The professor is in! We welcome “Jay Felger” himself, actor Patrick McKenna to our show to answer questions LIVE. Savor the moment, people. Savor the moment.

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Timecodes
0:00 – Splash Screen
00:23 – Opening Credits
00:50 – Welcome and Episode Outline
02:02 – Welcoming Patrick and “The Red Green Show”
08:26 – Patrick’s Stargate Role
09:57 – Who was Jay Felger?
16:23 – Episode Memories
18:41 – A Dream or Reality?
21:36 – “Avenger 2.0”
28:34 – Amanda Tapping
30:10 – Jay Felger’s Legacy
31:13 – Fan Questions: Was Felger like Marty or Harold?
33:25 – Working with Richard Dean Anderson
37:17 – David Hewlett Has a Question!
40:06 – Main Cast VS Guest-Starring
43:38 – Overall Stargate Experience
46:01 – A Role Patrick Woudl Take On
50:28 – Wrapping up with Patrick
53:03 – Post Interview Housekeeping
54:27 – End Credits

***

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read
Welcome everyone to Dial the Gate, my name is David Read, this is the Stargate Oral History Project. Patrick McKenna, Jay Felger himself is joining us for this episode of the show and we are live so if you are in the YouTube chat start submitting your questions to the mods. Before we get into that, if you enjoy Stargate and you want to see more content like this on YouTube, please click that like button. It makes a difference with YouTube and will continue to help the show grow its audience. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend and if you want to get notified about future episodes, click the Subscribe icon. Giving the bell icon a click will notify you the moment a new video drops and you’ll get my notifications of any last minute guests changes. Clips from this live stream will be released over the course of the next few weeks on both the Dial the Gate and GateWorld.net YouTube channels. As this is a live stream, as I said before, my moderators are in the chat looking for questions for Patrick which I will ask him in the second half of the show so you got a little bit of time to warm up your thoughts there. In the meantime, he and I are going to spend some time getting to know each other. Patrick McKenna, Jay Felger, in Stargate SG-1. How you doing sir?

Patrick McKenna
I am doing great here on Earth.

David Read
How was your mission to Ba’al’s planet and thank you so much for restoring the dial home device and the Stargate network to its proper working order as all galactic citizens deserve Stargate travel. So thank you for that.

Patrick McKenna
Well, I do what I can. I do what I can, which doesn’t seem to be a lot, unfortunately.

David Read
Okay, so I’ve got to back up. The first time I ever saw you I’m in high school and I’m in a rather eccentric instructors class. She puts on this thing called The Red Green show, I was like “why have I never seen this?” I live in Southern Illinois, I live in a town of 5000 people, a substantial number of that are proud rednecks. Why have I not come across this show? It was just one of those things where it was like, this is perfect. I mean, the bits, the duct tape, all of it. It was like “this is absolutely the perfect show”. What was it like being a part of this thing for 15 years?

Patrick McKenna
It was incredible because everybody seemed to react the way you’re reacting. It was a PBS show so unfortunately you didn’t seem to watch PBS David. But anyway, we’re gonna let that go.

David Read
Bob Ross.

Patrick McKenna
But that’s where it was usually. It was picked up region by region so those who saw it seemed to fall in love with it. People in New York didn’t get it, people in LA didn’t get it but then Illinois area down in Iowa, Ohio, it was just killer, man. It was fantastic. Same up here, all Canadians are pretty much that way except Toronto and Vancouver. They didn’t get it much either. So we’re really a central type show. For 15 years, man, we just had so much fun and blowing stuff up and running around. We’d come down to do shows and people would be dressed up like us and baseball stadiums of 5000 people dress like our characters. Audiences are amazing when they enjoy the show, it’s fantastic. Stargate’s the same way?

David Read
That’s fair, it’s just like different types of audiences but they’re all feeding into it very similarly. What do you think it is about shows like these that capture the cultural zeitgeist where they get broadcast? Let’s start with Red Green. What do you think it was about that show that kept it on the air for 15 years? What was so endearing about it? I have some of my own thoughts as well, having since watched more of the show.

Patrick McKenna
Sure. Well, I think a lot of it was that we kept it really simple. The idea would start small and it’d get out of control for us and I think everybody could buy into that. They’d watch the thing unfold in front of them which was easy to watch. As I said, the big cities didn’t get into it cuz they weren’t city concerns, they were more rural concerns. There was a whole audience that didn’t get to see that type of show so when they saw it they started buying into it like crazy because it actually spoke to them. It came up the 90 so Seinfeld was big and Cosby and all these types of things. That was a type of show that was out there for everybody to watch and if you weren’t into that, there wasn’t a lot. Suddenly, a voice like ours came through and it was like, “oh, there we go, that’s really nice.” You see things like Sunny in Philadelphia started to take off and smaller ideas seem to plug into, indie television seemed to catch on a little bit there. I guess we were part of that wave, which was really, really nice. It’s also that every week was the same show, there was nothing current in it. There was no news, no, nothing. You could watch the first episode and the last episode and it’s pretty much the same show. That was sort of the goal, let’s just keep it to the lodge. What happens at the lodge stays at the lodge.

David Read
Do you miss Harold?

Patrick McKenna
Quite a bit, yeah. I still get a lot of recognition, a lot of calls for him because it was such a popular show up here in Canada. It plugged in a different way, very nice that way. I do miss him in the sense that it allowed you to be completely silly and zany twice a week in front of an audience and get paid for it, which was just glorious.

