, where there are two exclusive images of Michael Shanks (here and here) in his role as Jimmy, at Huffington Post: Amanda Tapping Launches Charity Website and Gives Sanctuary Spoilers.

Shanks’ Smallville Episodes Become TV Movie

In an exclusive announcement made at EW, Michael Ausiello has reported that The CW has decided to air the episodes in which Stargate star Michael Shanks will portray DC Comic’s Hawkman as a two-hour movie event rather than as two separate episodes (“Society” and “Legends”). According to Ausiello, The CW felt that “they could get more mileage out of combining them.”

Michael Shanks is not the only Stargate veteran to appear in the movie, which will air January 29, 2010; Brent Stait, who played Maj. Louis Ferretti, will be portraying Dr. Fate, and Britt Irvin, who played Merrin (“Learning Curve”), Stargirl.

Smallville is in its ninth season on The CW and follows a young Clark Kent as he struggles with his alien powers that will some day lead to his becoming Superman.

“Society” and “Legends” are written by comic book writer Geoff Johns and bring together several members of the Justice Society of America. When it was earlier announced that the story had expanded into two parts, executive producer Kelly Souders told EW, “To be honest, there were so many characters and so much great story that people would’ve been robbed of some great moments if we kept it to just one hour. So now that it’s a two-parter, you won’t miss anything.” Not only will Hawkman, Dr. Fate, and Stargirl be making their appearances, but also Martian Manhunter will be returning (played by Phil Morris).

Michael Shanks, who is sporting his “old and grizzled” look for the part, told his fans about his experiences working with the cast and crew of Smallville from the stage at the Official Stargate Convention held in Los Angeles this past weekend. Make sure to visit his official website for behind-the-scenes tidbits, which include adjusting to the challenges of shooting his scenes while he’s wearing wings that span thirteen feet!

Shanks Shares On Hawkman, SGU, Letter “S”

We tweeted this already, but for those who don’t follow us there (shame on you!), Michael Shanks was interviewed this week about his playing superhero Hawkman on an upcoming two-parter of Smallville. In an attached blog post, the journalist, Jenna Busch, also spoke with Michael about his role on Sanctuary, and his views of Stargate Universe so far. Michael had very interesting things to say on all the topics! Here are a few excerpts, but we recommend you read the article and blog post too, since there is lots more to enjoy.

On the creation of Hawkman’s winged costume:

I have done five fittings. Yup! Yesterday was my fifth. I do believe there will be more. I have yet to shoot a frame of film on this episode. This is what I’ve been doing the most of, is going for fittings and you know, talking to the producers about the character and discussing the elements of the voices. But mostly it’s been focused on the costume and the logistics of the costume. Again, it’s a necessary thing. I really appreciate the reverence that these guys have. […] I said to James Marshall yesterday, ‘I want to take this home for the weekend. Just to get used to it.’ [laughs] Yeah, the character will fly and the logistics of that are pending. How we’re going to make that work without looking too silly.

Regarding his view of Stargate Universe so far:

It is different. I mean, it’s a completely different taste palate than the previous Stargate incarnations. It’s more realistic. The characters are much more dimensionalized. The visual of it is far more aesthetically pleasing and stunning. The camera work is more interesting. The visual effects are amazing. […] I just had a little…I just watched the first three episodes, and I just had a little issue with some of the drama. […] When I watch it, I’m really transported to the world that they’ve created. It’s really three-dimensionalized. I’m just not quite buying all of the mistrust elements and the tension elements just yet. But I think they’re one strong story from hooking me and turning the corner on that.

The strange thing about his career and the Letter “S”:

My speech therapist…we had a little sit down and he told me that, in order to get past my fear of the letter “S” I may only appear on shows that start with the letter “S” so I can build up my resistance to it. So yes. Smallville, Stargate, Sanctuary. I’m looking for some others. If you can reccomend any other shows that start with “S” that I could pitch myself out to that would be great.

On the likelihood of him joining “Twitter”:

Oh, uh, never. That’s that one. Let’s get that out of the way. Michael Shanks twittering is not going to happen. Let’s just go down that road. [Laughs] Although apparently I might. I made a bet with my wife and she had to choose what I would have to do if I lost the bet. She said, because she knows how much I don’t like the notion of twittering, if I lose, I have to twitter for a week. So that will be probably be the only way you will catch me twittering. I’m just not that guy.

Let’s hope Michael loses the bet with Lexa and has to tweet for a week! Read the article and blog.

Shanks To Play “Hawkman” on Smallville

IGN TV posted exclusive news today that Michael Shanks will be playing Hawkman in an upcoming episode of Smallville, currently filming its 9th season. Hawkman is one of the superheroes of DC Comic’s Justice Society, and he has a complicated history. He wears a harness fitted with artificial wings made of a special metal that enables him to fly. SG-1 fans will enjoy this description of the most recent incarnation of the character, from the wikipedia article:

In the late 1990s, the JSA series untangled Hawkman’s continuity, establishing him as Carter Hall, a man who – along with Shiera – had been reincarnated dozens of times since his life in ancient Egypt, and whose powers were derived from Thanagarian Nth metal, which had been retroactively renamed from “ninth metal”.

It’s also important to note that, with the exception of the harness and wings, Hawkman is shirtless at all times.

Also announced is that Brent Stait (Major Ferretti) will play Doctor Fate. So it’ll be a Stargate reunion.

This episode of Smallville, called “Society”, is expected to air in January.

Special Feature: Burn Notice Commentary Transcript

As most fans will know, Michael Shanks had a four-episode arc in Season 2 of the hit USA series Burn Notice. Playing burned spy “Victor”, he was prominent in the very popular season finale, “Lesser Evil”.

Michael joined creator Matt Nix and co-star Bruce Campbell on the DVD commentary, which is very entertaining. Now, thanks to the efforts of Stargate fan daniel4ever, we bring you the transcript of the DVD commentary in its entirety! Please read and let us know how you enjoyed it!

In the transcript:
MN: is creator Matt Nix
BC: is actor Bruce Campbell
MS: is actor Michael Shanks

MN: Hi, I’m Matt Nix, creator of Burn Notice, here with Bruce Campbell…

BC: I play Sam Axe…

MN: and Michael Shanks…

MS: I play Victor…

MN: So, this was the season finale for season 2, Lesser Evil, although this part (opening credits) is in every episode so there really is not a whole lot to say.

BC: This is where you get to do the wonderful recap of the amazement they are about to experience.

MN: Yes, exactly.

