We are joined by the director for “Children of the Gods” and SG-1’s Executive Producer to share memories from Stargate productions and take your questions!

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read:
Welcome, everyone to Episode 436 of Dial the Gate: The Stargate Oral History Project. I’m David Read. I am privileged today to be with two people for whom I have tremendous respect. I am with Mario Azzopardi, director of numerous Stargate episodes, SG-1 and Atlantis, a number of my favorites. We’re lucky to have him back a second time. And writer, producer, executive producer, Michael Greenburg. Welcome, Michael, thank you for being back with me again. It’s always a treat to have you, sir. How’re you doing?

Michael Greenburg:
I’m great. Great to be here.

David Read:
Mario, thank you for being with us again, sir. How are you?

Mario Azzopardi:
It’s a pleasure. It’s a pleasure, David. It’s a pleasure.

David Read:
How are things in Malta?

Mario Azzopardi:
It’s now 22 degrees. We’re getting hotter and hotter every day, and soon it will be in the 30s. Not good.

David Read:
Gosh. When was the last time you saw Michael?

Mario Azzopardi:
I wanted to ask you, Mike. It must be more than, what, 20 years?

Michael Greenburg:
Probably. We didn’t have gray hair, I know that.

Mario Azzopardi:
No, no.

Michael Greenburg:
I know.

Mario Azzopardi:
But you were as handsome as you were then.

Michael Greenburg:
You too, and you’re as unforgettable as ever.

Mario Azzopardi:
Thank you.

Michael Greenburg:
I think about you often and your passion for filmmaking.

Mario Azzopardi:
Yes, yes, yes.

Mario Azzopardi:
Nothing better.

Michael Greenburg:
We were brothers from the beginning.

Mario Azzopardi:
Yes.

Michael Greenburg:
When we first met, we clicked because we had the same values and the same love of film. And we actually made that first “Children of the Gods” on film, believe it or not.

Mario Azzopardi:
Yes.

Michael Greenburg:
I think that’s the last feature-length film on film that I ever did with Kodak 5247. I think we share at least the last actual film that I made on film with you.

Mario Azzopardi:
That’s right.

Michael Greenburg:
It all went digital after that.

Mario Azzopardi:
And rain.

David Read:
Rain, day number one.

Mario Azzopardi:
Day number one.

Michael Greenburg:
My God.

David Read:
There was a scratch down the middle of the camera, sets fell over–

Mario Azzopardi:
By the end of day one, we were one week behind.

Michael Greenburg:
But it’s true. In a way, it rained, literally. Mario and I were there at the GVRD, which is the protected forest in North Vancouver. It’s protected. They can’t cut down one tree, and they’re big old-growth trees, so it was perfect for our planet. And a lot of people, when it’s raining in production, it’s like, “We just gotta get through this.” That was not our attitude at all. With Mario at the helm, the high bar of quality filmmaking was still there every shot. We got the most out of every shot and every performance. So it was never getting through this. And I think what that rain did is it pulled everyone together on day one. Everyone, all the department heads, everybody in camera, grip, electric, set dec, props. Everyone came together, and it sort of set the tone for the next decade of our filmmaking experience with Stargate. And Mario at the helm is such a passionate filmmaker. And listen, his heavy accent helps a lot ’cause everyone thought–

Mario Azzopardi:
Don’t tell anybody I put it on, OK?

Michael Greenburg:
No, I think it all worked in our favor, believe it or not.

Mario Azzopardi:
There was a wonder. Perhaps because of the subject matter, because of Richard and the rest of the cast, all of us were so excited and felt lucky to be on such a project. It was fantasy and we were living it, and the debates we used to have on things that had no logic to them, only in fantasy, were unbelievable.

Michael Greenburg:
I remember standing with Mario when I think it was Teal’c’s helmet had to go away in visual effects, and we were– This was day one. Day one and Mario and I had to deal with how we were gonna get this helmet to go away.

Mario Azzopardi:
Yes, yes.

Michael Greenburg:
And it was obviously visual effects. And I said, “Don’t worry about it.” The visual effects department will take care of it in steps and get the helmet away. I remember having discussions like that on day one. You know what I’m talking about, Dave? Those Jaffa helmets.

David Read:
Those first ones that you guys had for “Children of the Gods,” you had a couple of different kinds. You had the pneumatic ones–Mario, correct me if I’m wrong here–you had to shoot head-on because all the parts were hanging off of the back of it. They were like a clamshell. They would pop open, you would push that thing out.

Mario Azzopardi:
Plus the person behind Teal’c to keep him from falling because every time it snapped back, it almost threw him back.

David Read:
They’re so heavy and as broad-shouldered as Christopher is, he still had trouble with it. And then you’d take that one off and switch and put the other one on that was more stationary. And it was just a dog and pony show, but it was an extraordinary one that you guys pulled off.

Michael Greenburg:
I know. And it’s still there.

Mario Azzopardi:
Think about that. Remember the first shot of “Children of the Gods?” It took us a whole day to get that one opening shot, the big shot from the top, and we go down to the guys playing cards on the table, and then the camera turns. We had to move one of the walls in order to make the move with the crane and then we settle with the covered Gate in the background. That was a huge one. Unfortunately they cut it in the re-release, in the second version. In the original, it’s still there, but when they released it …

David Read:
“The Final Cut.”

Mario Azzopardi:
… they cut the move in.

Michael Greenburg:
Too bad.

David Read:
There were a number of changes for that. One of the things, though, that was added back in that I thought was just brilliant was… Let me get my visual aid here. You have Teal’c. It’s a side shot, and you have Teal’c going through the Gate, and it does this … in the big shot, when the Jaffa and Apophis exit the SGC. And that was not in the original, and it is so cool. I’m not exaggerating. It is one of the coolest effects of the entire series, and we never got to see it until “Final Cut” came out. So, there are parts of it that I really love because they were able to add in some stuff that either you guys didn’t have time for in the edit, or in the final runtime, or the visual effects weren’t working. There were a couple that “The Final Cut” got to show us for the first time.

Mario Azzopardi:
Remember, when we were there on that set, we were discovering things as we were going along, too. And that’s one of the greatest assets that Michael provided was the fact that he forced me to explain what I was seeing. So, even in the process of explaining exactly what we wanted, I got to understand exactly what I was looking for. But Michael was never obtrusive. He always gave me this sense of collaboration, Mike, which is very, very, very rare. An enthusiastic collaboration, too. It wasn’t imposed. Never imposed. And that was great. That was absolutely great.

