It isn’t every fan who goes from the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien to the set of Stargate SG-1 — and not once, but twice! Pierre Bernard of the infamous “Recliner of Rage” segment joins us LIVE to discuss how his ascension from La-Z-Boy recliner to the Stargate lexicon, and more!

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Timecodes
0:00 – Opening Credits
0:47 – Welcome and Episode Outline
02:25 – Guest Introduction
03:25 – What did it feel like as a fan, to have a guest spot and speaking role in Stargate?
08:00 – Tell us about how you got into graphic design.
12:32 – A Change with Advertising
18:49 – How does this lead to Conan
23:55 – A Bit for the Conan Show
29:43 – Pierre’s Exposure to Stargate
34:15 – Zero Hour and Working on the Set
40:58 – Creation Convention, Making Fun of Scifi Fans
48:38 – How Scifi has Progressed and the Future of Stargate
51:00 – Recliner of Rage Throw, Web site and Artwork
55:32 – DragonCon
1:00:54 – Pierre’s Collection
1:02:17 – “Stargate is Way Better Without Dr. Daniel Jackson”
1:06:13 – Any Artwork in Development?
1:06:42 – If asked, would you be interested in reprising O’Brien? Can you do a Recliner of Rage bit?
1:10:59 – Are You Comfortable and Angry?
1:11:10 – Would you step through the Stargate?
1:11:26 – What was your favorite convention that you attended?
1:11:39 – Did you get anyone else on Conan into Stargate?
1:12:14 – Were you the recipient of any cast pranks?
1:13:41 – Memories of Meeting Don S. Davis
1:16:53 – Who was your favorite SG1 antagonist?
1:18:20 – Dial the Gate Recliner of Rage Edition
1:19:16 – Thank You, Pierre!
1:22:03 – Post-Interview Housekeeping
1:24:42 – End Credits

***

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read:
Hello everyone. Thanks for tuning in to Dial the Gate, my name is David Read. This is Episode 88. We’re almost to 100. Man, oh man. Pierre Bernard from the Recliner of Rage segments on Conan O’Brien’s show and Sergeant O’Brien in SG-1 is standing by with us and we’re gonna bring him in in just a minute. Before we get started, if you like Stargate and you wanna see more content like this on YouTube, it would mean a great deal if you click the Like button. It makes a difference with YouTube’s algorithm and will definitely help the show grow its audience. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend and if you wanna get notified about future episodes, click the Subscribe icon. Giving the Bell icon a click will notify you the moment a new video drops and you’ll get my notifications of any last-minute guest changes. This is key if you plan on watching live. Clips from this live stream will be released over the course of the next several days on both the Dial the Gate and GateWorld.net YouTube channels. This is a live show so I will ask the guests the questions that I have prepared and we will go through a back and forth. About midway through the episode, I will invite the questions that the moderators have been collecting from you in the audience to be invited to the guests. Go ahead and start submitting those questions at YouTube.com/DialtheGate for Pierre now and we’ll get them later on in this episode. With this particular episode, we actually have art submitted by Pierre, so we’re also gonna be talking about those as well while we go through the program. Without further ado, let me introduce to you the man of the hour, the man of the Recliner of Rage himself, Mr. Pierre Bernard Jr. Hello, sir.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Hello, everyone.

David Read:
How are you?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Greetings.

David Read:
Greetings. Live long and prosper. Absolutely. How are you, my friend?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I’m pretty good. When I did that just now, it dawned on me, we need a hand salute for Stargate.

David Read:
We do, indeed.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
We don’t have a salute. Only, military thing, that’s just military. We need to have something that’s exclusively Stargate.

David Read:
Rick, oftentimes, he would do this and then give the peace sign or something. Or, like when he’s saying goodbye to Maybourne, he takes the flowers and flaps them too. I have to think about that. Fandom needs to get on that.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
That’s gotta get the fan thinking.

David Read:
Oh, geez. You had an opportunity that many fans can only dream about. Not only did you have a walk-on role, but you had a speaking part as well.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yes.

David Read:
I want to get into the story of how that came about, but what did that feel like as a fan?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
That was unreal. That’s one of those memories where I’ll probably forget a lot of things, including my name. I will never forget the day I went into that room and stepped on that ramp to the gate and saw it in front of me. That just blew my mind. I believe they did catch that on camera and that was shown on air. That moment was as genuine as it could ever get. Literally touching that gate and realizing, “This is where I’m at.” Somehow, my graphic career got me into the room on the set of my favorite TV show and I’m touching the main prop. That moment was as surreal as it got. That moment and the moment of meeting Amanda Tapping. When she walked around that corner from her trailer and she was there, my brain was like…

David Read:
There are no words.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
There are no words.

David Read:
Especially with Amanda.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
There are no words.

David Read:
She is a truly special human being and is one of, I’m sure you realize this as well, one of the most genuine people you will ever meet. She’s the real deal. She is the personification of grace and poise and beauty and intelligence. There, she has it all.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yes. I think I can safely say, my years in working on Conan, I’ve encountered a lot of celebrities. I know, because of their status, they don’t like to be bothered and stuff, so they put up a certain type of wall that you just know not to cross. Don’t bother them and if you see them, don’t even greet them in some cases, just pretend they’re not in that space. What I experienced when I went to Vancouver, which I found was extremely unique, was that everyone was approachable. No one had that barrier. Even when I met Rick, he’s MacGyver!
If ever I expected someone to have people around him to keep people at a distance…but he was approachable, he was talkable. He engaged me. I was scared. I’m thinking, “Someone’s gonna come jump any moment and go… ‘Get away, all right, all right, get away, leave him alone.'” That moment never happened. The people out there, everyone on that set, from craft services, to the actors, to the writers, producers, everyone was approachable, everyone was nice. Even when the cameras were off, because often you think, “Well, they gotta be nice, the cameras are running, they’re not…” No, when the cameras were off, they were even nicer, which was even scarier. The big takeaway for me from being out there was how genuinely nice everyone really is out there on that set. I think that’s what made that show so great. Who they are came across in their acting and their performance on the show and the people involved in producing the show and putting it together. Their niceness, their core values, came out and it just came into the show and I think that’s what made it so good.

David Read:
You had the benefit of being there when that show was in its eighth and tenth seasons, respectively. It really was, at that point, a cemented family. They were going into, basically, bonus land with their seasons and they knew it. They had an appreciation for the material. Not that they didn’t before, but they knew that they were there because the fans loved them and you were an exemplification of that. You really were.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Thank you.

