[Audience cheers]
RDA: [turns to the audience and bows, then he and Wayne Brady hug]
WB: Richard Dean Anderson!
WB: [to RDA] Have a seat, sir!
RDA: Congratulations on your Emmy!
WB: Thank you very much.
RDA: I'm just throwin' it out there, I think you've got a shot.
WB: Thanks, man. It's so good to have you. I'm sorry that I geeked out on you backstage. I'm such a fan…
RDA: No, not at all! What really…What's nice to see was your…the routine that you launch into before you come out here. The folks know about it?
WB: No, they don't know about the stuff that happens back…
RDA: Should they know for any litigious reasons?
[Audience cheers]
RDA: Can I give this away?
WB: Yeah, you can tell 'em.
RDA: I've never been on this show before and I'm a wanderer on talk shows, I like to go backstage, and…so I wandered backstage and right out here beyond the entrance, and as the music is churning up he goes to everyone of his…his people back there, makeup, hair, wardrobe, and sticks his butt in their face…
[audience laughs]
RDA:…and they all give him a wack!
WB: That's why it's good to have your own show, man!
RDA: And your own lawyer sittin' in the wings…
WB: Yeah, just waiting. Lawsuit number one.
RDA: There's just no energy on this show. I'm gonna fall asleep soon. My God, it's maddening!
WB: Yeah, this is a great show, we have a lot of fun, and I get really excited when I get people that I love, I've loved you since MacGyver. There is no-one that did not like MacGyver. I will say that, and I'm speaking for our folks, we love the show, you could make a car out of a…
[Audience cheers]
RDA: [smiles and pats Wayne Brady on the arm]
WB: It was so great.
RDA: I've gotta tell you, I haven't done a…I've sort of been…I don't wanna say a social shut-in, but I'd been working my fanny off which is, which is hilarious to see the "Where Are They Now" requests they get. I've been working since I left, but I haven't done a talk show in years and years and years. And to come on this one, the first one in, like half a decade, and to be…like, there's nothing but accolade, I get a little sheepish and a little shy, but thanks.
WB: No, it's cool, it's cool, I love MacGyver…
RDA: Say it again!
WB: I love MacGyver, and…
[audience cheers]
RDA: [shakes his head and covers his face with his hand, obviously a little embarrassed]
WB:…and what's great is you're actually working on another MacGyver, on a young MacGyver, you play his uncle?
RDA: All right: I'm not playing it. No, I'm not…
WB: Oooohhh…
RDA: In fact, Paramount asked me to be associated with it or to be involved with the project, and I just…Um, I had to make a decision in that so I just…As much as I wish everyone the best of luck as they pursue, it was time for me not too much to make any more lateral or backwards movements in my career and I…
WB: You get to go upward and onward!
RDA: I just kind of…I just said, 'By all means, do the best they can, and one of the executives, a dear friend of mine over there, said that I'd be proud of it, that it…that they've done a good job so I wish them luck on the launch.
WB: Well, I can't wait to see it, but the good thing is Stargate, great show, seventh season now, it's 150 episodes, did you think when you were making it that 150 episodes later…
RDA: Not at all. My original commitment to the show, to Stargate, was two seasons, essentially, which is two 22 episode seasons, and within the first six weeks, I think, we got picked up for another two years. And it just started snowballing. Now we're in the middle of our 7th season, I think there's been a request for another year, it's just one of those…I…Somehow I get attached to these…longevity kind of goes with my name when it comes to TV series. And I had no idea. I didn't expect it, certainly, so…I'm still making the commute between Vancouver and Los Angeles here.
WB: So to bring everyone up to speed, in case you are not a sci-fi fan like myself and you haven't seen it, in the movie Stargate, we find pyramids that are built by extra terrestrials, and you're part of a team called SG-1. And why don't you take it on from there so I'll just shut up.
RDA: [laughs heartedly] Well, actually I…Why don't I simplify it because obviously everyone here has seen the show.
[audience laughs]
RDA: [laughs] No, it's…The concept is based on it, it's…It's one of the reasons I would…I felt comfortable getting involved with it because, uh, the movie itself had a great…great potential for longevity as a series because you were going through this big, this wall of water, it's probably the greatest TV prop ever created, because once you're through this, uh, the Stargate, you can create any story you want because there are all these ancient civilizations that had been created, civilizations that had been plucked by the bad guys, I'll just simplify it because I haven't the slightest idea what's going on on the show, but, uh, and we go solve the problems and save the universe week after week. But it's, uh…In fact, I had brought something with…this has been a ten minute transition, right? I brought a little something for you because I knew, I'd been told that you are a massive fan of the show…
WB: Gimme!
RDA: …and…
[audience laughs]
RDA: This, uh, this is kind of a two-fold presentation here…[Holds it up, it's a Gould hand-device.]
WB: That's one of the ships!
RDA: [in a "DUH!"-kind of voice] No! It's a hand-device. This actually cost 87 000 dollars to make.
[audience gasps]
RDA: I'm lying!
