Michael Greenburg and Dan Shea have worked together since MacGyver, and we are bringing them together to discuss their decades-long working relationship through Stargate SG-1!

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read:
I don’t know why it does that, but it does that. Welcome everyone to Episode 419 of Dial the Gate: The Stargate Oral History Project. My name is David Read. It means a lot to have you with me today. I am privileged to be joined by not only two SG-1 veterans, but two MacGyver veterans and boy do they have some stories. The trick is to approach with the right key to unlock the right lock. You give them something, you spin them up and you let them go, and that’s how it is with these two folks. Dan Shea, stunt coordinator for Stargate SG-1, and Michael Greenburg, writer, executive producer, Stargate SG-1. Welcome folks. How are you guys?

Dan Shea:
I’m good. How are you doing, David?

David Read:
Very good. Mike, good to see you.

Michael Greenburg:
You, too.

David Read:
There’s this thing screwed up here. Give me a moment. Let me fix this. Sorry about this, guys. I’m seeing something I do not want to see. There we go. Perfect. Mike, have we spoken to…Dan can you turn your camera for me, please?

Dan Shea:
Turn what?

David Read:
Turn it to horizontal for me, please.

Dan Shea:
OK. Sure.

David Read:
Thank you, sir. Perfect. There we go. Mike, have we spoken since the announcement for the new show? Was that a thing yet? In terms of a live on air? I don’t… I’m not sure.

Michael Greenburg:
I don’t think we did.

David Read:
Dude, Stargate is back.

Michael Greenburg:
It is. It is Martin Gero’s version. Which I’m sure will be good because he’s great.

David Read:
Dan, we haven’t spoken with you since. What do you think about the fourth series? What’s on your mind?

Dan Shea:
There’s some talk of making me the lead of the show. And I turned it down because I was doing this $100 million feature in South Africa, a big action feature with Ryan Reynolds. So, I wished them luck. Actually, no, none of that’s true. Why did I? I think I just made that up.

David Read:
You gotta be careful with my audience.

Dan Shea:
I’m glad it’s back. I wish it was in Vancouver. I believe it’s gonna be in England. I wish them luck.

David Read:
I know that they’re shooting, to a degree, all over the world. There are certain things that are gonna be shot in certain places, but the bulk of the photography will be done in London and absolutely wish them all the best. The thing that is actually more recent in terms of Stargate news, SG-1 news in particular, that I find very interesting and at the same time no surprise at all, is that SG-1 has returned to Netflix in February. And I don’t know if you know this, Mike or Dan, but I’m curious on your take, specifically, Mike, that by the second week, it had cracked the top 10 in terms of viewership numbers for–

Michael Greenburg:
I had heard something like that. It’s a huge show and we told great stories and our fan base is huge and growing and it’s a great thing. Netflix does a great job. They had it once before. I’m glad they got it again, because they do an awesome job in promotion and streaming. It’s great. I mean, it’s as alive as it’s ever been. And Martin’s new show, I’m sure, will feed ours as well, because keeping it relatively fresh, people are gonna want to go back and revisit the 200 plus episodes that Dan and I did. With a little help from our friend.

David Read:
No, absolutely. There is something about SG-1, I make no bones about the fact that SGU ultimately became my favorite, but there is something about SG-1 that cannot be duplicated and that is Rick. There is a whimsy, a going by the seat of your pants, here we are running into battle, Han Solo, Indiana Jones kind of thing that he’s got that I’ve only really seen in Harrison Ford. It’s that kind of texture to that character where it’s like, “I’m in this situation, and you know what? I’m gonna laugh about it because I’m in this situation,” and that’s what he exemplifies. It’s always a bit of a wink and a nudge to the audience where it’s like, “You know that I know. You do know that don’t you?” Dan, is that how you would interpret his energy?

Dan Shea:
I remember going down to Los Angeles to watch the premiere of what was it? Maybe it was Stargate, I’m not sure. And I remember the audience laughing out loud at Rick’s little movements and subtle little things, which you don’t really notice. And that actually, even though I’d been coat tailing him for like 25 years, that was the first time where I thought, “Man, he’s a really good actor.” No, seriously, he’s an OK hockey player, and he’s sarcastic, and he’s funny. And he’s not quite as good-looking as me, but he’s pretty good-looking. But that was the first time where I thought, “God, he…” The whole audience was laughing just when he’d drop a little eyebrow. And I remember Dana Elcar, we were doing, I think we had a MacGyver wrap party, and he was up there, and he was doing his actor schtick and saying how Richard Dean Anderson’s such a great actor, and I’m like, “OK, sure.” But then I realized he does have something that really attracts the audience. Subtle little things that they react to, and it’s really hard to duplicate. It’s not something you can just flip a switch. Or maybe he can flip a switch. I kinda hate to say it, but he’s actually a pretty good actor.

Michael Greenburg:
It’s flaws, actually.

Dan Shea:
Flaws?

Michael Greenburg:
It’s flaws. A hero with flaws is way more interesting than a hero with bravado. Flaws are fun. Rick made it fun. He made all the scenes fun. Even the serious ones with a wink or a nod. It was fun. And you’re right, the Indiana Jones character, what Harrison Ford did with that character, was very similar. Flawed heroes.

David Read:
It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.

Michael Greenburg:
Dan’s stunt coordinating and stunts were also flawed. No, just kidding.

Dan Shea:
Very much so. That’s actually… That’s what they call me, Flaw. That’s my nickname.

Michael Greenburg:
They were a good match.

Dan Shea:
Yeah. But he never used to like my finger whenever I was holding onto any kind of a weapon, shooting something, doubling him. My pinky, for some reason, would always poke up, and that used to really, really, annoy him, the pinky. And also, it goes way back to MacGyver, for doing hand inserts. He would always tell them, “Don’t let me do his hand inserts,” ’cause he has these long-fingered, effeminate, magician’s hands, and he called… He said my hands were short, stubby paws, so he never wanted me to be doing any hand inserts, and he never even liked the wide shots of stuff blowing up and me shooting a gun or whatever, ’cause my pinky would always stick out. I think he was jealous.

Michael Greenburg:
He should have accepted the flaws in your hands.

Dan Shea:
Whoops, I lost you.

David Read:
And the flaws in your heart. No.

Dan Shea:
Exactly.

David Read:
Flawless heart, Dan. Flawless heart. The thing that I appreciate about Rick is that he is aware of everything. He’s not just acting. I was privileged enough to interview him on the USS Midway, and before he got to me, he was to the left, and the sun was behind me. And I’m trying to get some pictures before he comes to me, because we were cameraman and photographer, so one guy had the video camera, and I had my camera. And I was getting in his light, because it was… At a certain time of day, it was golden hour, and he called it, and he stopped me, and he said, “I need you to get out of the way.” And I’m taking pictures, and I’m seeing my silhouette on his face, but it’s not occurring to me. He was good enough to at least say, “We’re trying to do multiple things here.” My turn was coming up, and I had to be like, “I’d never really been in that kind of a situation before.” I’d never been on a red carpet prior, for one thing, but the sun was behind me, and it was casting a shadow on his face. And dopey me isn’t seeing what’s right before my eyes and in my viewfinder, but he was aware of that. He’s always looking for everything to be… It’s not because he’s on camera. It’s because he cares, and he wants it to be a good product. I got the impression he’s just impatient with sloppiness, because there is always room to be better. “Come on. Come on, kid.” I was 22, 23 years old at that point. It’s like, “Come on, get out of the way.”

Dan Shea:
Plus, he was on camera, and you probably made him look bad, too.

David Read:
There was a David-shaped cutout on his face, and that was definitely very irritating, I’m sure, but I…

Michael Greenburg:
Always put the subject with the backlight.

David Read:
That’s it.

Michael Greenburg:
You could’ve just swapped places.

David Read:
He wasn’t to me yet. We were all on the row on the red carpet and someone else was getting their interview, and I was ruining it by giving him a shadow. But thanks to him, that was corrected pretty quickly there. Dan, were you on Legend as well, or were you just on MacGyver & SG?