David Read:
Tell us about how you got into graphic design. How old were you when you started drawing? Tell us about your backstory. Where are you from? Were there family members that got you into this?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I’m originally from Brooklyn, New York, born in Bedford-Stuyvesant. As far as art goes, I’ve been drawing as far back as I can really remember. I have old coloring books from when I was a child. I still have some original artwork that I created with pattern designs, which is something we’ll talk about. Pattern designing goes back to, I would say, age three or four.
I really took interest in repeated images. My dad was very encouraging as far as art being a hobby. He wanted me to get a real career, and in his case, he wanted me to be a jeweler. He did watch repair and he wanted me to learn to do that as a trade to make money. He told me I could do my art as a hobby, but once I put the loop on my eye, I knew this was not something that was for me. That went nowhere. I pursued the art; my mom was very encouraging. When it came to high school, finally leaving Catholic, what you call it, grade school, the people at my parochial school recommended this school called High School of Art & Design in New York. I applied and I got in and that was the beginning of my art career. I did four years at Art & Design in New York. Towards the end, I got into the internship program. Something that rarely is mentioned… my internship was with Neal Adams of Continuity Associates. I was a huge fan of Neal. I collected comic books and stuff; it never dawned on me that someday I would actually meet the man. During that time, prior to starting that internship, I interviewed at a couple places. I interviewed at DC Comics, Marvel, Archie and with Neal. At Marvel, I met a couple of people up there and somehow, I don’t remember exactly at what point I knew Joe Rubinstein, if it was from Continuity… Somehow, I knew Joe Rubinstein. I met him at a comic gallery in New York, but I’m not sure. I don’t remember exactly how that happened. All I do remember is that one day I was in Marvel’s lobby in New York and Rubinstein saw me there, he took me in and he introduced me to Marie Severin. From there, Marie introduced me to a couple of other people in the bullpen and there was a guy named Morri Kormat– Kormachi or Komuchyoh. I don’t remember how to pronounce his last name but he was a bullpen artist and he took me under his wing because he loved my lettering style. He started training me. He gave me a bunch of blank pages and would have me copy a comic book, bring ’em back, criticize it, give me more pages. It went on for a while. In the meantime, I started my internship with Neal. I remember at one point a critique Neal gave me, I still remember this critique, and it hurt. I showed him some comic pages I drew and he sat there, he looked at it, and then he hands them back to me, he goes, “Nice lettering.” He went back to work. Needless to say, a few months later, Marvel Comics gave me my first lettering job. It worked. After Marvel, somehow, I got connected with Jack Adler. I don’t remember exactly how that worked out, but Jack loved what I was doing and started giving me regular work at DC. At the time they couldn’t find people to work on a lot of the horror magazines. I told them, “Yeah, I love that stuff.” If you look at the horror magazines from the late ’80s to about the early ’90s, that was all me doing a lot of lettering in those magazines. At some point, once I left college and I started working, I went into advertising and this is when things started changing. The comic lettering started to go away. I started focusing more on storyboards and comps with a company called Dancer, Fitzgerald & Sample in New York. They’re in the Chrysler Building. I did that for a couple years. After a couple of years there, I went freelance and that wasn’t working out. Then out of the blue, an ex of mine called me up. She was working at Newsweek Magazine and told me they needed someone to help them with comp presentation. At the time I remembered I wanted to be an illustrator, so I was dead focused on being an illustrator, which was not what my dad wanted to hear. He would come home, find me sitting in the living room and you know the type of conversations that will occur.

David Read:
“What are you doing with your life?”

Pierre Bernard Jr:
“Why aren’t you working?” When she called up about this job, Newsweek Magazine needed help putting together a presentation. I figured, “You know what? I’m gonna take this job.” She told me it was a couple of days. I figured, “Take the job. I’ll do it. This way my dad will be happy. “He sees I’m working again. It makes life easier.

David Read:
Here’s the pay check right here.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
He won’t find me sitting around in the living room. I took the job at Newsweek. It went for a week, they liked it, they asked me to come back the following week. I came back the following week and before I knew it the department had four different art directors who worked on different clients. What they were doing was creating advertising for the magazines. They had different, each one had different clients that they worked with, and they needed presentations created. They needed someone who could work quick, really fast, which is something I’m really capable of doing. Each one would say, “You, can you work on my project? Can you work on my project?”

David Read:
They’re pulling at you from different directions.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yes. It was getting very rough. It became a full-time job, five days a week. When I first booked the gig, I thought it was only a couple of days. I asked for the highest amount of pay that I could get per hour as a freelancer, figuring it’s two days of work. Because that was already established as my pay and now, we went into a five-day-week kind of situation, needless to say, within a few months, my student loans were paid off. Newsweek was incredible, that was a magic moment. The only reason that ended was because at some point they were getting into tax issues with their setup. They brought in this new person who – at the time, the Macintosh was brand new – came and called us all into the office and basically said, “If you can figure out how to use this machine in the next two weeks, you all will have a job. If you can’t, you’re gone.” Given that none of us had computers, they weren’t buying us computers, in two weeks I was gone. Within a few months I met up with a friend of mine. We rented some space in the city and we bought computers. At the time, a Macintosh computer was like buying a car.

David Read:
It was a big deal.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
It was huge deal. I still save the receipt because when I tell people how much this thing cost me…It was a Macintosh FX. It only had two gigs of RAM. I bumped it up to eight gigs of RAM. The hard drive, I think, was 200 and something megabytes. Not gigabytes, megabytes. The printer was this huge NTX printer. It’s a huge, bulky thing. The Wacom tablet was this huge, bulky thing. All in all, I spent $17,000 on this computer. This was money I had saved from Newsweek, but I looked at it as an investment. I’m so glad I did that because I was able to self-learn and self-train using those programs.

David Read:
This is before YouTube or such and such for dummies and all of that.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Totally. None of this stuff exists.

David Read:
You had to figure it out.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Totally. Photoshop at the time, when you applied filter, was an issue of typing in numbers into a box and then clicking and hoping what comes out is what you want. There were no previews, no anything. Illustrator was a huge pain to work with. But I learnt, I trained myself on the programs and over time, somehow Prudential Securities came into the picture. I think someone I knew contacted me that they were looking for someone to do graphic design on the computer at Prudential Securities. At the time I thought, “OK, I’ll go back to a nine-to-five.” I was so glad I did because this took me in another direction entirely. Given that I was kind of new with the computer, now I was going to work on Wall Street. Wearing a suit and tie every day felt freaking cool. I think the coolest thing; to be wearing a suit and tie and carrying your briefcase and you’re a graphic artist. That was such a cool life. Working at Prudential was a dream. It was fun, even though there was a ton of work. I kept long hours there. It was just fun work, going on press runs and press checks. It was just being in that financial environment, I know a lot of people might think it could be boring, but I found it exciting and fun.

David Read:
How does this lead to Conan? Animating on Conan?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
What led to Conan, prior to all of this, goes even further back, back to college days. I went to Parsons School of Design. They had an office where they had job postings. One day, I answered a post saying they needed a graphic artist temporarily to do some graphics. They didn’t say exactly what, but it was illustration work. I called up and it turned out it was NBC. What they needed was an artist to come in a couple of days a week for a year to fill in for their regular artist on the David Letterman Show. I applied for it and I did that during that time. Somehow, they no longer needed me and we didn’t keep in touch. But years later, going towards the Prudential end of things, this was around the time when Carson retired, Leno took the whole thing and Conan was coming in. The person I worked for years ago remembered me. She called me up and said, “I need an illustrator because Letterman took the staff away and we need an illustrator for this new show that’s coming up. Would you be interested to come in for a couple of days a week?” Talk about timing!

David Read:
This is why you never change your phone number, folks. Right there.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Totally, totally. You never change your number and always be open to opportunities.

David Read:
Wherever they come from.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Even if it might seem weird, as long as it’s nothing that’s going to make you uncomfortable. I would say be open to the opportunity.

