 
 Beware SPOILERS for Stargate Atlantis Season Five in the interview below!Has it really been almost six years since Robert Picardo walked on to the scenes as NID Agent Richard Woolsey? A familiar face in the science fiction world, Picardo's character introduced a friction between Stargate Command and Washington initially, but eventually would grow to become a great advocate for the Stargate programs. GateWorld talks with Picardo about his fifth season stint as commander of Atlantis base and whether or not this made sense for the character. He also introduces his family of pets. We talk about the legacy of both Stargate and Star Trek, and his current projects both on screen and with the Planetary Society. GateWorld's interview with Bob runs almost 49 minutes, and is available in video, audio, and transcript form! The video version below requires QuickTime, but it is is also available in Flash format at GateWorld Play. For the audio version you can listen online at your leisure, or download it to your MP3 player.
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GateWorld: So Bob, another series is done and out. What's it's like to have your life semi back to normal?
Robert Picardo: Well, I loved my commuting to Vancouver. It's a beautiful city. It was great fun to work on the show, really nice crew, great cast, so last year was a dream. I really enjoyed it. But it's also nice to be back at home, more regularly with my family, cooking in my kitchen.
GW: And in your basement I understand, with sweets?
RP: Cooking with sweets in my basement?
GW: You're making sweets in your basement, according to your Wikipedia.
RP: Sweets in my basement ...
GW: [It] said you are a lover of sweets and you wanted to, when your acting is done, start a sweets shop. Is that a lie?
RP: I think it's a lie! [Laughter] Wikipedia said that?
GW: Wikipedia said that!
"[Picardo] has said that when his acting career is finished, he hopes to open a sweet shop. [Wikipedia]"
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RP: Well, that's what happens when you have an online dictionary that anybody can define you on, there's bound to be some bad info. I think I like sweets. I have no desire to make sweets. We should correct the Wikipedia thing right away!
I like to cook, I definitely cook a lot. I love to make homemade pizza and all sorts of things, but sweets, no. Love to eat sweets, but don't make them. So Wikipedia, you can't be completely perfect, but you're doing very well.
GW: OK! [Laughter] You said you enjoyed the commute to Vancouver?
RP: In that I enjoyed being in Vancouver.
GW: I was gonna say!
RP: Nobody really enjoys taking a plane a couple of times a week, necessarily. But it's still a manageable trip; it's not too long a flight. And as I said, it was a very pleasant place to work, so I enjoyed the experience of working in Vancouver. You're right the travel itself got a little old.
GW: When they offered you the job did you specifically say, "I still want to live in LA, don't put me up in an apartment in Vancouver?"
RP: No, because the idea was that Woolsey would not be in every episode, that he would be in I think 14 out of 20.
GW: That was their idea?
RP: That was their idea. I think by that time Joe Mallozzi and Paul Mullie had know me for five years, and they knew that I had never done a series out of town, and I think they were sensitive to the fact that I didn't want to be out of town all the time. So that was the proposal they made and it ended up turning out great. I was never away more than three weeks at a time -- at the longest -- and most of the time I was gone 10-12 days.
GW: Did you expect the show to be done this soon?
RP: I expected going in that the fifth season would be the last season. That's what I expected. I know how show business is, so I don't assume anything.
While we were doing it there had been an uptick in the ratings and SCI FI seemed to be happy in the direction the show was going. The fan base seemed to have accepted Woolsey as a leader, against all odds, and I thought it had a shot at a sixth season. I think that the decision was made very precipitously, and I think that caught some of my fellow cast mates off guard a little.
GW: Yeah, I believe the word came out while they were shooting "Infection." According to Andy Mikita, Joe came down to the set and laid the news, and everyone was just like, "Oh, man."
RP: I missed that by just a few hours, because I remember I was informed by my driver Larry, who had just picked me up at Vancouver airport because I had just come in that day.
The news broke on the set probably while I was in-flight, and so I got the word and then Joe very kindly gave me a personal call late that afternoon at the hotel so that I would hear from him. But, of course, you know, the transportation department and the wardrobe department -- if you want to know everything about any production, you don't have to go to the production office!
My first choice is usually wardrobe, and then make-up and then transport. [Dog barks] That's my dog barking in the background, I apologize. SHUT UP! Thank you.
GW: Hey guys!
RP: Let's introduce the dogs. Here's little Lola. Lola's a rescue. She's kind of a mutt. We know that she's three different dogs in one, we don't know quite what three dogs, she looks kind of like a Georgia O'Keeffe painting, don't you think? Or a Taco Bell pitch girl.