Dan Shea:
No, I was not on Legend.

David Read:
OK. Michael–

Dan Shea:
Didn’t you shoot that in England? Wasn’t that in London, England?

Michael Greenburg:
No, Legend was in Arizona.

Dan Shea:
That’s right.

Michael Greenburg:
Arizona.

David Read:
I didn’t know that.

Dan Shea:
I think Big Boy considers that to be his most favorite character. Isn’t that the one where he was an inventor? It was the turn-of-the-century thing?

Michael Greenburg:
Not an inventor. That was John de Lancie’s character, Bart… Rick was an ink-stained wretch of a writer who… A device of the genre at the time was the writers would use their own image as their hero that they were writing about, so he used his picture on the cover of the dime novels that he wrote, the character Ernest Pratt. He was reluctantly forced to be the hero that he wrote about when he rode into towns. Am I saying that right? I don’t know. That’s basically the concept, was this ink-stained wretch of a drinker, womanizer, gambler, writer, wrote this heroic set of novels called Legend. But he used his picture, which was the device of the genre, to use his picture as the character on the cover of the books. So, he got mistakenly identified as Legend, when he was just the writer. So, he was forced to be this hero as he went from town to town into the stories that we wrote. It’s pretty cool. The irony of our careers, at least at the time, was, Legend was just phenomenal, the concept, the characters, the stories. It was the most fun to do because he just had a blast going from A to Z on the acting scale. It was so much fun. But it was limited to one season and they’re all great. But Legend, everyone should watch Legend if they can find it, probably on Amazon.

David Read:
It’s streaming. I’m trying to remember where it is, but it is out there right now.

Michael Greenburg:
Probably on Prime.

David Read:
And it goes back to the point about flawed characters who rise up to become heroes. If your hero isn’t flawed, where are they gonna go? What are you gonna do with them? They can’t just… People aren’t gonna buy them because they’re number one. Some folks might, but that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily gonna be any good. That was the thing that was so great about Jack, was the film established what he fought through to become what he became by the end of that movie, where he went from a self-destructive human being to someone who helped a people survive, and he went back to Earth with a renewed perspective. Now, thank God, Rick decided to take that in a new direction and not go in the Kurt Russell direction, because as Brad Wright said, he couldn’t be dour for an entire… It would have sunk.

Michael Greenburg:
He was very upfront about that. Right when we got pitched the concept and the series from John Symes, who was president of MGM at the time, we hadn’t even met Brad or Jonathan yet. But as soon as Rick heard that it was a series based on the Stargate movies, he was reticent because of what you’re saying, because of that Marine jarhead character that Jack O’Neil was. Kurt did a phenomenal job with it. But Rick…

David Read:
But that was the role, though. That was what…

Michael Greenburg:
Rick honestly said, “I’m not Kurt Russell. I can’t do that.” Then they gave him the reins to do whatever he wanted. That’s what he did for 200 plus episodes, anything he wanted.

David Read:
Dan, what was it like watching that character over nearly 200 shows? You got a front row seat to the maniacal machinations of Richard Dean Anderson and being spontaneous and creating stuff that… he would say lines and guest stars who were waiting for their cue wouldn’t get it, and they’d be looking at him like, “I wasn’t expecting that. Now, what am I supposed to do with that?” And the joke was that “We’re getting this reaction on film, and more than likely we’re gonna end up using this,” ’cause oftentimes it was even better. What was it like working with that man for that long of a time, from MacGyver through SG-1?

Dan Shea:
It wasn’t great the one day that my phone went off during his close-up.

David Read:
No, that’s right.

Dan Shea:
That was a thing we were all told in no uncertain terms back then, “All your phones are turned off.” And especially on Big Boy’s close-up, that’s just insane. There it was, his close-up, and all of a sudden, we heard, “Da-link, da-link.” And I’m thinking, “Who’s the idiot who’s so totally fired because this moron didn’t mute his phone?” And it kept ringing and I’m like, “Come on, doesn’t this guy get it?” And I look down at my phone, and I saw this red light going off. Then I realized that, “Hey, I’m the idiot.” So, I immediately shut it off, and then, of course, after the take was over, he always wants names, and he discovered it was me, but it was maybe too hard to fire me. He could have and probably should have, but he didn’t. But then months later, I was doing a Siler thing, and it was my close-up, and instead of having all the principal cast as little pieces of tape on the matte box and on the grip stands, all principal cast were actually there to react to me for my one line. And I’m thinking, “Wow, maybe these guys are respecting my one-line acting ability all of a sudden.” But as soon as Brad Wright said, “Action,” and I was about to say my one-line, Big Boy rang his phone, “Da-link, da-link.” Then I realized, “I get it.” So, it was six months later, and he held onto it. He never forgot for six months. And then every time I tried to say my line, he’d make his phone ring. And of course, everybody, all the principal cast were laughing off camera. But I couldn’t let him get me. I’m a bad enough actor as it is. But I pride myself in being semi-mentally tough. So, I wasn’t gonna crack, so I just kept waiting to do my one line, and every time I tried to do it, he would ring his phone, until finally the principal cast started laughing and we got the take and that was it. But the thing was, the coverage… they had this guest star, this older guy, they flew up from L.A and it was his close-up next and he thought, “Holy crap. Is this what they do to the actors when it’s a close-up? They’re ringing bells and making phones ring and laughing their asses off every time it’s a close-up?” But luckily for him, I was just the lucky one.

David Read:
It was payback time.

Dan Shea:
It was.

David Read:
Michael, could that have been a fireable offense?

Michael Greenburg:
No. Dan’s untouchable.

David Read:
No, for a PA?

Michael Greenburg:
When Dan goes, I go. Huh?

David Read:
Like a PA?

Michael Greenburg:
No. I think we talked to people more than fired them. We weren’t a very firing organization. We were more of a …

David Read:
I think John Smith said he let two people go in the entire show’s run and he was really small.
You guys vetted well.

Michael Greenburg:
There was that director… The French guy. He was the closest to getting fired cause he was making people cry on set, our script supervisor. We were shooting on the effects stage, the big, giant effects stage at Bridge Studios. And I had to take him out back by the railroad tracks, and basically, I gave him a choice. I said, “Either go in there and change your attitude and apologize to the people you were harsh to or, you’ve got one last decision to make: window or aisle?” Now, I can’t take credit for that line. That’s Charlie Correl’s line.

Dan Shea:
That’s a good line. I thought that was your line. Great line.

Michael Greenburg:
Charlie had great lines. That was the guy who I remember came close to getting the axe.

Dan Shea:
I remember Charlie when we were doing a location scout for MacGyver. It was supposed to be scuzzy neighborhood. We were actually walking through this scuzzy neighborhood, and they were all sitting on their decks and balconies drinking beer at noon because they were all unemployed. Which is fine, it doesn’t make you a bad person. But then Charlie yells out that everybody can hear. He said, “Wow, what a scuzzy neighborhood!” Then he said, “With my apologies to the people who are living here.” He was funny.

Michael Greenburg:
Charlie Correl, David, if you don’t know who he was, cause unfortunately he passed away a while ago, he was the cinematographer for Animal House, incredibly big shows like War and Remembrance, stuff like that. He became a director on the first year of MacGyver. He was one of the greats. His father was one of voices for…what was that radio show? It was all black radio show but there were white actors doing the voices…

David Read:
Amos and Andy.

Michael Greenburg:
Amos and Andy. Which is locked away in a vault at CBS somewhere because that wouldn’t fly. But that was it. So, he comes from a long line of humorous family, and he was just so much fun to work with on set, and I mean, Dan knows. He was just a riot.

