Conception Brad Wright and
Jonathan Glassner had worked together on the
MGM television series
The Outer Limits since 1995. Upon hearing of MGM's plan to create a television spin-off series of the feature film
Stargate, Wright and Glassner independently and unbeknownst to each other approached MGM and proposed their concept for the television series. MGM president John Symes greenlit the project on the condition that Wright and Glassner work together as executive producers of the new show. The show was named
Stargate SG-1 after Wright flightily agreed to Symes's pitch question of whether the team should be called "SG-1". MGM released posters titled
Stargate SG-1 within the next week without the knowledge of Wright or Glassner. John Symes approached Michael Greenburg and
Richard Dean Anderson, former star of the long-running
MacGyver. The American subscription channel
Showtime made a two-season commitment for 44 episodes in 1996. Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping and Christopher Judge are said to have gravitated towards each other during the casting process before they knew that they would ultimately be cast. The producers found Judge the easiest to cast due to his muscular presence. Showtime's announcement that it would not renew
Stargate SG-1 after Season 5 coincided with Michael Shanks's decision to leave the show over concerns of being underutilized. The
Sci Fi Channel picked up the show and substituted a new character, played by
Corin Nemec. Casting agents had met Nemec in the courtyard of MGM's
Santa Monica offices by chance and had offered him the role of Jonas Quinn. Addressing rumors that it had forced Shanks's departure, Sci Fi said in February 2002 that the network had "absolutely never requested that any cast changes be made... and although we regret the loss of Michael Shanks, we think that Corin Nemec will be a great new presence in the cast." Nemec's early appearances, beginning with the penultimate episode of Season 5 "
Meridian", failed to win over some of the show's fans. Don S. Davis left
Stargate SG-1 after Season 7 for health reasons but appeared in a recurring capacity until his death on June 29, 2008. Due to prior engagements,
Claudia Black of
Farscape could not accept the offers to guest-star on
Stargate SG-1 until the Season 8 episode "
Prometheus Unbound". The producers liked the on-screen chemistry between Black's Vala Mal Doran and Shanks's Daniel so much that they re-introduced her in a six-episode story Arc to cover for the maternity leave of Amanda Tapping at the beginning of Season 9. At the same time, Richard Dean Anderson left the show to spend more time with his daughter (his schedule had been reduced incrementally since Season 6). The role of the leading man was filled by
Ben Browder (also of
Farscape), who had met with the
Stargate producers as soon as the introduction of new main characters for Season 9 was discussed. The producers had met him during sci-fi conventions and had previously discussed casting him in other
Stargate roles. The producers approached
Emmy Award-winning actor
Beau Bridges directly to play the role of Hank Landry. Claudia Black's guest appearances were so popular with the cast, crew and audience that the actress returned for the last two Season 9 episodes (with her pregnancy worked into the plot) and she joined the cast full-time in Season 10.
Crew Most of the producers, crew members and guest actors involved in
Stargate SG-1 were Canadian. Cooper and Wright remained show-runners of their respective shows until the end of
SG-1. Also serving as executive and co-executive producers were Michael Greenburg and Richard Dean Anderson (Seasons 1–8), N. John Smith (Seasons 4–10) and the writer team Joseph Mallozzi, Minh Quach and Paul Mullie (Seasons 7–10). Although
Stargate SG-1 employed freelance writers, most of the 214
Stargate SG-1 episodes were written by Brad Wright (Seasons 1–10), Jonathan Glassner (Seasons 1–3),
Katharyn Powers (Seasons 1–6), Robert C. Cooper (Seasons 1–10),
Peter DeLuise (Seasons 4–8), Joseph Mallozzi & Paul Mullie (Seasons 4–10),
Damian Kindler (Seasons 6–10) and Alan McCullough (Seasons 9–10).
Martin Wood and Peter DeLuise directed the most episodes, with 46 episodes (Seasons 1–10) and 57 episodes (Seasons 2–10), respectively. Wood and DeLuise regularly made cameo appearances in their episodes and notably played the
show-within-a-show directors in the cameo-heavy milestone episodes "
Wormhole X-Treme!" and "
200".
Andy Mikita had been an assistant director since the pilot episode and directed 29 episodes from Season 3–10.