David Read
What do you take away with you from that experience of working on a production for that long with a character who just had a heart of gold, wore his emotions on his sleeve. To be able to connect with an audience like that, it’s gotta be something really special.

Patrick McKenna
It’s nice. I think the advantage of the character was that he was vulnerable in a room of men like that. Oftentimes, I was the representative of a wife in a relationship. Rick Green used to do a show called Smith & Smith with his wife, it was very Sonny and Cher like, so when she stopped doing television I kind of filled that role for him. So we can still have that kind of banter that a husband and wife might have in a standup situation and I got to be that position. When I got mail, it was always from the wives, always from the sisters and the children. It was like, “that’s my uncle, that’s my dad.” It was always “I’m you” and he’s somebody else to me. Being vulnerable, I always carried that, going “I won’t be offended. I’m never offended by Uncle Red.” I’m just like, I let it bounce off and move on. Which I always thought was a strong way, the message to send out, if I’m going to be the vulnerable person, not to be hurt by everything. Take it, laugh along, enjoy the moment and put it aside. Acknowledge that people don’t think like me and just go “oh, well move on.” That was sort of my role that I tried to reinvent every week, how to stay afloat amongst these all these men,

Patrick McKenna
Also a certain amount of respecting your elders.

Patrick McKenna
Exactly, exactly. That was a big part of that era. Steve who wrote the show, played Red Green, he did most of the writing. That’s really his background and it’s very much like that; respect your elders and pay attention. You may think they’re wrong but you’re gonna go along with the idea. Until you can get the “I told you so” moment. Every kid loves the “I told you so” moment.

David Read
Well, every once in a while they do have a right idea every now and then. Tell me about getting Stargate. Had you seen the show before? How aware of it were you?

Patrick McKenna
Well, at the time, I was living out in Vancouver. I was very aware of the show because my friend Gary Jones works in the show. Gary and I were friends for years and he got the show and it was like, “oh, wonderful. Congratulations.” That was great and I was moving back to Toronto and the minute you make plans to leave somewhere, that’s when you get a job. Of course, they offered me The Other Guys. That was like, “oh okay, this is terrific” and it was a comedy team thing, which I love, I have that from The Red Green background. I kind of knew how to respond with the person specifically and share it with the room which is great. John Billingsley, the first time we met was on set that day and it was just like, “oh, we’re gonna have so much fun.” He has an improv background like I do so the two of us could just laugh and play along. Quite a few of the lines that we made up stayed in the show which was a lot of fun. A lot of times they don’t do that.

David Read
I think he was working on Enterprise at that point, if I’m not mistaken. He had already tried that so he’s already got the sci-fi churning through his blood.

Patrick McKenna
Absolutely. He brought that with him which is great because there was a whole group of fans of the show that week, were on set, from Britain. They were just thrilled because they knew John from the other program as well. They were just very sci-fi buffs, they knew it all. He was like the star of that room, the fact that he was in two shows.

David Read
Right, exactly. Who was Jay to you?

Patrick McKenna
He was the guy who like, if they worked on the 12th floor, he was on like the third floor. He was just so far, maybe he might see them in the cafeteria, maybe in the lobby. That’s why we’re all here, it’s for those guys. I just really played up that hero worship like crazy of, he’s the star football player in high school, he’s the guy that if I could stand next to, everyone’s gonna like me. He was everything seeing those guys. Being accepted by them would be, “oh, this is wonderful for Jay.” He was always that guy that was kind of pushed out of the circle, he wasn’t the cool guy, he was a science nerd tripping over his own feet. I always like to think of a character at about 12 to 15 and then put them in an adult body and see what happens. Socially you’re so awkward at that time, everything’s racing through your mind, you think it’s all about you, you’re so aware. I always find that’s a good place to start, “how would this person react as a teen? What would you tell yourself 20 years from now” and then I can build on that. It was so much fun that way because they were they were such a family, all the performers. It was so easy to be that guy on the other side of that family and just to be a sycophant to each and every one of them because I was a fan of the show. It was truly a gift to be on set with them. My son was such a MacGyver fan and watchingthe escalation of this was like, “you know what I’m doing today? I’m working with MacGyver in a new world.”

David Read
Literally!

Patrick McKenna
He was so young. Literally, exactly. Everything about it was kind of easy for me to fall into. The script was so good, it was just so much playing and I love that. I mean, I could just picture Martin and Lewis on that other planet doing this stuff, I could picture Abbott and Costello they’re doing it. For John and I to be dropped, it was like, “we got this, we’re gonna have so much fun.” Martin Wood, the director, was just laughing every offer we made. He’d go “too much” and we wouldn’t do it and then he’d go “perfect” and we would play along with that. A lot of little things he just kind of let us do.

David Read
I’m really glad to hear that you were allowed to feel things out with the material and kind of dial it around in front of the camera to make it exactly the way that you wanted it.

Patrick McKenna
And the way they wanted it to because I have to fit in their universe. Being a guest in the world sometimes you don’t know how thick the ice is in certain areas where you can stand. There would be times it’d be like, “well, I’m gonna try it like this” and they go “not really, we want more of this. We saw that before in this other show with this character, we need this.” It’s like, “oh okay, great.” They were really gentle about nuancing Jay to be bumbling but not so much so that we wouldn’t believe he couldn’t do his job ever. It needed that element to it. He could get there, he just had to get there himself.