Dan Shea:
But speaking of dead folks, have you guys seen the new Facebook AI videos of, let’s say, MacGyver? Where they have a picture of Rick as he was in MacGyver, and then present-day Rick walks into the shot and puts his arm around himself and waves at the camera? And then he looks over and we see Dana Elcar as he was on MacGyver and then the present-day Dana walks in with wings ’cause he’s dead. He’s a dead guy and then they go to Tavarus and so I started watching this on my phone and I freeze-framed the shot of Rick, and I sent it to him yesterday. And we’ve been trying for a day and a half to figure out how to actually do it ’cause I just kept looking at the pictures, so I kept coming back. And then Friends, all the Friends people came, the way they looked then, the way they look now. And then Brady Bunch. So, then finally I figured out, all you have to do is go to the Friends and punch in what you want, and it just magically appears. But we spent hours yesterday trying to figure out ’cause Rick’s brothers wanted to look at it. But it’s a pretty cool thing, pretty fun.

David Read:
I’m sharing it right now.

Dan Shea:
Did you already see it? Yeah, there it is.

Michael Greenburg:
Is it in there?

Dan Shea:
Yeah, that’s the one.

David Read:
That’s the thing with this AI stuff. It’s not going away, and I’ve got a number of folks who are gonna really be upset with me for even sharing this. They are terrified, and rightfully so in many cases, that this is coming for so many people’s jobs. This is the Holodeck 1.0 from Star Trek. And it’s finally arrived, and you don’t un-ring this bell. And people are gonna continue to have access to stuff. I’m waiting for it to come back around to Rick and it’s just not doing it.

Michael Greenburg:
Do they have to give the rights to that?

David Read:
Nope.

Michael Greenburg:
There’s Rick.

David Read:
Nope, they don’t.

Michael Greenburg:
Weird.

Dan Shea:
There he is. Weird.

David Read:
That’s what’s terrifying about it because artists have no control. There is no infrastructure in place yet, and there will be soon, to detect, especially on a social media platform like that, someone’s face, and forward that to the appropriate manager and say, “Hey, we will unlock this if you pay a certain amount for the likeness, and we get to vet it first,” or whatever. Much like Apple iTunes, with torrents and everything, there will eventually be a system where artists will have an opportunity to share their likeness under certain terms and conditions for a fee, which will scale based on how many views that video gets. And that’s just gonna be the way that it’s gonna have to be, but we’re not there yet. And on top of that, there will always be people who will design software that will circumvent it. But these major platforms like Instagram and Facebook and X and BlueSky won’t allow it, because there will be some kind of law in place. But you don’t un-ring that bell. It’s absolutely wild. And fandom is very divided on it. But you can’t deny how amazing the technology is.

Michael Greenburg:
It’s amazing.

Dan Shea:
They do look a bit weird, though. You can always tell…

David Read:
For now.

Dan Shea:
… the face looks… For now. It’ll improve. But it’s funny… I find that the older version looks a bit weird, the older version of Big Boy, but the up-to-date one seems to be more accurate, and I don’t know technically why that is, but…

David Read:
There’s a number of reasons for that, the availability, the access to resources to duplicate him. A lot of the images now are a lot clearer. There’s all kinds of it, and sometimes it’s just a certain person has a certain face that it works with better than others. I’ve tried to do AI duplication on my voice so that I can get some projects done on the backend as placeholder text, and then I’ll come in and have someone else duplicate the dialogue later, but at least I have the correct length. And my voice has done weird. It doesn’t really capture me well. But it’s serviceable enough that I know what’s being said and I know what to put in there, and then I can have an actor come in and dub it later. But the technology is just absolutely wild. We’ve got some…

Dan Shea:
Are you real now? How do we know this is really you?

David Read:
We don’t.

Dan Shea:
Maybe you’re still at the gym. I don’t think it’s you.

David Read:
I could be.

Dan Shea:
‘Cause you’ve lost weight. You look 50 pounds lighter than the last time I saw you.

David Read:
I’m 100 pounds lighter.

Dan Shea:
There you go.

Michael Greenburg:
100?

David Read:
Yup. I’m on day three of a three-day fast right now, so I’m about to go a little bit further… I dig this. I wouldn’t have said that two and a half days ago. Let me tell you, it’s like, “Give me food!” I’m becoming a healthy person. We’ve got some fan questions for you guys. All righty. Nedkalietal8175, “Do the guests get to talk? LOL.” Yes, he’s absolutely right. Lockwatcher, “For Michael and Dan, of the three RDA-inspired series, MacGyver, Legend, and Stargate, and MacGyver and Stargate in Dan’s case, which series do you think you faced some of your bigger challenges?” Anything stick out over the years? Dan, in Stargate, you had to go from serpent guard at the very beginning to being thrown up against a wall by electricity by the 200th episode. One thing after another with you there. Was it immensely different on MacGyver, or was it overall really the same type of thing? Ratchet pulls, squibs?

Dan Shea:
I had way more to do on Stargate. I was a stunt coordinator, and I was Rick’s double, and then I played Sergeant Siler, so I was busy. On MacGyver, I was his stunt double for a couple of hockey episodes, but I stood in for him. So, I had much less to do on MacGyver than Stargate SG-1.

David Read:
OK. That’s fair. Mike?

Michael Greenburg:
I think the most challenging, as far as my perspective and what I had to do and responsibilities, was the filmmaking on Stargate was much more intense every day. I mean, the live action was the live action, and that was great. And that sort of ran itself, ’cause we had such great actors, and the directors were all great. But combining it with the compositing of all the visual effects, those sequences, those big other-world action sequences where we had to combine what we shot live action, with all the different pre-composites that went into the final composite of that particular sequence, that took a lot, because we had storyboards, yes, and we had some pre-composite works that we were looking at on monitors. But until it all came together, you didn’t really know if you had it. But we had such a great post-production team and visual effects team creating these worlds and putting it together and we pulled it off, but it was challenging. I think Stargate was the most challenging. Legend was probably the most fun every day. I couldn’t wait to get there, ’cause it was so much fun. And MacGyver was iconic. We were doing something that we knew…We didn’t know at the beginning, but by the middle, by Season Three, Four, Five, Six, and even Seven, we knew we were striking a chord that no one else had done. I mean, the stories we were telling, the save the animal episodes, which we did four or five a season, the human-interest stories, the urban stories, the rural stories…We were definitely telling great stories. And that’s what it comes down to. If there’s one thing, I’m proud about all three series, because I think they were all three iconic in their own way, is we told really good stories. Really good stories. And that’s why I think they’re so popular even today. I don’t know why Legend, I guess because it’s just one season. But if people could watch the 12 episodes of Legend, I think that we did a two-hour and then 11 episodes, I think, something like that. It’s a limited series by definition now, but it is great and so much fun. But all of them, you could watch them all today as if they were shot yesterday, ’cause they’re great stories that are still relevant today.

David Read:
Who owns Legend? Is it Paramount?

Michael Greenburg:
Legend was Paramount.

David Read:
OK. I’m wondering if I could reach out to Paramount and get permission to live stream the pilot to try and get people into it.

Michael Greenburg:
Sure. Or Amazon. I think it’s on Amazon, too. Definitely reach out to them, and I’ll help you…

David Read:
That would be really cool because I have always wanted to get into it, and I know a lot of people who want to get into it. And I would love an excuse to be able to say, “Here’s the pilot. We’re gonna run it for free. We’re gonna talk about it afterwards and discuss it.” Maybe have Rick on to talk about it or something.

Michael Greenburg:
Definitely.

David Read:
And you back, because I’ve always wanted to sink my teeth into it, and if it’s available for streaming somewhere, then by God, let’s get people to go and have a look at it.

Michael Greenburg:
And Charlie directed the two-hour pilot, and it is very…

David Read:
It’s a two-hour, all the better. It’s a TV movie.

Michael Greenburg:
It’s a TV movie, the two-hour pilot.

David Read:
Mike, let’s have that conversation…

Michael Greenburg:
OK. I’m game.

David Read:
…Because it deserves to be seen.

Michael Greenburg:
It really does.

David Read:
And I’ve always loved it. I love John de Lancie. And I bet he would be game to participate in something like that as well.