David Read:
Try it.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Always, try it. So, I told her yes. At the time, my dad was dealing with cancer, and he was towards the end of his life. I figured at some point I was going to have to leave them anyway because of what was going on at home because they needed so much of my time. I worked out a thing with the guy in our art department, where I could go work at NBC a couple of days a week and I would give them a couple of days a week at Prudential, and everyone seemed to be happy with that. The stuff I was doing at NBC was illustration and I could illustrate in my sleep. I’m not bragging but it wasn’t strenuous work. I could do it and go home and be with my family. But over time, NBC started adding the days. They needed more and more of my time and eventually I just realized within a couple months that…

David Read:
You can’t do it alone.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
…having the dual job wasn’t working, especially with what’s going on at home. I figured I’ll take on the easier job, which was NBC and I would just leave them when things were done. When my dad passed, I would just leave and go look for another job. At one point, which was even funnier, I got a call from someone at Letterman. I won’t say who, but someone from their art department wanted to know if I would be interested in coming to work for them. At the time, I didn’t know. I thought about it. I did think about it. But then I thought, the reason I took NBC on was because of what’s going on at home. I don’t wanna move around and stuff. I just wanna do my job and go home.

David Read:
Especially if they’ve been good to you. Why rock that?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Why rock that? So, I turned that down and I stayed with Conan. I’m so glad I did because in the early days of Conan, if you’ve seen any of the early tapes of his interviews, what do you call it, right knee of his got a lot of action. It was bouncing up and down, a lot of hair stuff. It was like watching a deer in headlights. I was like, “My God, what did I just do to my career?”

David Read:
It’s all riding on this one guy and whether or not he’s successful with his audience and with his guests. That’s really what it comes down to. The show is invested in that and you doing everything you can, all of you, to make that as great as possible.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Make it happen. Not to mention, I realized at the time, given what’s going on at home, I need an income. I cannot not have an income. That was worrying me, whether this show was going to make it. There were days you couldn’t even get people off the street to come upstairs. It was that kind of stuff. But over time, I think within a year or two, things started to feel better and NBC started extending the contracts, I think, from six-month to longer periods and things were looking good. I think it was about four years into the show at this point, my dad had already passed away and I was still there. The thought of leaving wasn’t high on my thing anymore because I was having fun. The work was fun; the illustration stuff they were having me do was fun. I was pretty much still keeping to myself up there. One day, one of the writers asked me if I would be willing to do a bit and stand on the street corner in Rockefeller Center for a photo shoot, hold it, being one of those street vendors selling watches. At the time, I thought to myself, “No, I’m not doing that. That’s some stereotype thing you want me to do.” Not to mention, I have a lot of friends who work downtown at Prudential. “They’re going to see this,” I’m thinking in my head.

David Read:
Correct. It’s a small city.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I’m thinking, “I don’t wanna be seen wearing a sweatsuit like that, coming from suit and tie.” I don’t know what it was inside of me, but something said, “You know what, Pierre? Go out of your comfort level. Do it. Have fun with it.” I told them yes and I shot that picture. As weeks progressed and they’re doing their comedies, they would ask me to do different things. One was be Mr. Spock at a money exchange thing. They were some weird stuff, but I did ’em. One day, I think we’re going into four or five years into the show, one day one of the writers, Bryan Stack, calls me up on a Monday morning and he goes, “Pierre, how was your weekend?” We’re talking on the phone. He’s a couple floors above and we’re talking and he’s asking, “What did you do this weekend?” I tell him, “Oh, particularly that weekend, I was trying to convert my record collection into MP3 files. I bought this thing called an iMic that wasn’t working.” I started explaining to him what was gone wrong with it and he goes, “You know what? I gotta go, but could you do me a favor? Write this down in an email and send it to me.”

David Read:
This could be a bit.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I’m thinking to myself, in my head, “Write this down? Send it?” “You gotta go?” I did it. I wrote it down in an email and I sent it to him. It was a later afternoon, I’m called downstairs to come to the studio for a blocking and I’m thinking, “All right. They’re going to use me on something.” No one explained to me what it was. Because I never was outside of my office, I never really got haircuts. My hair was all over the place; it was kept but unkept. I came down, I did the blocking. I figured, I’m not gonna really be on camera per se so how I look wasn’t an issue. I would say about half an hour prior to airtime, going live, they come to me. They call me back down and they give me a script. Bryan goes, “Pierre, you’re going to read what you just sent me today. I made a couple of changes but you’re going to basically read what you just told me today and you’re gonna sit in that recliner.”

David Read:
That’s how it was born?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
That was how it was born.

David Read:
So, that was your first bit, converting records to MP3?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Live talking bit. That was my first talking bit.

David Read:
Talk about being outside of your comfort zone! They just threw this at you and said, “Go for it.” They didn’t say, “Would you be comfortable with this? Is this something that interests you? We need this.”

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Up to that point, I always said “yes,” so they didn’t see a problem. I think that’s one of the things that I was mentioning earlier; whenever an offer comes up to you, if it’s not something that’s gonna put you way out of your comfort zone, be prepared to say yes.

David Read:
One way or another, do it.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yes, that’s it. I remembered when they first asked me to do those still photos, I don’t believe I was the first person they approached. The other people who I worked with at the time, they said no and they didn’t wanna do it. When they came to me, I said yes. I’m so glad I did say yes. I could have easily said, “No, I’m not comfortable with it.” But in my head I thought, “I gotta try it.”

David Read:
Here’s the thing. In watching you for all these years, you put yourself out there to be laughed at. You’re recognizing that you have a sense of timing that is just a little different, but that makes for humor, that the average Joe watching at home can say, “You know what? I like this guy. I like him a lot.” You were willing to go out there and say, “You know what? Let’s do this bit. That was a thing that was happening to me this weekend. This is what I was doing. If you think it’s funny, let’s go for it.”

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Exactly.

David Read:
Let the audience decide.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Exactly.

David Read:
Then they just kept on doing it? Wow.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
We kept on doing it. Eventually, I think it was the fifth one in was Stargate. This was a weekend where I was working on an art project. I used to do pointillism, and I needed something on in the background and at the time, I had an episode, I had Channel 9 in New York on and they were showing reruns of Stargate. The episode “Small Victories,” was on. I didn’t know the title at the time. All I know is that I heard it, there’s characters, I saw them running around in a submarine and these little things moving around and stuff and I stopped what I was doing and I’m like, “Wow, this is really cool. What is this?” That was my intro to Stargate.

David Read:
“Small Victories,” that’s a good show.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
From that moment, I was hooked.

David Read:
Did you go get the DVDs at this point? How did you approach the show?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
No, there weren’t DVDs yet. I don’t think it existed yet for Stargate at that point. At least, I wasn’t aware of it. I made it a point to watch the scheduling when Stargate was being repeated or shown on TV. Eventually, I found it live on cable and I forgot at what season. I think it had to have been around late Season Six or maybe early Season Seven when I actually started watching it in real time on cable. I don’t remember which cable channel at the time. Along with the repeat. Anyway, that was that weekend. I saw that episode and Monday came and Bryan called up. At this point, I knew the routine. He was my therapist, I sat on the phone couch and I told him my problem. I told him about the show and he told me to write it up and I wrote it up and next thing I knew, we did it.

David Read:
So, this is the “SG-1 is better without Daniel Jackson bit?”

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Correct. Exactly.

David Read:
That’s Season Six that Corin Nemec had replaced Michael. By Season Seven, Michael was back. You had to have been exposed to some Season Six episodes at that point, at the very least.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
It was Season Six. That sounds about right.