[audience laughs]
WB: I was gonna sell it!
RDA: I'm not sure if we're gonna get the clip or not, but that opened up some kind of portal through which I traveled and ate some lettuce and went crazy and hallucinated and shot a pig!
WB: That's some good TV right there!
RDA: Thank you!
WB: Well as soon as we come back we're gonna have that clip and I'm gonna stay here and study my device…
RDA: …the second part of this gift when we come back.
WB: We'll be right back with Richard Dean Anderson!
[commercial break]
WB: Welcome back. I'm here with Richard Dean Anderson. I've just vaporized three Gould, and…
RDA: [laughs]
WB: …and we have that clip that we were talking about.
RDA: Yeah! It's a…well, this…you have to keep in mind now, this shouldn't be coming out of an executive producer's mouth, but…I kind of lose track of what's going on on the show. I cannot…you could track things better than I can…
WB: Sure I'll tell, you want me to start at the beginning?
RDA: This scene…
WB: On our very first episode…
RDA: [laughs]
RDA: In the beginning…this thing [points to Wayne Brady's gift] opens a portal through which I travel, uh, and…with Maybourne, who you know better than I do, and we've taken, we've eaten something to help us survive, and this is kind of…almost a ? sort of clip, it's very short and…Wylie, I don't know if you should watch this, but go ahead…
WB: Let's take a look!
[they show a clip, in which Jack shoots at an imaginary pig]
WB: That's some good eatin'!
RDA: [laughs]
WB: You brought a special guest with you today.
RDA: Yes. Yes, a very shy, yet gregarious four-and-a-half year old who's the love of my life, in fact she's sitting next to me right here…[there is a picture of Wylie attached to the chair next to RDA's]
[they show Wylie in the audience]
WB: There she is. There she is. [To Wylie] Hey, sweetheart! [To RDA] Is she a fan of the show?
RDA: Uh, this show?
WB: No, no, yours.
RDA: You know what, she was, uh, she's become a fan of MacGyver to some degree…
[audience laughs]
RDA: We pass through it occasionally, or, you know, surf through it, and there I am in the eighties, you know, mullet, uh…
[audience laughs]
WB: Yes, you had, like, the spiky hair on the top, it was long in the back.
RDA: I was one of the ice breakers on that, Rod Stewart and myself, Barry Melrose is still kind of hangin' on to that…
[audience laughs]
RDA: But you know, Stargate's got a lot of guns, and…you know, even though they're overtly bad guys, it's kind of tough to…
WB: But they're energy weapons! They're fueled by energy…
RDA: Not the one O'Neill carries around. I got a P-90, it's a full-blown military, although it's military, at four-and-a-half I think I'm gonna wait to try to explain why daddy's shooting guns.
WB: Especially a pig, you don't wanna explain that to a child.
RDA: Well, especially hallucinations, how do I describe that to a four-year-old?
WB: That's a talk that you'll have after high school.
RDA: Yeah, well after high school, well after high school.
WBA: We have a smiliar experience, I was told. I used to work in theme parks, and you did as well at one point.
RDA: Oh, yeah, yeah! Where'd you work?
WB: Disney World and Universal Studios and Six Flags Over ? America.
RDA: Oh, you got around, you couldn't keep a job, right?
[audience laughs]
RDA: Mine was…well, I had two. One was 16…was 1520 A.D. which was a 16th Century cabaret where I was the only talking mime, who juggled, and worked the floor. And then I worked at Marine Land at the Pacific as Entertainment Director, and had no idea what I was doing. I wrote these shows and made sure I was written into them…
WB: Right!
[audience laughs]
RDA: So the one that I wrote, uh, for the killer whale, Orky and Corky, rest their souls, um, were…
WB: [makes serenade-like sound]
RDA: Yeah. That's close. It's more elephant, but…The one that I wrote for Orky and Corky, I was in, I wrote myself in as an old sea salt who comes back and sees these killer whales in the harbor and…anyway, long story short, I ended up on top of a 20 foot ladder with a mackerel in my mouth, and having this massive tonnage of whale come up and snatch it out of my mouth. It was great. And the trainers were great because they'd make the fish shorter and shorter and shorter as the season went on. So I had ? at the end of the season, but…
WB: Well, I'm glad that you got good employment and you were able to leave that before the fish bit your head off.
RDA: I kind of miss it, to be honest.
WB: Oh, well, we could fix that!
RDA: [laughs] Yeah, I bet you can!
WB: It's so good having you, and…
RDA: This is an honor, man.
WB: And I'll make sure that…oh, there she is!
[Wylie comes running and jumps into RDA's lap]
WB: There she is!
RDA: Oh, your mom is gonna love this!
WB: He saves the world, and he's a family man…
RDA: [talks into Wylie's ear] I love you, baby.
WB: Stargate SG-1 7th season premieres Friday June 20 at 9 on the Sci-Fi Channel, Richard Dean Anderson and his little lady. We'll be right back.
[RDA and Wylie wave to the camera]