Michael Greenburg:
Definitely.

David Read:
Because he loved that character, and he really enjoyed hanging out. He came on as a favor to Rick for Frank Simmons for two seasons, and we got John frigging de Lancie. I was blown away. It’s Q. It’s absolutely mind-blowing. Let me… I just lost my train of thought. Where is my question here? Uriustosh, “Dan, were the green jumpsuits uncomfortable, or did you ever… or the blue jumpsuits for that matter, did you ever…?”

Dan Shea:
I don’t ever remember wearing a…

David Read:
Did you ever be like, “Can I just wear normal clothes?”

Dan Shea:
I don’t think I ever wore the blue jumpsuits.

David Read:
I’ve got a picture of you in one.

Dan Shea:
Really?

David Read:
Let me pull it up here.

Dan Shea:
I liked tight-fitting clothing, so I think it was nylon material. So, instead of just putting the nylons on my legs, I could put it on my whole body, so that’d be great.

David Read:
Let me pull this up here.

Dan Shea:
I love that.

David Read:
There was one of each. So, this is the blue jumpsuit here.

Dan Shea:
You mean a jumpsuit? Of course it was a jumpsuit. I thought you meant the green screen type thing.

David Read:
No, no.

Dan Shea:
The jumpsuit’s green.

David Read:
No, I know Rick did that for his insert shot with the coffee in 200. “Why does this always happen to me?” Those jumpsuits.

Dan Shea:
Of course, the blue jumpsuit. I wore that almost every day.

Michael Greenburg:
That was Stargate Command, right?

Dan Shea:
We had a hiatus for Stargate, and I wound up getting some days on a movie called Paycheck, which was across the street at the Vancouver Film Studio from the Bridge. And on that show, I was also wearing a jumpsuit, but it was a green one. So, Stargate came back, but they wanted me to hang around on Paycheck for a couple of extra days. I showed up on Paycheck on camera and put on the green jumpsuit. And they put my hair a certain way, the character that I was on Paycheck. First of all, I said to the first AD or second AD, “Are you gonna need me for the next six hours?” And they said, “No, no, we won’t need you ’cause we’re shooting upstairs. We won’t need you for a couple of days.” So, I ran across the street to the Bridge to Stargate. Then I took off the green jumpsuit, and I put on the blue Sergeant Siler jumpsuit. And then I went to hair, and Patrick looked at my hair and thought, “What? Why is your hair like that?” So, he put a bunch of hairspray, and he combed my hair back the Sergeant Siler way. And then I went to set. And, as usual, I had one line. And usually, they hold my line till the end of the day, which is good for me ’cause then I could hang around and make tons of overtime, and then do my line at the end of the day to three little pieces of tape, and then I’d go home. But on this day, I wanted to do my line and get the hell out of there so I could run back across the street to be on camera for Paycheck. I literally don’t know if there’s ever been a human being who’s been on camera on two different shows on the same day and neither show knew that this moron was trying to pull off his double-dip. Luckily for me, they wound up turning around on me. And just as they’re about to roll on my line, I got another call, and it was from Dan. And I thought it was Dan the AD wanting me to run back across the street, “Where are you?” But luckily it was Dan, a stunt guy, wanting work. So, I knocked off my line, and I ran back to my room. I took off the Stargate blue jumpsuit and then put on the green Paycheck jumpsuit. Then I went back to set, and nobody had moved. They were all… It was eight hours later. It was a feature, and they were all sitting doing their crosswords. And they looked up, and they were all sitting in the same spot, and all half-asleep. Except the hair person took one look at my hair, and it was combed now on the opposite side. And she said, “Get your ass into the hair department.” And she roughly took a wire brush and combed it hard back the other way and sprayed a whole spray can onto my hair to make sure it wouldn’t flop back the other way. But I had survived a double dip, which is the ultimate thing that you can do.

Michael Greenburg:
When you say double-dip, I don’t want the fans to think that you were in this business for the money.

Dan Shea:
No, no, it’s for the art.

Michael Greenburg:
Double-dip had nothing to do with the money. Did you ever triple-dip?

Dan Shea:
Actually, you know what? Because of Sergeant Siler, that used to piss off somebody. I can’t say this ’cause we’re actually on camera. We’re not just at the bar talk…

David Read:
You’re live right now. Work around the edges.

Dan Shea:
Working around the edges. One person didn’t really like me having all these paychecks. But G. Money and Michael used to always say, “Now, hey, do the producers not get paid if they write for Stargate Universe, and Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate SG-1? If they write scripts, do they say, ‘No, we only get paid for one?’ No, you get paid for all three. You get paid when you worked.” So, when I was a stunt coordinator guy, I got paid. When I was Rick’s double, I got paid. But then, the odd time Peter DeLuise would write me in, or G. Money would write me in as Siler, and then the ultimate, biggest one of all was the triple-dip. That was three paychecks. But I prayed that this certain producer guy didn’t find out, ’cause then he would say, “You should be happy you’re working, and you should be happy on one contract.” Because we’re…

Michael Greenburg:
When you say triple-dip and three checks, I don’t want people to think you’re making money.

Dan Shea:
Which is a tenth of what you make without your residuals.

Michael Greenburg:
I don’t think…

Dan Shea:
So, you can take a triple-dip of me and a 20-hour day, and I can be going home thinking, “Oh, God, I’m so special. I’m so rich. My paycheck next week is gonna be so much.” And you would look at it, and you would literally laugh your ass off. You’d probably go, “Holy shit, how do these clowns live on this money?”

Michael Greenburg:
But I don’t want the fans to think that we’re doing this podcast…

Dan Shea:
For the money.

Michael Greenburg:
… to give legs to SG-1. To help enhance the streaming of the 200 plus episodes on Netflix because of money. ‘Cause it was really…

Dan Shea:
Because you’ll get residual checks and I won’t. Your residual checks are…

David Read:
Dan.

Dan Shea:
… trillions of dollars. I’ll get a residual check for $1.50 US, and I’ll be like, “Oh, wow.”

Michael Greenburg:
See, here’s the difference. Mine are…

Dan Shea:
A lot.

David Read:
Dan.

Dan Shea:
A lot is the difference.

Michael Greenburg:
Mine are profits. I don’t get residuals… I get a little bit of a residual…

Dan Shea:
You do.

Michael Greenburg:
… from writing and directing.

Dan Shea:
You do. You get..

Michael Greenburg:
But it’s a trillion-dollar show.

Dan Shea:
If you take my salary for 10 years on Stargate…

Michael Greenburg:
So, I don’t want David and anyone out there to think that we’re in this for the money. It’s really…

Dan Shea:
No, no.

Michael Greenburg:
… the art. The art and the storytelling and saving animals and…

Dan Shea:
But if you’re anything about accuracy, you could take my 10 years of salary, and with all the residuals, and you would make more in one week than I made in 10 years.

Michael Greenburg:
But for me it was the stories. For me it was telling…

Dan Shea:
Not the money.

Michael Greenburg:
…saving people and animals and human rights. Human rights.

Dan Shea:
And not the first-class tickets, and not the points, and none of that stuff.

Michael Greenburg:
Human rights, alien rights. Human rights.

Dan Shea:
Not the money.

David Read:
Dan, the fact of the matter is that we’re talking about this thing 30 years after it was done because the fans loved what it was that you created, and the show didn’t disappear into obscurity like any other relic from that timeframe of sci-fi genre. I can think of 10 off the top of my head. You created something that…

Dan Shea:
When you said relic, were you looking at me? I thought when you said relic, you glanced right at my face.

David Read:
I was referring to TV shows.

Dan Shea:
I could be wrong.

David Read:
Not people.

Dan Shea:
But you’re not saying that I’m a relic?

David Read:
No, I’m talking about shows that people don’t even remember from that timeframe, that have two or three fans that… You guys created something that spoke to people. And because it spoke to people, it’s got another lease on…

Dan Shea:
Old, old people.

