Vicki Gabereau. October 12, 2001
Host: Vicki Gabereau

As filming for the fifth season of Stargate SG-1 ended, Richard appeared on Vicki Gabereau, a Canadian talk show from Vancouver. Taped on October 10th, his appearance aired on October 12th.

Vicki Gabereau:
Hello, I’m Vicky Gabereau. On the show today, the man who is always on a mission on his show, Stargate SG-1, and for personal causes too. Richard Dean Anderson, world’s cutest guy will be here...

[Turning to Richard who is sitting beside her, off camera, reading the teleprompter.]
Don’t tell me any jokes until I get through this bit.

I should tell you that he's just wrapped up the fifth season as Colonel Jack O'Neill in the big hit series Stargate SG-1, and I'm very pleased he's come back.

[To Richard] Stop reading the prompter.

This is Richard Whatever-His-Name-Is.

Richard Dean Anderson:
[Laughing] This is a ritual. I read it the last time. I just looked at the tape.

Vicki Gabereau:
I know, I know, I know, I know, it's a ritual now. So, how's it going? Five years. Holy Dinah.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Five long years, yeah. I'm tired, I will admit. I'm an old guy who's just a working stiff now. We just finished up our fifth season, we’ve got one, at least one, more year to go. We'll be back in February to start shooting our sixth year. But in the meantime I have some other things to do.

Vicki Gabereau:
But a year ago when you were here and we had this same conversation, only the numbers had changed, four, it was four years, finishing four, going to do five, right?

Richard Dean Anderson:
Yeah.

Vicki Gabereau:
And you didn’t envision it going on forever. It now seems to be a life sentence, and, will it ever end?

Richard Dean Anderson:
It just seems like forever, yeah. You know what, it started out as a two-year commitment. I made a two-year commitment to Showtime and MGM for this Stargate franchise, what turned into a franchise. And just, it became successful immediately, we got picked up for two more years, we’re into four, then the fifth year became obvious, and the sixth year was sort of, is now becoming an addendum, more than anything. So we’re kind of trying to come full circle.

Vicki Gabereau:
How many months a year must you devote to this?

Richard Dean Anderson:
Nine. About nine months.

Vicki Gabereau:
That's a lot.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Yeah, it gets a little rough. It gets particularly rough for me because I have a 3-year-old daughter who lives in California, and I make the commute every Friday evening, Friday night, late flight, and come back on Sunday afternoons.

Vicki Gabereau:
Why can't they come here?

Richard Dean Anderson:
Uh, partially because...

Vicki Gabereau:
You want to go home.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Well, no, not so much, 'cause I love it here, I really love it here. But Wylie has started in... We finally got her into a school in which she will be about for about the next six years, and there was a waiting list, anyway, it’s...

Vicki Gabereau:
Wylie? Her name is Wylie?

Richard Dean Anderson:
Yeah, Wylie.

Vicki Gabereau:
As in Wiley Post?

Richard Dean Anderson:
Wylie Quinn. Well, Wiley Post was one of the references we had to use, yeah. Eleanor Wiley was an English poet, as well.

Vicki Gabereau:
Oh, that’s right, yeah. So, that's how you came to name her that. There're not too many girls named Wylie.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Well, actually, I...

Vicki Gabereau:
Wile E. Coyote? Did that come up?

Richard Dean Anderson:
[Smiling] No!

Vicki Gabereau:
Never crossed your mind.

Richard Dean Anderson:
[Still smiling] You know what? Somehow, that never really kind of cropped up. I actually was reading a fairy tale one time, in utero, had the phone on the stomach...

Vicki Gabereau:
God, you're such a modern guy.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Well, I did! I was reading this fairy tale and the name Wylie cropped up and I said, "Let's put that on the list," and it made the cut. Wylie Quinn Annarose.

Vicki Gabereau:
Very nice name, isn’t it?

Richard Dean Anderson:
Yeah, it goes on a bit but... [Laughing]

Vicki Gabereau:
Well, she's not likely to say it. And she'll hate you for something, she’ll say, "Why did you have to name me that for?"

Richard Dean Anderson:
Well, if she hears the whole thing out of my mouth, she'll know I'm perturbed.

Vicki Gabereau:
I named my daughter Quicksilver.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Did you really? ...Gabereau?

Vicki Gabereau:
[Both laughing] Yeah! That's her third name, Quicksilver.

Richard Dean Anderson:
[Still laughing] Nice...

Vicki Gabereau:
It’s like "EJQ", those are her initials.

