{"id":10178,"date":"2010-07-21T10:35:10","date_gmt":"2010-07-21T18:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stargate-sg1-solutions.com\/blog\/?p=10178"},"modified":"2010-07-22T16:44:59","modified_gmt":"2010-07-23T00:44:59","slug":"solutions-salutes-robert-c-cooper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stargate-sg1-solutions.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/solutions-salutes-robert-c-cooper\/","title":{"rendered":"Solutions Salutes Robert C. Cooper"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On June 19, 2010, Joe Mallozzi surprised fans by revealing in his blog<\/a> that executive producer Robert C. Cooper was leaving the world of Stargate. Having worked on the shows since the first episodes of Stargate: SG-1<\/em><\/a>, Rob Cooper moved out of his office<\/a> at The Bridge Studios on Friday, June 25, 2010, after 14 years, an incredible length of time for anyone on a single television franchise. While he’ll have some limited participation in the rest of Stargate Universe<\/a>‘s<\/em> second season, his tenure as a full-time executive producer on the Stargate franchise has come to an end.<\/p>\n

Because Mr. Cooper’s influence on the Stargate franchise was so extensive, we felt it only fitting to examine and celebrate his contributions, which we Solutions editors have followed since 1998. The material here is gleaned from our site’s archives of episode guides, interviews, and DVD specials, as well as from other internet sources. In the interest of readability, we’re only giving formal sources for exact quotes.<\/p>\n

After you read<\/em> the article<\/em>, be sure to scroll to the bottom and vote for your 10 favorite Robert Cooper episodes!<\/em><\/p>\n

Robert C. Cooper, Executive Producer<\/h3>\n

Robert Cooper began his Stargate career in Season 1 of Stargate: SG-1<\/em> as an executive story editor, and he is credited<\/a> as such through the episode 2.10 “Bane”<\/a>. While an editor he also wrote five SG-1<\/em> episodes, including 1.11 “The Torment Of Tantalus”<\/a> and 2.02 “In The Line Of Duty”<\/a>. SG-1 creators Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner must have seen great potential in Cooper, as they promoted him to co-producer beginning with 2.11 “The Tok’ra Part 1”<\/a>. By the beginning of Season 3, he was a full producer, and by 3.12 “Jolinar’s Memories”<\/a> he was a supervising producer. Each promotion gave him more responsibility for the many decisions that go into creation of a single episode, as well as for the direction of the show overall.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>At the end of Season 3, co-creator Jonathan Glassner left Stargate: SG-1<\/em>. Mr. Cooper became co-executive producer at that point, meaning he shared show-running responsibilities with Brad Wright. Beginning in Season 7, Brad Wright stepped back to become a consulting producer on SG-1<\/em>, while spending most of his time developing Stargate Atlantis<\/em><\/a>, with Cooper’s input and participation there as well. For Seasons 7 through 10, Cooper ran SG-1<\/em>, although Wright was still involved as a producer and writer and credited as co-creator.<\/p>\n

Conversely, on Stargate Atlantis<\/em>, Cooper is credited as an executive producer and co-creator, although he was less involved in the day-to-day producing than he was for SG-1<\/em>. By Season 4 of Atlantis<\/em>, SG-1<\/em> was canceled and Wright relinquished day-to-day Atlantis<\/em> show-running duties to long-time producers Joe Mallozzi and Paul Mullie. Cooper and Wright continued to work on new concepts for the franchise, mostly aimed at movies. They wrote and produced the two SG-1<\/em> direct-to-DVD movies, whose sales exceeded expectations. One of Cooper’s Stargate movie concepts became the premise for the third series, Stargate Universe<\/em><\/a>. After it was green-lit, they became co-show-runners for Season 1. For Season 2, Mallozzi and Mullie became executive producers as well. Midway through Season 2, Cooper moved on from Stargate, although he will write one episode for the latter half of the season.<\/p>\n

In all, Robert Cooper is credited with writing 36 episodes of SG-1 plus the movie Stargate: The Ark of Truth<\/a>. He was co-writer for a further 11 episodes of SG-1. He wrote four episodes of Atlantis<\/em> and co-wrote seven more. He wrote one episode of Stargate Universe’s<\/em> first season and co-wrote five others. For those interested in statistics, Cooper wrote or co-wrote 65 of 336 episodes and movies, or about 20% of the 16 seasons’ worth of Stargate entertainment we’ve enjoyed so far. That’s a uniquely prolific chunk of television.<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/a>Beyond the episodes he wrote himself, once he became an executive producer, Cooper had influence over all the elements of the Stargate series, including editing and even rewriting others’ scripts. He partnered collaboratively with Brad Wright to oversee the writing and production staff, the directors, crew, and cast — well over 100 people in all on each show. Along with Wright, he dealt with all the business aspects of the show, working with Showtime, MGM<\/a> and Syfy<\/a> on everything from budgets to script approvals to publicity. During the years when SG-1<\/em> and Atlantis<\/em> were in production at the same time, and when Richard Dean Anderson was not available full-time, Cooper added complex scheduling to his list of difficult tasks. Not to be overlooked, he also became a director of some of his own scripts, and those episodes represented his singular vision, often one outside the Stargate norm.<\/p>\n

Notable Contributions<\/h3>\n

Since the production of a franchise like Stargate is so collaborative, it’s often hard for fans like us to pin-point exactly who contributed which aspects to the show. It’s also often been said that no one person contributes in a vacuum, as ideas are bounced around and evolve to the point that no one person can claim credit for the end result. However based on episodes he wrote and what he has said in interviews, DVD specials, and elsewhere, we can infer Mr. Cooper’s contributions with some degree of confidence.<\/p>\n

Such evidence leaves no doubt that Robert Cooper created many enduring aspects of Stargate canon, establishing arcs that spanned many seasons and developing the characters audiences came to love. Following is a discussion of some of the many ways he contributed.<\/p>\n

Allies and Adversaries<\/h4>\n

\"Wraith<\/a>Many enduring friends and enemies appeared for the first time in episodes Robert Cooper wrote:<\/p>\n