David Read:
Old people and young people. It’s evergreen, and they…

Dan Shea:
Seems like mostly old, old people. It seems like you’re referencing old people. Am I being too sensitive about the ageism? No.

Michael Greenburg:
Are we getting paid for this? ‘Cause I don’t remember you asking me earlier…

Dan Shea:
I’m not, you are.

Michael Greenburg:
I don’t remember David asking for any bank information or wiring.

David Read:
OK, so let me…

Michael Greenburg:
Forgot to ask about that.

David Read:
It’s in Canadian dollars, right?

Dan Shea:
With me, you can’t direct deposit. You gotta actually write a check. I’m the only guy at hockey that writes a check for the ice time. Everyone else is just…

Michael Greenburg:
I’m good for US dollars, Canadian dollars…

David Read:
US dollars.

Michael Greenburg:
… and South African rand.

David Read:
The rand? I’m gonna have to check my drawers over here.

Michael Greenburg:
Do rand. That’s 1821.

David Read:
It’s been a while since I’ve been. I may have some coins.

Michael Greenburg:
No, it’s OK. For David, we’re gonna do this for nothing for you. ‘Cause really, the content that Dan and I are putting forth on the screen…

Dan Shea:
It’s worth nothing.

Michael Greenburg:
… I’m not sure is worth anything. But we’re trying.

Dan Shea:
We’re doing our best.

Michael Greenburg:
We’re doing our best.

David Read:
Ugly pig.

Michael Greenburg:
Dan was gonna broadcast from The Grouse Grind, but he thought his kitchen was a better background.

Dan Shea:
It’s a bit cold today.

David Read:
Dan?

Dan Shea:
Yes?

David Read:
Did you ever find the wrench?

Dan Shea:
The wrench is in my basement.

Michael Greenburg:
The big wrench.

David Read:
It’s still lost down there?

Dan Shea:
Yeah.

David Read:
Because I asked you to go and get it once and you never found it. Were you able to find it?

Dan Shea:
It’s down in my basement. Whenever we have a convention, I’ll bring it to the convention so the fans can touch the wrench and get their picture taken.

Michael Greenburg:
If you want me to talk and you can go get it if you want.

David Read:
We’re convening now. Can you hunt and gather it?

Dan Shea:
It might be a bit of a…

Michael Greenburg:
Hard to find?

Dan Shea:
Kind of.

Michael Greenburg:
I know. But the thing is, he’s got a lot of my stuff in storage down there, too.

Dan Shea:
You really wanna come down into my basement and look around?

David Read:
Hockey sticks and some pucks.

Dan Shea:
Couple runaways, couple kids… who grew up…

Michael Greenburg:
I think he overcharges for storage, by the way. But not that money matters to him at all, but…

Dan Shea:
Exactly.

Michael Greenburg:
You’re muted.

David Read:
Whoops! Wrong button. Hang on a second here, guys.

Michael Greenburg:
Any more questions from any of you?

David Read:
Yes, very much so. One of the questions I was trying to lead up to was, Nedkalietal8175, “Was the wrench heavy, Dan?”

Dan Shea:
It’s a legitimate steel adjustable wrench; it’s got a bit of weight to it. But when I work out, I basically do arms and shoulders ’cause those are the only two muscles… that, and knee muscles.

Michael Greenburg:
Heavier than his dialogue, I can tell you that.

Dan Shea:
Yes, pretty much. It has a bit of weight to it, yes.

David Read:
Uriustosh wants to know for Mike Greenburg, “Mike, how do you think they’re transitioning from 22-episode seasons into 8, 10, and 12 now?” Do you like the direction that this has gone in the industry? Do you think it’s changed things for the better, for the worse? I’m really curious on your thoughts from a producer’s perspective.

Michael Greenburg:
It has changed. Everyone’s doing these 10, 11, 12-episode series. It just seems to be the way the industry has gone. I’m not sure how it ends up ’cause the body count, meaning the episode count, was a big factor in, not that I’m doing this for the money, but it was a big factor in the money. You get to 100 episodes, then you get to 200 episodes, and it’s a way bigger deal when it’s sold internationally, and in the US and in the UK. Like the new Netflix deal, which is US and I think UK, and somewhere else, maybe Australia, I’m not sure. It used to be quantified that way, and now I think it’s budgetary. I think as the budgets went up and up, they went for less and less shows. So, that at the end of the season, they were still spending the same amount, but instead of putting $2 million or $3 million into an episode, they were putting $6, $7, $8 million into an episode to make the episodes better and finished. So…

Dan Shea:
And more expensive.

David Read:
Feature quality.

Michael Greenburg:
And more, because everything’s more expensive.

David Read:
That’s certainly the truth.

Dan Shea:
The thing I don’t like about the present day, especially streaming, is when’s the next season? Used to be it was 22 episodes and episodic, you would finish and then three months later, they would pick it up for Season Three.

Michael Greenburg:
Then you didn’t have to wait.

Dan Shea:
Whatever happened to House of Dragons? I’ve been waiting for seemingly five years for the next season. I’ve lost track of their seasons. When’s it coming out?

Michael Greenburg:
I’ve grown my hair so I could be in it.

Dan Shea:
You’d look good.

Michael Greenburg:
Be one of those Kardashians. No. Who are they? Those…

Dan Shea:
Kim Kardashian. The Kardashians.

David Read:
The Targaryens?

Michael Greenburg:
Targaryens.

David Read:
You have lovely locks, Michael.

Michael Greenburg:
My daughter, Kenya, said I could be in that show if I could only act.

Dan Shea:
No, you can act. But seriously, David Read, when is Game of Dragons, or is it Game of the Dragon?

David Read:
House of the Dragon?

Dan Shea:
Coming out?

David Read:
I’m not sure what’s going on with House of the Dragon right now. The third series that’s going on, Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, is currently airing, and apparently everyone’s eating it up because it’s funny and it’s got a lighter fare. Probably once this one has run its course, House of the Dragon will be back around again. It’s got a very specific story to tell. I haven’t seen it yet.

Michael Greenburg:
Dan, this podcast is actually Dial the Gate. It’s not Dial the Dragon. FYI.

Dan Shea:
But I’m just finding that out.

David Read:
We did have a dragon in “The Quest.”

Dan Shea:
We did have a dragon.

David Read:
Mike, as a producer, I do want to ask you this to feed off of Urias’ question here. And I’ve tried to pose this to pretty much everyone who has been involved with post-production at one point or another. And it’s to Dan’s point, the curious thing about these shows now is that their episodes have been halved or cut into a third, in terms of number, and instead of getting a season a year, we’re getting one every two or three. Can you spend a couple of minutes explaining what your opinion or your impression is to the logic behind that? Does it just have to do with increased quality? Audiences are expecting a feature-level production on every episode of television now? Or is it something more?

Michael Greenburg:
I’m not sure. I’m not privy, ’cause we don’t get to meet with these streamers anymore. We used to be in their offices and in the studios when it was the studio system in Hollywood. I have no idea. It would be interesting to find out. I thought it was financial. Because they could put the same amount of money into less episodes and get them finished in a high-quality way, versus more episodes at a lower price, and they maybe wouldn’t look as good. And when you talk about big shows like House of Dragons, those are huge, feature-looking television shows. Ours was too, but I don’t know, it would be interesting to talk to a programming executive, I think they still exist, and find out the why on that. I think it’s financial-driven, like most things in Hollywood.

David Read:
It started before COVID and now it’s gotten worse.

Michael Greenburg:
And Hollywood is now, it’s like Silicon Valley moved in, and everything’s changed.

David Read:
It’s a completely different business model in many cases. Stargate’s new owner…

Michael Greenburg:
Amazon MGM.

David Read:
Yeah, Amazon MGM. If you had told me 20 years ago that the place that I went and got my Huggies from, or not Huggies, but underwear and everything else from online would be the place where I was going to log in and get my Stargate, I think I would’ve laughed in your face, yet here we are. And Apple as well. They create amazing programming.