BC: So, this was directed by our good friend Tim Matheson, right?

MN: Indeed it was, who can be heard on the episode 2.08 commentary.

BC: And he’s been around, what, this was his 3rd episode?

(Currently showing scenes from previous episode with MS on screen)

MN: Uh, let’s see, he did one in the first season, so this is his third episode. He’s actually directing the season premiere of 3 as well.

BC: He kind of has been co-opted into doing some of the bigger ones. He gets a little, he gets a little epic.

MN: Yes, yes, and this was a big episode, this was a very big episode for us. For various sorts of odd budgetary reasons, we ended up, um, with a little extra more money to spend on this one which was great, because we had a lot to do.

BC: Yeah, there’s some major carnage in this thing, too, and Tim, you know, he shoots like a feature, if you watch his episodes, he gets a lot of coverage and he does things that are more like a movie which is kind of fun when you’re working on it but probably tortures the producers. But it is a good episode.

(Background MW getting into Carla’s limo)

MN: Now this was all shot in midtown which is actually great for us because it is pretty empty, it’s a sort of downtown looking place, but uh, you don’t even need to clear the streets, there is nobody on them. So it’s very empty, sort of unfortunate for anyone who invested in midtown, but we can use it as sort of a back lot, it’s great. (BC laughs) (Something else is said here but it is incomprehensible, because two people are talking at the same time) Now, Bruce, what is Jeffrey doing right now, do you know?

BC: He’s shooting the first day of episode 2, season 3.

MN: That’s right, first day of episode 2.

BC: He’s on a set, torturing a bad guy, right now…

(Limo ride in background)

MN: Yes, as he should be…

BC: And on screen, he’s torturing Tricia Helfer, obviously, the infamous Carla, who the funny thing is, all bad guys are the nicest people as actors (all laugh). I mean, it’s true, (someone else says something here that I can’t understand) Vincent Price, he really just wanted to cook in his kitchen, you know, not kill innocent people. But, and the same with Tricia, she’s from Canada, she’s a prairie girl, incredibly down to earth and here she is playing you know this steely kind of bad ass character. I always find it very entertaining.

MS: Is there a hidden message that both of the seemingly bad guys in this particular episode, Victor and Carla, are from, the actors are from Canada?

MN: Uh huh.

MS: Is there a hidden message that most of the secret agents out to get us here in America are from Canada?

BC: Well, you know Canada; those guys are a very dangerous neighbor to the north. You gotta watch them.

MS: They’re wily.

BC: They could invade at any moment.

MN: Yeah, they’re just sitting around drinking beer, being kind of laid back and then you turn your back

BC: Watch your back, boom they stab you.

MS: There’s an elbow pad in your face like you wouldn’t believe. (BC laughs)

BC: So, now, Matt, we’re getting near another interrogation scene or another setting certainly. These are becoming a little more a part of the show.

(MW is walking up the steps to where Victor is being held)

MN: Yeah, absolutely, one thing that we’ve discovered is that blocking a scene is much easier when people are tied to chairs. (Laughter)

MS: I think it’s great that now that Obama is president that we’ve taken this tack that now that Jack Bauer is not torturing so much that on Burn Notice you can take it as an Obama like stance with everything. (Laughter)

MN: Yeah, we don’t really, you know, we’ll beat each other up, but we usually don’t touch the bad guys.

BC: No, there isn’t… you know, what it is, on this show, we get the bad guys to kill each other.

MN: Yeah.

(Victor and MW are fighting on screen in background)

BC: It’s a higher moral ground than taking a, you know, live wire and just sticking it in their ear for half an hour.

MS: This is great when we did this fight scene, because they’d uh, we’d, obviously just finished the bathroom fight at the end of the previous episode and they’d kind of done a similar thing in here, where it was just hand to hand, and what was great in terms of Jeffrey is he pointed out we were in this great space with all these metallic looking tools and chains and whatnot, let’s use it, let’s shake it up a little we don’t want to just do the same ol’ same ol’, so… although it is odd that he would be around so many conveniently placed chains and…

BC: But you have to have that though, right Matt, if you’re gonna fight, you gotta have some form of weaponry available.

MN: Exactly, that’s why you put people in interesting locations with chains. (Laughter) You are fired, Shanks, you are retroactively fired, don’t say that ever again. (All laugh)

MS: I don’t know how much more I could be fired. (All laugh)

BC: Well, we don’t want to give away what happens, obviously, right until it happens, because it’s gonna shock me even watching it now.

MS: I’m hoping that if they’re listening to the track with the commentary on it, maybe they’ve seen the episode, but… I don’t know, you know, people do things for different reasons.

BC: You know, they may have been too busy and the DVD is the way that they watch this show. In Buttcrack, Kansas, that’s probably how it’s going down. I don’t think they’re going to be TIVO-ing as much.

(Victor and MW talking to each other in background on screen)

MS: I can respectfully say I’ve never been in Buttcrack, Kansas.

MN: Now this, uh, Michael, was your sort of transition from crazy, homicidal Victor to, there it goes, look at it, emotional Victor. What was that like?

MS: Um, this was, it was interesting because this was shot, both this and the scene on the boat were shot on the very last day of filming and I think up to that point there was a lot of question in I think uh, at least Tim’s mind, I’m not sure in your mind too, whether or not Victor – we were going to like Vic – and I remember when I first got the script and I looked at it and I said well this is the scene where we have to see the stuff underneath what is going on there and if you don’t do that, there’s nothing else to me in the script up to the end where you are actually going to get a chance to feel for the guy. So it was really important to me to focus on this scene and find that underlying pain that the audience could relate to more, then, as well as not betray the character, so that is why you see, uh, sort of both simultaneously.

MN: What I think is actually amazing about what you did here is, um, and I think it’s really more credit to me because I told you how to act it…

MS: Absolutely. (laughter)

MN: No, is you really managed to hold onto who Victor is when you laugh, and it’s not that he’s suddenly sort of dropping a veil and becoming a different guy, he’s the same guy. It’s just that he showing a different side of himself.

MS: Right.

BC: And, Michael, I have to say that I think you were a very good bad guy, and I’m actually sorry to say the word “were,” but I’m not going to give anything away you know, but I think as far as bad guys go you’re right up there. You’re 4 episodes of bad guy, most bad guys are one episode so you punched through the barrier, you’ve done a kind of cinematic history, really, in television.

MN: Worthy adversary.

MS: Whoa!