Michael Greenburg:
I just tried to match your enthusiasm. Mario is 100% conversant with every aspect of filmmaking. There’s 150 departments in film, real filmmaking, especially back then. Before AI, before digital, before everything, we were doing everything on film. We were shooting our pre-composites on film, and sometimes there’d be 30 pre-composites to go into one composite shot. So, what Mario’s talking about is we were working all this out from day one. And Mario has such a high bar of quality that he would never accept a shot, a performance that was anything less than what was in his mind’s eye from how he read the script and the characters talking in his head. From day one with Mario, he pretty much set the tone, the concept in a lot of ways, and the qualitative bar that we took on for the next decade.

David Read:
He’s establishing the visual language of the show in that pilot, because the only reference at that point is the movie.

Michael Greenburg:
Exactly, and that we’re so different than the movie. So, we had a sense of humor. Which we got more and more of as the years went on and we wrote for it, but Mario has a great sense of humor. I think I do, and I think that we know Richard Dean Anderson, tremendous sense of humor. But Mario, as the director, set the tone, set the concept. I really loved Mario’s ability– What Mario brought to the stage was, he always let the action dictate his camera. He didn’t do the reverse. He talked about that shot. A lot of shots that he would conceive, but they were all to tell the story, and follow the story. So, there were no camera moves that were unintentional. Everything was intentional. Mario had the film in his head from the beginning, and it was obvious.

Mario Azzopardi:
Nothing was ever made without the collaboration of talking about it, preparing for it, and setting it up. So, honestly, I thank you for the praise, but, as in film, it’s a collaborative effort, and scripts and actors and producers and post, everything moves together in order to get what– One thing which I am very proud of, Mike, is that we never had any arguments, you and I. We never had–

Michael Greenburg:
No, never. We were in sync from day one. Even in casting. We were always in sync, you and I. Always.

Mario Azzopardi:
Can’t say that of every project that I ever did, but, that’s a start.

David Read:
Look, if you’re passionate …

Michael Greenburg:
But I can’t mention–

David Read:
… those things are gonna come through.

Mario Azzopardi:
Sometimes, though, it is a little bit overwhelming. And now in my old age, I realize that perhaps I didn’t have the patience, but sometimes people feel very threatened by that. I never had the patience to care about the sense of people who were unsure of themselves. When you’re dealing in television movie-making, you have to move. You have to move because the schedule is very taxing, and you have to know exactly what you want, and you go and get it. And then, when people, when executives or whatever, come in and they don’t understand exactly why I’m doing this, and they are taking too much time to understand, then there’s time to say, “Sorry, we’ve gotta move on.” But with my viewpoint, this never happened. It’s first of all because I think, how much, Mike? We had about three months of prep before we started?

Michael Greenburg:
Yeah.

Mario Azzopardi:
In Vancouver?

Michael Greenburg:
Yeah, we needed it, too, because …

Mario Azzopardi:
My goodness.

Michael Greenburg:
… of the sets we were building and the Stargate alone. I think it was two or three months prep. It included casting and everything.

David Read:
So, Mario, you were in Vancouver three months ahead of time?

Mario Azzopardi:
Yeah.

David Read:
Cracking away on this thing?

Mario Azzopardi:
And drawing up– I wouldn’t let anybody do my storyboards, so I did them myself, and they helped a lot. Where my English failed, my storyboards explained it better. But again, what was wonderful about it–and I think it comes out on the film–the sense of wonder, the sense of enjoyment we all had in doing this movie. It’s that adjective that’s added to the picture that made it the success that it was.

Michael Greenburg:
Mario hand-did his storyboards. We didn’t have an illustrator. Back then, on the–

David Read:
So, these were done by a gentleman by the name of Wong.

Michael Greenburg:
But was that–

Mario Azzopardi:
But those were not for my show.

David Read:
That’s later.

Michael Greenburg:
Not for “Children of the Gods.” No, Mario did it himself.

David Read:
This is for the opening scene of “Children of the Gods.”

Michael Greenburg:
It is?

David Read:
Yep.

Michael Greenburg:
I don’t remember using those. I remember using Mario’s.

Mario Azzopardi:
I don’t– I did all my storyboards.

Michael Greenburg:
Mario can’t draw that.

Mario Azzopardi:
Wait a minute. I think that’s for the–

David Read:
Opening sequence.

Mario Azzopardi:
For which?

David Read:
This is for the opening sequence, but it may have been done to aid the effects. It’s the whole opening sequence, and the last slide is General Hammond thinks that the world may be in deep shit.

Michael Greenburg:
Those were for visual effects, I think. ‘Cause Mario …

Mario Azzopardi:
Not mine.

Michael Greenburg:
… added all–

Mario Azzopardi:
They are definitely not mine.

David Read:
If you’ve still got those laying around, I would really love to see them.

Michael Greenburg:
Mario’s were stick figures.

Mario Azzopardi:
I promised to send the script, so I never found it, but it’s here somewhere.

David Read:
Man, I would be thrilled to go through that with a fine-toothed comb, because this set the standard for everything. I’m thrilled that I have the two of you together because I’m very curious about this. How much did MGM and Showtime have riding on this thing? Did you feel that when you were producing it? Did you feel that they were completely hands-off? Was it somewhere in between? I’m genuinely curious.

Michael Greenburg:
I dealt with Matt Blank at Showtime, and so did Brad and Jonathan, Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner. But Matt was actually an old friend of mine. So, they were thrilled from day one. We started with a 44-episode commitment, but within the first season, they jumped it to 88. We had tremendous support from Showtime. It was Showtime at the time. MGM was more of the production company. Showtime was the distributor. But we had tremendous support from both. Occasionally, Mel Swope was the head of production at the time for MGM and he was an old friend as well. He knew what I did on MacGyver and Legend and everything leading up to Stargate, so he knew that he was in pretty good hands with the production company that we put together in Vancouver. We did what we needed to do and what we had to do. There was no friction at all. It was just whatever it takes to make this great because we had that huge 44-episode commitment, so we knew they were committed to the show. That’s why “Children of the Gods” could have been a feature. It was shot like a feature and it could have easily been a feature. I put it up with all the other long-form Stargates.

David Read:
Mario, when you look back–

Mario Azzopardi:
What inspired the re-cut of the original? They introduced new–

David Read:
That’s a Brad question. I will say that by the end of SG-1, there were a few things that had been retconned. O’Neill’s relationship with Kawalsky, for one. Some ships that were used in the pilot that ultimately didn’t exist in the larger canon were replaced by more utility-based craft. They were able to change those things out. So, from a fan’s perspective of the entire series, if you want to see the show where all the pieces fit with everything that came later, “Final Cut” is one that you can watch because it’s internally consistent with the mythology that they’ve built.

Mario Azzopardi:
That makes sense.