David Read:
Wow, so you do the bit, everyone gets a huge laugh out of it.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Did the bit.

David Read:
Conan says his obligatory, “I think probably two people in the audience recognize what that is,” gets a huge laugh. Then what?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
A couple weeks later, I saved this letter. I have to find it. I received a letter and it basically said they thought the bit was funny and if I was ever in Vancouver, that they would love to give me a guest spot on the show. At the time, I thought I was being spoofed by the staff. The writers were constantly ribbing me going, “I bet you got an ego now that you have a little fan base, people know you.” I figured that letter was a joke on their end. I wasn’t going to play along with it, I brought the letter to our head writer and I said, “Sweeney, I got this in the mail. Did you see this?” Of course he didn’t see it, but he goes, “What is this?” I tell him what it is and he made a copy of it and he said he’s gonna look into it. I’m thinking, “Yeah right, you’re gonna look into it.”

David Read:
I’m gonna be up a creek. This’ll be the next bit.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
But lo and behold, I saved the voicemail, I got a phone call, and a message was left on my phone, my cell phone and it was from Vancouver. They wanted to follow up on plans on my coming out. I wasn’t fully aware that my writer, the head writer, had already started contacting them and things were already rolling.

David Read:
He was doing that kind of stuff.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I got this phone call on my cell telling me this stuff and I’m sort of caught off guard. It turned out they wanted me out there. When I got out there, they were under the impression that I was a professional actor doing a bit.

David Read:
“Guys, I’m a graphic designer who does the occasional comedy bit. Here you go.”

Pierre Bernard Jr:
The joke’s on them. But everything just followed accordingly. Talk about perfect timing.

David Read:
The episode, which is “Zero Hour,” dovetailed with another sketch for the show. They got mileage out of this as well, going up there and shooting this thing. If you watch the Conan segment, a couple of the shots are different too. They maximize the humor element for the Conan episode, even handing over a couple of shots that are focused more on you which I thought was just fantastic. It really worked. Tell us about working on set. Who directed “Zero Hour?” Let me see, I should’ve known that. Was that a DeLuise episode? Let’s see here.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I don’t think it was DeLuise, but I don’t remember offhand.

David Read:
Let’s have a look. “Zero Hour,” you shared the scene with RDA and Peter West directed the episode.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yes, Peter.

David Read:
You took Gary Jones’ position for this episode and were working with Rick. Tell us about this experience.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Working with Rick was a dream. I was a fan of MacGyver. Meeting him for the first time, again, like I said earlier, I expected to meet someone who was going to be nice to me, but they keep that wall in place. There would be people around to say, “All right, Pierre, it’s time to move on,” kind of thing. But that never occurred. He was just so genuinely nice and wanted to know about me and talk. When the camera was off he was constantly telling me, “Check out the tuna fish sandwich on the catering table.”

David Read:
The catering was good. I really loved the catering, gotta say.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
At one point, somehow photography came up and it just so happened that I guess at the time, he had a curiosity in 3D photography. I happened to love ViewMaster and I was into 3D photography as well. We started sharing that and talking about that and I sent him a 3D camera. I don’t know if he ever used it or not. When I went back out there the second time, we did meet briefly. At the time, we talked about 3D cameras, and it just so happened the timing was perfect. I was in my zombie makeup and Amanda Tapping happened to be in the area. The three of us pretended to be zombies and shot it with a 3D camera. I tried to find the actual photos so I can show you guys, I don’t know if you can see that.

David Read:
Hang on here. I see you and her.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
It’s a cool photo when you look at it with 3D glasses because their arms are sticking out, coming at you.

David Read:
Wow, that’s legit.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
It was a cool photo we shot. They called me out the second time. The second time coming out there was partly courtesy of a guy named John Murphy, I believe is his name. John, he was a producer and director, he was directing. I think the title of the bit was called Behind the Gate. At the time, they were beginning to introduce, I believe, Stargate Atlantis. He played a part in having me come out there to interview the cast. That was another one of those moments where “I can’t believe this is happening.” I get the call, and I’m asked, “Would you be interested in interviewing the cast of Stargate and this new show we’re going to start called Stargate Atlantis?” “Duh. Of course I’m gonna say yes.”

David Read:
Of course I’m gonna say yes. You crazy?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
There was no way I’m gonna say no. I was flown out there again, you talk about lightning striking twice. I got to sit and interview all these great people and there’s so much incredible behind-the-scenes stuff that didn’t make it on air because our show shot, Conan shot, a lot of stuff. He showed some of it and I think Behind the Gate showed some of it as well. There is so much cool interaction that occurred out there. It’s the memories that I’ll never forget.

David Read:
It was a total of three visits up there?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yeah.

David Read:
OK, the third was the “200.”

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yeah, the final one, again, another call. I’m telling you, at this point, I did not become jaded or take this for granted. Getting that third call, it was, “Whoa, you guys want me again? Of course I’m gonna do it.” I can’t believe my luck in life that three times like this, I’m being called out there. I went out and it just so happens right next door on that lot was the sound stage to Battlestar Galactica. A woman, I regret, I don’t remember her name off the bat. If she’s listening or is aware, I really apologize for not remembering ’cause I’m really bad with names. I believe her title was a producer. She worked for NBC, but I don’t remember her title exactly. She saw me on the set of Stargate. We had broken for lunch or something and she goes, “Would you wanna come over and meet Grace Park?” I was like, “Yeah.”

David Read:
Yes. Absolutely. “You want me to meet a Cylon?”

Pierre Bernard Jr:
She took me over, I met her. It was so cool. When they took me on a quick tour of the set and the bridge room where she shot Adama.

David Read:
Yes, on the CIC table.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I don’t know, I think I sent you a photo of me and her doing that scene.

David Read:
I have it right now. You wanna talk about another great show? Galactica.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
It was fantastic.

David Read:
Terrific.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Really fantastic.

David Read:
What an experience, man. Holy cow. To have your fandom recognized and also the Creation convention as well that they shot. They shot that clip as well.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
The Creation Convention, that was the first time I met Gary Jones.

David Read:
Yes. Walter.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
He’s a fantastic guy. I wanna say we’re friends. I hope I am not overstepping my boundaries by saying we’re friends. He’s an amazing artist. I’ve seen him draw and he’s just incredible. We did a lot of interacting and stuff and shot a lot of stuff at that convention, which I don’t think ever aired. It was funny, it was great material.

David Read:
It was. I have a bit of an issue with the convention bit. As a sci-fi fan, growing up as a sci-fi fan, there is a certain element of stigma that goes along with it. “Oh, you like that.” Especially coming from a small town of 5,000 people. If you don’t think that the sun rises and sets on the world of football, then there’s something wrong with you. They did kind of play that element in that bit, especially when you’re talking with the gentleman who’s giving the joke about, I think, temperature. There is a certain element of buffoonery that they were playing up. That really just kind of makes me jaded. MTV did this for a while as well. They had some kind of a fandom show as well that took potshot after potshot at weird people that the average normie out there could laugh at. I wasn’t thrilled with that particular sequence. Even though it did get to highlight you and you got to go to the Creation convention and got taped and shown to the world, I really walked away feeling from that bit like they were saying, “Look at all those weirdos. Aren’t you glad you’re not one of them? But Pierre, he’s a good guy, he’s one of us.” Did you get that vibe at all? I mean, talking about it years later.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I would have to rewatch that particular segment because I honestly don’t remember it that well. That said, what you’re saying is a point that I’m very sensitive to and it forms a lot of my opinion about people who attend conventions and stuff of that nature. It drives me crazy when people who are not fans then want to jump on board and they become these wannabes. They somehow want to own the environment when they’re not really sincere about wanting to be part of the environment. It goes to what you’re talking about. They see people like me and the other fans as people to make fun of. That bugs me, that totally bugs the hell out of me. That said, I just know they exist and I tend to ignore them. In terms of what you’re saying about that segment, from my perspective, I don’t remember it. Like I said, I don’t remember that moment well, but one of the things I’ve always kept in my head whenever I do any kind of comedy bit is that I know there are people in that audience. Some will laugh with me and some will laugh at me. Maybe there will be more people who are laughing at me than they are laughing with me, but guess what? I don’t care.