Richard Dean Anderson:
[Still disbelieving] Seriously?

Vicki Gabereau:
I’m not kidding!

Richard Dean Anderson:
[To the audience] Is this true? Do you folks know her well enough?

Vicki Gabereau:
Yes. They don’t know, they don’t know. Yeah, but she lives in England, mercifully, so she doesn’t have to endure this. [RDA laughs] But she would absolutely kill me if I mentioned this. And now I’m so embarrassed.

Richard Dean Anderson:
We’ll be sending a tape.

Vicki Gabereau:
On the set are you feeling more and more like this has become a huge family?

Richard Dean Anderson:
Yeah, oh yeah.

Vicki Gabereau:
I mean, you know everybody, nobody changes much on this show.

Richard Dean Anderson:
You mean the characters, or the people working, the real workers?

Vicki Gabereau:
The real workers.

Richard Dean Anderson:
That element of it, the people who do the real work behind the scenes are...It does become familial, it really does. There's a little bit of an attrition rate in the early goings, because it's a rough gig. These people that I work with are up at 3:30, 4:00 in the morning prepping everything, getting everything... I mean, the behind the scenes folks, are really, they're the workers. They’re the people that I champion at any turn. If they can make the cut, basically, both physically, and take care of things, and mentally it does draw us all much closer. So we have a really great group up here, and they're all local people.

Vicki Gabereau:
Yeah. Do you have a piece of this show?

Richard Dean Anderson:
Meaning...? Do I have an emotional investment in it, or do I make money off of it?

Vicki Gabereau:
No, no. [to the former] Yeah. [to the latter]

Richard Dean Anderson:
Yeah, I make... Both. [Laughing] How 'bout "both"?

Vicki Gabereau:
So part of the revenue of the show belongs to you, I mean, you don’t just get paid a salary.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Yeah, well, I'm one of the executive producers.

Vicki Gabereau:
That's right.

Richard Dean Anderson:
And I also help perpetuate or help nurture it along, by, I guess basically by my presence, let alone any creative input I might have. We have, Brad Wright is... Well, he was here last time with us...

Vicki Gabereau:
I know.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Brad, and my partner Mike Greenburg... Yeah, there are several partners, actually. It’s teamwork.

Vicki Gabereau:
Do you ever write them?

Richard Dean Anderson:
No, I don’t have... What I do is take what is written, and...

Vicki Gabereau:
...and make it live.

Richard Dean Anderson:
...and what is known as "re-write," for which I've been raked over the coals. I mean, poor Brad, and the other writing staff, because they do write wonderfully, wonderful stories and part of the problem is in finding the voices to all the characters, 'cause there’s a myriad of characters that have to be serviced, and sometimes in telling a story you'll lose the voice of the character. So a lot of us are...

Vicki Gabereau:
It's editing, really. It’s story editing, wouldn’t you say? In a way?

Richard Dean Anderson:
Yeah, for the most part it’s cosmetic altering of what is presented to you and it's tweaking more than anything. But if I were a writer, of any kind at all, and I presented a script and I did what I do to a script...

Vicki Gabereau:
You'd kill someone...

Richard Dean Anderson:
Yeah, I'd be offended. And I think to some degree I should publicly say, [turning to the camera and grinning] "Thanks for enduring the..."

Vicki Gabereau:
...the abuse.

Richard Dean Anderson:
...the abuse, yes.

Vicki Gabereau:
Oh, you're such a nice guy. Okay, well do you want to watch a clip of, I think it’s you and Tom McCann, actually?

Richard Dean Anderson:
Tom McCann? The shoe guy?

Vicki Gabereau:
What’s his name? Yeah, Tom. Anyway, Tom. Sorry Tom! [To the camera] Watch this.

[They show a clip from Enemies, the "Someone said we’re not going to make it" scene. It is not the clip Vicki was expecting.]

Vicki Gabereau:
Well, I saw another clip, so I thought it might be that one, but that was good too. Who’s that guy?

Richard Dean Anderson:
Carmen...

Vicki Gabereau:
And what were you talking about?

Richard Dean Anderson:
[Laughing] Oh, God, don't ask me that. I haven’t the slightest idea!

Vicki Gabereau:
You don't have the slightest... What, it’s not the real world?

Richard Dean Anderson:
I don't even remember getting up this morning. Yeah, we're traveling in a spaceship to another part of the galaxy...

Vicki Gabereau:
Just for a change.

Richard Dean Anderson:
...to save the universe.

Vicki Gabereau:
Yeah, pretty much.

