MacGyver (1985 TV series)

The show follows secret agent Angus MacGyver, played by Richard Dean Anderson, who works as a troubleshooter for the fictional Phoenix Foundation in Los Angeles and as an agent for a fictional United States government agency, the Department of External Services (DXS). Educated as a scientist in Physics at Western Tech ("Hell Week"), MacGyver served in the U.S. Army Special Forces as a Bomb Team Technician/EOD during the Vietnam War ("Countdown"). Resourceful and possessing an encyclopedic knowledge of the physical sciences, he solves complex problems by making things out of ordinary objects, along with his ever-present Swiss Army knife, duct tape, and occasionally matches. He favors non-violent resolutions and prefers not to handle firearms due to the accidental shooting death of one of his friends when he was 12.

His main asset is his practical application of scientific knowledge and inventive use of common items. The clever solutions MacGyver implemented to seemingly unsolvable problems‍—‌often in life-or-death situations requiring him to improvise complex devices in a matter of minutes‍—‌were a major attraction of the show, which was praised for generating interest in the applied sciences, particularly engineering,[4] and for providing entertaining storylines. All of MacGyver's exploits on the show were ostensibly vetted by consulting scientists for the show's writers to ensure a basis on scientific principles (even though, the creators acknowledged, in real life one would have to be extraordinarily lucky for most of MacGyver's ideas to succeed). In the few cases where MacGyver used household chemicals to mix poisons, explosives or other items deemed too dangerous to be accurately described to the public, details were altered or left vague or an essential component or step was omitted.[5]

The show often dealt with social issues, though more so in seasons 4–7 than 1–3, which were mostly about MacGyver's adventures working for the United States government and later for the Phoenix Foundation.

Several episodes, including the pilot, begin with a cold open, finding MacGyver already on a mission. MacGyver often narrates a story from his childhood relating to his current situation. He resolves this situation quickly, and the main story commences after the opening credits. The credits refer to such an opening sequence as the "Opening Gambit"‍—‌it occurs far more commonly in earlier episodes than in later ones. This segment is often written and directed by a different team than the main story of the episode. After the credits, the main story plays out in standard three-act structure. In many episodes, the opening sequence occurs after the opening credits and often does not involve MacGyver on a mission but rather in a situation used for character development. In the same manner as the "Opening Gambit" sequences, these opening segments often do not directly relate to the main story.

• Richard Dean Anderson as Angus MacGyver, a secret agent who prefers not to carry or use a firearm, due to a childhood accident with a revolver that resulted in the death of a friend.[6] However, MacGyver is willing to use an acquired gun, its parts, or its bullets in non-standard ways, such as a substitute for a wrench. There are three exceptions when he uses a gun for its original intended purpose: in the pilot episode, MacGyver is seen firing an AK-47 on a mission in the opening gambit (7:51 into the episode); he holds two kidnappers at gunpoint in the opening scene of episode 10, season one;[7] and, is seen using a gun in the TV movie Trail to Doomsday. He is often suspicious of militaristic attitudes within the government; he sees the Los Angeles-based Phoenix Foundation, his employer, as an alternative to more conventional (and violent) means of law enforcement.[8]
• Dana Elcar as Pete Thornton, MacGyver's boss and best friend. He was an operative at the Department of External Services (DXS), which is where he is impressed by Mac's ingenuity while tracking down Murdoc (Michael Des Barres), an international assassin and master of disguise. When Thornton becomes director of operations at the Phoenix Foundation several years later, he brings MacGyver into the program. In addition to sending Mac out on various tasks for the foundation, Thornton is many times forced to bail MacGyver out of the trouble he gets into. Thornton has a son named Michael. Late in the show, it is learned that Pete has glaucoma, an element written in because of Elcar developing glaucoma in real life. Dana Elcar is first cast in the pilot episode as Andy Colson, the Chief of Operations at the KIVA Laboratories.[9]
• Bruce McGill as Jack Dalton, MacGyver's comical best friend. He is a soldier of fortune/bush pilot who periodically gets everyone into a heap of trouble with various get rich quick schemes out of which only MacGyver can rescue them. His left eye twitches when he is lying. Dalton often attempts to romance the women he is introduced to.