David Read
That’s it. Exactly. The other part of it is, and I’m curious to know if this…I’m sure it occurred to you, but maybe it didn’t. You’re representing the fans in this character in some respect because he’s a fan of SG-1 just like the audience is a fan of SG-1 if they’ve stuck around for six seasons. Was that playing into your mental process doing this or was it just “no the show’s not real. I’m in this?” I mean “the show is real, I’m in the world.”

Patrick McKenna
I think that’s a part of the responsibility that comes with it. But if you play it honestly and specifically just to the character then that will reveal itself. I didn’t necessarily know or feel I was the audience rep, I was just Jay’s rep and he becomes the reflection of all that. That’s similar to the Harald character in Red Green, if I play it for the audience only then I’m not totally in that moment with them. They just have to find themselves within that moment too. If I’m playing it honestly, they should see that emotion if that’s what they tap into hopefully, that makes people connect. The vulnerability of that moment, the awkwardness or the hero worship. There’s so many different emotions floating around with Jay, there was a lot of things you could grab on to and go for the ride, which I hope they found.

David Read
No, absolutely. I think that everyone has had a fantasy, here or there, about rescuing Captain Kirk or whoever your analog for Captain Kirk is in a different situation. He gets to execute that. At the end of the day it’s an interesting choice that was worked into the episode because O’Neill is not thrilled by scientists, never has been. They don’t listen to him so he has some some justification there. It was a huge departure from the show because we’re pulling back the veil a little bit, just a little bit of fourth wall breaking, not a lot, but just enough to say “you know what, we’re going to play with this character for this sequence of events in this kind of preposterous situation for this episode.” Stargate was really good about once a season of doing this with a character. I think that it worked out pretty well because it could have fallen flat on its face. If you’re watching or you’re doing the material it’s like, “we’ve got to make sure that we get this right because we’re awfully on the nose about the circumstances of this situation.” The scientist who’s going to be saving the lives of the heroes for a change.

Patrick McKenna
Yeah and it had to be a very nerdy scientist because it couldn’t be anybody more heroic than them or otherwise the show changes.

David Read
That’s it. You’ll want to start watching them.

Patrick McKenna
Exactly. I wouldn’t mind that, that’d be okay, Felger in space. That’s the function oftentimes when you’re the guest star for the week, you’re raised up high but you’re not forever. You know that for sure going in as well. No matter what heroic or misstep you take, the world will come back to normal by the end of the 60 minutes.

David Read
Aside from [John] Billingsley, do you have any memories from that first episode?

Patrick McKenna
Yeah. When you get to be backstage a little bit, it was so much fun. The weight of the costumes, they’re made out of rubber tyres, the Jaffa. That’s really heavy stuff so my respect for the background performers wearing it all day and running and fighting. You go, “good on you guys, this stuff is really heavy to wear.” I remember at one point one guy came up and he said something, “why are you here?” Something like that, and I impersonated his voice back. “Well, we are bla bla bla bla bla.”

David Read
“He is sick, I think it is something he ate.”

Patrick McKenna
Yeah “he is sick”. I was just basically having fun with that actors delivery. Afterwards Martin said, “that’s hilarious, we’re keeping that” and I was like, “oh okay” so that became the thing. I don’t think the poor actor knew that basically I was impersonating him with his delivery. “Why are you here? Well we are…” Things like that I remember because they would celebrate fun moments. Things like when we landed in the stars, at the gate, I was all crunched up in his ball because I had no idea where we were gonna land or how we’re gonna land. I had never done this before. When they said “and action” and I curled up in the ball, they had to do it a couple of times because the crew was dying laughing because no one arrives in a new world that way. They all come in superhero. Here’s a guy who’s almost gonna wet his pants right away. So it’s things like that, they were just like, “have fun and just keep going.” The sets were great, the sets were incredible. It really was a genre piece. It felt like we were playing a genre of the Bowery Boys, Abbott and Costello, this one is a fun episode. It had to stay in there but the world was like, “yes, it’s real, this is all happening, we’re going to do this but these are not the guys who should be doing it. Oh, no.” That in itself is the “oh, no” of the episode, you know?

David Read
No, these are the guys that keep the power running and are making sure that everything is working properly.

Patrick McKenna
Oh no, it’s Homer Simpson at the nuclear plant!

David Read
I think the thing that I love about it is that in our lives we are sometimes called to adventure and not all of us may necessarily be as gung ho as Jay is about it. Not necessarily the first line of thought is like, “well, we don’t leave our people behind so we’re here to rescue you.” I think as an audience member, don’t count yourself out for an opportunity for adventure.

Patrick McKenna
It was interesting that way because it’s also that world where everyone was telling Jay he was wrong. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. There was something within him, still, “I’m running towards the fire” as opposed to away from it. There was something that is heroic in him to want to be able to do that but never being allowed to nurture that and this was that moment. It was just somewhat unstoppable for him that he had to follow that. I think that’s a very strong message as well when everyone around you is telling you you’re wrong but you, inside, feel you have to do something. It was nice to be able to follow through on that.