BC: Yeah, no, that’s true, you’ve fallen into the worthy adversary category and in this show, you never really know if someone is fully on your side.

MS: I’ve had a couple of people watch this and they kept waiting until the very end, and even afterwards as to whether or not Victor was gonna still turn on Michael somehow and they were so surprised when the gunshot went off and that was it, they didn’t uh…

(On screen: MW coming down stairs after talking to Victor with Fiona and Sam)

BC: What gunshot? What are you talking about? (Laughter)

MS: Uh, the uh, well, she’s got a shotgun in her hand right there, it’s gonna happen any second now. (Someone whistles a casual whistle…)

MN: Actually, Bruce…

BC: Yeah?

MN: You’ll be interested in this, one of the things that we… when we’re working on the episodes think about in terms of characters turning, bad guys turning, and when to trust people is when Sam trusts someone, it sort of gives the audience permission to trust someone.

BC: (laughs) Right! Well, Sam has a BS meter, I think.

MN: Yeah.

MS: That’s true; he seems to be the cynical one.

BC: He doesn’t have the, uh, yeah, his people skills are not as refined perhaps, and so I don’t know, maybe he’s just enough. That’s a good point, Matt, I’ll keep that in mind, that Sam is the moral compass of the series.

MN: Yeah, sure, moral compass of the series, exactly. Ok, I accept that.

BC: Because Fiona is out of control, I mean, she’ll kill anyone at anytime for any reason, so it’s really Sam has to calm her down and you know, keep her in line.

(On screen: MW and Fiona have just entered Victor’s boat)

MN: Yes, this was our Art Department’s, uh, we wanted Victor to have rigged all of the windows so that if you went in any way, uh, you’d get Claymored, hence, Fi’s “Victor should teach a class,” line.

MS: The only thing that got me about that was the fact that, um, was that Michael stood in front of the Claymore while she was disarming it till she said clear, and then he moved out of the way of the Claymore.

MN: You’re fired again. (laughter)

BC: Hey guys, can I make a quick note? I saw the Captain Crunch back there, uh; Captain Crunch has a very negative connotation for me.

MN or MS (sometimes I cannot tell and will denote as or): Oh?

BC: I was eating a bowl of Captain Crunch, which was my favorite cereal and was then notified that my dog had died.

MN: Oh no!

BC: And I’ve not touched, literally, Captain Crunch, since.

MN: How old were you Bruce?

BC: This was last week. (laughter) No, I was like 10.

MN: Oh, wow.

BC: It was my favorite cereal and I can’t look at it. So thanks for putting it in the show.

MN: Sorry! Well, it’s associated with a tragic loss, that’s why it’s in there, Bruce, we’re mining your emotional history.

BC: Are there other people you think that their animals have died while eating the same cereal?

MN: I think it’s just you.

MS or MN: This is just for your therapy this has got nothing to do with… (Can’t hear the rest as Bruce begins speaking again)

(On screen: Victor and Sam enter cage for interrogation)

BC: I like this place to torture Michael in this scene cause it’s a great cage, it’s just a giant cage, and look, there’s more weaponry lying around, there’s a vice, what’s that? There’s a vice and a wrench… (laughter)

MS: Careful, careful, he can still fire you. (lots of laughter)

BC: Good! Uh, yeah, actually, there’s lots of stuff up on the shelves too. (Someone else says something indistinguishable here too.) That’s right, he’s tied to his chair so it’s all right. But, I like, you know, how he’s a good adversary, because he messes with Sam cause he knows – he knows all the drills, so he knows that Sam is going by the book. Which is good, what I think when a bad guy is as smart as the good guy, then it really gets tough, then the bad – the good guys have to work for a change.

MN: Yeah, we had to look up all of the actual numbers in the uh, at least that version of the military interrogation manual.

BC: Oh, right, of how many, uh, techniques there actually were.

MN: Cause there are all these different approaches and you know some are more popular than others.

BC: And the episode we just shot, which I can’t reveal yet because it’s very secret, has a new technique, a completely different technique still to come. So, viewers, after watching the amazing techniques in this episode, there’s more amazing stuff yet to come. When you guys gonna run out, Matt?

MN: Uh, I don’t know. I mean I think that, uh…

BC: Are we ever gonna do a waterboarding? (laughter)

MN: No, I think that’s off limits, actually.

BC: Really? Can’t really go there?

MN: Yeah.

BC: That would be less comfortable. (Someone, probably Matt, says something in here that I cannot make out – since he was talking the same time as Bruce, who is louder.)

(On screen: MW and Fiona have just gotten out of the car, and Sam comes down the ramp to meet them.)

MS: I’m thinking as much as Victor was a rival for Michael for spy skills, I think he’s a rival for Sam Axe for bad fashion choices. (laughter – this is where Sam is wearing the red shirt with the big appliqué) I was looking at that last scene – that was visually assaulting.

MN: Well, now, wait a second… (laughter) you’re touching a nerve there!

BC: Yeah, I’d go easy on that, because me and Tommy Bahama are very close.

MN: Yes. (laughter)

BC: I am not endorsing Tommy Bahama, I’m just saying I think, it, meaning Tommy Bahama, suits me pretty well.

MS: I’m just gonna leave that floating in the breeze there…

BC: What more is there to say?

MS: Yeah.

(On screen: Madeline exercising to Jack LaLanne)

MN: And here we go, this is the beginning of the epic Madeline and Sam…

BC: That’s right!

MS or MN: That’s great. (Can’t hear, someone else is also talking.)

BC: Yeah, I think I shot one scene outside of this, um, house, for the whole episode, me and Madeline, but it’s great, you know, look, again, working with Sharon Gless is – what can you ask for? She, she is iconic and yet she’s still a very dedicated actor. She loves it, she gets excited, you know, we would like, she got like nervous, she was nervous sometimes and uh, I just thought that was so cute, a woman who busted her butt on a really, you know, on Cagney and Lacey for so many years, I still get excited working with her cause I go, she’s from a different time period, she’s from a different, you know, she really – she set her own landmarks in their own world, they were, they, she had her version of an iconic show.

MN: I mean, it’s amazing watching her just bring it. It’s like a switch goes on or something.

BC: Uh huh, uh huh.

MN: It’s pretty – really incredible!

BC: But, typically, you know, on screen, you know, she’s barking orders and chain smoking, and off screen, she’s kid of sweet and goofy.

MN: Yeah.

BC: Typical. It’s all the good guys who are the jerks.

MN: I love watching her rake you over the coals too.