David Read:
Which you had no way of knowing at the beginning, because you’re creating this thing brand new. So, I appreciate both of them for their individual merits. But also, the thing that I really like about “Final Cut,” that I spoke of before, was that there were scenes that you guys had to leave out, like the female Jaffa warriors that he was able to put back in because it made sense to the continuity that that was the case later on in the show, that either for time or for whatever reason couldn’t happen earlier. And because it’s a DVD, you’re not constrained to an exact set number of minutes. But if I have any issue with it, and Darren over at GateWorld made this point at the same time, it’s the vision of just one person as opposed to Jonathan being involved and Mario, you, of course, being involved as well. But I still appreciate them both for what they each bring.

Mario Azzopardi:
They sanitized– Sanitize is the wrong word, but they took away a lot of the nudity also in the re-cut. They made it–

David Read:
I think they wanted to make it something that everyone could have a look at as a family because the rest of the show you could watch even with your younger kids as a family too. To this day, that is a controversy because you have half of the fandom who is like, “I show my kids nudity, it’s not a problem,” and the other half of the fandom that’s like, “My kids aren’t ready for that yet.” So, it’s differences in parenting styles that people are interfacing on. And I’m just happy that both exist. But as far as I am concerned, in terms of canon, the original one is the canonical cut because it set up everything that came after. There’s so much in that that works. Michael Shanks was a baby on that pilot. He was the youngest by far of the cast and crew.

Mario Azzopardi:
My goodness.

Michael Greenburg:
Showtime, because they were the premier network, they wanted to push the envelope on stuff because their subscriber base and increasing their subscriber base is the money for them. So, they pushed the envelope for us to push those–

David Read:
They insisted on the nudity. Let’s call it like it is. So, it wasn’t a creative decision, really, that justified that from that network’s perspective. They wanted eyeballs. The whole point, if you’re gonna put something on this station, then do it because it can be done here and not elsewhere.

Michael Greenburg:
I think that’s what happened. Brad and Jonathan, like you said, could make that call, ’cause they had it– It was in the script.

David Read:
For sure, most definitely and more than once, but that’s the one where they show it with Vaitiare. Richard Hudolin has come on and talked extensively about building that Stargate. What an extraordinary production designer. What was it like watching that thing spin for the first time?

Michael Greenburg:
Great, because the first few didn’t.

David Read:
Terrifying?

Michael Greenburg:
Yeah, because the first few didn’t work. And it was a challenge all the way through. Once we got it on set and got it right, it did. But it was a giant piece that had to work and I remember the early glyphs on it were not as great as the finals. So, we kept polishing it and making it better and better and better. And same with the Dial Home Device, the DHD. Same thing, we kept perfecting them and perfecting them. But when it first started to turn, that was– I think the first ones we had on location didn’t turn.

David Read:
The location Gate did not.

Michael Greenburg:
It didn’t turn. But they finally got the one to work in the studio, so it was a pretty magical moment. It’s amazing how when I watch other shows and even variety shows and The Voice, they use their version of the Stargate as a backdrop. It’s everywhere. I see it so many times. I’ve seen it on so many shows where they used our concept for the backdrop of other stuff.

David Read:
South Park, for crying out loud. Mario, what do you remember about the early days of trying to get that Gate working?

Mario Azzopardi:
Lots of frustration.

David Read:
If it doesn’t work, everything hinges on it.

Mario Azzopardi:
Basically, what I started to prepare was, “Listen, if this is not gonna work, then how can I move around it? How can I–”

Michael Greenburg:
Shoot around it.

Mario Azzopardi:
As you know, even for budget purposes, we sometimes only saw the lights of the Gate opening whenever– We don’t always see the Gate opening whenever they travel. But the audience takes it. You hear it, they line up in front of it. You see the lights changing, or you’ll hear the sound effects, and then a reverse shot, and of course they’re moving towards a green screen. Again, those days, we didn’t have the capabilities that exist today. Today it would be not so much– You can shoot it on–

David Read:
Easy. A volume or something.

Mario Azzopardi:
I was telling Michael before we started that in one of the recent films that I did, we had the scene of a couple walking down Via Nazionale in Rome and basically all we did was we sent one cameraman with one camera to get some plates. We then went into an AI studio and we had the actors walk on green screen. You put those two together and no one will tell you that they weren’t there. So then, we didn’t have that kind of thing before. And also, for example, if you’re using a green screen on the Gate, you can’t move the camera. The cameras were always static. So, that shot, when we’re behind the Gate at the entrance of the general, where we’re way above and we see the Gate, the Gate disappears and then we move through the Gate and right up to him, looking up at him, that hero shot.

David Read:
So cool.

Mario Azzopardi:
But the camera had to be static to allow the water, let’s call it water, to disappear and then we move.

Michael Greenburg:
It had tracking points.

Mario Azzopardi:
I don’t think we ever moved with the Gate.

Michael Greenburg:
No, because tracking points. Back then, you’re talking about 1996, ’97, something like that.

Mario Azzopardi:
My goodness.

Michael Greenburg:
The tracking points were a problem and it was a problem to move the camera ’cause they’d actually have to wear tracking points to track, and you couldn’t do that. Mario’s right. It was–

David Read:
I’ve had a lot of back and forth with folks like Bruce Woloshyn and John Gajdecki. A couple of different tricks were tried. Ultimately, what the show had done was, in my understanding, it was $5,000 a person to go through that puddle. Not per puddle pass on shot, for a locked-off shot of camera, but $5,000 every time you put a human through it because they had to hand draw the pass. And my understanding, and this is testing your gray matter here, guys, I’ve asked this with some folks and some have said yes and some have said they don’t remember: did you guys try lasers at the event horizon for a little while and determine that it didn’t work? Or were lasers never attempted?

Michael Greenburg:
I don’t remember lasers.

Mario Azzopardi:
I don’t remember lasers at all.

Michael Greenburg:
I don’t remember lasers. No.

David Read:
To line up, to give the visual effects guys some kind of reference as to when to cut off the skin and the clothing as it passed through. Because …

Michael Greenburg:
But John–

David Read:
… the fact that it’s hand drawn is amazing.

Michael Greenburg:
John Gajdecki was with us 24/7. He was on set with us during everything that involved his post-production VFX crew. He was there. So he gave us a lot of confidence in what we were doing.

Mario Azzopardi:
What a brilliant man he was.

Michael Greenburg:
He’s great.

Mario Azzopardi:
He is, I hope.

Michael Greenburg:
He’s great.

Mario Azzopardi:
If you listen to this, John–

Michael Greenburg:
He’s great. And he gave us a lot of latitude, the most he could. He really is strong in the visual effects world. And pre-composites and then the ultimate composite shots. So, he had it all broken down for us. They had their storyboards as well. I don’t remember lasers though.