David Read:
Good for you.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Once the bit is over, I’m having fun, which is the important thing. It’s my motto. If I’m not having fun, I’m not doing it. You can’t convince me to do it. But I’m having fun, in some cases I’m getting some kind of payment for it and then after it’s over, I get to go home and be among the things I love. I don’t care if you’re laughing at me. I would prefer you’re laughing with me, but if you’re laughing at me, knock yourself out. I couldn’t care less about it.

David Read:
You’re doing this professionally. You’re not repairing watches. You are doing something that you love to do and that’s terrific.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
When I go to comic conventions, for example, I remember a couple years ago. I mentioned this on Facebook and a couple of people, didn’t take offense, but they were questioning my thinking on this. I mentioned that there should be some kind of exam, a license given to people in order to attend a comic convention. I really believe that. There was one year I went to a convention and there was what they call a booth babe there and the guys wanted to take photos with her and stuff. I was standing at that booth because I think the owner of that booth at the time knew who I was and he wanted a photo with me and the people at his booth. She made a comment to me. I guess she’s not a fan, obviously, but she made a comment to me…

David Read:
The booth babe, the employee at the booth?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
The booth babe. She… employee made a comment to me. She didn’t say it loud for anyone to hear it, but to me, thinking I would agree, she did not like these guys coming near her, taking the photos. Some of them smell. I’m hearing the negativity. Of course, some of them smell, they don’t shower.

David Read:
Some of us are not that great at it. I don’t care if you’re a sci-fi fan or not, some of us just are not that great at it.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Hearing the way she was talking, it went beyond that. She just simply did not want to be there.

David Read:
Condescending.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
She didn’t want to have any part of it. She sounded like someone who felt she was above it all. My thinking is, “I get it. This is a job, you’re an attractive woman, that’s why they hired you.”

David Read:
It’s a trade show.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
But quite frankly, there are attractive women who are fans that could have been hired for that job. I feel the comic environment, we wanna be open to everyone. We don’t wanna become that exclusive club and shut people out the way we’ve been shut out of certain things. But I think if you’re going to go to Comic Con, to make that experience right, you need to have real comic people in that environment. Everyone who’s a wannabe fan who just wants to be there to be able to tell their friends, “Yeah, I was around the geeks,” they shouldn’t be there. They should be thrown out. They should be shunned. Even with the studio, if you’re not serious about the fandom, go away or create your own convention. I’m sure you’ll get a few sucker fans who will come to your convention. Give us a space where real fans, people like me, can come in and be appreciated and feel comfortable and not feel like we’re being made fun of or mocked for what we love.

David Read:
I think that in the last few years, especially the last decade, the ascendancy of fandom has taken place. I think that Star Wars has obviously become very mainstream. Iron Man and the MCU that came after it have become absolutely mainstream. Star Trek and a couple of the others still feel they’re trying to tap into that. I don’t know how big of a fan you are of the JJ-verse Star Trek movies. They’re trying to be more mainstream accessible, like Star Wars. But Stargate, I still get that vibe when I talk with people about it or I talk with people in the industry about it, they’re, “Oh, Stargate. That’s cute and all.” It was on for 17 seasons, for 350 hours of television. They were doing something right and I think that its star is still set to rise.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
On the one hand, I’m excited and hopeful that Stargate will become a huge thing. But on the other hand, I don’t want it to become huge in the sense that it becomes a celebrity-driven vehicle.

David Read:
Tell us good stories.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I want it to be about the story. I want it to be about the character. I don’t wanna find out that The Rock is playing General O’Neill. I don’t, or what’s her name? The singer is playing Amanda Tapping. You know what I mean? I hope it never gets to that kind of show. I’ve been reading lately that there are talks going on and they’re looking at reboots and stuff. I’m thinking, “all right, I hope whoever is putting this together is not going to cast the latest rapper and R&B singers to play the roles.” I just hope Stargate will always be about the story and not about who’s in the role.

David Read:
Right, and about the characters themselves.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
And what celebrity is being followed.

David Read:
Agreed. Before I get to the artwork that you’ve sent me, can you tell… show me a little bit about what’s behind you here? I love your blanket for one. Is it a blanket or a throw?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yeah, it’s a throw. It’s one of the new creations of mine.

David Read:
This is so cool.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I don’t know if you can see the dots on there.

David Read:
Yes.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
It’s the circles.

David Read:
The circles.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
It’s all from my stuff that I’m selling on my website now, pierrebernard.com.

David Read:
Pierrebernard.com. All right.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I should say pierrebernardjr.com.

David Read:
J-R?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
J-R.

David Read:
pierrebernardjr.com. Let’s check it out here. Did you send me a picture of that?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yes, I think I did.

David Read:
I’m thinking that you did. Let me have a look here.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I think maybe you sent it.

David Read:
Pierre Bernard Wearable Designs, is it Wearable Designs?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yes, Wearable Designs.

David Read:
OK. Let’s pull that up. Very cool, man.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Thank you.

David Read:
All right. How long has this been going?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
The website literally is fresh. It’s only been two months on the website. I’ve been doing circles for the last, I would say, the last 20, 15 years at least. Fifteen years would be 15, 20.

David Read:
I’ve seen you, a lot of your art. I’ll go back to what’s also behind you here in just a minute here. Because we’re on the subject, a lot of your art does have this concept of circles. Are you attracted to the design or the pattern? What is it that keeps on pulling you back to that kind of look?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
To begin with, circles have always been something I love doing. Whenever I would be on the phone talking to people, sometimes I would have a notepad nearby. I would be doodling circles while talking. One day, I just looked at it and thought, “Oh, this would make a great background pattern in something.” I used it, I was using it as background. At some point, it evolved and I suddenly realized I can do drawings with it and I started doing a series of portraits of different celebrities. This was about four or five years ago. I found some Japanese ink gel pens in different colors that I could work with, that I can do really detailed portraits. I did a bunch of portraits of Prince, Lucy, David Groh, the robot from The Touch, Comus from Ghost in the Shell, the Yellow Submarine. From those little circles, I suddenly one morning woke up and thought, “What if I did these things huge on a canvas?” I did a picture of Agent Carter and that turned out well. From that, I started moving into doing abstract images with just circles, non-representational, and that kept evolving more and more. My love for patterns comes from when I was young, a child, and that was always a reoccurring theme in my artwork. I would throw patterns into the background. I got, one day, this idea, “What if I created some of these patterns with circles?” That evolved into this; everything occurred. One morning I’m listening to something, and a light bulb goes off, and I try it on paper or canvas, and it kept evolving into what I’m doing now with these fabric designs.