David Read
Yeah, absolutely. We sometimes just know what we have to do and I think that in terms of a tape takeaway from that episode, there’s nothing wrong with having heroes and emulating them. Especially if they’re saving the world week after week, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Patrick McKenna
No, and accepting the fact that you’re a spoke in the wheel and it needs every spoke to turn. That was sort of the reward in the end. I knew I wasn’t gonna be part of the team but I was for a while, I was an important spoke. I’ll go back to what I was doing but I got kissed, I got thanked, I got praised. It was a great moment for Jay and then back to work, the holiday’s over.

David Read
It’s a fantasy in the end, or do you think that parts of that were real?

Patrick McKenna
Yeah, that’s interesting. I was just reading that in some of the notes that some people really thought it was a daydream, the whole experience. I never really thought of it that way. I played it all out. There was parts within it that were his daydreams but to me that was the moment. I never looked at it that way, it was an interesting perspective.

David Read
Well it’s definitely real because Her’ak, the First Prime, appears later on in the show. There were dates when that came out, it’s like “that didn’t really happen. It’s not just the Carter smooching them at the end that’s the fantasy, it’s the whole thing.” I’m like “no, there’s characters introduced in this thing that play out later so he really did that.”

Patrick McKenna
Well, that’s the thing too, yeah. I think that confirmed it as well, coming back for Avenger. It means The Other Guys had to happen.

David Read
That’s it. Tell us about Avenger 2.0.

Patrick McKenna
That was a very different one, coming back for Avenger. When they say, “we’re having Jay come back” it was like, “oh, great.” I assumed it was going to be very similar to the first type of episode. I walked around looking for John on set. “No, no, John’s not coming this time, it’s just you.” It’s like, “oh okay, this is a very different experience.” The way they had me working more with Amanda was just fantastic, then seeing Jay at home. The stuff Jay at home, that was very much “this is your apartment Patrick, what do you want to do?” It was like, “well okay, I’m going to be in my underwear, I’m going to be this, I’m going to do that, I’m going to be…” All that stuff was sort of just working it out like putting my pants on backwards was totally something I just did on the set when they did it. I put it on as a joke backwards and then the rest of the scene I’m trying to do my pants up from behind with a woman in the room hoping that she won’t notice that my pants are on backwards. thing. All those things, like how can we add conflict? Everything that Jay tries, it’s got to be some kind of hurdle, they were so great with that. Then they had the gentle scene at the bridge with Amanda again, to see the vulnerability and the stress. He’s really trying and he screwed up and he’s responsible for so much of this mess he believes. He doesn’t know how to fix it and he’s letting everybody down, particularly his heroes. The weight of what Jay had to go through was far more severe this time than the first time. It was more action, more reaction. This one was up to me from the very beginning and I messed it up.

David Read
The first episode is really about being a fish out of water. This one is really kind of like Stargate at the office in terms of an episode of what happens when your day to day job is one that deals with people going to and from leaving the planet in your office building. You do something that absolutely destroys that work and it’s kind of wild.

Patrick McKenna
Yeah, it shows again the times we’re in, how vulnerable things are. It doesn’t take a lot to throw things off kilter. Jay happened to be that example of the time. It was so exciting that they wanted Jay to help, but they didn’t want a to help. They knew they needed him. He could worm his way into things, it was “Sir, I volunteer to go” and it was like “we should go together.” “Yes. Yeah, that’s what we should do.” Right away of “whatever gets me there, I’m fine. Let’s just do this.” Again, not thinking any further than “I’m going.”

David Read
He still wants to do his part. I love Carter’s line, “yes he’s a screw up, but he’s a brilliant scientist. That’s why he’s there.” I think that it’s okay to accept that you can be both as long as you’re trying to improve yourself day in and day out. Accept your starting position, to a certain degree.

Patrick McKenna
And recognize that people do accept that. She listed all the faults with Jay but she also concluded with “he’s a brilliant scientist.” That’s what they appreciate in you, there’s some thing they also appreciate. That’s something to find sometimes in any human being, “they like this, I’m not a total loser, total waste. I’m this.” That’s an important thing too and then Jay gets the opportunity to prove himself, over and over again.

David Read
Probably my favorite moment in that episode is the phone call with mom. No, don’t get me wrong, I love the explosions and everything else but there is a scene there that shows this guy hasn’t always been properly nurtured. There are forces in his life that to this day still think that he’s not worth being where he is. Sam overhears that and I think part of the pivot point for this episode is “I got to try it this way with this guy because it’s just a matter of motivation.” So many of us in dealing with other people in our day to day lives, we know that they can do something, we know that they can, but how to motivate them is the trick. It’s not easy.

Patrick McKenna
No, especially if you recognize where they’re wounded or how they’re wounded and not trying to push any buttons on that. Sometimes it’s very difficult because you don’t know what those buttons are with people, the triggers can be anything. It’s a very difficult time, especially for men right now, to be very gentle with our words and think ahead of time. It’s a very different time to be plugged into community.

David Read
Yeah, absolutely. I love that the character has continued to resonate with so many fans and I’m sorry that I’ve taken so long to have you on to discuss him. I’m really happy that we’re talking about him now.