David Read:
I was always really curious about that. One of the other points of contention was the music from the movie. Joel Goldsmith and a couple of other composers were in the running for the pilot. And Joel’s music for the opening title sequence won him the job. Except the opening title sequence he created was moved to the end. It’s the end title. And you guys adapted a version from the feature film because David Arnold’s music was purchased for the series. I can’t imagine how much that cost to get the rights clear for the rest of the show. But you guys had also purchased the music from the film, David Arnold’s full score. And Jonathan and Brad went back and forth in terms of how much music to track from the film, and Joel’s score that he wrote for the pilot was considerably reduced in terms of what aired. It’s all restored in “The Final Cut.” Do you remember those discussions going back and forth, either of you, in terms of how much music to use for this?

Mario Azzopardi:
No. After I finished my cut, that basically ends the director’s input in it. I can give notes, but once my cut was finished, basically it was hoping that as much of it remained. But the producers take it over and they do the adjustments.

David Read:
I did not know that.

Michael Greenburg:
That was Brad and Jon.

David Read:
So, the director’s cut is where you stop?

Michael Greenburg:
Yeah. In television, we move on. I wasn’t even involved in the music because I was on Episode Two and Three and Four during the post-production of “Children of the Gods.” That was really Jonathan and Brad. They handled that final dub of the movie.

Mario Azzopardi:
Listen, we didn’t have time to do anything else, let alone Jonathan and Brad. When the show is going and you’re jumping from one show into the next episode and prepping the following one, really, there is no time. There are no weekends. My family was in Toronto, so I would have them come up to spend some weekends, or I would go for half a day to see. But there’s no time. It’s continuous. Everybody has his job, and through very good management, everybody works together towards the end. And music is something that I don’t think that television directors get to supervise the final mix. It’s not part and parcel of the contract. It’s not part and parcel of the job. At least, I don’t know whether things change.

Michael Greenburg:
It’s true. You can do it on standalone television movies, but on a series, even though “Children of the Gods” is a feature-length movie, the next day, we were on, wasn’t it, David, you would know more, wasn’t it the Kawalsky episode?

David Read:
Yeah, “The Enemy Within.” That’s right.

Michael Greenburg:
The next episode was a big, heavy deal with Jay Acovone in the Kawalsky role because of the subject matter. I was diving into that and prepping that while we were still shooting “Children of the Gods,” the last couple weeks of “Children of the Gods.” You just go. For my role in the whole Stargate thing, I was on set all the time. I didn’t get involved. But we were in great hands with Joel Goldsmith. He is brilliant. And just like his dad.

David Read:
That pedigree is very, very strong. Man, I miss him so much, the music …

Mario Azzopardi:
Me too.

David Read:
… that he created for that entire franchise was extraordinary.

Michael Greenburg:
He was such a lovely guy.

David Read:
Mario, how key is it to have someone like Michael on the set the entire time? Because he’s there for Rick, but also he’s there for you.

Mario Azzopardi:
Absolutely. He was my sounding board. When you’re facing 150 people all standing there in the morning waiting to receive orders, and you’ve gotta give all these orders, there is doubt that you hide. With Michael, it was safe. His presence there gave us all a kind of safety. If I had any doubts, he would challenge me on it. The process of deciding because of the challenge was what pulled us through. And again, Michael calls it a movie, but we shot that in what, Mike, 14 days?

Michael Greenburg:
It was, really?

Mario Azzopardi:
Yeah. We didn’t have extra– I can’t remember. How many days did we–

Michael Greenburg:
I can’t remember. It felt like forever, but–

Mario Azzopardi:
Five-day weeks.

Michael Greenburg:
It was five-day weeks.

Mario Azzopardi:
It wasn’t a whole month of shooting that.

Michael Greenburg:
I can’t remember.

Mario Azzopardi:
I don’t know whether we had more than two weeks. I can’t remember, so I may be wrong here.

David Read:
It wasn’t a ton of time.

Mario Azzopardi:
In these kind of circumstances, the director doesn’t have time to think what to do next. He either comes on set knowing exactly what he wants, when he wants it, how he wants it, and you move. And you keep on moving. Keep on moving. I’ve directed movies that took two months to shoot in 90 minutes. And the luxury there is– I mean, two months of shooting. There are films that take months and months and months and years. We’re talking about the big movies, of course. But television is a different beast, man. You don’t have time to figure out what the next shot is.

Michael Greenburg:
I think we were in the 20s.

Mario Azzopardi:
The design of the shot is always, I think we talked about this before, David, that you have to know exactly where you’re coming from, what the shot previous to the one that you’re doing is, and the shot that follows it. So, knowing that and computing that in your mind continually, you are seeing the cut film as you move, because speed is– Time is money. Huge money.

Michael Greenburg:
Mario had his shots in his script. He puts notes in the margins of his script. That would be fun to see his shooting script, because he had …

Mario Azzopardi:
I’ll have to find it. I’ll have to–

Michael Greenburg:
… it all– He had the film in his head, but he also had his notes to remind himself, ’cause obviously we didn’t shoot in continuity. We didn’t shoot from page one to page 100. We moved around.

Mario Azzopardi:
Actually, the first scene that we shot was the escape from the prison.

Michael Greenburg:
The prison. In the pouring rain.

Mario Azzopardi:
That was it. That was the first sequence.

David Read:
The exteriors.

Mario Azzopardi:
As soon as people started to come out from that fake wall, because we had to build a wall that had the hole in it. We had to go behind it in order to see the GVRD behind it, and of course, when we shot into the wall, that was inside the studio.

Michael Greenburg:
I remember–

Mario Azzopardi:
But the first scene was the escape, the exit of the prisoners through the wall, and as soon as they came out, the heavens opened up and everybody was drenched.

David Read:
Of course it did. All of Christina McQuarrie’s beautiful work is now getting rained on.

Michael Greenburg:
She was great. Her department, wardrobe, huge.

Mario Azzopardi:
The shows that you sent me were for Atlantis, though.

David Read:
Yes, I will be getting to those. With bells on. I have a few questions from fans that I’d like to start peppering in here. Raj wanted to know, for both of you, and we’ve talked about it a little bit in terms of the evolving technology, which has evolved considerably since “Children of the Gods” was made. I’d like to start with Michael first. Raj wanted to know, what advice would you give to someone wanting to enter your part of the industry now at this stage in the 2020s, with everything that we have going on right now, Mike? What would you suggest? With everything that that implies.