Richard Dean Anderson:
[Shrugging and grinning toward the camera] Does that cover it?

Vicki Gabereau:
[Laughing] Your grandchildren are going to be a riot! You know, they'll say, "Grandpa used to save the universe, don’t ya know?"

Richard Dean Anderson:
Are you kidding me? My 3-year-old is already looking at me saying, "Dad, come on, get with it, where’d you go?"

Vicki Gabereau:
Couldn't you just be a banker? Couldn’t you be a normal person?

Richard Dean Anderson:
All in good time. Come retirement I'll become... normal?

Vicki Gabereau:
Oh, God, when is that day going to arrive, do you think?

Richard Dean Anderson:
I think after next season.

Vicki Gabereau:
You'll retire??

Richard Dean Anderson:
I'm not going to officially say this on... Although I will come back if I officially announce it.

Vicki Gabereau:
Thank you so much.

Richard Dean Anderson:
I'm making a transition out of the commercial end of television, and this next year, this next season of Stargate will probably be the swan song, at least to series television. I have this other group that I’m a part of now, a documentary film group and we’re making, essentially compiling a library of footage that deals with the great rivers of the world. We have about eight on our calendar now, and essentially they're all class 5 white water rivers.

Vicki Gabereau:
One would be the Fraser?

Richard Dean Anderson:
Not yet, no, we haven’t gotten there yet.

Vicki Gabereau:
But you will.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Well, we've been to British Columbia, and we did a piece with the Klahoose Nation, I think I may have mentioned last time. I’ve since been to Chile, I’m going back there in March. I just got back from Tibet about a month ago. We ran the Yangtze, the Upper Yangtze, and did a cultural piece on Tibetan Buddhism and the cultures there, or the culture there.

Vicki Gabereau:
If you would like to just rest at that point, then we will sell soap...

Richard Dean Anderson:
Okay!

Vicki Gabereau:
And then you can come back and talk about river rafting on the Yangtze. Some people have a very nice life, don't they just, though?

Richard Dean Anderson:
Very cushy.

Vicki Gabereau:
Very cushy. Richard Dean Anderson.

[They go to a commercial break, and return to a clip from an upcoming episode of Stargate in which O’Neill confronts Maybourne about whether he was the one who shot him in Desperate Measures. The clip ends with O’Neill demanding, "What do you know?!"]

Vicki Gabereau:
Not much, apparently! I speak for myself, because that was Tom McBeath, Tom McBeath, Tom McBeath, in a scene from Stargate SG-1, with some other guy who is the guest today. So, where’d you get that necklace?

Richard Dean Anderson:
This? [Touching the necklace of beads visible at his throat] This is actually from Tibet. I mentioned I ran the Yangtze recently, I got back about six weeks ago or so, I lost track of time. But these are all... I collected these separate pieces, stones, they're all representative, obviously symbolic of certain things, and there's a coral and an amber in there, and the money. But I started... We ran what is known as the Upper Yangtze, and it starts...

Vicki Gabereau:
"Ran," you mean like on a raft?

Richard Dean Anderson:
Raft, yeah. To finance our trips we take clients along. Earth River Expeditions is the name of the company that I’m partnered with, Eric Hertz, and we’ll take clients along. There was actually a group this time of women, it was like twenty women we brought.

Vicki Gabereau:
And then you shoot while you go?

Richard Dean Anderson:
We shoot, "Run and Gun," as we call it, and then what we do is get to our take-out, which happened to be in Yushu, and it's about a 520-mile run of the river.

Vicki Gabereau:
Wow.

Richard Dean Anderson:
We bus them back across the plateau, another 3-day trek across, back to Xining, and then they go on to Beijing. But we go back to the put-in, and run the river again on our own and do all our filming at the monasteries and the various towns along the way. Very few towns, mostly monasteries. Anyway, [indicating the beads on his necklace] these are all, were gifts made by some people and a couple of monks along the way.

Vicki Gabereau:
Did you have any trouble getting into Tibet?

Richard Dean Anderson:
No. It's an interesting... and I'm not quite sure how much I should talk about it because I became acutely aware of the political "tension," for lack of a better word, in regards to the Chinese and the Tibetan, you know, duplicity, whatever, I mean, it's a little touchy. In fact...

Vicki Gabereau:
It’s very touchy.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Well for instance, I couldn't say in applying for a visa that I was going to Tibet, I had to say I was going to China. So, it's something as simple as that...

Vicki Gabereau:
And then in China you applied within?