SG-1 director of photography
Peter Woeste and camera operator
William Waring directed 13 episodes each. Most staff writers and staff directors held producer positions. Several cast members also contributed story ideas and directed
SG-1 episodes.
Filming ,
British Columbia, Canada.
Stargate SG-1 was filmed in and around
Vancouver,
British Columbia, mainly at
The Bridge Studios and NORCO Studios, which offered
Stargate SG-1 tax breaks throughout its run. in the first seasons to an estimated US$2 million per episode in Season 10, partly due to unfavorable exchange rates. Production faced many weather problems because of the moderate oceanic
climate of Vancouver, although rain could be eliminated from film. The Season 3 episode "
Crystal Skull" was the first episode to be filmed on a virtual set. By then, visitor questions and fan theories about the existence of a Stargate at the real Cheyenne Mountain complex had become so common that Cheyenne Mountain had installed a seemingly high-security door labeled "Stargate Command" for one of their storage rooms holding brooms and detergent. The first seven seasons had 22 episodes each, which was reduced to 20 episodes for the last three seasons. Episodes of the first seasons were filmed over a period of 7.5 working days, which decreased to a targeted average of six working days in the last seasons. The transition to the broadcast of episodes in the wider 16:9 ratio gave directors more freedom in frame composition. The first three seasons of
Stargate SG-1 were filmed on
16 mm film, notwithstanding scenes involving visual effects that had always been shot on
35 mm film for various technical reasons. After a test run with the Season 3 finale, "
Nemesis",
Stargate SG-1 switched to 35 mm film for all purposes at the beginning of Season 4. Digital HD cameras were used for filming beginning with Season 8.
Production design The art department generated all of the concepts and drawing for the prop department, the set decoration department, the construction department, the paint department and the model shop. They also collaborated with the visual effects department.
Stargate SG-1 employed about 200 Canadian union workers, although that number could exceed 300 when new sets were built. Hudolin flew to Los Angeles in 1996 to gather material from the feature film as reference and found the original Stargate
prop stored outside in the Californian desert. Although the prop had severely deteriorated, he was able to take a detailed mold for
Stargate SG-1 production to build its own prop. The new Stargate was engineered to turn, to lock the chevrons and to be computer-controlled to dial specific gate addresses. A portable Stargate prop was built for on-location shoots and required six workers and one full day to set up. Two multi-purpose rooms were frequently redecorated into the infirmary, Daniel's lab, the cafeteria or the gym. The SGC set and all other sets from the pilot episode were constructed within six weeks in January and February 1997, incorporating some original set pieces from the feature film. The SGC set would be largely dismantled in late 2008 to make room for the Icarus Base set of
Stargate Universe.
Make-up and costumes Most of the main
SG-1 characters are US
airmen and wear authentic
United States Air Force uniforms. During missions, the members of the SG-1 team normally wear olive green
Battle Dress Uniforms. Richard Dean Anderson and Don S. Davis received a regular military-style haircut on set. Amanda Tapping had her hair comparably short until the filming of the direct-to-DVD films. Playing a civilian, Michael Shanks adopted James Spader's hairstyle from the feature film but cut it short for the Season 2 finale and subsequent seasons. The Jaffa alien Teal'c (Christopher Judge) was the only main character whose look required more than basic make-up. His Egyptian look was reflective of the Goa'uld Ra from the feature film and was complemented with a forehead symbol and a gold skin tone, although his make-up process was simplified over the years. Judge shaved his head at home each day until the producers allowed him to let his hair grow in Season 8. The look of the Goa'uld such as Apophis was initially based on the look of Ra in the feature film.
Visual effects Stargate SG-1 was one of the biggest employers in the Vancouver
visual effects market, The largest role was played by
Rainmaker Digital Effects, Lost Boys Studios provided visual effects for
SG-1 from the very beginning of the series up to the end of Season 5, and
Image Engine worked on the show from Season 2.
Stargate SG-1 and
Stargate Atlantis were responsible for an estimated 30% to 40% of the business of
Atmosphere Visual Effects. James Tichenor considered the few episodes with big visual effects budgets the most likely works to contain visual cues that would impress award judges.
Stargate SG-1 helped win the local post production shops industry recognition, with Season 4's "
Small Victories", Season 5's "
Revelations", and Season 7's "
Lost City" receiving the most visual effects awards and nominations
(see List of awards and nominations received by Stargate SG-1).