She's a very sweet animal, a good licker, a very good licker.
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Picardo's dogs, Buddy and Lola. |
And then there's Buddy. Here comes Bud from off camera. Buddy is perhaps the fattest Chihuahua on record! We read that a Chihuahua is supposed to be nine pounds. Buddy is pushing 15! So he's kind of the Jackie Gleason of Chihuahuas. He used to go to the tall and fat Chihuahua shop when he buys a collar. He's a very sweet animal, and we love him very much, and he's also a very good licker!
GW: You said earlier on that you and Joe have a fondness for dogs.
RP: Yes, we do. We do have a fondness for dogs. Joe has, I believe, four now.
GW: Yeah, I know.
RP: They're beautiful. He's a real purebred dog. Buddy's a purebred, but Lola is definitely a mutt. But they're very good animals, they came to Vancouver a couple of times.
GW: Really, you brought them? You put them under the seat in front of you?
RP: Yes, actually when they came up together Buddy got to fly in the cabin, and Lola had to be in pressurized cargo because she's a bit of a barker.
GW: They had to put her out.
RP: Yes. And of course the day we flew home, I believe we were detained at the airport for a time because apparently there's someone on the No-Fly list who has a similar name to me, minus one vowel.
GW: You're kidding!
RP: So I kept saying "Is the guy who's not supposed to be flying on the plane, was he on Star Trek too? Because if you want to confirm my identity you can turn on the Spike channel at two o'clock. It's a great way to know who I am!" But apparently Homeland Security either doesn't watch SCI FI or they just won't admit it.
GW: They just don't have a sense of humor about it.
RP: And I understand that security is not something you can have a sense of humor about. Hey, how about that plane landing yesterday?
GW: Yes, I know the US Airways plane in New York.
RP: Oh my God, that pilot, what a hero.
GW: It's incredible.
RP: What a hero, what an inspiring story. Really, he is the Tom Paris of US Airways, Intrepid.
GW: Who do you keep in touch with from the Voyager cast? Robbie [Duncan McNeill], Jeri [Ryan]?
RP: I talked to Robbie yesterday, very good friends with Robbie. Talked with Ethan Phillips today, very close with him. With Tim [Russ], with Kate [Mulgrew] certainly. I see Kate whenever I go east, because Kate lives in New York now. I saw Roxanne [Dawson] probably six, seven months ago. I'm a little out of touch with Jeri. Jeri got married, had a baby. I haven't seen Jeri in about a year and a half.
GW: Second child now, wow. Good for her.
RP: Yeah. Who did I leave out… Garrett [Wong]. I saw Garrett as recently as two weeks ago, there was the memorial service for Majel Roddenberry, who was a very, very lovely woman.
"I expected going in that the fifth season would be the last season."
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GW: She passed away? I didn't know that. I had no clue.
RP: Yes. She passed away I think December 18th. There was a lovely memorial at Forest Lawn for her, and I saw many of my old companions from the other franchise, we call it now, because this is a Stargate Web site we're speaking on, so I refer to my old job as "the other franchise."
GW: You know, I'm still waiting for you and Jeri to get your act together and record an album.
RP: That would be great.
GW: Because it was so good. You know, "Someone To Watch Over Me," I first put it in, it first aired on UPN I thought "What the heck is this?" I fell in love with 'The Doctor falling in love with Seven' story.
RP: It was a very sweet story. That was one of those episodes where I read "The Doctor starts singing 'You are my Sunshine,' and I went, "Oh God, how am I gonna pull this off! This is gonna be ..."
And then of course we had to pre-record it, and I heard Jeri sing, and I went, "Oh, she has a sweet voice." We sang our little harmony and all that, and I was still unconvinced. Then we shot the scene, and remember Robbie McNeill directed that episode beautifully, and I just thought he really captured that moment. That quintessential moment between two friends, two colleagues, a sort of teacher-student relationship. When something else happens, there's a little glimmer of something happening in my eye.
GW: When he's watching her sing, and it's like, "Oh boy!"
RP: I know!
GW: This is not a computer program anymore. This is a person.
RP: No, not a computer program anymore, he's sweet on his student. It was a very nice episode.
I just worked with Robbie again, although as a producer. He's the Supervising Producer on Chuck, so I worked on that a couple of weeks ago, which was great fun. I really enjoy that show.
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