Richard Dean Anderson:
Yeah, well what we did, was hire, and what one can do apparently, is hire, in fact, it’s required, the Chinese government requires that you bring a member of the Travel Bureau along with you on your trip, because we went deep in, to, almost to the source of the Yangtze which is a 3-day, 3 and a half-day torturous trek across the plateau to gain altitude. So they come along with you just to make... just kind of to keep an eye on what you're doing.

Vicki Gabereau:
And you’re taking pictures all the time, 'cause you're now a fanatic picture taker.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Well, yeah, I mean...

[One of RDA's own photographs is shown, a black and white shot of an elderly Tibetan woman.]

Vicki Gabereau:
Look. Who’s that person? Do you know, do you remember?

Richard Dean Anderson:
This is a woman at one of the monasteries we visited, or one of the towns connected to the monastery, and she was, what you see in the right of the screen is a mani stone, and she was sitting there very arduously carving these very minute letterings and figures on these pieces of granite and stone. And that's basically what she does.

[A second photograph is shown, a black and white picture of a monastery.]

Vicki Gabereau:
What kind of camera did you use, because they’re square prints? Is that like a Rolleiflex?

Richard Dean Anderson:
No, this is actually, it’s a twelve dollar... I’ve been experimenting with different things, and this is a Holga 120.

Vicki Gabereau:
Oh, yeah.

Richard Dean Anderson:
And it's basically a throw-away.

[RDA turns to comment on the picture of the monastery, but the angle now shows a two-shot of RDA and Vicki, with the black and white photo in the background.]

Richard Dean Anderson:
That's a monastery, actually the monastery.

Vicki Gabereau:
That's us. This is us now.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Oh, right. I didn't take this picture. It's... the two of us.

Vicki Gabereau:
No. But we're a lovely couple, don't you think?

Richard Dean Anderson:
[Grinning] Yes.

Vicki Gabereau:
So, do you take a lot of cameras with you?

Richard Dean Anderson:
I did this time, and I learned a valuable lesson about... Because the people that I'm working with are professional photographers and videographers, and I'm not, but I want to be. You know, I'm a wannabe, one of those guys. So I've been taking... When Wylie was born, I used that as my springboard into learning the craft. I took thousands...

Vicki Gabereau:
You never take a bad picture of a baby or a child.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Well, you can. [Laughing, apparently speaking from experience]

Vicki Gabereau:
No, but they're so beautiful and perfect.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Yes, they are. But she gave me the excuse to really focus in on it. So, when I went, when I start going on the rivers now, I know how to pack much better, Pelicases and such. But I'm experimenting with a variety of different types of cameras. But the Holga, the ones that I was taking with that square format, is just a twelve dollar, basically a throw-away, that leaks light.

Vicki Gabereau:
Yeah, you could see, yeah...

Richard Dean Anderson:
I brought a packet that your folks filtered through and I'm sure they were, you know, "Those are terrible," 'cause they leak. I love that! That’s an element that...

Vicki Gabereau:
You like it that it says, "Kodak" all across them?

Richard Dean Anderson:
Yeah. There’s some really fascinating... Part of the, I mean, all the technology that’s available now, photographically, the technology is, makes things so... can, you can make things so clean and beautiful. Part of the joy of the Holga, and this isn’t an ad for Holga, by the way...

Vicki Gabereau:
Apparently...

Richard Dean Anderson:
But, I like, when I take things down to [turning to the camera and grinning] Gamma Pro Imaging [laughter at his continued name-dropping] and I get my stuff...

Vicki Gabereau:
You never stop! It’s no wonder you’re rich! [Both laughing]

Richard Dean Anderson:
I get my stuff back, and there’s leaks and the light, you know, there’s scratches on them and stuff like that, it’s the effect that I love. There’s the surprise element.

Vicki Gabereau:
Well, it’s a good thing, because that’s what you’re getting!

Richard Dean Anderson:
That’s right!

Vicki Gabereau:
A lot of leakage!

Richard Dean Anderson:
So I have great joy in getting my stuff back.

[A third picture of RDA’s is shown, a black and white shot of children’s faces in a doorway.]

Vicki Gabereau:
Now see, this is a... I think this is a really great photograph because it’s so dark, and the faces are so bright.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Well, again, this is another... [Smiling at another name-dropping opportunity] I’ll stop. It’s the Holga shot. But this was...

Vicki Gabereau:
Where'd you get this camera? You get them at a store?

Richard Dean Anderson:
I sort of had to seek them out, in town here, there was a camera shop.