Patrick McKenna
Also in Avenger they did that nice little nod to Red Green. They put the “pick up the duct tape first and put it in my bag.” They set that up there, the prop guys put it there, and I went “oh, duct tape.” “Yeah, duct tape man, use it.” Notice the shot starts on the duct tape and it’s my hand putting it in. Those who know, that’s a little nod to Red Green right there. That was one of my favorite scenes, that education that Chloe was in love with him. That kind of was a moment like “he’s been in the office for how long with this person that didn’t pick up on these things?” There was a lot of nice opportunities for Jay to grow and to be a human and to be more confident with himself by the end of this episode which I thought was a really nice climb. That being probably the last show I was going to do with him, it was a really nice conclusion for Jay. I was very happy. That character’s very comfortable in whatever world he’s in now.

David Read
Absolutely. Maybe with Chloe, you know, office romance. I love that exchange between the two of them where he said, “you don’t know what it’s like to not have someone that you care about pay any attention to you.” She’s like, “yeah, well, you know.” Yeah, it’s happening right in front of me, he doesn’t get it. Typical guy.

Patrick McKenna
The script was so good. Man, the writing is good in that show. So tight.

David Read
Amanda Tapping. tell me about working with her.

Patrick McKenna
She was so grand. I didn’t realize at the time she was getting into the directing more so than had directed. Her eye was so keen and within the script she was already breaking it down ahead of time. Just watching her work with the script was so fascinating. I was going to be with her and she would become the new lead so everything setting up for her “how do we set her up to be the hero?” She was way ahead of that where you don’t have to kind of fight with other actors. “Well, this moment would work if I did this.” She was way ahead of that, I just had to follow her lead man, she was in charge of everything. It was so easy to work with her because you could trust everything she was doing. She helped me on certain angles, “lay down here, kick your leg up so the camera knows you’re there.” During the fight scenes I was getting lost and just little things she would help me with that no one knew about; just her being wonderful and so gentle.

David Read
She’s not an actor that drowns people, she’s the one who brings you in and makes sure that you’re where you should be.

Patrick McKenna
Yeah and I think that really pays off in her directing. She knows the story we’re here to tell and just this much of it, right now, we’re not telling the whole story, it’s a little puzzle piece, we’re going to do a scene. She keeps it so compact and so focused that then the picture just becomes so typically clear by the end. She was fantastic to work with. I haven’t had a chance to work with her as a director yet, I’d really love to see more of that.

David Read
In terms of looking back on the legacy of this character what do you hope fans take away about Jay in terms of the aspects that they see of themselves in him? Not necessarily going to other planets but in like social situations and in dealing with people that you respect and admire. What do you hope that people took from this role?

Patrick McKenna
I think acceptance really, the group’s acceptance of Jay, Jay’s acceptance of himself, Chloe’s acceptance of the relationship. Everyone had to accept something and then move on by the experience with Jay. I found that very empowering. Whether you are the cool group and the nerd wants in and you’re not letting him in, acceptance. You’re the nerd who’s not getting in, it’s okay, acceptance. There was a lot of that.

David Read
That’s awesome. I’ve got some fan questions for you.

Patrick McKenna
Oh, great.

David Read
So Sommer, you just met Sommer a moment ago. She says, “since you played substantially smart, socially awkward characters before, did you see Felger as anything like Harold in Red Green or Marty in Traders or was he completely his own blank slate when you approached him?” Do you carry stuff over subconsciously?

Patrick McKenna
I’m sure I do. Watching the show over again I kind of went, “oh, there’s a Harold-ism right there.” It’s because that’s how my instrument delivers that energy, that line. It’s like, “oh, there’s crossovers because it’s me delivering it.” I make more effort now to make sure I don’t laugh a certain way. There’s certain things that tip into that because that just came naturally after 15 years of doing that show. There’s a couple of moments in there where you bring it in but mostly Jay, to me, was an everyman. He was just an everyman where the other two were kind of extremes whereas Jay was sort of floating in the middle. He was a chameleon, like, “who do you want me to be? Who do you want me to be? Who do you need me to be and I’ll be that person.” He’s very needy which is something I like to bring to characters anyway because Harold was needy and so was Marty. Everybody kind of wants to be liked and wanted and I find that’s a good emotion to work from for a character. Certainly Jay was like that.

David Read
There’s a nervous energy there that’s fun to watch. As someone with a comedy background you kind of get your kicks out doing that. It’s figuring out which direction he’s going to explode in.

Patrick McKenna
Yeah and because they did the genre stuff and I am such a big comedy nerd it was like, “okay, I love doing this show. I love it.” The opportunities they give Jay to be ridiculous yet confident, it was fantastic and I got to kiss another girl and it was right. My wife goes crazy “what is it with you kissing all the girls?”

David Read
Right, in the fantasy he get’s the girl. I’m sorry, I spoke over, what did your wife say?

Patrick McKenna
Jay gets all the girls, it’s not a bad message either. “The meek inherit the world.” I’ll change my T-shirt.

David Read
Oh, that’s funny. Melissa Smith – does a particular episode stand out to you because of what the episode contained or funny bits happening within certain scenes of certain people? Were there any juicy scenes in these two shows that really stood out?

Patrick McKenna
For me, the one I had the most fun with was in Avenger, the gun fight scene. It was just running around blowing things up and this and that but the end when Richard Dean came in and they would say, “oh, now you go over and be excited that he’s there.” I never told Richard I was gonna hug him. It was one of those things of I just ran over and I just grabbed him as big as I could. What you see is actually Richard reacting to “get off, get away” doing the whole three stooges thing. It caught on immediately after this. That whole struggle in there was just us doing that “this guy is going to attack me with a hug if Richard doesn’t push him back.”

