Not your Mom's McGyver (2024)

"I'm a single dad and I became a man when my daughter came along," said Richard Dean Anderson, 54, the immensely proud parent of soon-to-be 6-year-old Wylie Quinn Annarose, his stunning daughter by ex-girlfriend Apryl Prose.

"Until she came along, I'd lived a fairly selfish life doing whatever I felt like doing," Anderson admitted. "The transition that I was forced to make, and blessedly so, was to reprioritize my life.
"Wylie became, and continues to be, my life," he added softly, "proving to me that I had the capability of loving unconditionally. She has great humor, great intelligence, great creativity and is very funny. In other words, she's a ball to be around. So I've grown up, which in retrospect was not a bad thing to do. We're really in a great place, my daughter and I."

The handsome star (and one of the producers) of long-running sci-fi series "Stargate SG-1," now in its eighth season, initially contracted to the show for two years, but it escalated into a monster hit for the cable channel at warp speed. With Wylie securely implanted in his universe, Anderson wanted out of the show after the sixth year.

"I went to the producers and were perfectly honest with them," he recalled. "I said, 'You can't give me any more money - it's always been fine and isn't a factor. What I need is time, time with my daughter.'"

"Stargate SG-1's" producers immediately responded with creating an abbreviated work schedule for Anderson in the seventh season, which made it quite a bit easier to commute between the sci-fi series' set in Vancouver and his permanent home, a two-acre estate in one of Los Angeles' premier neighborhoods.

Anderson reluctantly agreed to the current season when his work schedule was further truncated and a number of the show's crew members had enough to send their kids through college. But, ultimately, he couldn't let down legions of fans.

Anderson will make even more stringent demands for time if by some miracle "Stargate SG-1" goes beyond the next year or two. Meanwhile, he hopes the new spinoff series "Stargate Atlantis" starring Joe Flanigan will be welcomed by the current "Stargate SG-1" super-loyal crowd.

"I helped launch the pilot with a brief scene, but beyond that I won't be involved with it," he explained.

With seven years in the title role of the international smash run-and-jump show "MacGyver," Anderson was already a wealthy man able to buy time in vast chunks, if only he didn't love to work at a breakneck pace. Wylie has changed all that and he is already rebuilding his large California house to accommodate their every whim and wish. A hands-on father, he participates in every parent-teacher conference involving his daughter, is a member of a couple of fund-raising boards and reads stories in her class. And he serves lunch in the school cafeteria on a rotating basis.

"I love it," he said, laughing. "I love the whole process of parenting. I can't imagine the old cliche, 'If the right project comes along, I would do something.' I can't envision what that would be ... because my mind is into making the transition into a domestic reality."

Accustomed to getting up at 5:30 in the morning on the average workday, Anderson's idea of a perfect day with his brilliant daughter starts hours later.

"Wylie's usually up around 6:30 a.m., but has learned to get ready and dressed all by herself," he said, extremely happy with the situation. "On a recent Sunday, she made herself some cereal, worked on her computer and drew a bunch of pictures until 10 a.m., then she nudged me gently and said, 'Dad, I think it's time to get up now.' She's like a big girl with compassion for an old man."

Apparently, a joint custody-type agreement with Wylie's mother ("it's something I'd rather not talk about") allows extended visits between father and daughter.

"From the time we're both awake, it doesn't matter what we do - as long as we do it together - to make a fantastic day of it.

"We're both about discovery and experience, so we enjoy exploring the woods behind my house, roaming the beach or hiking in the mountains. We'll ask each other what we want to do and make decisions together. Do we go out, or eat my spaghetti?"
Still very much an athletic bachelor, the 6-foot-2 Minneapolis native started out with dreams of becoming a professional hockey player. The idea was literally knocked out of him at the age of 16, when he broke both arms in separate accidents in the same hockey season.

Over the years, he drifted into dozens of sports, taking some of them seriously, including cycling, sky diving, car racing and skiing.

"The problem," he said, laughing, "is that all of them became contact sports along the line. Finally, I stumbled into scuba diving about 20 years ago and loved it. Rather than being banged up and bloodied all the time, I found diving almost therapeutic. Of course, there were a few moments of terror along the way."