Vicki Gabereau:
Okay, I want one. I want one.

Richard Dean Anderson:
[Grinning at the impression he’ll be name-dropping again] And I’m not going to, I can’t even remember, so I won’t drop...

Vicki Gabereau:
You’ll tell me, I know, one day.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Well, I’ll get you one, actually, I’ll send you one. But you buy them by the case, 'cause they’re so, you know, disposable.

Vicki Gabereau:
But they’re like the old Rolleiflex, square, you know, those [demonstrating loading and rolling film] the old...

Richard Dean Anderson:
Well, you’ve got to wind them, load them, and it’s all very tedious.

Vicki Gabereau:
Yeah. But that’s the print size.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Right. So what you end up doing is, or what I do, is load up about three of them, and throw them in a bag, when you’re done with them, download them later. [Grinning] "Download them." You kind of unroll them, is what you do. But that’s what that’s all... Anyway, that shot, that particular shot was taken in very dark, obviously, in a doorway of a monastery. And there was enough light there. There’s no mirrors or anything in this camera, so you have to just click it. I held it open, and just guessed, to see if I got enough light on their faces.

Vicki Gabereau:
Well it really worked.

Richard Dean Anderson:
I got lucky.

Vicki Gabereau:
Okay, what’s going on in Chile? Because we don’t have forever here, you’ve got things to do.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Why not?

Vicki Gabereau:
I don’t care. You stay. Doesn’t matter, doesn't bother me.

Richard Dean Anderson:
[Grinning] Okay.

Vicki Gabereau:
No, but what’s happening in Chile? I haven’t been there. Is it great?

Richard Dean Anderson:
It is. When I go down... I’m going back in March to finish up the initial filming we did on the documentary piece, to the Futaleufu, Rio Futaleufu, which is a river that is possibly going to be compromised by a series of dams. Now, the pieces that we’re doing are not hardcore political, "white guys on the river saying how dare you build a dam" to the big corporations.

Vicki Gabereau:
Good.

Richard Dean Anderson:
What we’re trying to do is show the joy, the glory, the beauty, and if the people of the valley, this particular valley, the Futaleufu, which is Chilean Patagonia, if they happen to mention that "Did you know there’s a dam coming up?" then by all means, "How do you feel about that?" We had a hundred year old guy, which was one of the more poignant moments that we’ve had down there, a hundred year old man say to us, on camera, "It would be a sad day in my life if I had to build a boat to live in my home." Which speaks volumes, rather than going up to Endessa and saying, "When’s enough enough?" It’s all about hydroelectric. The Biobío was dammed and now it’s a big stagnant lake that provides a lot of electricity for Argentina, Chile, and these other places. We’re trying not to be too political about them because the joy that we garner from it is the joy of the rivers themselves, and the venues in which they lay. So, that’s what Chile’s all about.

Vicki Gabereau:
[Concluding the interview] Bye.

Richard Dean Anderson:
And we’ll be to Alaska and Canada, and we’ll get back...

Vicki Gabereau:
You could just stay here and blither on for the whole hour, couldn’t you?

Richard Dean Anderson:
I could! [Grinning] And I haven’t had my Starbucks yet. [Laughing at one more example of name-dropping]

Vicki Gabereau:
See, another commercial.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Actually I have, but it’s decaf.

Vicki Gabereau:
It’s really, it’s almost embarrassing to be with you.

Richard Dean Anderson:
You don’t have to pay for anything if you keep name-dropping. [Both laughing]

Vicki Gabereau:
Thank you, dear.

Richard Dean Anderson:
Bless you.

Vicki Gabereau:
See you again, soon, I hope.

Richard Dean Anderson:
I’m kissing you. [He leans over to give her a kiss on the cheek.] Thanks.

Vicki Gabereau:
Ah, Richard Dean Anderson. You can see him on Stargate SG-1. I know what that show’s called. Really, really I do.

Richard Dean Anderson:
You’re supposed to sell me!

Vicki Gabereau:
Oh, yeah yeah yeah...

[Applause as they go to a commercial]

[The final segment of the show was with Lorna Suzuki, the Education Director for the Greater Vancouver Zoo, who had brought some discarded and abandoned exotic pets, now in the care of the zoo. RDA stayed for the first animal, a blind cheetah, who was introduced as "in the company of Richard Dean Anderson, who is the guy who wouldn't leave." Throughout the segment, RDA petted the cheetah and whispered gently to it as the cheetah licked his hand and purred loudly.]

____________________
Vicki Gabereau. October 12, 2001.