Michael Greenburg:
I did the old school way. I went to school. I went to USC and I came up through the system. I was an assistant director, and then took a while to move up through that path. But if I was to do it all over again, with the iPhones now and Macs, I’d make a film. I would write a script and make a film, and cast whoever I could cast to do it, to help me out, to make the film. Do you know what I mean? Without any money, I would just make a film. And use your iPhones. If there was a camera that you had, you could use the camera, but the new iPhones are great, and I would just make a film. And put it all together on a Mac and you have something, you have a calling card. It might even be something of value. I think that’s the best way now. The studio system has changed dramatically. Since we made “Children of the Gods,” think about it. It has changed dramatically. You don’t even have meetings anymore. Your agents submit your projects that you’ve been developing for 10 years as an email to who knows where. To someone’s computer. And who knows who’s reading it or not reading it. There’s no more pitch meetings. I was talking to a friend of mine today who I went to USC with about how the business has changed. ‘Cause he’s in the business. He ran ON TV, Rich Whitman, and so we talk about the business all the time, ’cause he’s still in it, I’m still in it. But there’s no passionate pitch meetings anymore for us. Maybe the A-list production companies get to go in and meet with an actual person and passionately pitch their movie. But for most of us, it’s all submissions by your agent to someone at Netflix or Amazon MGM, or Paramount. It’s all changed. That’s a tough road. To answer the question, I’d do whatever it takes to write and actually shoot and make a film. ‘Cause you have the ability to do that now. And you have to learn it anyway. You gotta be conversant with the process. You gotta learn how to actually make a film. Shoot a film, edit a film, and then do your version of the post, which is putting the sound effects, music, and dialogue, and mixing it together. And you can do a lot. You can do a lot on a Mac. And you can do the whole thing, and that would be my advice. ‘Cause the other path is forever. I’m glad I don’t have to go do it again, because I don’t know. What do you think, Mario?

Mario Azzopardi:
Exactly, exactly. I was lucky enough to find financing for my first feature film when I was 21 years old. I wrote it, I directed it, I produced it, but I had to depend on a lot of people, a lot of people, to shoot, to edit, for music. And today, as you said, two people can make a movie. The Oscar winner for animation, for example, about a couple of years ago, a full feature film, a 90-minute film, was done by two people. Two people alone. So, what I would add to what you said, Michael, is be proud of your madness. Because you have to be mad to be in this business. You have to enjoy the thrill of storytelling. And if you have to tell a story today, you’d better find something that is going to wow your audience. Because we are so saturated by content, that unless your content is something that has never been seen before, has never been experienced before, or has never been told the way you can tell it, then you are going to fall by the wayside. So there’s, apart from talent now, you also need more than ever, today, you have to know how to be a showman, a businessman. It’s not the normal– There’s always the exception to every argument. But today, I see short films by young students, and the boring thing about it is that I’ve seen these films before. And young students trying to do a film that cost $100,000,000, and now they’re trying to do it with $10,000. Don’t even try. You can’t do a James Bond; you can’t do a Star Wars. But what you can do is you can tell something out of your soul that is so originally you, that it’s going to interest people, because through you, they can see their lives. Then, once you do the movie, go into the festivals, go into as many festivals as possible. Go through the awful feeling of rejection. And keep on going. Keep on going. Don’t stop, if that’s what you want to do. No one’s going to force you.

Michael Greenburg:
it’s been done. I mean, The Blair witch Project…

Mario Azzopardi:
Exactly. That’s one.

Michael Greenburg:
Decades ago. I don’t know why they’re– To answer that question, the person I forget his name who just chimed in–

David Read:
Raj.

Michael Greenburg:
to answer Raj’s question: it’s been done, the Blair witch Project, and it made it, and it made money. Just make your film. and I think what I agree with Mario is, find a subject matter that resonates. it’s like a song. There’s lots of songs out there, but there’s only a handful of hit songs, and what makes a hit is, it resonates. They strike a chord that hasn’t been struck before, and it resonates with an audience, and wow, then millions of downloads happen. In film, you have to do the same thing. You have to strike a chord that’s relevant, and resonates, and like Mario said, that is special. And once you find that subject matter, go for it.

David Read:
Blair Witch created a film industry, a subgenre of storytelling. I think the film that Mario was talking about a few years ago is a film made completely in Blender called Flow. It’s just a story of cats. But the creators were so passionate about their idea that everything else–I’m oversimplifying–fell into place, because they didn’t want to create something that, “Ooh, you know, I think everyone will love this.” They wanted to create something that they wanted to see.

Mario Azzopardi:
They liked. Exactly.

David Read:
And that’s a huge key.

Mario Azzopardi:
That’s right. What is the story I want to see? What excites me? Look, one of the exercises that I used to do when I was younger, I used to go to the cinema and I used to look at the people buying tickets at the booth, giving their money, getting the tickets, and then they go to buy their popcorn. And the question is, why would these people want to see my movie? When they’ve got all that in front of them?

David Read:
Humility.

Mario Azzopardi:
You’ve got to be humble in the fact that you have to believe so much in the story, and you’re so honest about it, that when people see it, the honesty that you used to do it shines from the screen. It’s there. There are a lot of movies being made in the Mediterranean at the moment. And some movies that unfortunately will never go into the United States or most of Europe, but the geopolitical situations that exist within the Mediterranean today are so dramatic, are so full of humanity, that if you tell it as you’ve experienced it, because your experience is yours. That’s the only thing that you have, your experience. Now, if your experience is worth it, then perhaps you have a chance. But if you’re going to try and tell the story because that’s how you saw it being told before, I think that’s a recipe for disaster.

Michael Greenburg:
Look at South Park. Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Have you seen the early South Park? The first South Park.

Mario Azzopardi:
Yes, yes. Yes, of course.

Michael Greenburg:
It’s like stick figures, but they had a voice, and that’s what Mario’s saying. What made South Park this mega-billion-dollar success? It’s the voice that those guys have and had, resonating with the audience and the world. And it’s not an expensive animation process. It’s probably the cheapest. But it’s the voice. And Mario’s right. It’s all about that, so anyone out there listening, find your voice and make your film or TV show or comic strip. Just do it.

David Read:
You guys were involved early on in Atlantis. Michael, you produced that pilot along with Rick, and you set the tone for the next chapter of that world. Mario, you came in to Episode Three and helmed one of my favorites, easily in the top three of Atlantis, which was “38 Minutes.”

Mario Azzopardi:
“38 Minutes.”

David Read:
If we could start with you, Mario, tell me about the experience of working, still in the Stargate universe but next door, so to speak. And literally.

Mario Azzopardi:
Thank you.

David Read:
How that felt.

Mario Azzopardi:
60% of that episode is in a space 10 foot by 5 foot. So what we had to do is divide– Remember, Michael? We had to divide the set into two halves, and then add also one of the sides, too. So, in order for us to be able to film, we would remove one side, shoot everything that we needed from that angle. Then go reverse, bring in the other side or …

David Read:
I love that.