Music According to composer
Joel Goldsmith,
Stargate SG-1 had a traditional action-adventure score, "with a sci-fi, fantasy flair" that goes "from comedy to drama to wondrous to suspense to heavy action to ethereal". Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner had known Goldsmith since the second season of
The Outer Limits before they approached him to work on the pilot episode of
Stargate SG-1. Goldsmith and
David Arnold, the composer of the original feature film score, discussed themes for a television adaptation. The main titles of
Stargate SG-1 were a medley of several themes from the feature film, although Goldsmith also wrote a unique end title for
SG-1 to establish the show as its own entity. For each episode's score, Goldsmith simulated a real orchestra with a synthesizer palette of an eighty-piece symphony orchestra for budgetary reasons, making the full symphonic score of
SG-1 more time-consuming to create than for general TV shows. and exchanged tapes via
FedEx for several years until the show switched to Internet file transfers. Goldsmith's reliance on Arnold's score decreased over the seasons when
Stargate SG-1 departed from the Goa'uld theme and introduced new characters and races. Goldsmith had a thematic approach to races and spaceships. For example, he wanted a mechanical, repetitive musical motif for the Replicators; Additionally,
Lily Frost's song "Who am I" played in Season 7's "
Fragile Balance" and
CCR's song "
Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" played in the series finale "
Unending". A television soundtrack with Goldsmith's adapted score was released in 1997, followed by a best-of release in 2001. In Season 1 Episode 8, "
The Nox", the music that played when The Nox appeared was Spinning The Silk from the album Chrysalis by 2002.
Opening title sequence Stargate SG-1 has had several opening title sequences, which are generally preceded by a
teaser act. The credits are normally sixty seconds long. Richard Dean Anderson was the only
SG-1 actor whose name appeared before the show's title. Michael Shanks' name was moved near the end of the opening credits with the appendage "as Daniel Jackson" after his return to the show in Season 7. Some DVD versions of early
SG-1 seasons have different opening credits from the television versions, as do the direct-to-DVD films. Composer Joel Goldsmith adapted
David Arnold's
Stargate feature film score for
SG-1s opening title theme, which remained the same during the run of
Stargate SG-1 and its direct-to-DVD films. 's golden mask (pictured). The first opening title sequence, used in the first five seasons, shows a slow-pan camera move over
Ra's mask. The
Stargate SG-1 producers had run out of time before the premiere of Season 1 and simply re-used the accelerated opening title sequence of the feature film. Partly because
Ra's mask looked cross-eyed, Brad Wright approached the art department in the following years to produce a new opening title sequence; however, the sequence remained the same until the show's move to the Sci-Fi Channel. During the first five seasons when the show was syndicated, a separate introduction was used; this intro is still used by Sci-Fi for Seasons 1–5. This version uses action shots of the original cast. The opening title sequence of the first two Season 6 episodes shows a turning Stargate, for which a
Frazier lens was put as close as to the Stargate prop. The writers poked fun at this move in
SG-1s milestone episode "
200" in Season 10, showing a five-second clip instead of the full titles. Beginning with Season 10's "
Company of Thieves", the last clip of the opening credits shows Vala Mal Doran almost missing SG-1's trip through the Stargate.
Collaboration with the military The
U.S. Department of the Air Force, through the Air Force Office of Public Affairs, Entertainment Liaison in Los Angeles, co-operated closely with the
Stargate SG-1 producers. Before the beginning of the series, the Air Force granted production access to the Cheyenne Mountain complex to film stock shots. They also read every script for mistakes and provided help with plausible background stories for all characters, ribbons, uniform regulations, hair advice, plot lines and military relationships and decorum on an active military base. The
Air Force Association recognized Richard Dean Anderson at its 57th annual dinner on September 14, 2004, for his work as actor and executive producer of the show and for the show's positive depiction of the
United States Air Force. General Jumper made Anderson an honorary brigadier general, matching his on-screen promotion to that rank. Several scenes of Season 4's "
Small Victories" were filmed aboard and outside a decommissioned Russian
Foxtrot-class submarine, which had been brought from
Vladivostok to Vancouver by a private owner. == Themes and allusions ==