David Read
And you go after him again. That was funny.

Patrick McKenna
Every take I went after him differently and he didn’t know which way I was gonna do. One time I climbed on him like a monkey, I had my legs wrapped around him and my arms. I almost dragged him to the ground. I did it maybe six, seven times and you could just see Richard was kind of like… He wasn’t working with me that episode so he was kind of like, “is this guy for real? What’s going on here?” I can see he was having enough of me. There’s a certain point going “all right Patrick, choose one and stick with it.”

David Read
That’s funny. You may not know this but Rick is known for throwing curveballs to people on that set. Like lines of dialogue and doing things and he’s waiting for their reaction to see if they’re going to break while the cameras rolling or if they’re going to swallow it and just keep on moving. So to hear this, from my perspective, this is glorious because he’s getting his comeuppance. You, the comedy pro that you are, are throwing things right back at another comedy genius and saying, “hey, what are you gonna do?” That’s funny Patrick.

Patrick McKenna
Yeah, it was great because they didn’t say “just go over and thank him.” They said, “keep that going.” Those are the moments. You’re on a great set when they just go “that would work, breathe into that” as opposed to “nope, stop, we have a world created and you don’t create anything else in it.” No, they were wide open to “this is huge, this is big, go for it. You are a silly man, have some fun.” That one stood out for me because watching Rick react every time was so fun because I knew he was really uncomfortable.

David Read
Well, it’s true to the character. You’re finding the truth in the character in that moment. That’s his hero, this is a person who he loves, this is a guy who he’d walk over hot coals. He went into battle for this guy.

Patrick McKenna
And he saved him, like “you came back for me. This is so great, I thought we were done for.” I thought it was great too the way Jay just completely dumps Amanda.

David Read
It’s true.

Patrick McKenna
Everything was great with her for a second, but it’s like no…

David Read
O’Neill’s here! Whack, out of the way, I’m coming through.

Patrick McKenna
Cher’s here, sorry Sonny. Those moments made me laugh too, he’s just so in that moment of what he needs, what he wants, how excited. That whole episode was so much fun because coming back, they were excited I was there to allow me to do things so that was great. The first one was just again, the fun of playing that genre, which nobody’s doing any more. As an actor you get that spark going “oh my goodness, I get to make one of these. This is great.”

David Read
David Hewlett.

Patrick McKenna
Oh, no.

David Read
Is in the audience.

Patrick McKenna
Uh oh.

David Read
“How do we join the Patrick McKenna fan club? How do you not age? Is it possible that I am aging for you? Please send him a big sloppy kiss and hug too.” So here’s the hug and here’s the kiss from David Hewlett.

Patrick McKenna
Oh David Hewlett, how fantastic. David and I, we worked on Traders together and his sister Kate did a show up here, brilliant to work with too.

David Read
She’s brilliant.

Patrick McKenna
Absolutely. That family is just so talented. David, if you’re listening, I love you and miss you pal. He’s the best, the best.

David Read
The talent that Stargate productions acquired to make up the foundation of 17…There’s no question why the franchise ran for 17 seasons. It had compelling characters and people we loved watching.

Patrick McKenna
Well they really did it well where the crew was so tight, who they were and we knew that family. You could bring anything to that family, you could bring comedy to them, you could bring drama, adventure and they had someone who was able to handle that moment very well. That was the beauty of the show, you can bring anything to them. Sometimes like Bob Newhart, does the comedy come to him or is he the comedy? Crazy people come to Bob and I found that with the crew too; the worlds come to them. Even though they go to them, the world has to be there for them to experience. That’s always a different thing to.

David Read
The amount of content that those people had to put out week in week out. There is kind of like, it’s the chicken or the egg? Which which came first because they have to constantly create, not just a new environment, but a whole new planet, week after week. How do you get that across? In some seasons 40 episodes, that team did 40 episodes a year. How do you not just have your head just fall off?

Patrick McKenna
Oh it’s incredible the work they do and usually you’ll see a lot of the same writers. The world is pretty darn tight, it’s amazing. It was one of the best sets I’ve ever been on because so many of them came from MacGyver right onto SG-1. Some of these people have been together 20 years, they’ve seen children born and people pass and marriages and divorces. It was such a comfortable place to walk into as well that I think they felt that they could also trust any department to excel. Whether it was props or set design, each one was incredibly important. Again, going back to the spoke element, how many spokes in that wheel turned every week for them for that many seasons? It was an amazing place.

David Read
Lockwatcher – you were in episodic television in Traders, Red Green. What are the responsibilities of being a main as opposed to the guest star in The Other Guys and Avengers? As an actor where do your energies come in from week to week knowing that you’re saddled with a show churning out episode after episode as opposed to coming in and playing with a with a new team for a couple of shows? What were your really responsibilities and energies? How do you get into that?