David Read:
And of course, you wanna talk about circles?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yes.

David Read:
The Stargate itself.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yes.

David Read:
I think subliminally, there’s something going on there probably too.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Probably. Mentioning Stargate, I have a pattern I’ve been working on for the last six months. I was hoping I would get it done, I could speed it up to show you something on air. It’s a Stargate-related pattern. I figured I’m not gonna rush it because I find I need to take my time and work these things out to make it look right.

David Read:
We’ll have you back. When it’s ready, you let me know and we’ll make it happen for sure.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Definitely.

David Read:
This is so cool, man. I’m checking out some of your designs here. Let me pull up a couple of these others just for a second here. I’ve been showcasing the circles that you’ve done on screen, then Dragon Con, drawing workshop, art supplies. This is really cool.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Dragon Con was so cool. After the Dragon Con Recliner Rage that I did, complaining about the badge, they invited me out one year and my god, talk about the greatest convention on Earth.

David Read:
I’ve heard. I’ve heard. Not had the chance yet.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Dave, trust me on this, everyone who’s listening, if you’ve never been, you wanna go to a real comic convention or real convention that’s about us, the fans and not about nonsense, go to Dragon Con. Hands down. Any celebrity that you’re trying to meet at Comic Con San Diego, and I hope I’m not giving out a secret here, but any celebrity that you’re spending money getting autographs in San Diego, you will meet them on the street, and they will party with you. Dragon Con is what Vegas is to gamblers. That’s what Dragon Con is to us.

David Read:
Yes, it’s a big party. Comic Con is a trade show and it’s for exposure of a product. That’s one of the reasons that the news stories just abound with it, for anything that’s coming out. That’s their big advertising push. Dragon Con is about the fan experience and it’s about a lot of alcohol.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Hey, it’s part of it. I’m telling you, go to Dragon Con. You’ll never sleep. Plan to not sleep. That’s the first thing, because it’s round-the-clock partying. The first year I went there, I forgot the main hotel that I was in. At one point around four in the morning, they had to shut the lobby down. The fire department was called because the lobby was packed. 4:00 AM! This is literally a 24-hour-a-day, four-day convention. It does not stop. From the moment you arrive, there is something to do till you depart. It’s insane. I love that convention. I love it. I love the people. You make new friends there and it’s the greatest.

David Read:
This My Little Pony, Recliner of Rage Stargate, this is so cool.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Thank you. That was part of a charity drive for Stargate at the convention. They mailed me a black pony, and they asked me to paint it. I used glow-in-the-dark paint. It was fun.

David Read:
How cool is that? Do you remember how much it sold for?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I don’t remember offhand how much it sold for, but I do know a friend of mine, she owns it. She bought it at the charity.

David Read:
The charity component to these events has always been so extraordinary. The desire to give back. From appreciation of what we’ve been given as fans in terms of great entertainment and then turning that around and giving back what we can, even if it’s a buck or two, to an event or to a cause that the people who are all in this together really think is important. For the longest time, a lot of the charity events and the things that the British Studios put on went to benefit BC Children’s Hospital. You just can’t blink at that. Any opportunity to give back is really cool. That is a great, great thing.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Also, a quick note for the Stargate fans. Every year that I’ve attended Dragon Con, I recall, and I’m sure this has been consistent even during the years I wasn’t there, the Stargate group raised the most money at the convention for the charities. Stargate is hardcore out there. There’s a lot of people attending. On Saturday mornings at Dragon Con, there’s a two-mile parade of everyone in their cosplay and the Stargate group is there to impress. There’s nothing like it. These are some amazing people.

David Read:
Do you know Marcia Middleton?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yes, I know Marcia.

David Read:
One of my favorite human beings on the planet. Marcia is a delight.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
She is the person who introduced me to Dragon Con. We met at San Diego. She said, “Do you know about this convention?” I was like, “No, I don’t know.” She goes, “You should come out,” and I go, “Give me the information,” and yeah, that’s how that began.

David Read:
Wow. Man, the next one, absolutely, I will be there, absolutely, to hang out, especially after everything that we’ve been through this past year, year and a half. We really need a Dragon Con again. When the all-clear is given, absolutely. What else do you have with you here? You have the game board.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
This board.

David Read:
Which is rarely mentioned.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
It’s never been opened. I don’t know if you can see it. I’ve never opened it, it’s in its brand-new, mint condition. I don’t even keep it out ’cause I don’t want dust to gather on it. This was given to me on my first trip out there. I don’t remember… Actually, no, I do remember. The woman, I think her name is Michelle Comens, if I’m remembering properly.

David Read:
OK, yes, visual effects. Yes, MGM’s.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I believe she’s the one who gave this to me. At the time, I was out there with a lot of staff people. We were shooting that segment out there. One of the staff members said, “I’ll hold this for you.” He was a fan of the show. Of course, that did not happen. I did not let go of this box. I kept it under my arm everywhere I went. When I had to shoot, I gave it to someone else. The moment they yelled “cut,” I went and grabbed my box. I never got separated from this box. My only regret is that I never got it autographed.

David Read:
Yeah, that’s the downside of it being under the packaging. That’s really cool, man. Thank you for sharing that. One of my favorite beats from the Conan segments is… Oh, Marcia is watching right now. Hi Marcia.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Hey, Marcia.

David Read:
One of my favorite beats from the Conan segment is after you had said, “Stargate is way better without Dr. Daniel Jackson.” Off-screen Daniel gets his chance…

Pierre Bernard Jr:
His revenge.

David Read:
They put all the…

Pierre Bernard Jr:
The squibs.

David Read:
The squibs, that’s it, that’s the word. What was that like?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Oh, those squibs hurt.

David Read:
Yes. I bet they did.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
They’re not painful, but they hurt.

David Read:
Yeah, absolutely.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
When they go off, you feel that impact.

David Read:
Geez man.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Remembering to keep your arm out because you don’t want your arms in front, or it will…

David Read:
Correct.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
That’s interesting. I’ve grown a new appreciation for that; whenever I watch shows where people are being shot.

David Read:
It’s not fun.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I understand what they must be feeling when those things are going off.

David Read:
Just because it’s maximally safe doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. The guy who gets hit by a car in “Cloverdale” in SGU, he walked away in pain in that episode. These people, they put on a show for the camera. Rob Cooper and I recently had a discussion about “Vegas,” the penultimate Stargate Atlantis episode, and how the camera cut. They ran out of film while this guy was doing a nine-story fall in Vegas. If he’s gonna risk his life for you, the least you can do is film it. They ran out of film.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
They had to do a retake?

David Read:
No, they didn’t. The guy who was running the camera, he was like, “Yeah, we got it,” and then they got back up to Vancouver, he’s like, “No, we didn’t get it.” They had other cameras–

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Too bad.

David Read:
They cut the footage together, but the seamless shot was not captured. Did you and Michael Shanks ever have a bit about your line about Jonas being better than Daniel?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
No. Actually, nothing ever came of that. I do remember how we first met, which was great. He came into the trailer and at the time I’m thinking, “He’s going to give me an earful.”