BC: Ha ha! Well, cause what’s good is she is Michael’s mother so she’s not a dummy.

MN: Yeah.

BC: And, she had a kind of an idiot husband, Michael’s father, so she’s had to deal with all of this before. That always amuses me.

(On screen: Michael enters cage to talk to Victor. They allow dialogue to play briefly – Victor’s line, “Four? That seems high, oh, come on, you’re counting earlier with the chair!”)

MN: A fine delivery, Michael Shanks! That was great. (laughter)

MS: Oh, look at my face though; I only really counted to three, so delivery fine, math not so good!

MN: Yes. (pause in talking here) Yeah, this was, this was a… I think kind of a tricky scene, because it’s uh, you’re coming clean with him in a lot of ways and it’s you’re not entirely trusting each other and it’s…

BC: Now, Matt, significant of the season 2 DVD compilation is that as opposed to last year, we have a new director of photography.

MN: Yes, yes.

BC: Which I’m not sure if folks will, uh, hopefully they’ll notice, uh, it’s a different style.

MN: The fabulous Bill Wages, yes.

BC: Yeah, Bill Wages came in and uh, it looks to me – well, first of all, I can see on the set again. (laughter) Because, uh you know, the first season had a fabulous look, but it was done with a different style with the big old lights shining in your face, kind of like it was in 1964.

MN: Yeah, it was much brighter.

BC: Much different story, and uh, this season I can actually take my sunglasses off and you know, play a scene, so it’s… We’re enjoying working with Bill, he’s a real hardworking guy, he gets in there too whenever it’s a lot of hand held stuff – not all directors of photography will actually shoot stuff – he’ll grab the camera and just get in there and go – so he’s a real “let’s pick this up and do this” kind of guy.

MN: Very hands on, yeah.

BC: Yeah.

(On screen: Victor and Michael get in car and drive off quickly.)

MN: Now this, actually, uh, Tim Matheson really pioneered the use of shooting the interiors of the car on the stages and the actual driving stuff, some of this is second unit, some of this is, uh…

BC: Is it you’re saying, Matt, the rear screen stuff?

MN: The rear screen stuff, yeah. We hadn’t really… we’d done a little bit of it but this was really…

BC: Which I have to say works really well, we just did it in the episode we just shot recently and it’s so good for actors because actors can then just act and not worry about causing a traffic accident, and it’s really good for the sound guys and the camera guys can get very controlled and it’s really easy to get more shots because you’re just all controlled on a stage and you know if you keep it moving like this and you only show it periodically I think it works perfectly fine.

MS: Oh, it does, I… I…

BC: You wouldn’t really know. (I think in context he is referring to the viewers.)

MS: I’d never done it before, um, in the studio, and what I found out about shooting the stuff, obviously the stuff that was done by the stunt guys on second unit, the – all the real driving stuff, I felt so foolish when we were doing it in the studio. I think I remember telling you that, Matt, and um, cause – but I’ve also done so much spaceship (laughter)…

BC: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah…

MS: … poor man’s (I think this is what he said, it was hard to make out) process which is – would seem to be more absurd because you’re running around and the set is sparking but you also don’t actually see through the windows and see what’s sort of happening and it’s not a contemporary sort of situation so you can suspend disbelief a little bit more. I was actually feeling more foolish in this because it’s just the two guys in the front seat and you’re wondering how silly you guys look sort of doing that shift back and forth and um I was amazed at how well it tied together – uh, it really looks seamless and nobody notices at all.

BC: Another thing is, you know, it’s really good for TV shooting because it allows you to do more stuff in a stage which is always more controlled.

(On screen: The big explosion, and car rolling over onto its side and top through the flames.)

BC: Well, Matt, I’m still half amazed in this modern world that we are still actually blowing stuff up.

MN: I’m very proud of the fact that – and we do almost no CGI. We’ve probably done…

BC: Yeah, and these are big!

MN: Cleanup stuff, yeah.

BC: You know, Jeffrey and I were in the front of a couple of big ones and I think it’s exciting because the whole – I mean, it makes a massive concussion and you have to be extremely careful, but these guys, all the effects guys, get very excited when it’s time to blow something up. They get giddy like children!

MN: And so do we all!

BC: Yeah, but I guess there’s no doing a real fireball vs. a digital one where you know you see a car driving through it, the fire interacts with the car…

MN: Yeah, you can tell!

BC: There’s no way you can do that in the digi-world. But, see, yeah, Michael, that stuff all works good, you know, you think you’re hanging out to dry there shooting it, but it’s all in context.

MS: Yeah, I know. Stuff like this, just when he points and the shifting and all that stuff cuts together so well.

(On screen: Driving into garage.)

MN: Now it wasn’t until we actually got onto the set and started doing the meetings that we realized that we have a car chase that spans from before the commercial, through the commercial, then this is sort of the break in the car chase and then it continues after – it’s like the longest car chase ever! (laughter) Ah, the fuzzy pink, uh, rear view mirror…

MS: That was a great treat. (laughter) It seemed that everything Victor – I loved about the character, it seemed that everything Victor touched turned pseudo homoerotic. I don’t know if (can’t make out) meant it that way or… (laughter) But it was great that the set guys came up with that!

(On screen: Madeline and Sam in her kitchen.)

BC: Meanwhile, back at mom’s house…

MN: What I love about what you did in this Bruce, was the really playing – it’s like she’s playing a scene from earlier in the season and there… Sam doesn’t want a drink!

BC: Oh, yeah, then there’s key! You know Sam’s serious when there’s no alcohol involved.

MN: Yeah.

BC: Cause then something matters to him. (Pause to listen to dialogue in episode – Sam says, “Crap,” as he looks out the window.) That’s my favorite word in the show, Matt; anytime I see the word crap in a script I get very happy. (laughter) It’s just such a great Michigan word “Ah, crap!”

MN: Exactly.

BC: What’s your car like? It’s a piece of crap. Everything in Michigan was a piece of crap where I grew up. That’s why I don’t live there anymore, but… (laughter) … it’s just a great – I love that term, anytime I can sneak it in it’s a beautiful thing!

(On screen: Sam shooting through the front door of Madeline’s house.)

BC: I love the fact – I was just on that set the other day – there’s a brand new front door.

MN: Oh, yeah, we…

BC: Because I keep forgetting the carnage and mayhem that we did.

MN (I think): It was pretty significant.

MS: Oh, yeah, how did that get explained away, the entire loss of the front and side of her house?