After a slow start in its first season, MacGyver became a sleeper hit for ABC in its second season, during which it began a six-year run as the lead-in to ABC's Monday Night Football (the longest such run in history).[15] During the show's fourth season, Richard Dean Anderson complained that ABC was not marketing the series enough. Saying that the series is "just another action show" for ABC, he further stated that ABC didn't give the series enough promotion.[16]

MacGyver's seventh season was abbreviated. After the twelfth episode of the season aired on December 30, 1991, MacGyver disappeared from the ABC schedule and did not return until April 25, 1992, by which point the series had been canceled. The finale aired that night, with a previously unaired episode following on May 21, 1992. When asked why the series was canceled, Anderson replied: "The only reason it went off the air was that everybody was ready to move on. I was physically exhausted and had no life."[17]

Reruns of the series still air in North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, Costa Rica and Ethiopia. Alongside local syndication, reruns aired on the USA Network from 1990 to 1997, on WGN America from 1998 to 2002, on TV Land from January 2003 to 2006, on Spike for a brief time in 2005. It is formerly aired on Cloo (2011–2017) with marathon blocks shown on the weekends and on May 13, 2015, Esquire Network started airing reruns of the series. MeTV Network had acquired the rights to air the series as of December 2, 2015. It aired weekday afternoons & weeknights on MeTV from 12/19/16-5/26/17.[27]

On June 15, 2010, Paramount released the two TV movies on DVD in Region 1 in a separate single-disc release entitled MacGyver – The TV Movies.[28]

On January 13, 2015, CBS Home Entertainment announced they would release a repackaged version of the complete series set on DVD in Region 1, at a lower price, on April 7.[29]

The series is referenced in episodes of The Simpsons, primarily detailing the obsession Marge Simpson's sisters (Patty and Selma) have with the show and their crush on the MacGyver character. The sisters' regular viewing of the show is an unalterable element of their daily schedule to the point of death as demonstrated in the episode "Black Widower". The episode featured a fictional scene of MacGyver where he downplays his role in saving a village. ("Don't thank me. Thank the moon's gravitational pull.")[31]

In the first episode of Anderson's later show, Stargate SG-1, Amanda Tapping mentions that the Air Force had to "MacGyver" a Dial Home Device for the Stargate, and a split-second shot following this shows Anderson twitching an eyebrow. (However, this line was removed when this episode was re-released in 2009.)[32]

In 2006, Anderson appeared in a MasterCard television commercial for Super Bowl XL. In it, he manages to cut the ropes binding him to a chair using a pine tree air freshener, uses an ordinary tube sock as the pulley for a zip-line, and somehow repairs and hot-wires a nonfunctional truck using a paper clip, ballpoint pen, rubber band, tweezers, nasal spray, and a turkey baster. In contrast to previous MasterCard commercials showing people making extravagant purchases to accomplish some mundane task, MacGyver is portrayed as escaping from some sort of deathtrap using less than $20 worth of common household items. The commercial ends by showing him purposefully buying an assortment of such things at a department store with his credit card (as a tongue-in-cheek explanation for how he seems to always have items he needs on hand no matter where he goes). Although the commercial implies that Anderson is portraying MacGyver, he is not identified.[33]

In an August 2007 survey commissioned by the McCormick Tribune Foundation, Americans polled voted MacGyver as the favorite fictional hero they would want to have if they were ever caught in an emergency.[34]

In 2008, the phrase "What would MacGyver do?" was used in a New Zealand television commercial for Gregg's "freestyle cooking" range of herbs and spices. The commercial featured the word MacGyver unfolding like a puzzle with a potato peeler and chopping knife opening out like the blades of a Swiss Army knife.[35]

In October 2015, the original series' executive producer, Henry Winkler, signed on to produce a reboot series with James Wan and R. Scott Gemmill for CBS.[41]

In May 2016, the network picked up the series, with co-creator/exec producer Peter Lenkov to serve as showrunner.[42] On May 18, 2016, CBS indicated that the new series would air in late 2016.[43] In June 2016, however, the network scrapped the pilot and set Wan to direct the new pilot episode with Till and Eads remaining in the cast. Justin Hires was cast as Wilt Bozer, MacGyver's roommate.[44][45] In July 2016, Variety reported that Sandrine Holt is cast as Patricia Thornton, an ex-field agent who is now director of operations for the Department of External Services.[46] Also that Tristin Mays was cast as Riley Davis, a highly unpredictable computer hacker with a chip on her shoulder.[47]

The rebooted show ran until 2021, when it was cancelled.

• Life hacking

Wikiquote has quotations related to MacGyver (1985 TV series).

• Official website
• MacGyver Online – A fan site
• MacGyver at IMDb
• MacGyver at epguides.com