Joe Spencer
Resident of Hendricks County, Indiana and owner of Stylin' Joe. A seasoned barber, Joe and his wife Charlene once visited a yard sale. While there, he found an object the owner's grandfather claimed was found at a dig in Egypt. As Joe picked up the stone, he found himself witnessing the experiences of four team members as they battled against an alien race.
The visions did not stop, and Joe, who secretly believed the visions to be real, shared them with his family and friends in the form of science fiction stories to entertain. At first the others were fascinated by what he had to say. Even his son Andy could be influenced to complete extensive chores in order to hear another story. Meanwhile Joe questioned where the stories were coming from. He contacted the U.S. Air Force and discovered that a Jack O'Neill actually existed, but was unable to get a message through.
Charlene was convinced his creativity was violently demanding to be exposed to others. But as the stories mounted and Joe's tapestry of stories grew, he gradually began to alienate his patrons. Stories that were once entertaining and touching were now numerous enough to drive others away. But Joe was in the dark about this development.
When Charlene pressed him to start writing the stories down instead of forcing that they be shared to others, Joe began to type SG-1's adventures into his laptop. But she soon regretted giving him this idea, as he would stay up into the late hours of the morning and even cut work hours in order to flesh everything out in the computer.
Joe's obsession escalated and reached a point where Charlene took drastic steps to sever her husband's connection to SG-1, throwing the stone in the trash bin. Joe sifted through the garbage and found it, but months later it was clear his wife had had enough. She took Andy to live at her mother's for a time until he began to get help.
Instead, Joe sank deeper into his obsession with SG-1. Their experiences became an integral part of his life, so much so that he pieced together various "cover stories" to prove to his wife that he was telling the truth. Still, Charlene would not listen.
Driven to the brink of madness, Joe drove to Colorado Springs where he found Jack O'Neill's home and faced down the General with a toy gun in his home. Jack knew Joe's gun was a toy, and after showing his real weapon, Spencer backed down. But he demanded to know the truth -- was what he had been seeing real?
O'Neill brought Joe to Stargate Command where Colonel Samantha Carter's blood tests of Spencer proved he had the Ancient gene. The stone Joe touched (and activated) at the yard sale was a communication device of Ancient design, and Jack had touched an identical copy which had been returned from P3R-233 -- activating the connection. Jack, too, had had occasional visions of the Indiana barber, including his Thursday night bowling league, but failed to ever mention it.
Feeling somewhat responsible for Joe's madness, Jack arranged to meet with Charlene, where her husband's storytelling flights of fancy were finally revealed to be the truth.
DETAILS
PLAYED BY - Dan Castellaneta
FIRST APPEARED - Citizen Joe
KEY EPISODE
Citizen Joe - For years Joe Spencer witnesses SG-1's adventures through an Ancient communication stone, eventually alienating his friends, his customers and his family.