BC: It had to be fixed and in the upcoming episode, we’re going to try and fix it. (laughter)

MN: Yeah, Sam spends how many episodes at Madeline’s in season 3 working on fixing the place up? (laughter)

BC: Yeah, so they are going to try and fix it… (someone else says something that I can’t make out).

MS: That’s great.

(On screen: Back in garage – Michael throws a brick through a car window.)

BC: Did you know that Michael Westen breaks a lot of car windows? (He then says something else, but I can’t make it out.)

MN: He does, he does. We don’t have a whole lot of respect for property!

BC: Uh uh, because things are important, you gotta move!

MN: And this was your first scene you shot in the episode.

MS: This is the first scene, yeah, and it was… this is where you really realize how much I sweat in Miami!

BC: No, no, Michael, I’ve got you beat, sorry, I mean, we’ve had to create high tech undergarments to wick away the moisture that comes off my doughy body.

MS: I thought for me, I thought that because we were shooting it in a carpark, (ed note – you can tell he is not from the US by that term!) I thought, well, it will be shaded and kind of cool. (laughter) No, it’s a brick pizza oven in there, so I’m – it was, uh, you know, for me trying to remember my lines on top of everything else…

BC: No, but it’s funny, obviously your first day of shooting, it’s like the, you know, halfway through the episode – that’s always my favorite!

MS: yeah!

MN: We’re actually, uh, paying for some of the episodes by selling actor’s sweat by the quart (laughter) (can’t make out) fans.

BC: Man, I got gallons then for you – I’m good!

(Something else is said in here, but I can’t make it out.)

(On screen; back at Madeline’s house.)

BC: And it’s funny – that Madeline is slowly learning the spy business. I mean, she was really out of it for a while, missed all of it, but now it’s kind of all slowly dawning on her, and I think over time she’s starting to recognize guys – she’s a little more accepting who Michael brings home.

MN: Yeah.

BC: He’s always coming home with weirdoes.

MN: Season 7, she’ll be like, “Sam, is this a Mark 5 fragmentation grenade or a Mark 7?”

BC: Exactly. (laugher) “I wouldn’t do that Sam, that’s a bad choice!”

(On screen: Sam and Madeline preparing explosives.)

BC: Now, these montages are always kind of, they’re interesting to watch and to shoot, you kind of just, do it in real time.

MN: Yeah.

BC: Uh, you know, we’ve talked about the prop guy Charlie before, that uh, he makes this so you can kind of just do it and so we just shoot us doing it knowing that will be, you know, crunched down to 37 seconds.

MN: I think it’s always fun though seeing when he sort of takes you through it and says, ok, so here’s how it actually works.

BC: Yeah. (laughs)

MS: Now here’s a question – Is that actually plausible, is that the non-dairy creamer mixed with the gunpowder?

MN: Yes, uh, the explosion that it makes in the show is a little bigger…

MS: Right.

MN: … than uh, than it would, but it makes a pretty impressive fireball, um, cause it’s, you know, it’s very – it’s a fatty substance, there’s a lot of energy in non-dairy creamer and it’s got so much surface area because it’s a powder, it makes a big, uh, big poof!

BC: But, Matt, when you do these things you always have to like leave out like two vital ingredients, right?

MN: Yeah, I mean, the – that particular arrangement, you could probably make it work, under certain circumstances, but you’d need a lot more stuff. We don’t want people hurting themselves.

(On screen: Car exiting the garage and crashing into the parked cars at the bottom of the ramp.)

BC: You know, Artie the stunt guy must have had a smile on his face for this entire episode.

MN: Oh, yeah, yeah.

BC: I mean, he never had a bad day when we were shooting this.

MN: Now you’ll notice that the piece of concrete on the floor there says “OTTER” on it, which is an homage to Tim Matheson’s character in “Animal House.”

MS: Right.

BC: Wow, that’s good!

MN: Yes. Dr. Flotterman was the uh…

BC: But will Tim leave a hint of him being on “Leave it to Beaver.” (laughter) Will there be something there? (more laughter)

MN: Well, no, I threw that in. Maybe we’ll put “Leave it to Beaver” in the uh, coming up.

BC: I think we should. We gotta dig deep – go to IMDB and figure out Mr. Tim Matheson because he goes waaaay back! It’s really nice too, working with Tim, because he has been on film sets since he was like five, so he kind of lives on a film set…

MN: Yeah.

BC: And it’s really nice. He’s seen it from every angle. I’m gonna bug him because he just mentioned he did some movie with Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason – I’m like, ok, come on, where are the stories?

MS or MN: Wow! (laughter in background)

BC: Yeah, can you believe that combo?

MS or MN: Woooow!

BC: Trying to get those guys out of their trailer?

MN: That was, uh, after we saw the, I’ll confess, after we saw the explosion that the effects guys gave us there, we added part of the line that it was, you know, these chemicals plus some other stuff because it was such a gigantic explosion. (laughter) I mean, it’s really – you can’t complain about big explosions, but, uh, that was a…

(On screen: Fi sets off charge that blows up a car as they drive by.)

MN: I was itching to do this all season. (laughter) Boom, Boom!

MS: It’s great!

BC: Wow, that’s a very serious explosion, cause you’re flipping a car too.

MN: Yeah.

BC: Yeah, wow! Ok, sorry, cars (emphasis on the s).

MN: Yes, cars.

BC: Wow!

MN: I actually, uh, full disclosure, I was working on a feature script that for various reasons uh, ended up getting shelved by the studio and I had a raining, flaming cars scene in the feature (laughter in background), then uh, this came along and I was, there was part of me that had just fallen in love with that scene and I just decided, yes, we are going to do raining, flaming cars…

MS: On television.

MN: On television!

BC: Just cut and paste, easy…

MN: But honestly, I’m really proud of the fact that we did a, you know, what I felt like was a really respectable version of what is really a big movie stunt!

BC: Yeah.

MN: You know, raining, flaming cars is not really something you see a lot on television.

BC: Yep.

MN: And I think it’s a credit to our uh, stunt guys, who you know, I mean Artie came up to me the other day after I asked him if he could do this – some stunt in one of the episodes and said, I want you guys to try to write something I cannot do. I challenge you in this!

MS: Whoa!

MN: And – but that attitude is just, it’s just great. Now of course, he knows that if we, if we try to do that then he’ll have to, he’ll make a lot of money doing that stuff. (laughter)

BC: Yeah, yeah!

MN: But, uh, but nonetheless, I admire his moxie.