Patrick McKenna
Each one is a different responsibility and comfort zone. I found when I was doing the show week to week, really easy to do the character, really easy to memorize lines because you were flowing naturally. I remember watching guest stars going “boy, they’re really good. I’m gonna have to remember how tight they are.” It’s almost like double dutch skipping on a show and then you got to come in and double dutch skip with them. They’ve been doing it for 20 years and now you got to do it at the same rhythm and speed as them. It’s much harder to be a guest star that way because it’s much easier to trip up. When you are these guys it’s not so bad; you know the rhythm, you know how to dance, you know how to move next and your responsibility within the group too. Am I the funny guy? Am I the smart guy? Am I the science guy? Am I the nerd? Am I the sexy one? Am I afraid of one? What spoke am I in that wheel as well? That’s your responsibility week to week. Each one brings a different set of luggage that you have to bring with you. I find being in a show as a regular fantastic because now your character is growing over 15 seasons, over 10 seasons. You don’t get that in the movie, you get two hours, so that’s always great. As a guest star, it’s the one time. You come in fully explored and you’re dropping in this moment and moving on again. Maybe to prison, maybe to death, who knows, but you’re moving on. Each one comes with a different set of suitcases that you have to bring with you on the day. What I say to actors though, “if you get a call sheet and you’re number one, there’s a certain energy as number one that you have to carry.” That’s a lot of responsibility. Do you blow up on a set? Do you laugh on a set? Do you go right back to your dressing room to converse? It all comes from number one and then how that energy comes. I love being number four or five because one, two, and three are usually the heroes of the show. They’re going to be the same every week to some degree, their choices, what they can do. Four, five and six, that’s where the writers get interesting because they can do all the stuff that the heroes can’t do. They can cause the trouble, they can come up with the weird ideas, they can do this, they can do that. I like those ones because that’s more where I fit in of maybe a troublemaker, maybe a new idea, where I don’t have to be the same every week.

David Read
Where you facilitate story.

Patrick McKenna
Exactly. That’s a nice place to be down there in those numbers. People go “oh, number…” Number one is a huge responsibility and you’re going to be the same every week. If you’re in some type of show that can be a very difficult bag to carry. If you’re an adventurer it’s great because you’re doing something different but courtroom dramas, number one, boy oh boy, that’s a lot of lingo you’re going to be memorizing.

David Read
And responsibility for sure.

Patrick McKenna
Exactly, yeah. I’ve been on sets with bad number ones and sets with great number ones. That’s where I learned it really does trickle down from there. The crew reacts to it, everybody reacts to it. The director is feeding it, being defensive to it. It all comes from that energy.

David Read
Stargate was a big production and you’ve done a lot of work. Where did it stand in terms of your barometer for professionalism, for quality, for communication between people, exchange of ideas, flexibility? Where does it stand in terms of your pantheon of content that you’ve worked on, your body of content?

Patrick McKenna
I really don’t say this lightly. It’s number one, it really is. They had been working together for so long the machine was working so well. Call sheets were there, pickups were there, drivers were there, cast was on time, scripts were delivered, changes were delivered, emails were received. Never an issue whatsoever, it was just smooth. As I said, when you step on set, there’s this family already going and you’re just another guest who’s welcome to stay for Sunday dinner. It really was. It was universal in the sense of the production company had enough money to make everybody comfortable. I was in a wonderful hotel, wonderful per diems, restaurants. They took care of me with the “here’s something you can do at night if you like to go out” or this or that. It was really, really well done. Because they had that advantage of working so long they had those legs to stand on. A lot of the productions oftentimes, it’s one season, it’s a movie, they’re going to hit and run and move on. Things can be a little sloppier on the edges, it’ll pay off when we’re done. They didn’t have time for that. It was like, “no, this has to be shot, we got another one next week and another one next week.”

David Read
It’s a huge machine and it’s not slowing down.

Patrick McKenna
No, no, you have to come prepared. That’s another thing too, there’s no “I don’t know my lines.” There’s a lot of space talk that you got to learn sometimes. Me learning [goa’uld] gold, gold was, you know, forever. They’re like, “no.” Gold? “No.” Gold? “No.” Guld? “No.” It was really “oh my goodness it’s a made up language, who cares?” “Everybody cares! That’s who cares.”

David Read
That’s right.

Patrick McKenna
That was my reminder of “no, you’re the guest. Everyone else who’s here knows exactly it’s role. It’s goa’uld, say it properly.” It took a long time. It was amazing. “Oh okay,. they have respect for the worlds they created.”

David Read
Yeah, absolutely. Teresa Mc – Is there a character or role that you would like to tackle that you haven’t yet? Theater, stage, film?

David Read
I would like to see that.

Patrick McKenna
Yeah, I would love to play like a preacher, minister, a Baptist minister. For some reason, this instrument that I have comes across as car salesman, extroverted type people, a lot. It’s like, “that’s one I haven’t had yet. Let’s see if I can do it on mass.” I can turn this Irish charm on for mass appeal. Let’s see if that would be good.

Patrick McKenna
You know, I would try that. Being my age now I’ve had a lot of opportunity to play different roles. That’s why I had to pause because I’ve had some fantastic roles but there’s a few that I won’t do. I won’t do pedophiles, I won’t do rapists, I won’t do people who harm other people. I say “no,” right up to that. People say, “wouldn’t it be great to see Harold as a murderer?” Maybe in a one hour show I would but never children, I’m never going to hit a woman, I’m never going to hurt somebody that’s lesser than me. I’ve been playing opposite that my entire career so I’m not going to start doing opposite that now. Those are about the only characters I won’t do.

David Read
There’s a certain amount of letting them under your skin that you have to do in order to get them to work.