Mario Azzopardi:
… for the wider shot, three walls. You never see four walls in that show, even on panning shots. I just saw it before we started today. I liked it.

David Read:
Looks good.

Mario Azzopardi:
I enjoyed seeing it. Do you remember it, Mike?

Michael Greenburg:
Yeah. The panic room type…

David Read:
David Hewlett is on full display.

Michael Greenburg:
He’s great. He was one of my faves. What a great guy. Funny.

Mario Azzopardi:
It was good. I enjoyed seeing it. I haven’t seen it for such a long time.

David Read:
Mario, do you find that when most of the show is confined to a single location like that, that you move through the content faster because there are really fewer camera setups, or is it rigorous for other reasons?

Mario Azzopardi:
As I said, you never shoot film in sequence. But here, in order to save time, I had to group all my angles from one side together for the whole 30 minutes and shoot it that way, and then when we go to the reverse, start from the top again and move down in order not to relight every shot. Because you can’t shoot one side and then bring in the other side. There is no space. You had to move the set. That took a little bit more thinking, I think, at the time. But then also the performances were superb. Michael mentioned the comedy that was used in the show, and it is– Some lines are classic. David was so good in the show. It was absolutely divine. I think it was– My goodness, I forget the lead’s easiest show because he spent the whole show like that…

Michael Greenburg:
Flanigan? Yeah. He hated the bug being attached to him. He told that story years later. He’s like, “I had a bug attached to me the whole time.”

Mario Azzopardi:
Actually, I realized, Mike, that in “38 Minutes,” we started to open up a little bit. Our closeups became chest up. Before, in the pilot, we shot a tad closer. The closeups were really close. But I realized that in– What was the time between “38 Minutes” and the fi–

David Read:
“Children of the Gods?” Eight years.

Mario Azzopardi:
Yeah. So, I realized that somehow we were filming wider. There is a moment or two where we really go very tight, but for very precise moments. But somehow we made the decision that all closeups were chest high. Mid-chest high. Never this way, but wider. Did you notice that?

Michael Greenburg:
Yeah.

Mario Azzopardi:
We brought in a new lens for that episode. If I remember right. Memory is—.

David Read:
I wouldn’t be surprised because it’s so tight and claustrophobic.

Mario Azzopardi:
There was a time, Mike, we were the first to use a new lens that had just come out. And I think that’s the one we used it on because if you see the opening sequence of that, you have some fantastic wide angles inside the pod. And then even in the studio when we were on Atlantis, we used these swooping shots from one side to the other with cranes, but we used these wide angles. You can imagine the time it took to light these. And also, I think this is the time that you introduced the pre-lighting so we knew exactly what we had, what we wanted to do. And then you introduced a way where the people knew what we wanted and they pre-lit. While we were doing something else, they pre-lit the scene.

Michael Greenburg:
We started doing that on SG-1 …

Mario Azzopardi:
Same for us.

Michael Greenburg:
… and then followed it through on Atlantis. Pre-lights.

David Read:
Talk about that, Michael. Have you guys developed a design language for lighting?

Michael Greenburg:
Yeah, because some of our sets were so intricate in the world of visual effects that would come later, and some of the sets, as you know, were just, I won’t say complicated, but they definitely had different elements to them. So, we would have a pre-lighting crew come in before the main unit showed up there, or else we’d be waiting for four hours, ’cause some of the sets needed pre-lights, needed the overall background lit up. Not necessarily the actors’ lights, the key lights, and the fills; we would do all that on the day, but the backgrounds, depending on the worlds that we were doing at the time and the sets in those worlds, we would do pre-lighting, which we started doing that on the complex sets of Stargate. I remember doing them on sets in Norco, when we outgrew the Bridge Studios and we had to find other spaces because we had so much going on. We would do quite a bit of pre-lighting. So we had grips and electrics on a pre-light crew. And I think we would even have the DPs, whether it was Peter Woeste or Mike, I forget his–the Atlantis guy. I forget his name, sorry. But they would manage that. It was more efficient.

David Read:
To be fair, for SG-1, you were going from what was ostensibly a bunker into this grand city. And then Norco was obviously the Goa’uld locations and a lot of these other places. The resources that this show had as the franchise grew were just staggering.

Michael Greenburg:
I spent …

David Read:
Absolutely wild.

Michael Greenburg:
… on Atlantis “Rising,” that two-hour premiere episode, I can’t tell you how many hours we spent in the visual effects room. It was across the river from where I am right now. RainMaker, which is now ILM, they got so good that ILM bought them. It’s ILM now.

David Read:
I didn’t know that.

Michael Greenburg:
I spent days in there doing the 20-second Atlantis rising out of the ocean. I just remember, the water, we gotta fix the water. The drops are too big. We’re talking about pixels versus an ocean. Now, I guess it’s a lot easier. Back then, it was challenging to get that city coming out of the ocean. We spent an exorbitant amount of time on that shot. Atlantis “Rising.”

David Read:
DOPs were, Michael Blundell and Jim Menard.

Michael Greenburg:
Blundell, and who?

David Read:
Jim Menard.

Michael Greenburg:
Jim Menard. They handled the pre-lighting crew on the big sets, getting back to that.

David Read:
Mario, the other episode I sent you was “Suspicion,” and this one was great for Rachel Luttrell.

Mario Azzopardi:
Brilliant, in fact.

David Read:
She has a sequence where she converts a couple of branches that she comes across in a field into Bantos rods that became her signature weapon in the rest of the show. They back sold it as the type of weapon that she carried, and the work that she and Bam Bam did in this sequence became a staple for the rest of the show. Any memories on “Suspicion?”

Mario Azzopardi:
She had to rehearse that dance for quite some time. The choreography on that was superb. There are a couple of inconsistencies because one of the lines was, “Call it on the radio. Call them on the radio.” I don’t think we use the word radio today. Also, one of the problems that I remember now, but we just skipped over it, was that they could communicate back home, but he had to explain what he was seeing. He couldn’t send a picture of what– they didn’t have cell phones then, but anyway. Also, one of the things that I remember talking to you about, Mike, was the floor of the studio. Because of the fact that we had these big open spaces that we were shooting in in Atlantis, the studio floor was always a studio floor. I could never remove that kind of–

Michael Greenburg:
Cement.

David Read:
You couldn’t go under it.

Mario Azzopardi:
No, today the floor is taken care of as part of it, but before, it was just painted on. It was painted with some color and left smooth and clean and perfect and not as high tech as the rest of the walls. So, what I’m saying is there is a dichotomy between the walls and the floor. It’s always something that visually really upsets me. I try to avoid it, but when you need the big top shot to see the vastness of the city, then it’s there, so you try to hide it with extras going back and forth. What’s the name of the actress? I’m sorry, I am going back.

