A fan

As a longtime fan of Stargate SG1 and Stargate Universe I’d come to really appreciate so many elements of the storytelling that were done—the continuity, the characters, the character interaction, the dialogue, the growth, the well-done sets, the subtle and non-jarring humor, and more. As someone who writes, I enjoyed on a whole different level.

So you can imagine that I had both the pleasure and honor of sitting down with Joseph Mallozzi, the Executive Producer and writer for Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate Universe, and Dark Matter in which he is the Show Runner (he literally runs the show).

Our chat

We covered everything from character development, to his thoughts on music, the untimely cancellation of Dark Matter on season three (a show I’d only recently discovered and thoroughly enjoyed), his journey as a writer, what it means to have a writing partner, the challenges of writing a movie script versus writing for an episodic series, the difference between science fiction and fantasy and why he is very much not a fan of the latter,

He was a very kind and energetic guest, and I just keep getting lucky with having people like him on my show.

It was not only informative and fascinating, but some moments were actually touching (e.g. discussing cancellation of Dark Matter and it’s affect on both him and the cast and crew. He clearly is not only passionate about is creative work, but cares about the cast and crew). I truly appreciated his openness, willingness to share and vulnerability when needed.

There are one million topics I would have loved to cover with him things like AI in both the real world and how it affects writing and it’s use by certain authors as well as its implementation in sci-fi, his loves outside of writing, and who this Sharky person is.

Hopefully he will return for another episode and even better, I can take him up on his offer to have dinner.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.

My Patreon will have some video excerpts from the discussion.

Note that this transcript may have errors due to sounds and interpretation variations. I have edited it to add some of the headings as well as links to things mentioned, but editing for accuracy and grammar is not fruitful in a normal conversation. Hopefully you gave this a listen!

Oct 3, 2025

Joseph Mallozzi chat with Mark Bradford – Transcript

00:09:59

Mark Bradford: I’m here with Joseph Mallozzi. Hi, Joe!
Joseph Mallozzi: Hey Mark, how are you doing?
Mark Bradford: I am just lovely. I’m so happy to have you. I’m absolutely thrilled to have a chat. So, as I ask everyone that I have on the show, tell us who you are and what you do.
Joseph Mallozzi: Sure. I am Joseph Mallozzi. I’m a writer, uh, producer, and showrunner with, uh, a little over 400 hours of produced television to my credit. Uh, notable productions includes the Stargate franchise SG1 Atlantis Universe, as well as my own show, Dark Matter.
Mark Bradford: Awesome.
Joseph Mallozzi: That’s the 2015 shipbased show, not the more recent Apple series. That is also a sci-fi show with the exact same name and title font.
Mark Bradford: Very awesome.

Mark Bradford: Uh, as someone who enjoyed SG1 and just finished Dark Matter, uh, I I applaud your work very very much so.
Joseph Mallozzi: Thank you.
Mark Bradford: And and a lot of people probably may have heard the term showrunner.
Joseph Mallozzi: Sure.
Mark Bradford: And again, you’ve probably been asked this a lot, but uh the difference between a showrunner and producer
Joseph Mallozzi: Yeah. Well, producer could actually mean a lot of things. producer can range from a vanity credit like maybe you suggested someone pursue the rights to a book and then they ended up you know securing the rights or they name you a producer or you know you bring money to the table you know you that could make you a producer or you could be a hands-on producer someone who’s involved in production either you know dealing with budget or the creative process uh in my case I was an executive producer and a showrunner. Now, showrunner entails pretty much what you know what it implies, the fact that you run the show. So, as a showrunner, I am the de facto cap.

Being a showrunner

Joseph Mallozzi: I say capoi cap. My my my job is to kind of oversee production, everything from uh casting uh and construction, the building of sets to costumes and final edits.
Mark Bradford: Wow. Wow. That’s impressive. Uh, I think the best way to put it is the the person who runs the show because, oddly enough, the term showrunner doesn’t sound like it’s on the level of a producer, but it’s sort of above what a producer is.
Joseph Mallozzi: Well, showrunners are usually executive producers of a show and you know we go through the various distinctions of producer. Everything from associate producer to co-producer to producer to supervising producer, co-executive producers and ultimately executive producers. Again, they can all mean very different things. Uh, but for the most part, a showrunner is usually also an executive producer. The show’s executive producer.
Mark Bradford: And so you were also were you the executive producer of um start uh SG1
Joseph Mallozzi: Yeah. So, my writing partner and I, Paul Mullie, joined during the show’s fourth season as co-producers and ultimately worked our way up.

Writing partners

Joseph Mallozzi: Um, again co-producers, just kind of an entry level credit and then we became producers and we began to oversee our own produce our own episodes, meaning we would write the scripts and then we would uh oversee prep. So prep week usually takes place before the beginning of production and prep week is comprised of all the department heads getting together going through the script uh and then attending the various meetings. You go to the costume meetings and you tell the costume uh people what you need for every scene in in the script. You go to the props meeting and you decide what props you want to see and you go to the art department meeting and you discuss this various sets that need to be built. Uh and so you know you you become essentially a supervising producer and then a step up from that is co-executive producer and then finally when you get executive producer that’s when you know you’ve hit the big time. That’s the uh the ultimate uh credit amongst producer credits.
Mark Bradford: That’s right. So, and as the executive producer, you’re still writing.

Creative Producers

Mark Bradford: You’re besides all that other stuff.
Joseph Mallozzi: Yes.
Mark Bradford: So, you were above high above and in the trenches at the same time.
Joseph Mallozzi: Yeah. Yes. Again, executive producer can mean a lot of things, but most of the executive producers on Stargate were uh writers as well, writer producers. So Brad Wright, uh, Robert Cooper, Brad Wright was a co-creator of SG1, Atlantis and Universe, uh, Rob Cooper was a co-creator of Atlantis in Universe, and Paul and I were exec producers. Ultimately, Carl Binder, Martin Garrow, all worked their way up to the exec producer uh, role, but at the end of the day, they were creative producers. We all wrote, we all we all spun stories, we all gave notes on each other’s scripts, each other’s episodes. Um, so very hands-on.
Mark Bradford: So you mentioned uh Paul as the as your writing partner. What what did that really mean to you to have a writing partner? Because I think for different people it means different things.
Joseph Mallozzi: Yeah. And for us it did mean different things.

00:15:11

Joseph Mallozzi: We no longer write together, but uh when we did in the very beginning, I mean, we take a lot of the pressure off. Uh, so when we initially started as a writing team on on SG1, we would actually sit in the same room and write together, I mean bounce dialogue off each other and and run the scripts back scenes back and forth. And then as ...

Joseph Mallozzi – Executive Producer Stargate franchise, Dark Matter