David Read:
Or at least good-humored about it.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
When he walked into the trailer, I could tell that he was unsure of me. He wasn’t sure who I was or what that bit was about and stuff. But quickly he warmed up to me, I warmed up to him. He understood it was a joke and we started talking. Like I said, the people out there, that entire crew, they’re just so welcoming. For someone who worked in entertainment, it’s scary to see how welcoming and open they were out there toward me. They’re just genuinely good people. I’m saying a lot of people are bad, but I just experienced something different.

David Read:
The tone. The tone that was set on the Stargate set was very different. No pretentiousness whatsoever.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
None.

David Read:
It wasn’t allowed.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yes, zero.

David Read:
It wasn’t tolerated. That carried through the whole thing. Have you ever met Corin Nemec?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yes, actually. Backstage at Dragon Con.

David Read:
There you go.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
We took a photo. I met him and Jason Momoa. They were panelists on one of the Stargate tracks at Dragon Con and I met them backstage. Nice guys.

David Read:
Good guys, absolutely. I have some questions for you submitted by the audience.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Please, bring ’em on.

David Read:
All right. GateGab[ber] wanted to know, “Do you have any new Stargate artwork that you can share with us?” I guess you already answered that question with the one that you have in development.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yes.

David Read:
OK, so I’ll have you back for that.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yeah, as soon as I have something that I’m comfortable showing, I’ll show it.

David Read:
Yeah, even if we just have a smaller segment, absolutely. I’m getting ready to do some smaller segments, some more abbreviated ones.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Good.

David Read:
Perfect. REDUX wants to know, “if asked, would you be interested in reprising Sergeant O’Brien in the fourth Stargate series, SG4?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Heartbeat.

David Read:
Heartbeat.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Heartbeat. In a heartbeat.

David Read:
Are you comfortable and furious enough to articulate and speak for the Stargate fans what they are feeling?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yes. Get Stargate back on the air.

David Read:
Absolutely.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I hear right now that Amazon is in negotiation for MGM. I need this to happen quickly, because my instinct tells me they will bring Stargate back.

David Read:
But are they gonna reboot it? That’s my fear. My fear is that they’re gonna be like, “You know what, we’re not gonna do 350 hours. We wanna do something fresh.”

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yeah, again, I’m not crazy about reboots, but if that’s the only way we’re gonna get, at this point, I’m willing to take whatever is given. I would prefer it to not be a reboot. I think there’s a lot of stories in Stargate to build upon. There is no need to reboot the characters. The characters have been established. Let’s create new characters and update the environment. Similar to what they did with the last two seasons of Stargate, by bringing Claudia in and Beau. They brought new characters in and expanded the story, moved it forward. I would prefer they did that as opposed to trying to reboot. Because, seriously, who on Earth can you replace Richard Dean Anderson with?

David Read:
I know.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
There’s no one.

David Read:
I know.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Who can you replace Amanda Tapping with? There is no one.

David Read:
Nope.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Who are you gonna replace Michael with? There’s no one. Chris Judge goes without saying. You can’t replace these guys. Anyone you bring to imitate them will be inferior. They cannot be replaced. So, my feeling is, don’t even waste time going there. If the thinking is, “Well, we’ll reboot it because the fans, they’re older, and they may not care,” guess what? We care. Stargate is in our blood. We have… I forgot the name of the substance that the Goa’ulds have in their blood. Help me.

David Read:
Naquadah. It’s like Naquadah.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
We have Naquadah in our blood. No matter how old we are, we are going to be Stargate fans.

David Read:
That’s right.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
You give it to us, we’ll be there, regardless of age. The story of you “need to reboot” doesn’t fly. Just give us new stories. Put it out there. And the toys, you know? Like I said, I put a couple things out, but it dawned on me, we’re lacking. We need some serious toys. I get it, MGM is in flux, you can’t get licensing things to work, but Funko, get on the ball here. Stargate. Think about it. I would say every single fan out there would probably build an army of super soldiers. They would probably buy two dozen, maybe more, of those Funko Pops just to create a scene of super soldiers.

David Read:
That’s right.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Think about that. A Pop costs 12 bucks. How much money you guys at Funko will make off of Stargate is almost obscene.

David Read:
I think it would be a lot.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Stargate can run your business. You can drop all your other products, quite frankly. Start making Stargate products. I wanna see Stargate crayons, I wanna see Stargate coloring books, I wanna see Stargate miniatures, I wanna see Stargate Hot Wheels model toys. I want Stargate everywhere. A couple bobbleheads and fan-created stuff is cool, but I want merchandise that is Stargate. I want Stargate blankets, I want Stargate clothing. I want Stargate to be represented the way they’ve represented Star Wars and Star Trek.

David Read:
Agreed.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Quite frankly, Stargate is bigger and better. I’m saying it.

David Read:
Ugly Pig, “Pierre, are you comfortable and angry?”

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Comfortable and furious, David.

David Read:
Thank you, sir. That’s great. Teresa Mc, “Would you step through the Stargate?”

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yes.

David Read:
No way.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yes, yes, yes, totally.

David Read:
No, are you kidding? No. No, let them do all the dangerous stuff.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
In a heartbeat.

David Read:
Of course. Let me see here. Stephers Tune, I guess you’ve answered this, “What is your favorite convention that you have attended or participated in?”

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Dragon Con, hands down.

David Read:
All right. M.E. says, “Did Pierre get anyone else on Late Night with Conan O’Brien into Stargate?”

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I think a couple of staff members were watching the show or were into it. I don’t know if I got them into it, but they were aware of it. I know that one person who traveled with us was a Stargate fan. He was the one who was eyeing that box.

David Read:
Absolutely, yes. You gotta keep that away from him, don’t know what’s gonna happen to that. Brian O’Neal Singleton, “Were you the recipient of any cast pranks?”

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Were there any pranks done on me? No, not really, no. No, unfortunately. No one pranked me.

David Read:
Absolutely. That zombie makeup, how long did that take?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
The zombie makeup took about two, I think somewhere between two to three hours. It was a long process. She did an incredible job on that. When I looked at myself, I thought they actually did skin me and the bone was coming through. No, she did an incredible job.

David Read:
Wow, that realistic?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yeah.

David Read:
Wow. Amazing. Was it one take with the squibs?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
With the squibs, I believe there were two takes. I could be remembering wrong but I think there were two.

David Read:
What was Ben like? Was he fun?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I’m trying to remember.

David Read:
Ben Browder’s the one that chopped you up.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yeah. I’m trying to remember. Ben, don’t take it personally. I remember we took some photos together. I don’t remember. He was nice. He was genuinely nice. I’m trying to think of something personal that occurred between me and him. It wasn’t anything personal per se but he was genuinely nice. You know someone I should mention: Don Davis. Don. I met him briefly. I regret we never got a chance to shoot together but I got a chance to talk to him off set. We didn’t videotape this, unfortunately, but we were just talking, artist to artist, because somehow it came up that he did watercolors. We started talking and he was asking me about my life and stuff. I was telling him and he was telling me about his life and how he approaches life and the industry in general and how to have a perspective on all of this stuff. One of the things I recall him saying, I can’t say it word for word ’cause I don’t remember it, but it was along the lines of, he was happily married. They had a cottage somewhere near a lake or a river that ran in their backyard and when he wasn’t on set, him and his wife were out there. He was in a relationship where she understood him. and appreciated what he did. He was able to be an artist and enjoy his art. The reason this came up was because at the time, I’m not gonna use names so I won’t get myself in trouble. At the time I was dating someone who didn’t quite appreciate what was going on with the TV stuff. It came up because he was asking me about my life and I was telling him that I was seeing someone at the time who didn’t quite appreciate Stargate or any of what was going on in my life. He was telling me the importance of having people in your life who understand you and appreciate what you do and are supportive. That’s how he came about telling me about his art and his wife and stuff.