David Read:
Torri Higginson.

Mario Azzopardi:
She was brilliant in that one. She was absolutely brilliant. Her silent moments were worth more than words could say. She brought out the tragedy of the situation and did it very well. Did she finish the series?

David Read:
They moved on in Season Four with Amanda Tapping. So she moved on. But, Michael, you were about to say?

Michael Greenburg:
That she reminded me of Sigourney Weaver. She was solid.

David Read:
One of my favorite sequences with Torri, you directed, Mario, in “38 Minutes” opposite Ben Cotton as Kavanagh, who follows her out of a meeting and it’s all about his ego, but as far as she’s concerned, she has 20 minutes until the people in the Stargate over there die, and she defenestrates him in front of a quarter of the space.

Mario Azzopardi:
Those eyes.

David Read:
It is an extraordinary sequence. And it’s just one of those that everyone thinks, “Yep, that’s Weir, right there, in a nutshell.”

Mario Azzopardi:
Those eyes.

David Read:
She pushes him back.

Mario Azzopardi:
No brainer for fans. Only because all you have to do is point the camera at those eyes and they talk, man. They talked. Brilliant actress. Has she continued in the business, do you know?

David Read:
Yes, very much so. She’s doing great. Guys, what do you think the next series needs to do to win over audience members who have not seen the franchise before? I’m curious. Michael, do you have any thoughts?

Michael Greenburg:
I have more than thoughts.

David Read:
You had your own approach to this. To keep that in mind, Mario, Michael and his writing partner actually pitched a Stargate idea, and this is a different one, so he’s gonna have that already in the back of his mind in this response.

Michael Greenburg:
Hopefully we’ll do ours next. We have, I think, the killer concept. I can’t share it because of the obvious reasons, but I don’t know what to say except Gerard de Marigny, my writing partner, we came up with a pretty spectacular spinoff concept. We never heard back from Amazon on ours. We just found out like everyone else. I found out from David that they picked Martin Gero’s to move forward with. I don’t even know if they read mine and Gerard’s, but we have a pretty spectacular concept. I don’t know if we’ll ever get to make it. We’ll see how Martin’s new one goes, but I know what I would do with the franchise ’cause Gerard and I wrote it, and we took quite a lot of time, six, eight months, to write it. It’s there, but listen, I hope Martin has great success with it, and it goes for 10 years, and then …

Mario Azzopardi:
Martin is a good writer.

Michael Greenburg:
… we can start mine when I’m 85.

David Read:
It’s never too late. Mario, what do you think this new show needs to capture in order to bring in a new audience?

Mario Azzopardi:
Again, I can only speak to this from a personal perspective, of course, because I don’t think there’s anybody who knows the plot lines better and the whole fantasy better than Brad and his team. I hope that Stargate, which has great potential in addressing the modern era, talks to our young people nowadays. We have to be a little bit more relevant because this generation is so well-versed in technology that nothing is going to surprise them, because they know that the sky is the limit. So, any new path, any new kind of technology, they’re gonna take it in their stride. That’s what happens. But I think that storytelling nowadays, at least for this era, unless it is relevant to the world that we live in, it’s not going to generate much interest. It has to be fantasy. It has to be a kind of escape from reality. But like Star Trek. Star Trek talked about the times in a lot of ways. Vietnam and everything, somehow the social, political levels of society at the time sometimes crept into the shows of Star Trek. And they were relevant to the time. I think we have to go back to that because we are living in a very dangerous world at the moment. Sure, we need escapism, but I don’t think that escapism for escapism’s sake works. This is why I think a lot of the superhero movies are tanking. I don’t know if I’m right or wrong on that, but…

David Read:
They’re not doing what they used to do.

Mario Azzopardi:
They’re not doing what they used to do. Because we are sick and tired of the situation. The superhero movies started getting more traction when the superheroes themselves became more human. They started suffering human emotions; they started suffering human situations. But still, you know they’re going to win at the end. Unless they’re killed off, of course.

David Read:
They still win before they die.

Mario Azzopardi:
I think today, students, young people are so bombarded with conflicting ideas. I think there is a lot of stress nowadays. We wake up and it’s always one bad news after the other. and I think if you don’t address this, in one of the most successful TV show franchises that existed, that’s told a lot of stories. In my opinion—I can be totally wrong because there can be arguments against what I’m saying galore—but–

Michael Greenburg:
I think you’re right. I think it would be great if–I don’t wanna just pin it on the new Stargate–any series needs to find good conflict other than killing people. How about we start with stop killing people, and work a little harder to find drama and conflict in other ways than wiping out entire races. It’s not working. Astronauts talk about it when they’re in space; they look down on this blue-green planet and can’t believe— They did that moon thing recently while the Iran war was going on. It’s absurd. It’s actually absurd. We’re one of, however million trillion trillion planets in what we know as the universe or space, let’s say, and there’s gonna be an end. There’s gonna be an end to this planet in millions of years or whatever. I’m not an astrophysicist–

David Read:
It doesn’t last forever.

Michael Greenburg:
We’re killing each other. It’s so absurd. Over what God we believe in. You’re born somewhere, and that somewhere has a God. It’s accidental. It makes no sense. If you’re born in whatever country and they give you a God to worship, but then you’re born in some other place and there’s a different God and now you’re at war with the other people that have a different God, it makes absolutely no cognitive sense at all, in my opinion.

Mario Azzopardi:
Exactly, Michael. And I think our younger generation is very angry at us for deceiving them the way we have deceived them. The gun is not the solution.

Michael Greenburg:
No, but–

Mario Azzopardi:
And I think the majority of them believe this. So, now if you’re gonna give them another show where people are gonna go to another place and are gonna blow everything up …

Michael Greenburg:
It’s not helping.

Mario Azzopardi:
… it’s gonna fail. It will fail. I’m not saying that they’re doing this. I don’t know what they’re doing. I have no idea what the show is gonna be.

Michael Greenburg:
Me either. I have no idea either, but let’s give you–

Mario Azzopardi:
I hope the show gives us hope.

Michael Greenburg:
That’s good.

Mario Azzopardi:
Because that’s what we don’t have anymore.

Michael Greenburg:
That’s a good way of putting it. Hope would be good.

Mario Azzopardi:
There’s no hope anymore left.

Michael Greenburg:
No, even Bob Hope.

Mario Azzopardi:
Everybody is waiting for the big goddamn bang, where we lose our jobs, we lose our house, we lose this, we lose that, we lose everything, no gas. I’m being very pessimistic here, but I’m saying this because I want to believe that there is a better way. I know there is a better way. And I think a show will resonate if you push that hope. Now, if you go and see the show, you sit down, and at the end of it you say, “My goodness, I believe that that’s a great idea,” rather than, “Oh, did you see how he killed him? Did you see how his head exploded? Did you see how…” No. No. I think it’s past. We’re past that. We’re really past that.