Patrick McKenna
That’s the thing that people don’t seem to understand. As an actor, your job is to justify. If I have to justify those thoughts, I don’t want to. I don’t want to go there, I don’t think it’s necessary, I don’t find it entertaining, that’s the place I don’t like to go to. If I have to play it honestly, I’d have to play it honestly and that’s a pretty horrible world to have to kind of drop into for a while. As a father and a husband and a son everything about it was like “I can’t do this honestly. I’m not committed to it, I’m hiding and backing away from it.” That tells me that I’m not doing the best job, someone else should probably do this.

David Read
If you’re not going to be able to render it justice and on top of that you don’t necessarily want those thoughts. That makes a lot of sense if you have to justify. You’re not just reading lines, you’re inhabiting a persona.

Patrick McKenna
That to me is the simplest explanation of acting; justify the script, make that line make sense. Why are you saying it? What’s it going to do? Justify why you’re doing that? Then it just becomes much easier to do that and in doing so you also challenge the character. Why would he think that? Why would he say that? You discover the character by challenging yourself to justify every line that he’s thinking or doing, trying to get in the writers head to see where they were when they were to trajectoring this character. When you read the script sometimes you go, “oh, that’s gonna be a good one. I get to wear cool clothes on that one and I get to do that.” Sometimes you forget the message that you’re transmitting throughout the script, especially in well written scripts. You got to respect it’s a well written script and look for that underneath the line. Maybe there’s something there that I’m not reading, you know.

Patrick McKenna
I really appreciate those thoughts Patrick. It’s not necessarily saying that this isn’t an important part to play or an important story that needs to be told but your talent, your facilities, don’t justify this, don’t fit into this box and that’s okay.

Patrick McKenna
When I started acting I had an older actor tell me “just think of yourself that you’re in an orchestra. Sometimes they need a French horn, sometimes they don’t. When they call for the French horn be ready to play but don’t assume it’s in every song.” That was a great analogy for me to kind of carry that. Sometimes I’m a French horn, I’m unique and sometimes I’ll be called upon and a lot of times I won’t. I may say, “do you need the sound?” I’ll go to an audition going “I’m a French horn!” “Oh, we love french horns but not in this song. We’ll call you back French horn.”

David Read
Sooner or later.

Patrick McKenna
Eventually we’ll need a French horn. It saves me a lot of time going, “that’s okay. I’m not going to carry grief about I didn’t get that gig or this or that. They didn’t need what I present.”

David Read
Life’s too short.

Patrick McKenna
Way too short. There’s a lot of projects that do and others don’t so it’s all good.

David Read
Tune Tamasha, this is a nice one to finish on I think. Tune Tamasha wants to know – Patrick, do you have a place where you go to clear your mind, to feed the ducks as it were?

Patrick McKenna
Actually, yes. I bought it a few years ago and I’m living in it now. I was living in the city and it was one of those things, I got hurt in an accident. It was one of those of “if I get out of this, I’m changing my life and I’m gonna go move up to the country and just live my life.” I got out of the hospital and was able to do that. I’ve come up here and I just live my life now. I am sort of semi-retired, I pick work when I want it. It’s a much easier way to do things, so I’m at my pond.

David Read
I’m in a similar situation in my life. I turned 40 a couple of months ago and I think…

Patrick McKenna
You’re a kid!

David Read
I know.

Patrick McKenna
Trust me, you’re a kid. You think it’s a lot right now? I am the future. David, I am your future. See the beard? See this? This is you my son.

David Read
I think it’s important – you said that you had an accident that was your pivot point – to assess where you are with the people you’re with in your life and make sure that you always have a quiet place for yourself and to always fasten to your Northstar, reset to your Northstar. We wander, we meander.

Patrick McKenna
Particularly as an actor you’re asked to do that so you have to shift a lot. It’s nice to have a place to come back to, to center yourself and have that and regroup. You can kind of remind yourself of who I am so I can feed it into the next project. You got to get back to neutral before you go back into drive.

David Read
Absolutely. That’s it exactly. Sir, this was such a pleasure. I really appreciate having you on.

Patrick McKenna
Thanks David.

David Read
This was this was fun to go through.

Patrick McKenna
Good. I really enjoyed it. I love the show, I love what you do and thank you so much for keeping it alive and celebrating it the way it deserves to be.

David Read
Well I appreciate you Patrick. Thank you for sharing so much of yourself and for exploring this character and just being here with us. Thank you for your time, sir. I’ll be in touch with you, be well.

Patrick McKenna
You too, bye bye now. Bye Sommer.

David Read
Patrick McKenna everyone, Jay Felger in Stargate SG-1. What a cool guy! Thank you so much for tuning in. I appreciate my moderators for making this episode, every episode possible. I really could not pull this off without my team; Sommer, Tracy, Antony, Jeremy and Rhys. You guys make the show possible week in and week out. My thanks to Frederick Marcoux at ConceptsWeb, he’s my web developer who keeps dialthegate.com up and running. If you go to dialthegate.com we’ve got nine upcoming shows that are planned. Three or four of them now have dates but go over there and keep an eye on what’s going to be coming down the pipe. Some of these I’m really really excited, I’m excited about all of them, but some of these I’m really excited about. Thank you to my producer, Linda “GateGabber” Furey, for continuing to be my stick and rudder and continuing to help me churn out these episodes as we go into this super extended third season. We’ve got a few more to go so we’re gonna get those out to you. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate, I appreciate you tuning in and we will see you on the other side.