Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Stargate News

Richard Dean Anderson is back on the sets for several guest appear- ances on both Stargate: SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis shows, reprising his role as Gen. Jack O'Neill. Anderson's first appearance will be in "200," SG-1's 200th episode, which will air Aug. 18 as part of the series' upcoming 10th season. "It's been a lot of fun to see him again," Executive Producer Brad Wright said in an interview. "He's doing two episodes of SG-1 and three episodes of Atlantis."

Wright said that SG-1 could not toast its 200th episode without its original leading man. "He was so much the face of SG-1 for so many years. We did go on without him and made some fine television, but for the 200th episode there was just no way we could even consider doing it without bringing him back. And, of course, when we called him to ask him to do that, he said, 'Just one?' So it was nice to know that he wanted to come back. And it's actually kind of a testament to the environment we have here. People miss it when they're gone. It's just a fun place to work, and it's a fun show to work on. That's why everybody still works their butt off and why we're still on the air, I guess, because it shows on the screen."

SG-1's 200th episode is a send-up that picks up the story of the show's 100th episode, "Wormhole X-Treme!" and brings back guest star Willie Garson as abductee-turned-Hollywood producer Martin Lloyd.

For the future however, I fear that the plans on the way, may run the Stargate franchise in to the ground. MGM vice president Charles Cohen talked about where the franchise is headed as Stargate SG-1 reaches its 200-episode milestone, saying that MGM has plans to develop a feature film "derived from the series over the last 10 years" to kick off a third Stargate television series. Cohen added that a movie based on SG-1 would "not in any way impair the television run" of the first Stargate show, which was itself based on a 1994 film.

Though Cohen insisted that three Stargate shows on the air at once could be successful, as the CSI and Law & Order franchises have proven, there has been discussion that climbing star salaries may reduce the profit margin for a long-running series like SG-1. The X-Files returned to television after a successful 1998 movie with the original television stars, but for most genre series, like Star Trek: The Next Generation, the move to the big screen marks the end of that show's run on television as the newer series arrive.

Cohen said that the original Stargate show has evolved enough that it can continue to run on television indefinitely no matter what happens with movie plans. "If you look at SG-1 - with bringing in Claudia Black, Ben Browder, and Beau Bridges - we've retooled the series with it still being SG-1," he explained. "I'd like to keep it on forever and keep adding to it."

Personally, I think it's time for SG-1 to end, let them continue with Atlantis and if necessary another spin off to replace SG-1 but not three of them running concurrently! That's asking for trouble.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

So your'e saying after all my letters to the netowrks they're still making another series???? Damn and fuck