BC: And I still think, Matt, we should continue to go on record here; this is the only show that is still in Miami.

MN: Yes, yes.

BC: We are officially in Miami, dictated to be outside quite a bit, which is why – you know you’re in Miami. I mean, uh, there’s no mountains anywhere!

MN: Yeah, even most of our inside stuff was outside here and most of our outside stuff was car stuff in this episode.

BC: Yeah.

MS: It’s just so strange, because when you really do see the outside, how unique and beautiful it is – it’s amazing that it’s the only show that’s uh, taking advantage of that!

(Pause in commentary to watch what is on screen for a few seconds – On screen, Michael Westen is in the car, using the On Star.)

MN: So now, yes, this is our On Star integration with Saab. (laughter) Um, and I will say, for anyone who, uh, doesn’t like product integration in television, shows, uh, that little chime that you just heard, uh, was the reason we were able to do this entire episode. (laughter) So…

BC: Right, right.

MN: So, thank you GM, we love you Saab!

BC: That flaming wall of cars, you mean?

MN: Yes, flaming wall of cars…

BC: Courtesy of General Motors…

MN: Courtesy of General Motors, yes.

BC: Well, you guys did a, I have to say, for as hokey as product tie-ins are, you did a pretty good job of working it in within the weird spy context.

MS: No, unless you said that, I never would have really noticed that, so…

BC: Right.

MS: Because it makes perfect sense. It’s actually another great spy trick, if you will.

BC: Yeah, I…

MN: My attitude about it is I don’t mind doing it as long as it makes sense.

BC or MS: Yep.

(On screen: Madeline’s house explodes.)

MN: Now here’s the big explosion, boom! (laughter) Now what everyone should know is, we cut out the big part of the explosion. (laughter)

BC: Because it was too ridiculous?

MN: We really did, it was too big, but that was on our stages as well, so we had to do a significant rebuilding after that.

(On screen: Looking at classic red car.)

MN: That is the look of love in Sam’s eyes.

BC: Yeah, baby! And the funny this is about these old cars, they look great, they got a great feel, you look good in them, but man they are a big bucket of rust and you know (laughter) transmissions that don’t work, and leaking…

MN: Cause you were just driving that one again in the…

BC: …leaking fluids, I just drove it again, and I had to just pull out recently from a parking spot, just pull out and follow a guy, and I’m like, ok, let’s see if I can do this, you know, it’s like (Bruce makes funny car noises and sounds – impossible to spell out but you get the idea), so anyone that thinks they want to run out and buy one of these cool vintage cars, uh, save up twice the amount of money, buy it with half, the other half going to fix up that piece of crap. There, I said it.

(On screen: Sam and Madeline in car, just before she gets out to “blend” in downtown.)

MN: Now this scene – were you aware Bruce – I just want to Shout Out to Sharon Gless, I think this is possibly her best scene of this series thus far and we shot this pretty quickly. I mean, did you feel something special there, I mean, it’s really, it’s affecting, at least to me!

BC: Yeah, Matt, you know what, scenes come so fast and furious, you hope that they have the intention that you want and then sometimes in context I think sometimes they get stronger cause we guessed correctly you know…

MN: Yeah.

BC: …that the tone was right at that moment or whatever.

MN: Cause I remember that…

BC: …so…

MN: …we banged that out before lunch, it was (voice trails off, can’t make out).

BC: It was a very, uh, very quick scene, and the one thing I, the only thing I wanted to do in that scene was to not totally lecture her the whole time because she is still Mike’s mother…

MN: Uh huh.

BC: …so Sam would treat her with respect.

MS: Yeah, no, that reads to it.

BC: Kind of chiming at her.

MS: That’s one of the things that’s so touching about it too.

BC: Well, cause Sam, you know, he gets all weepy sometimes. (laughter) He’s a very touching character.

(On screen: Victor, Michael and Fiona driving in little black car.)

MN: Alright, now Michael, I’ve been, I’ve been burning to ask you this, you’re going in here, and we’re doing this stunt, and then you jump up onto the car and you decide you were going to leap into the back of the Saab? Because you didn’t tell anybody you were going to do it, did you decide you were going to do that?

MS: No, Tim, actually – I did it in rehearsal and Tim told me not to and um, I said well, you know, I hate to say but, but um, I would, probably would have done it anyway, I won’t, I won’t lie, but because you guys did such a hand cuffing job of um, having that Parkour guy…

MN: Uh huh.

MS: …do Victor in the uh, whatever episode that was, (laughter) that I said I can’t puss out of this…

MN: Yeah.

MS: …look, you’ve got this guy that’s been able – crawling up buildings, he’s Spider Man in another episode, (laugher) but now I’m gonna old man it into the back seat? I said I think I better jump into the back there and give the character some credibility back, but uh…

MN: Well, I don’t know if you heard the crew, because we were pretty far away, but you got spontaneous applause on that.

MS: I did, I did, and I was, I think I was too busy – worried about trying – not kicking Jeffrey in the back of the head when I jumped in the back seat, so…

BC: Well, everyone was applauding except the director, Tim Matheson. (laughter)

MS: You don’t say? (laughter)

BC: He was very pissed off.

(Pause in commentary – On screen: looking through a file.)

BC: And the prop guys, I’ll tell you, they must have files and files and files of newspaper clippings, fake IDs, I mean these guys could get into any club in Miami now!

MN: Oh, yeah, absolutely. (laughter)

BC: You know, some of these, our prop guys, I think they – I’d watch ‘em on weekends, cause I don’t know, I think they’re taking that stuff, because they have to make some of it look good enough to shoot on camera.

MS: Uh huh, the detail of it, yeah.

BC: Yeah, and so it’s always – and I’ve always begged them, whenever Sam has to explain a bunch of stuff, I’m like, please, Dear God, give me something I can hold in my hand and they’re usually pretty good about putting photographs in dossiers and files and county things and government stamps, it’s really, they do a really good job.

(On screen: Michael and Fi discussing his leaving for Cuba.)

MN: They really do. Now I was really disappointed, unfortunately Gabrielle was actually going to be with us today but she, uh, her schedule got moved up and so she’s shooting right now as we’re doing this, but this was, uh, I think, one of their best love scenes, if you will.

MS: Unh huh.

MN: Umm…

BC: Well, these guys, look, it – they have chemistry, you got two leading actors and that, as Michael well knows, sometimes you’re gonna pass the chemistry test and sometimes you’re gonna fail.

MS: Unh huh.