Michael Greenburg:
It’d be interesting to know the reason. I think it’s probably financial. And quality. A high qualitative bar that you have to hit to be a hit, and then the money that it takes to achieve that these days is higher.

David Read:
I agree. Dan, I have another question for you. Amy Warrior Princess wants to know, if someone didn’t know what Stargate was and you had an hour to kill to sit with them, which episode would you pick to introduce the show to them?

Dan Shea:
The “200”

David Read:
You don’t have to tell me. The “200” really? With all the inside jokes?

Dan Shea:
Yeah, ’cause they wouldn’t get any of it, but I’d get them, so that’s all I care about. That was a funny episode. I really like that one.

David Read:
Mike, were you there for “200?”

Michael Greenburg:
No.

Dan Shea:
Really?

Michael Greenburg:
I don’t think so. I don’t know. I was there ’til the end of the ninth season…

David Read:
Eighth season.

Michael Greenburg:
Eighth season. Although I got paid for the ninth.

Dan Shea:
Yeah, you did. Again, if you were to take what you got paid in that one season where you didn’t show up, and you take my 10 years of working in overtime, coordinator, doubling, recurring role, you still would’ve made more in that one season where you never showed up than I would’ve made in 10 seasons, but times 10. So, in fact, I couldn’t even live long enough. I’d have to live to about 150 years old…

Michael Greenburg:
You will.

Dan Shea:
… working every day just to make what you made on MacGyver. And then you had MacGyver, then Legends, and then Stargate. So, I’m kinda behind.

Michael Greenburg:
Just keep waking up. Just keep waking up.

David Read:
Patio furniture’s on sale.

Dan Shea:
You’re buying… do I have to buy breakfast again, or what?

Michael Greenburg:
No, but you wouldn’t let me.

David Read:
Come on, guys.

Michael Greenburg:
I’ll try.

Dan Shea:
I had to pay for breakfast on Sunday.

Michael Greenburg:
Had to.

Dan Shea:
Can you believe that?

Michael Greenburg:
Had to.

David Read:
Mike, what episode would you introduce a fan to? A potential fan?

Michael Greenburg:
Again, I think the pilot. I think the two-hour pilot, both for SG-1 and Atlantis. I had zero to do with Universe or whatever that was, but Atlantis, I did the pilot. So, I think the pilot pretty much lays it all out with the cartouche and all that. The great idea that Brad and Jonathan had, to give it legs and the ability to do 200 episodes, more Stargates, and finding this cartouche of dial-home device addresses was the key. I think the pilot is important as a way to motivate people to watch more. But it gives you the foundation from which we launched.

David Read:
I am happy with the movie. The movie is not fun. The movie is not funny.

Michael Greenburg:
You mean the pilot? The pilot, the two-hour pilot?

David Read:
No, I’m getting to that. The feature film is not funny.

Michael Greenburg:
No.

David Read:
“Children of the Gods” has the heart. I think it was Rick who said he came to the line, “For this, you could stay at my place.” And he was like, “That’s the character that I wanna play.” And that’s who we got.

Michael Greenburg:
Even Daniel Jackson, Michael Shanks’ version versus Spader’s was different. But that’s not to take anything away from what they did, because they were doing a serious concept.

David Read:
It was heavy stuff.

Michael Greenburg:
It was heavy stuff. To get Rick hooked in, he had to have the reins to do whatever he wanted. So, that turned out great in the long run, and much more fun to watch.

David Read:
Absolutely.

Michael Greenburg:
Week in and week out.

David Read:
It’s been an hour, guys. I didn’t mean to take you for this long. Do either of you need to wrap up right now?

Michael Greenburg:
No, we can do whatever.

David Read:
Dan?

Dan Shea:
I’ve got nowhere to go. I’ve got no friends.

David Read:
OK, geez. We talked about this a little bit last time, but I wanted to ask more specifically to Michael, what was involved in the process of going from film to digital with Stargate and what was your involvement in the testing and the rollout of that? Because that’s not a simple process. And I know that in Season Four, you guys did a whole episode called “Entity” which was specifically testing the digital technology which was done inside of Stargate Command. So, as early as that point, you guys were looking into that.

Michael Greenburg:
I think we might’ve been the first series to use the Genesis camera, which was a combination of Panavision and Sony. And when they introduced it to us and brought it up to us, talk about a stage weight. The camera looked like a Panavision camera. And it even had the film container on top, even though there’s no film in it. But it was huge, and it had this tether to it which had all the cables that ran into this bank of computer modules that if we had to do a dolly shot, we had to set up two dollies, one for the camera and one for the electronics. One for the computer bank that was tethered to the camera so that it could record ’cause there was no film. It was all recorded onto these recorders. This is before the little chips that go in the cameras now that are tiny. It was before all that gigabyte stuff, and it was monstrous. It was one of the tougher transitions. People talk about going from 35 millimeter to 16 to back to 35 and all that. That’s easy. That’s just film. But the transition at that time, 1997 I think it was, was huge. It was huge. I couldn’t believe we were doing it. When I saw the dollies, when I saw the grips having to lay two dolly tracks, I knew we were in trouble. And it was crazy. But we needed it.

David Read:
That’s time, that’s real estate, that’s all kinds of things.

Michael Greenburg:
And then the brilliant people at Panavision and Sony kept perfecting and perfecting. They never … I think they worked 24/7, those engineers. And they came up with a system that kept getting better and better, and more and more transportable and usable. And then, of course, nowadays with the chips, it’s just easy and it’s great. And the film look looks great. So, it happened. But we were there right at the birth of it.

David Read:
Thank you, Matthew Hammond, for that question.

Michael Greenburg:
There’s probably production stills of that, maybe someone can find them for you that you could see, ’cause I remember seeing publicity stills, production stills of that Genesis camera when it first arrived. I remember the first time we used it was in a scene in the GVRD, which is where we shot all the forest-type scenes here in British Columbia. And setting it up and managing it was brutal but worked out. See if you can get some, and I’ll try to get some stills of that for you.

David Read:
I would love to. That would be great. Always interested in the technical stuff, absolutely. Dan, Marcia Middleton wants to know, “When you were young…

Dan Shea:
Wait, wait. Hold it. Are you doing the ageism thing again? What’s up with Marcia?

David Read:
Marcia is lovely, and she is one of the older Stargate fans I know and doesn’t look a day of it. All right, Dan, she said, “When you were…

Michael Greenburg:
Dan’s one of the older Stargate guys I know.

Dan Shea:
What’s that, G-Mun?

Michael Greenburg:
I said Dan’s one of the older Stargate guys that I know.

Dan Shea:
Before I answer the Marcia question, do we know how G-Mun became G-Mun? I’m surprised you didn’t ask that question, David.

Michael Greenburg:
The nicknames?

Dan Shea:
Do you know where that came from? That was from Chris Judge. On Season One, we were all standing around, and Chris Judge said, “Greenburg, Greenburg, money, lots of money.” And then he called you Greenburg Money, then he shrunk it down to G-Money, and then G-Money became G-Mun. And that’s been the handle, and Chris Judge should get some residuals for that.

Michael Greenburg:
It was on my chair. They put it on my chair. On the back of my chair, it said G-Mun.

David Read:
That’s not one I sold. My godson’s friends call me D-Money, and there’s no reason why. I don’t know why, but they do.

Dan Shea:
Sorry, ask the Marcia question. I interrupted, pardon me.

David Read:
Marcia wanted to know, and she specifically said, “When you were a kid,” and I massaged it to, “When you were young,” and then clearly that didn’t get me any points. Dan, “When you were a kid, what were a couple of the stunts in movies that really captured your imagination, made you go, ‘I wanna do that. I wanna try that.’”

Dan Shea:
Stop even asking. I got it right here: The Great Escape.

Michael Greenburg:
Did you have a television when you were young? Did you have a television?