David Read:
Ruby. Ruby’s amazing to this day.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I took it all in. I definitely took that in. To this day, whenever I meet someone, I think I might be interested in, I can hear Don’s voice in my head telling me, “Is this person right? Do they understand what I’m doing? Do they have an appreciation?” I hear Don’s voice, ’cause it was deep. It was an impactful conversation.

David Read:
Those of us who are lucky enough to meet him, I think about him all the time. You cannot separate SG-1 and Don S. Davis. You can’t do it. Whether he was in command of the base at the time or not. Man, I miss him. Wanted to note that the Telchak device here is, this is the same one from your scene. This is the one that lights up.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Nice.

David Read:
The batteries in it are not working right now otherwise I’d show it off. That’s the same one that was made for “200.” It’s not the one from “Evolution” I and II. I have a little piece of your scene with me on my own set.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Nice. That’s cool.

David Read:
Very cool.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Thank you.

David Read:
Let me see here. Stephers Tune, “Who was your favorite SG-1 antagonist?”

Pierre Bernard Jr:
My favorite SG-1… You mean for the show?

David Read:
Yes.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Not any person in real life.

David Read:
Yes.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Wow.

David Read:
Antagonist, like villain.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
My favorite villain, it goes without saying: Ba’al. Simon.

David Read:
Wasn’t he a genius?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Everything. He brought a sophistication, he made being a villain cool.

David Read:
Yes, he did.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
He made being a villain cool. I could not hate him, even though I wanted them to stop him.

David Read:
The news of Cliff’s passing, that was a hard day. Man, he left us with a great character.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Totally. The only thing about his passing I am happy about is that he was doing what he enjoyed.

David Read:
Correct.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
That’s one of those things, for me personally I’m always thinking about. I don’t know how I’m leaving this planet, but I’m hoping it could be maybe I’m drawing. It would be cool.

David Read:
Doing what you love.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Doing what you love. I think that’s the best way to leave, in that state.

David Read:
His wife said the beach was his temple. If that’s what it comes down to, if you have to go, that’s it. Let me see here. People are saying Dial the Gate should do a Recliner of Rage: Stargate Edition. One of the comments that was made on the forum, I forget where but maybe it was on Facebook or something, it said, “If Pierre doesn’t show up with his recliner, we’re all rioting.” I’m like, “I don’t know if he’s got the recliner.”

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I don’t have “the” recliner. But the recliner itself, I don’t know if it even exists, it’s in the basement somewhere on the NBC lot out here. I know they flew it out here even though they weren’t planning to use it.

David Read:
Oh, that’s funny.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
It’s in the basement in some lot somewhere. I have “a” recliner similar to the one that we used prior to the checkered-pattern fabric one. There was a green recliner which we originally worked with, and I have one similar to it here.

David Read:
That’s where your design is based on behind you there.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yes.

David Read:
How funny is that? All right, man. That’s basically the lineup of fan questions. Pierre, this has been fantastic having you on. I’ve been looking forward to this for a really long time and I really appreciate you sharing your stories and really such a big part of your soul with fandom. I think we are really, all of us are kindred spirits. If there is a chance for a fourth Stargate, I do hope to see you on it in some capacity as a nod to all of us.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Even as a background. Even in background, I’ll do it.

David Read:
Absolutely. Best of luck on this Stargate project that you’re working on.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Thank you.

David Read:
I’m looking forward to having you back to show it off.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I can’t wait to do that. I can’t say thank you enough to you and everyone out in Vancouver, even though it’s so many years now. Those guys, they gave me a memory that, like I said, will never leave me. I know at some point I probably will lose all memory of everything else, but that memory of those visits out there will stick with me. They mean a lot to me.

David Read:
Absolutely.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
I don’t even have the vocabulary to express how much those three trips out to Vancouver mean to me. They’re priceless. The memories, the photos, the videos, they’re absolutely priceless.

David Read:
One last thing, if you don’t mind.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Yeah, go ahead.

David Read:
Would you please share your line with us from the show?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Which? The beginning?

David Read:
The one with O’Neill coming into the control room.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
God. God, I don’t remember my line. God. I don’t know my line.

David Read:
“We have audio contacts, sir. It’s Colonel Carter.”

Pierre Bernard Jr:
God.

David Read:
Wow.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
God. I knew I would get stumped. “General O’Neill, it’s Colonel Carter.”

David Read:
There we go! All right, I’ll take it.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
God.

David Read:
That’s great. Thank you, Pierre.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Thank you, Dave.

David Read:
I will have you back real soon. I’ll text you.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Definitely.

David Read:
I’ll be in touch. You take care of yourself, sir, OK?

Pierre Bernard Jr:
Live long and prosper.

David Read:
We’ll work on that. That thing.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
We need a Stargate thing.

David Read:
Thanks, Pierre. Really appreciate you. I’ll go ahead and wrap it up on this end.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
OK, fantastic.

David Read:
Be well, sir. Bye-bye now.

Pierre Bernard Jr:
You guys take care. Bye.

David Read:
Pierre Bernard, Sergeant O’Brien on Stargate SG-1. That was great. Thank you all so much for tuning in. Pierre has indicated that he’s working on a new Stargate art piece. When that is underway, we’ll absolutely have him back to show it off. Very, very cool. Goran Andonovski, “Any chance Beau Bridges and Mitch Pileggi could be guests on Dial the Gate?” Beau has respectfully declined for the time being. Mitch, I was hoping to see him in Pensacola and then he pulled out of Pensacon, so I didn’t end up going, but I do need to reach out to him. Michael Mitchell, “Have you ever noticed that there were a lot of Star Trek Easter Eggs in a lot of episodes of SG-1?” Yes, ’cause Brad Wright specifically was very much a Star Trek fan. “Would a revival also include the child of Jack O’Neill?” If he’s not referring to Charlie, is he referring to the… What was her name? Was it Laira in Season Three from “A Hundred Days?” That would be interesting. That would be really interesting. I don’t know, but we’ll have to wait and see. The big news right now is that Amazon is currently a high bidder for the MGM archives. We’ll have to see what happens there. I think that’s all we’ve got for you here. Click the Like button, share and subscribe to the show. It makes a difference with the YouTube algorithm, and it helps us grow our audience. Next weekend, we have the list of the 12 things that we would like to see in the next Stargate series. Darren and I are gonna be putting that on together at noon on May the 30th, followed by Part Four of our interview with Robert C. Cooper. We’re going to do a deep dive into Atlantis from beginning to end. That’s going to be May the 30th at 2:00 PM Pacific Time. My big thanks to Pierre Bernard for making this show possible, really appreciate having him on. Tremendous thanks to Tracy, Keith, Jeremy, Rhys, Antony, Sommer, Linda “GateGabber” Fury and Jennifer Kirby; my production team and moderators who make the show possible. You guys, thank you so much for making this a thing week after week. Until next weekend with our pre-recorded shows, my name is David Read for Dial the Gate. See you on the other side.