BC: And these two, for whatever reason, they got it, and it’s critical, so I mean I don’t know that you, you can’t fake that, you really can’t fake that chemistry.

MN: And what’s fun is a part of the chemistry is that slap, and it was interesting, cause I wrote that scene without the slap and then it was actually Tim Matheson who said, it feels like it needs a, something, there and I was like, Iiiiii… I think I know what it needs and then I wrote in the slap and everybody – Yes, the slap, perfect! (laughter) But I love that it manages to be more romantic with the slap and not less.

MS: Unh.

BC: Well, there always seems to be a little violence with love.

MN: Yeah.

BC: you know, in the, in the trenches you know it’s always, uh, life and death.

MN: Combustible.

BC: Exactly.

MS: Well, especially for those two it seems to be the MO.

BC: Yes, well, it’s explosive. (pause in commentary) And Matt, I must say with this new season coming up – doesn’t seem like it’s changing, seems like it’s still explosive and good chemistry.

MN: You know, it’s true.

BC: Just saying is all, just saying.

MN: I know, yeah, they got it, they got it!

BC: And you know what’s funny, um, a friend of a friend of a friend is a police officer, and you’d think that he would only want the stuff that blows up. He very specifically, uh, left a phone message that he was very happy that the Michael and Fiona thing was continuing because that was one of his favorite parts of the show, coming from a tough cop!

MN and MS: Uhn, yeah!

MN: Well, I mean, it matters to us too and people think we’re less into it than we are, but we spend a lot of time thinking about it, just out of…

BC: And the funny thing is, if you don’t have it, then all you really have is stuff blowing up.

MN: Yeah, if there’s no context you don’t care, you need to care about the people.

BC: So I think it, yeah, it’s the, yeah, it’s the underpinnings of that and what I think is coolest about the show is yeah, stuff blows up but ultimately at the end of the day it’s all about spies just dealing with their miserable lives.

MN: Yeah.

BC: And you have to care, like you have to care that Michael Westen will be killed, if you don’t then the show’s over.

(On screen: Victor and Michael getting on Victor’s boat.)

MN: Well, and that’s actually, I mean in this scene’s – that’s coming up, it was really all about, and you know you did a great job with that Michael, making that character someone that you’d come to care about, and I’ve had more people than I can count bemoan the death of Victor and here it is, oh…

(On screen: Victor is shot.)

MS: Oh, ouch!

BC: Oh my God!

MN: The shock!

BC: What just happened?!

MS: There she is, Tricia…

BC: Oh, good old Carla…

MS: Canadians with guns! (laughter)

BC: Yeah, exactly, a Canadian with a gun, what are you going to do?

MS (I think): Evil…

BC: Unbelievable! That’s a good shocker, though Matt, I must say, that’s the kind of – you gotta, even, even though Michael was a very good guest star, if you don’t do stuff like that, I think this really mixes it up, because now people go, oh, he’s probably not coming back, you know?

MN: Yeah, well, that’s the thing, I really feel strongly that you gotta be willing to go there and it shows people that you’re serious and that the stakes on the show are for real.

MS: Yeah, yeah.

BC: Yep, I think that the best thing of the Star Wars series was Luke Skywalker getting his hand cut off.

MN: Yeah.

BC: When that happened, I cheered. I’m like, oh, he can be hurt.

MN: Unh, hmm.

BC: And then of course, three seconds later it became – he got a new hand, mechanical hand.

MS: That must have been an awkward moment in the theater there, Bruce. (laughter)

BC: It was a little awkward, but, uh, you know, I had to react to something.

(On screen: Helicopter flying around.)

MN: We had so much fun with these helicopters. (laughs)

BC: Well, no, it’s always funny how, um, on the day helicopters arrive, how many producers show up insisting that they’ve gotta supervise.

MS: Right, right, right.

MN: It was very important that I be in the helicopter supervising.

BC: I know and Matt, the funniest thing is my assistant, Mike, who’s down here with me, uh, really dreams of being a stunt man and, and you know, he’s got a pretty good look and he finally got to be a helicopter pilot and so he didn’t have to do anything really other than kind of sit in the passenger seat, but he got to basically bomb around and, uh, fly around in the helicopter all day. I’m like, dude, I’m not paying you too!

MN: He looked great!

(On screen: Carla is shot.)

BC: So – Oh, wait, what is going on here?

MN: That’s Artie our stunt guy as the sniper there. Ah, yes…

BC: It is somehow, uh, fitting, that it is Fiona. I mean now, frankly Sam – Matt, I gotta say I’m a little disappointed there…

MN: (laughs)

BC: …because Sam is usually the guy with the gun, with the rifle and scope…

MN: But she’s been itching to do it, she’s been asking to do it all season.

BC: I know it, I’m sure of it. I’m sure, but I’m just a little it upset because I found it a little inappropriate, but I’m gonna let it go because I understand. (laughter)

MN: Next time you can shoot all the guests. For next season you shoot all the guest stars.

BC: Shoot all the women.

MN: Kill them all.

BC: Thank you! And, helicopters are fun, but as you know Matt, if you have one helicopter, it means you have to have two.

MN: Yep, yep.

BC: Right? Because you gotta, to shoot from one helicopter to the other. And did you get to ride, Matt? Did you get to ride?

MN: I did. I was in the second helicopter.

BC: Cause you had to supervise.

(On screen: Michael Westen goes over to Victor to help apply pressure to his wound.)

MN: Now this, for the folks at home, we shot all of this stuff inside the boat on the stages. And then all of the helicopter stuff was a different day. And then all of the exterior boat stuff was at a different time. And then all of the commando stuff was at a different time, so it was a very, uh, we were piecing this together in the editing room. I was really pleased with how it came out, but it was… You had a long talk with Tim, did you not about this?

MS: I sure did, uh, I credit a lot of the good stuff in this to Tim because, uh, he made me feel like a rookie, which is great, because, uh, I’d worked this out in my head of how I was going to do this and he reminded me of certain common actor mistakes that I was falling into and I went, Oh my God, I should have seen that a million miles away, so uh, it changed the dynamite with the scene and effectively…

BC: Now, Michael, give us a tidbit…

MS: Well, he just, he just said… (can’t make out, both MS and BC are talking at the same time)

BC: Give him his props here. What did he do to save your performance?

MS: I was playing, I was playing if a lot of the stuff like that, where you see me backed further in the corner, um, that was the first take we did and it was a lot of me playing the pain and the hurt and the playing the wound, and he said, play against it, go after your objective, what do you need him to do? And that’s what, uh, the, all that – the aggressive stuff came out of, was him saying, you know, go get, go after this guy and what was great about it, he was absolutely right, um…

BC: Look, Donovan’s getting all gooey here too.