Dan Shea:
Steve McQueen, The Great Escape, when he was on that motorcycle and he took off his Nazi outfit and he had that sweatshirt on. He started going up those hills, and then he came to the fence, and then he was … and the Nazis were coming here and the Nazis were coming there, and he had no alternative but to take that motorcycle and go over top of the fence, and then his stunt double … Originally I thought it was Vince Dedrick Sr. who did that, but it wasn’t. It was a different guy. But the stunt double showed up and did that gag. The whole idea was that Steve McQueen did all of his own stunts. He didn’t do this one. There it is. This is cool. It’s funny ’cause you look at that, and nowadays that looks like nothing. That’s what the kids do in the park. But back then, that was the coolest gag you could ever imagine.

David Read:
Steve did that?

Dan Shea:
No. His stunt double came in and did that.

David Read:
His stunt double did. I apologize. I was paying attention to the bike.

Dan Shea:
The implication…they always like to pretend that they do everything… but Steve McQueen is the one guy who pretty much did all of his driving except that one particular motorcycle gag. So, for me, I wasn’t thinking about stunts. I just thought it was super, super cool that Steve McQueen would do that.

David Read:
Man, that is wild.

Dan Shea:
Great Escape.

David Read:
All right. The Great Escape.

Dan Shea:
But do you even remember? Do you even know about The Great Escape David Read? No, you don’t, do you? But you found it.

David Read:
I was aware of the film, and I know who Steve McQueen is, but other than that…

Michael Greenburg:
You gotta see it. It’s great.

David Read:
I intend to.

Michael Greenburg:
It’s a great film.

Dan Shea:
What about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood? The Quentin Tarantino one? They put Leo DiCaprio in the Steve McQueen part where he’s standing by the fence.

David Read:
I see.

Dan Shea:
“I’m looking for my baseball.” He said, “Well, you cannot go there.” “Yeah, but it’s all, and I need my baseball.” And “It’s strictly forbidden, you know that. Cool it, 20 days.” That was one of the coolest scenes of all time. It’s so cool that Tarantino felt obliged to duplicate it with Leo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

David Read:
Talk about a trip of a movie. That was a wild film. Mike, can you tell me about this?

Michael Greenburg:
That was when I left Stargate. I went to the Score sports channel for a few years, and then my brother was made the head of original programming for the NHL, Ross Greenburg, my brother, legend, two Hall of Fames. Boxing and television Hall of Fame. Anyway, he got this deal to do original programming, and we came up with the series Quest for the Stanley Cup, which is what that was, and that was the end of the 2019 season, where we followed St. Louis from last place at the Christmas break to winning the cup. They were literally in 31st place. Back then, there were only 31 teams. They were in 31st place after the Christmas break, and they ended up winning the cup. They brought in Bennington in goal from their farm team, and Craig Berube was the coach and Ryan O’Reilly ended up winning the Conn Smythe MVP. That was amazing. And I didn’t ask to drink out of the cup. They pulled me in there. I was at the monitors outside the dressing room. We had our cameraman in there, but they made me come in there and drink from the cup. That was thrilling. That was great. I’m glad they got publicity stills of it, ’cause it was really cool.

David Read:
It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing and going from 31 to 1. I’m a St. Louisian… I’m from about 80, 85 minutes outside of town, originally. I’m not a hockey guy, and I knew about that, and it was so mind-blowing. It was absolutely amazing.

Michael Greenburg:
It was incredible. It was an incredible journey. The Blues fans were amazing, and the parade, the whole thing. But them getting to that final game at the Boston Garden and pulling it off was unbelievable. Never witnessed anything quite like that.

Dan Shea:
This is sort of off-topic, but not really. I went to see Rachel Maddow a couple of nights ago, and I remember game seven, St. Louis, Stanley Cup Finals, there was myself and Ross Greenburg, Prez, your brother, and RDA. I thought you were on this thread too, but maybe you were physically at the game.

Michael Greenburg:
I was there at the game. Filming.

Dan Shea:
I remember sending a message to Rick and to Prez, Ross Greenburg, saying, “Don’t tell me the score of the game, ’cause I’m gonna be watching Rachel tonight.” And then Ross, your brother, said, “Hey, don’t tell me either, ’cause I’m gonna be watching Rachel. I’m not gonna be watching the game.” And then Big Boy, Minnesota boy, Richard Dean Anderson, hockey freak, he said, “Hey, that makes three of us.” So, three hockey freaks didn’t see game seven of the Stanley Cup Final ’cause we were watching Rachel Maddow.

Michael Greenburg:
But you watched Quest for the Stanley Cup, though.

Dan Shea:
Of course I watched that. I’d never miss that for a million years.

David Read:
It’s still on my list, Mike. I intend to watch it.

Dan Shea:
Hey, G-Money, if you touch the cup now, it’s gonna curse you. If you get the skates on and start playing again, you’re gonna be cursed if you try and win it, so that’s the thing. You should never touch the cup ’cause you’re never gonna be able to win it as a player.

Michael Greenburg:
Really?

Dan Shea:
Yeah, if you’re…

David Read:
Is that a thing?

Dan Shea:
… thinking about suiting up again, then you’re doomed. ‘Cause I would never touch it, ’cause there’s still a chance that I can make the show. That’s why I’m playing beer league, three days a week to be ready.

Michael Greenburg:
I don’t like walking on stairs when it snows, so. I think I’m good. I think I am.

Dan Shea:
OK, good. All right.

David Read:
Mike, what was your number?

Michael Greenburg:
My number?

David Read:
Yeah.

Michael Greenburg:
In hockey?

David Read:
Uh-huh.

Michael Greenburg:
On the MacGyver team?

David Read:
Uh-huh.

Michael Greenburg:
I don’t even remember. There is a picture circulating, though. I don’t remember my number, but we had a MacGyver team and a Stargate team.

David Read:
That’s cool.

Michael Greenburg:
I pretty much sucked, but they let me play. Not the greatest backwards skater.

Dan Shea:
But leader, you were a leader in the room.

Michael Greenburg:
I can’t say that my head was always in the game.

Dan Shea:
Big Boy was always screaming. We would go and play on a team here in Vancouver, and within two minutes, Rick would be yelling at the players, total strangers, that they were kind enough to invite us out to play for their ice time that they had had for 20 years. And within a minute, he’s screaming at them that they’re not playing properly.

Michael Greenburg:
Head’s not in the game.

Dan Shea:
Head’s not in the… And there was a camera guy, was it Stargate or MacGyver? I think it was… What game?

Michael Greenburg:
Trigg?

Dan Shea:
I think it was Stargate.

Michael Greenburg:
Trigg? Trigg.

Dan Shea:
No, not Trigg. Gary Viola.

Michael Greenburg:
Gary Viola.

Dan Shea:
He was on the ice.

Michael Greenburg:
MacGyver.

Dan Shea:
MacGyver. And Rick yelled at him to get off the ice, and he wound up freezing like a deer caught in the headlights. I think he wound up getting a penalty or something, too many men on the ice. And so, Rick just reamed him out, and he was never the same ever again.

David Read:
Rick’s serious about his hockey.

Michael Greenburg:
For some reason…

Dan Shea:
He is.

Michael Greenburg:
… there was yelling in the MacGyver hockey games. But not on set. No yelling on set. But in the hockey, there’s yelling.

Dan Shea:
Lotta yelling.

Michael Greenburg:
There’s pictures. We’ll get ’em for you, Dave.

David Read:
Please, I cannot wait. Guys, I have one more question for you both. Raj wants to know, Dan, I’ll start with you, “What advice would you give someone interested in being in your industry, your specific pocket of your industry?”

Dan Shea:
Get an education and don’t even bother because of AI. I don’t even know. I’m 85 years old and I’ve been doing this for decades, and I know everybody and I’m crapping my pants every day that I may never work again ’cause AI is gonna take over everything. So, if you’re just starting, there’s no residuals. There’s no 22 episodes. There’s no shows that go 10 years. Don’t even bother. Get a real job. That’s my advice.