Michael Greenburg:
I hope so.

David Read:
Have you guys seen–

Mario Azzopardi:
Yeah.

David Read:
Go ahead, Mario. Finish your thought.

Mario Azzopardi:
No, look at the great shows that there are today. I’m seeing a couple of– Margo’s Got Money Problems. Have you seen that show, Michael?

Michael Greenburg:
No. I don’t think so.

Mario Azzopardi:
Margo Has Money Problems, it’s called, and it’s something.

Michael Greenburg:
I haven’t seen it.

Mario Azzopardi:
It’s about us. It’s about our life, our problems.

David Read:
Margo’s Got Money Troubles. Comedy.

Mario Azzopardi:
Margo’s Got Money Problem. And Friends and Neighbors–

David Read:
Friends and Neighbors.

Mario Azzopardi:
These are all about human beings living in our world. Now, Stargate is gonna be about the future, and if there’s one thing that Star Trek always gave us, it gave us a belief in positivity. We went through the times of very good movies that talked about how we’re doomed. There was doom, doom, doom, nothing but doom. Even some of the great films that have been done recently. Don’t Look Up. I think when I sit down with Therese to watch a movie, even if I know it’s a great movie, if it’s gonna be adding to my angst, I think I’ll pass. And I think in colleges, in universities, I don’t think that the Stargate is meant for young kids. It’s not for young kids. But it’s for young adults. Students and sci-fi aficionados.

David Read:
Have you guys seen Project Hail Mary?

Michael Greenburg:
No, I wanna see that. Is it good?

David Read:
It is aspirational and hopeful. And very much like the images that the astronauts were sending back from the far side of the moon, looking at the earth. Makes you feel yay big in your universe. And makes you recognize that we can, if I can work together with a rock from 40 Eridani A, why can’t I solve a problem on Earth. Again, oversimplifying. But it’s not impossible.

Mario Azzopardi:
See, students know today that the problems that we’re facing today are all because 20-, 30-, 40-, 50-year-old white men, mostly, who are in a way deciding our fate. And the younger generation is saying, “Stop. Fuck you. You are not gonna decide for me anymore.” It’s us, it’s our time now, and you’re not gonna destroy what we can have. I think the total loss of faith in our leaders, our politicians, in our governments is gonna create a different system. Something is gonna happen where something new is gonna come out. And like every birth, when we get born, we get born in blood. Unfortunately, we get born in pain, in this pain for us to be born. I think our system is going through a new birth. There’s gonna be some blood. But the hope is that the baby has 10 fingers, 10 toes, beautiful eyes, nice hair, and is gonna be wonderful. That’s– I’m being poetic now.

David Read:
I get what you’re saying, absolutely. Guys, this has been tremendous. Thank you for letting us have a conversation with you guys.

Mario Azzopardi:
90 minutes have passed already?

David Read:
I know.

Mario Azzopardi:
My goodness.

David Read:
Mike, gotta go see Project Hail Mary. It speaks to this conversation.

Michael Greenburg:
I will, for sure.

David Read:
I can’t wait to hear what you think about it.

Mario Azzopardi:
Michael, how can you send me your email?

Michael Greenburg:
A what?

Mario Azzopardi:
How can you send me your email?

Michael Greenburg:
I’ll send it to you. I’ll get it to David.

Mario Azzopardi:
Give it to David.

David Read:
You guys are already corresponding.

Mario Azzopardi:
I have it. And if you’re ever in this neck of the woods, please come and stay with us for a few days.

Michael Greenburg:
Absolutely. I look forward to it.

Mario Azzopardi:
You’ll love Malta. They make a lot of American movies here.

Michael Greenburg:
I know. Do you remember Doghmi Larbi, the comedian? Wasn’t he from Malta? I cast him a long time ago.

Mario Azzopardi:
I don’t know.

Michael Greenburg:
Brilliant, brilliant. But I’d love to come.

Mario Azzopardi:
I’ll show you around. I’ll be your guide, man. It’s gonna be lovely.

Michael Greenburg:
Sounds good. Thank you, David. You’re the best host ever. You make it easy.

David Read:
My pleasure. It’s such a treat to be back with both of you. This is a treat for all of us to watch. We’re just getting started again with Stargate. I am confident that if this first season of what Martin is creating does as well as we all hope that it will, it will open doors to other branches, that they can start populating.

Mario Azzopardi:
Martin is a wonderful writer. Wonderful Canadian writer.

David Read:
He’s Canadian. I think there are a lot of possibilities here. It’s all very good.

Michael Greenburg:
Good.

David Read:
You guys have been so good to me and generous. Thank you so much for being here.

Michael Greenburg:
Thank you.

David Read:
Thank you for your time.

Michael Greenburg:
You’re great. You’re great.

David Read:
Thank you, sir.

Michael Greenburg:
We’re in good hands with you at the helm.

David Read:
I’m gonna wrap up the show on this side.

Michael Greenburg:
Take care.

Mario Azzopardi:
Thank you.

David Read:
Thank you guys.

Mario Azzopardi:
Bye, Michael.

Michael Greenburg:
Bye-bye.

David Read:
That was Mario Azzopardi, director, and Michael Greenburg, writer and executive producer. What a show. My name is David Read. You’re watching The Stargate Oral History Project. If you enjoy Stargate, and you wanna see more content like this on YouTube, please do click that Like button. It does make a difference with the show and will continue to help us grow our audience. Consider sharing the video with a Stargate friend because we know that there are more Stargate folks out there who would be interested in seeing more content like this and what the show has to offer. And if you wanna get notified about future episodes, click Subscribe and if you hit the Bell icon the click will notify you once a new video drops and you’ll get my notifications of any live streams and backlogs. Clips from this livestream will be released over the course of the next two weeks on the Dial the Gate YouTube channel. My tremendous thanks to my Patreon members. Everyone finally got together and said, “You know what? Go ahead and start this,” and I’ve been so blessed with the response. We have another show heading your way tomorrow. Actually, a couple of them: Gary Jones, Ellie Harvey and Paul McGillion at 9:00 AM. And then Bonnie Kilroe, who played Morrigan in “Summit” and “Last Stand” on SG-1. Along with Wormhole Extremists, we are continuing our discussion with “Avalon Part 2” and “Intruder.” My name is David Read for Dial the Gate. I appreciate you tuning in. Thanks to Lockwatcher and Raj for moderating. You guys did great. Appreciate you all. I’ll see you guys on the other side.