MS: Yeah.

MN: No, and you could see the – I remember watching this scene, and when your voice, Michael, hit that kind of uhhhhhh, that it hit Jeffrey.

BC: Now he’s got some weird thoughts here guys, he was…

MN: Yeah, well, he didn’t tell anybody he was doing it.

MS: No.

BC: Did you see what he did with that gun?

MN: This was, he did this once…

MS: Yeah.

BC: That was creepy.

MN: We were watching that, and I was watching it and I was like, is he going to shoot himself?

BC: Right, right, because it’s those moments where you go, this is all just not, this is not worth it. This is the downside of the spy business.

MN: Yeah, and the aw… and, and we were shooting that at one AM the morning of the last day of shooting of the entire season. (laughter)

BC: I don’t think Donovan could even stay awake that day.

MN: It was really, it was really late, and everyone was really tired, and then he did that and the whole crew just burst out into applause.

MS: Um hmm.

(On screen: Michael Westen walks from the boat to the helicopter.)

MN: Everyone was hugging him and high five-ing him, it was cause we knew, bam! And then that transformation, even though this was shot on a different day, of him walking out and just being cock of the walk sells it all the more.

MS: Yeah.

MN: Really exciting.

MS: No, it’s great because you’re, that reaction to it, to the shooting – appropriate and everything – it really sells the fact that what Victor was, which was a cautionary tale, and it really helps with this scene in terms of telling the story, uh, in an internal level for him about why, what Victor, what, what – watching Victor do what he’s done, how it has affected him and it effects the choices he makes.

MN: Yeah, and it says, I think, there’s a bit of, there but for the Grace of God go I.

MS: Yeah.

BC: And… (can’t make out)

MN: We added that, uh, Bruce, the uh, good luck Mike.

BC: Good luck Mike.

MN: It just needed it.

BC: We um, in keeping with my theory about bad guys, uh, John Mahoney is playing management here, uh, John Mahoney – I worked with him on the “Hudsucker Proxy” for the Cohen brothers and he again, you know, he’s playing this you know, bad, evil manager guy and again probably one of the sweetest guys on the planet.

MN: He is ridiculously nice. (laughter) Yeah. And also, I don’t know if you know the story, he was, uh, he basically called his agent and said, I really like this show, Burn Notice, if they have anything for me, tell them to let me know.

MS: That’s great!

MN: It worked out great.

BC: Now I hear, uh, Matt, that Michael Bolton is also circling the building.

MN: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Cause he so (can’t make out).

BC: So perhaps you could address that at some point?

MN: One of these days, we will uh… (can’t make out)

BC: Wh… what a coke dealer or something like that.

MN: Yeah, yeah.

BC: You know, cause they always want to play the off types, the romantic singer always wants to be the bad guy.

MN: Ah, we’ll find something.

BC: Maybe it can be a very special Michael Bolton episode.

MN: People make their way down to Miami.

(On screen: Michael Westen and Management discussing his future in the helicopter.)

BC: Now how much did you go up in a helicopter, Matt? I’m not sure; did you fake some of this on a stage?

MN: This was, they were sitting on top of, for this stuff, because you can’t do the sound…

BC: Right, right.

MN: …with the helicopter going, this stuff was in on top of a truck, it was on top of a big container truck, they landed the helicopter and shot this.

BC: Oh, so you could get the sky in the background!

MN: Yeah.

BC: Oh, that’s great!

MN: So we shot all this and then we actually went up in the helicopter, um, to do the actual jumping.

BC: And then you’re doing the herky-jerkies with the camera here?

MN: Yeah, the herky-jerkies…

BC: Right.

MN: …exactly, that ‘s the camera shaking, right.

BC: You’re just trying to keep that camera steady in this moving helicopter.

MN: Right, right. Well, that’s uh, it’s a cool effect.

(On screen: helicopter door opens over water.)

BC: Ok, now Matt, what’s up with this idea, it’s a pretty cool idea.

MN: This was actually, this sort of came, this came very late, it was not in the original version of the script and I was talking with the network and they said, I was talking with the head of the network, uh, Jeff Wachtel, and he was saying, ahhh, I just want something bigger, you know, I don’t know, like a volcano, a helicopter, and I said, helicopter, that’s what we’re doing!

BC: Man, so it’s a pretty high fall, I gotta say.

MN: That’s, that’s uh, about 90 feet, 80-90 feet.

MS(?): Ohhh.

BC: And Dean Grimes did that right?

MN: Dean Grimes, the double, did the full fall and Jeffrey did maybe a 20-30 ft leap off a tuna tower.

BC: That’s enough, that’s enough.

MN: Yeah, that was a really…

MS: Unhh.

MN: …that was a scary fall. Uh, Dean also, the double, had to do the uh, had to do the jump twice because…

BC: Uhhh.

(On screen: Michael Westen underwater.)

MN: …he didn’t nail it. And this is Jeffrey – we were out in the middle of the ocean with an underwater camera doing that. It’s really great having an actor like Jeffrey, who you know, will say things like, I wasn’t under the water long enough… (laughter)

BC: Oh, right.

MN: …I need to be deeper!

BC: He’s into it, he’s committed.

MS: I’m glad, by the way, just for the record, I’m glad you chose helicopter vs. volcano – thought I would mention that to you. (laughter) I… personal preference.

MN: I don’t know that he said volcano, I may be exaggerating, but, and there we go.

BC: Matt, it’s a good ending to that season, because it’s all…

MS: Great music too…

BC: Carla is gone, the whole burn thing is now, nothing is ever going to be the same.

MN: Yeah, scary things are coming.

MS: Now I just want to point out for the record, uh, when I watched the show, it may just be an error of editing, but when Jeffrey looks back at Victor on the ground, Victor’s in a slightly different position he was in when he got shot.

BC: Hmmmmmm.

MS: I’m not saying, I’m just saying…

MN: I think, I think you were totally set up for a post jump the shark episode where robot Victor come back. (laughter) Uh, we are very, we’ve already written the robot Victor episodes and uh, but we really have to squander all of our credibility before we do that. (laughter)

MS: I’m not playing any more robots, been there, done that, forget it. (laughter)

MN: All right, well, thank you very much.

MS: Thanks Matt Nix!

BC: Guys, it’s been a pleasure, thank you Matt!