TV Zone Stargate SG-1 Special #46. July, 2002
By Steven Eramo

[Selections from the complete article, used with permission.]

It's been a busy week for Stargate SG-1's leading man Richard Dean Anderson. As Colonel Jack O'Neill, he spent the first three days trying to ease tensions between the Jaffa and the Tok'ra in the episode Allegiance. This morning, O'Neill and the SG-1 team travelled to the planet Pangar to talk with its people about a miracle drug in "The Cure". Behind the scenes, Anderson's time is taken up with everything from phone calls to talking with the show's publicist about an upcoming TV appearance. He takes it all in his stride, though, especially since he knows that in one more day he'll be with his daughter Wylie.

"She remains my reason for living," says Anderson. "I'm still commuting every weekend to see Wylie because she's down in California and I'm up here in Vancouver. Coming back into her life essentially after a week's separation is absolutely glorious. She'll horizontal in her leap to grab onto my shoulders and neck. It's the whole kissing, smothering thing, which I just love. Wylie and I have a sweet, gentle understanding of our rhythms. She's three-and-a-half -- she'll be four in August -- and this is the time when her personality is just exploding. So it's become imperative to me that I not only be a part of that and help it along but also be there to observe it. She's genuinely funny, and the scary part is I think she knows it. She's even cracking jokes. She'll be ready for Reno if not Vegas soon," he laughs.

One of the things we do when we're together is put on puppet shows. When I was in Chile I bought her 20 of these little hand puppets. I brought them back and she found them totally fascinating, so we take turns doing characters. We'll play off each other in many respects and it's fun to watch her. You can see her mind working and, of course, she has a child's impulses and spontaneity. I've been accused of having some child-like qualities myself," smiles Anderson, "and I think Wylie actually recognizes them in me. So it's a romp. She and I are about the three R's -- romping, reading and real cool stuff."

Back in February, the actor returned to the Stargate SG-1 studios in Vancouver for one more romp -- at least on the small screen -- as Colonel Jack O'Neill in the show's sixth and final season. However, unlike past years, this one had a few differences, the biggest being that the programme now had a new home on the Sci-Fi Channel. Also, Michael Shanks had left the series and Corin Nemec had come on board as the newest member of the SG-1 team, Jonas Quinn. Besides having all these changes to think about, Anderson also had a personal issue to deal with.

"I'd injured my knee and I had to have surgery about three weeks before filming began," recalls the actor. "I wasn't sure whether or not it was going to be in good enough shape for me to come back to work. So I was concerned about that and a bit distracted by my own little ambulatory world.

"When it comes to how I was feeling about the show itself, first off, I was OK with the change of network thing, and second, I wasn't worried about a new character coming in. This was the fate of the series and the reconfiguring of our cast was born of a natural evolution for people. Michael Shanks wanted to move on. He'd expressed some concern about being here and about being, I guess, under-utilized to a certain degree, and there's some validity to that, I suppose. So after he expressed those feelings we heeded the signs and wheels were put into motion.

"It's not like Brad Wright sits around in his office twiddling his thumbs. He's busy working and can't do things overnight. To make a decision to change or alter the course of a show takes some time and thought. Mike moved on, we made the adjustment. Obviously, Corin Nemec coming in was the result of that. We needed to be able to fill a gap. That's not just business, it's also a fact of life. People move on. You can miss them, you can grieve, all that stuff, but just make sure you take forward steps as well."

The Colonel is forced to set aside his distrust of aliens in the episode "Frozen". When O'Neill becomes gravely ill he agrees to serve as host to a Tok'ra symbiote but only long enough for it to heal him. In the following story, "Nightwalkers", he is convalescing on a Tok'ra base. O'Neill has no idea that his symbiote plans to use his body in order to finish the last mission he was on. The symbiote then abandons O'Neill and leaves him at the mercy of Baal in "Abyss". Anderson enjoyed not only pretending to roll around in the Goa'uld's gravity well prison cell but also working once again with Michael Shanks.

"There were some things I physically couldn't do or chose not to do in "Abyss" because of my knee injury," he says. "I wanted to be able to tumble down the sides of the walls and out onto the floor. Not to give away any secrets but one of the sets was built to move, so I could roll down and look like I was splattered up against a vertical wall. That was kind of cool. Besides those technical tricks of the trade, I had a great time working with Michael. First of all, I always had good moments with him. Michael is a very competent and capable actor. He's also flexible enough to deal with my irreverent spontaneity and inability to stick to the script. I was really glad to have him back in "Abyss". It was just the two of us doing a lot of talking in a jail cell that was the size of a kitchen. As intense and, perhaps, as convoluted as those scenes were to me, Michael helped make them a good experience."

Anderson was equally complimentary about the episode's director and Stargate SG-1 creative consultant Martin Wood. "He and I have been through a wonderful sociological arc," smiles the actor. "We both fancy ourselves relatively bright, although I think Martin is smarter than I. The two of us butted heads once early on and it was over an ethical scenario. From that point I think we both realized we had met in each other an intellectual equal, although, again, with the preface that he's smarter than I. I should say 'smarter than me,' so he'll get the message.

"I love working with Martin. First of all, he's someone who's up on technology and technique, and over time has created a [filming] style all his own. Conversely, he's remained flexible enough to make adjustments on the fly. A big part of the problem with directing episodic TV is that you're under not one but two guns. There's the time clock plus the financial responsibility, both of which are under the larger umbrella of being creative. You have to juggle a lot of things, and Martin knows how to do that quite well. He understands what the game is all about, as does Peter DeLuise. Peter has grown by leaps and bounds in this business. He started out as an actor, then became an actor's director and continues to flourish that way. Again, when I talk about flexibility in this genre, Peter knows how to do that very well. He also makes sure I get out early on Fridays so I can go see my daughter," laughs Anderson, "so I give him a lot of Tommy Bahama shirts."

Having worked almost constantly for the past 15 years, Anderson has some big decisions to make with the Stargate SG-1 series coming to an end in October. "It's going to be kind of a stepping off for me or moving on, I guess, is a more positive way of putting it," muses the actor. "I'm done after this year. I'm not pursuing work, at least not another TV series. I know, 'Never say never,' but I'm tired. It also comes from wanting and needing to be a dad. I want to really be available and there for my little girl, and that means being in California where she's growing up. So that's the transition I'll be making.

"Wylie's godfather, who's a very dear friend of mine, said to me recently, 'It's about time you think about enjoying what you've worked so hard to achieve'. I really want to explore and embrace that which is life because I love it so much. Come October when I take a step into the real world without the encumbrances of my addiction to work I hope it will be liberating and elating. Short of saying I'm retiring, because that's a crock. Everyone who really knows me knows that. However, I'm going to take at least a year to relax a little bit."

Anderson chuckles when asked what he's going to miss most about Colonel Jack O'Neill. "I won't miss Jack at all because I get to take him wherever I go. I think what I'm going to miss the most is just having the venue in which to play him. I'll no longer have a stage upon which Jack can stand and be Jack. Once Stargate is over and the character is gone he's going to be a lost soul, the poor little guy. And that means Richard Dean is going to have to deal with real life, which is even a scarier notion. I'm sure I'll be fine, though."

To read more of this article, visit TV Zone.

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Eramo, Steven. "Mr. Anderson." TV Zone Stargate SG-1 Special #46. July, 2002: p. 4-9.