LOL, no, that refers to his later performance in the show, versus his earlier performance in the show. RDA is not late, he's still alive.
No worries--I hate it when people say <this artists> last album was great/poor when what they really mean to say is "previous album" (or book, movie whatever). From everything I've read SG-1 in all its incarnations had a pretty good working relationship among the cast. Both Shanks and Anderson just got tired of the show after a while. As an actor, once your financial concerns are taken care of for the rest of your life, it must become quite boring to keep going back to work doing the same thing over and over again. Anderson is not the first nor the last to go through it.
As everyone knows who has a steady job Granted, from what i hear TV productions have sometimes insane hours (i've heard anything from 6am to 8pm or later) but then they get paid well (even better if it's a popular show and they are part of the main cast or even the lead). However many actors just won't admit that after years of playing the same character they enjoy the steady paycheck and life security that brings. Even after 6+ years they still go on about how great and rewarding the role is and how they are still surprised by the character but everyone knows they are in full marketing mode. I've only seen a tiny handful of actors who have admitted that a big part of the appeal of the show they spent a decade on is just the good paycheck. I don't have a problem with that.. being in the art department means that your pay will be irregular and can vary a lot so having some security is preferrably than being a free spirit and not know how to pay rent/mortgage in a few months. Some try to break into movies and of these only very few even make it and i'd have to dig really deep for someone who's made it big from TV to the A list, currently only Tom Hanks comes to mind. More often they have a modest few films with each one generating less and less box office money until they return to TV in either their old role if it's possible or a new show.
Bruce Willis. I remember joking about how he thought he was an action star while waiting in line at Die Hard--"what's he going to do, cleverly joke his way out of the situation?" Pierce Brosnan is another, Leonardo Dicaprio, Johnny Depp (although he did start in movies first)--many comedians who started on SNL....
Now up to seasnon 9 of my rewatch, I do l;ike Browder, and they all; seemed to blend fairlyu well, which was great. I've come to the conclusion that SG1 is one of the better SF shows, adn gives all Trek a hard run for its money. It's pretty good, and at least there was a coupe of solidf attempts at a conclusion. Ands maybe if Universe had had a third season to wind things up, that would have been good. The main problem with that series was casting. You can't compare Everett Young to Jack O'Neill, and it fell down from there. SOme of the other characters could have worked better if the man in charge had been different. YMMV.
Stargate Universe was meant to have been a five year series and I do think that Young was not meant to be the next O'Neill.
I remember something about RDA having a bum knee. That could be related to the arthritis. Only thing I heard about Shanks is that, supposedly he was a primadonna. I could see he has that look in his face of being that type of personality, but who knows. Browder seemed to be generic adventure seeking commander, with a light comedic streak. Claudia Black, in her desperate desire to play completely against the Aeryn Sun character, hammed it up to become the anti Aeryn Sun of the show. Althought I enjoyed SG-1 to the end (without counting the atrocious movies), Season 6 really was the peak. And I felt bad for Parker Lewis, as it seems he finally did lose by being forgotten after the 6th season.
The Ark of Truth wasn't great, but that's what happens when you have two hours to wrap up all the plot instead of a season. (The Peacekeeper Wars suffers similarly.) But Continuum was fun. Unless you hate Ba'al. In which case, your loss.
I'm in the middle of S5 for my own rewatch. It's amazing at just how uniformly good this show could be in its early seasons! The main cast chemistry was a very big element of this show, but it's inevitable that the lineup will change over time and while the show stumbled a bit, overall it was very memorable. I also really appreciate the effort they made in these early years to reincorporate ideas and solutions from other episodes. It became something of a trope later on (especially in Atlantis) where they ran up against almost identical situations and tried solving them with the same technology. Luckily, with SG-1 at least it came down to the character stories being as entertaining as the sci-fi way they handled the threat that week. Mark
I think the movies are "ehh", they could have been better, could have been worse, they at least close the story lines up. I just rewatched season 1 of Atlantis and forgot how decent it was, and it reminded me of how horrid it became.
I think also a lot of people forget that Stargate SG-1 was on SHOWTIME for it's first 5 seasons and Season 5 was billed BIG TIME as the last one -- then the Sci Fi channel made a deal to continue production and do a 6th season, etc. I read it as: Shanks thought the show was coming to an end (and Sci Fi didn't have a good track record with shows that it acquired from other networks - like 'Sliders'); so I wasn't surprised when Shanks left after 5 seasons (probably thinking it was better to get out and find other acting work rather then ride the show to the bitter end.) Then when it managed to achieve some further success on Sci-Fi; and Shanks had a taste of the Hollywood audition grind, he figured, "What the heck, it's a job. I can use the check." As for Richard Dean Anderson, he probably did just get tired of the role, and he had his own production company; so it wasn't a big deal to just walk away or effectively 'phone in' the occasional cameo for a 'ratings sweeps' episode.
There is tension on the set of virtually every show ever made, especially long running ones. The people have to be there long hours (not always working, but accessible), and there is a sense of competition because not everybody's character can be the central focus, and not every character is as popular as the next. I'd say it is a foregone conclusion that there was some tension on the set of SG-1. Does that mean the cast didn't like each other, or that Shanks left because of it - absolutely not. I've worked with plenty of people who I enjoying being around, but there was still tension when someone felt they were doing too much or not recognized enough.
I hated both episodes for the following reasons: 1. Ark of Truth was probably the hugest Deux Ex Machina I have ever seen in any movie. The entire movie was about finding a magical machine that would automatically change people's minds about a belief, or "force the truth" into their minds. That seems like the most contrived way of ending a storyline that they had developed over 2 seasons. Talk about ending the story on a whimper. 2. I like Ba'al, but the whole thing seemed to be a retread on the "It's a wonderful life" trope, where they erase history by accident and have to bring it back. How many times have we seen some variation of that in most Sci-Fi franchises? I for one, am bored of that trope.