Michael Greenburg:
Or my advice would be write a great script. Start with a story and then break it down and visualize it and write a great script. And because of the iPhones now, if you have friends who can act, go out and do it, make it. Make something, write something, make something. Go for it. I think writing and actually making a film is the way to go. If you’re passionate about it, you’ll find a way to do it.

David Read:
Guys, this has been great. Thank you so much.

Michael Greenburg:
You’re welcome.

David Read:
It means a lot to have you. I am so thrilled to have you both in our orbit here as we get ready to ramp up for this next thing that Stargate’s gonna do. We’ve got some time. It’s gonna take a little while before it gets to us, but the fact that places like Netflix are recognizing the IP as something worth continuing to preserve and share with new fans, I cannot tell you how often I have someone email me who says, “I’ve just discovered this show… ” Stargate “and I’m going through your channel now.” And it’s like, well, put my channel aside and go and watch the show because we’re gonna spoil it for you. So, come back to us when you’re done with the 354 episodes. But new people are always discovering this thing. It’s because it has stories that, in some cases, are more relevant now than they were when they were made. And that’s something that’s really special.

Dan Shea:
And they can all go on the boat cruise too, next January. Go to Miami.

David Read:
The cruise.

Dan Shea:
That’s the thing that I wanna do. I’m gonna be swabbing the deck. What I’m doing, I’m buying a mop. I’m gonna bring a mop to Miami and I’m gonna say to the promoters at GateWorld, “Hey, look it. I know I’m not very good-looking. I know I’m not very funny. I know the fans don’t really like me, but I got this big mop, and I can mop this deck for a week if you let me come on that cruise.” Because, I mean, Miami, and then they’re… Big Boy was saying they’re gonna be going to all these different islands and all this kind of stuff.

David Read:
Yes, there’s three destinations.

Dan Shea:
I’m gonna be swabbing the deck. If they don’t want me to come, I’m swabbing.

Michael Greenburg:
I can’t help but notice that, Dan Shea, the Shea, the S is lowercase.

Dan Shea:
Where?

Michael Greenburg:
Is there a reason for that?

Dan Shea:
Yeah, ’cause they’re belittling me like always. That little dig.

David Read:
Where?

Dan Shea:
There’s always the little dig.

Michael Greenburg:
In his little square.

David Read:
His square is not lowercase S.

Dan Shea:
It is. I just noticed that. D is a capital, but Shea, my last name, is small letter.

Michael Greenburg:
Diminished.

Dan Shea:
There’s always that little dig to the Irish guy. That’s the thing.

David Read:
I think you’re gaslighting me. Are you talking about…

Dan Shea:
No.

David Read:
… are you talking about this one?

Dan Shea:
No, there was another one.

Michael Greenburg:
No, that one. The one above.

Dan Shea:
The one that’s beneath my picture.

David Read:
Beneath your picture.

Michael Greenburg:
Maybe it wasn’t intentional, though.

Dan Shea:
No.

David Read:
Let’s see here. This one?

Dan Shea:
… but I can see the small…

Michael Greenburg:
Maybe it’s not intentional.

Dan Shea:
… Small S. ‘Cause, us Irish people have always had to endure that kind of stuff down through the decades, and we keep on hanging in. And now we’re swabbing decks…

David Read:
Think you’re gaslighting me, guys.

Dan Shea:
… on Stargate cruises.

David Read:
So, yes, the gatecruise.com, this is the place to go and check this out. They’ve got Ricky Dean Anderson and apparently people called him Ricky. I did not know this until a couple of directors came on and started calling him that. Anyway, and we have Amanda.

Michael Greenburg:
Nice.

David Read:
Michael Shanks.

Michael Greenburg:
Nice.

David Read:
Christopher is afraid of boats, so that’s not gonna happen. Rachel Luttrell.

Michael Greenburg:
Nice, she’s great.

David Read:
And Paul McGillion, and more cast members to be announced soon. This is fantastic, and it’s a Caribbean cruise. I am so fortunate because this is one of my favorite ways to vacation and my folks are actually going. They signed up before I did. And these rooms are selling out. They only have a specific number of rooms allocated to the boat, and it’s not the entire boat, but they can only fill it up to capacity of the theater, which is 1,000. And they’re well on their way. So, if this is something you’re remotely interested in in late January of 2027, go and check them out. And you don’t have to pay everything up front. There’s a down payment, so gatecruise.com. And I’m not being paid to share this information. I’m just gonna be a passenger who hopefully gets to interview some cool people. Guys, thank you so much.

Michael Greenburg:
Wait, we’re not getting paid?

Dan Shea:
No.

David Read:
I don’t think so.

Dan Shea:
But they’re gonna give me a little bit to swab the deck, a little tidbit.

Michael Greenburg:
I’m not doing it for the money anyway. I’m just doing it for the art.

Dan Shea:
G-Mun.

Michael Greenburg:
It’s the art.

Dan Shea:
G-Money.

Michael Greenburg:
The art’s there.

David Read:
Guys, it’s been a treat to have you. Thank you so much for spending so much time with us.

Dan Shea:
And also, David Read, Sharon Simms is quite funny. She doubles Amanda, so I think you’re considering having her on sometime.

David Read:
Not considering, we’re booking her in April.

Dan Shea:
Because she was gonna do the Grouse Grind with me today. She’s a monster physical specimen. She can do these Olympic-style things in the desert where they ride their bike and they run, and you’ll love her. She’s incredible.

Michael Greenburg:
I’ll head there now.

Dan Shea:
Huh?

Michael Greenburg:
I’ll head there now, and I’ll meet you there.

Dan Shea:
To the Grind?

Michael Greenburg:
Yeah. And we can beat Connor Bedard’s 37 minutes.

David Read:
So, Sharon Simms, she was Amanda’s stunt double, and we are going to be having her on in April. So, Dan, thank you for making that possible. And thank you both, of course.

Dan Shea:
And quickly, you can’t shut me up. But one of the reasons we had to get Sharon was because the double we had before her was a world-class rower. And she had huge, huge pipes. And in the scene, Amanda was supposed to wear her jacket like she always does. But then she decided to take off her jacket just for fun and wear a T-shirt. But my double had guns bigger than Arnie Schwarzenegger. And she had vascularity; big veins wrapped around her forearm. She had the big three, size, symmetry, and vascularity. Finally, Amanda had to put her jacket back on. And even through the jacket, you could see her Popeye forearms. So, we had to get rid of her and get Sharon Simms, who does not have huge pipes.

David Read:
Please point out this screenshot for me, because I’d love to see it. Lucky for Sharon. Guys, thank you. Mike, thank you. Dan, thank you.

Michael Greenburg:
Take care. Thanks, David, you’re the best.

Dan Shea:
See you guys.

David Read:
We’ll be in touch real soon. Bye now.

Dan Shea:
Thank you. Bye.

David Read:
That was Michael Greenburg and Dan Shea, writer, executive producer, and stunt coordinator for Stargate SG-1. These folks are the best. We are so lucky as fans to continue to have a line of communication with these guys years later. And the fact that the show’s coming back, I mean, it wouldn’t change the fact that we’re doing this show. I’m lucky to have them all the same. If you enjoy Stargate and you wanna see more content like this on YouTube, do give that like button a click. And if you enjoyed the conversation, do leave a comment. It does make a difference with the show and will continue to help us grow our audience. And do me a favor and click that bell notification so you get notices of any last-minute guest changes. And clips from this episode will be released over the course of the next few weeks on both the Dial the Gate and GateWorld.net YouTube channels. There’s a number of shows still heading your way. You can check out DialtheGate.com for all those details. Thank you, Marcia and Lockwatcher, for making this possible, and Antony as well for providing mod support on the backend. It’s a great space that we get to bring fans in and get to ask their questions for free. And I’m so tremendously lucky and thankful to have all of you here. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate. I appreciate you tuning in, and I’ll see you on the other side.