MacGyver
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MacGyver is an American adventure television series about a laid-back, extremely resourceful ex-secret agent named Angus "Mac" MacGyver, played by Richard Dean Anderson. The series was created by Lee David Zlotoff and executive produced by Henry Winkler. It ran from September 29 1985 to May 21 1992 on the ABC network. It was filmed primarily in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Two made-for-TV movies were produced in 1994.
MacGyver's main asset is his practical application of scientific knowledge and inventive use of common items—along with his ever-present Swiss Army knife and duct tape, and the usual coincidence of being locked up in a room full of useful materials. The clever solutions MacGyver implemented to seemingly intractable 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 often hailed for generating interest in basic science as well as providing entertaining storylines. All of Mac's exploits on the show were ostensibly vetted to be based on real 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 rare cases where MacGyver used household chemicals to create poisons or explosives or other things deemed dangerous to describe accurately on television, details were intentionally fudged or altered.
The use of mundane items to jerry rig devices shows an influence from The A-Team (though MacGyver eschewed the use of firearms). The idea has entered U.S. popular culture; such constructions are referred to as "MacGyverisms".
Characters
MacGyver
Angus MacGyver is a highly intelligent action hero who prefers non-violent conflict resolution wherever possible. He refuses to carry or use a gun due to a childhood accident with a revolver that resulted in the death of a friend—though MacGyver can be seen firing an AK-47 at some Russian soldiers during the episode "Pilot" before his dislike of firearms had been established. The character is portrayed as an outspoken gun control advocate as well as being politically liberal in other respects. Even in cases where his improvised devices are used to attack hostile opponents, he is always shown doing so in self-defense and, if possible, subduing or disabling rather than killing. He is often suspicious of militaristic attitudes within the government; he sees his Phoenix Foundation employer as an alternative to the more conventional (and violent) means of law enforcement.He was born and raised in Minnesota on either Jan 23, 1951 (per his passport in "Everytime She Smiles") or Mar. 23, 1951 (by working back from dates given in the episodes "Thin Ice, Passages, Friends, Runners", and "Phoenix Under Siege"). His Minnesota heritage explains why he speaks with a Minnesota accent. (Richard Dean Anderson himself was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.) MacGyver lived his childhood in Mission City. Like Anderson, MacGyver was an avid hockey player as a child, and competed in his local hockey league, continuing to play the game as an adult. He graduated from Alexander Ramsey High School in Roseville, Minnesota. His character is a graduate of a fictitious technical school called Western Tech where he earned a degree in physics.
MacGyver's first name is Angus and remained a mystery until the final season; whenever he's asked about it, he says he dislikes his first name and changes the subject. The script for the series pilot gave MacGyver's first name as "Stace", but this information did not appear in the finished episode, although it was mentioned in promotional material for the series. His first name was finally officially revealed in "Good Knight, MacGyver", in which he learns of a 7th century Scottish ancestor, Angus M'Iver, and admits that they share their first name; and repeated in the series finale, which introduces MacGyver's son, whose middle name is Angus.
During seasons 4–7, the show revolved more around social issues such as guns and runaway teens than did the episodes in seasons 1–3, which were mostly about MacGyver's adventures working for the United States government, and then later the Phoenix Foundation.
Supporting characters
Other notable recurring characters include:-->
- Pete Thornton (Dana Elcar)
- MacGyver's boss and best friend. Pete was an operative at the Department of External Services (DXS), also referred to mistakenly as DSX in several episodes, which is where he was impressed by Mac's ingenuity while tracking down Murdoc, an international assassin. When Pete took the position of Director of Operations at the Phoenix Foundation seven years later, he brought MacGyver into the program.
- Pete has a son named Michael, from a previous marriage.
- In the pilot episode, actor Dana Elcar played a completely different character named "Andy Colson". The Pete Thornton character didn't appear until episode 1.11, "Nightmares".
- Elcar appeared in the dream sequence/time travel episode "Good Knight, MacGyver" as King Arthur; whether this is because Pete is one of Arthur's distant descendants or because Mac subconsciously based his hallucination of Arthur on him is uncertain.
- In 1991, actor Dana Elcar began to develop glaucoma, a degenerative condition of the eyes that causes blindness. This condition was written into the show, and Elcar's character also developed the disease. A number of public service announcements were composed and shown at the end of many of the later episodes, encouraging viewers to get checked early and often for the condition.
- Dana Elcar died on June 6 2005 in Ventura, CA due to complications from pneumonia. He was 78.
- Jack Dalton (Bruce McGill)
- An aviator and old friend of MacGyver's with a weakness for get-rich-quick schemes that invariably got him (and usually Mac) into trouble. He always wore a peaked cap and twitched an eye when lying.
- Murdoc (Michael Des Barres)
- MacGyver's most commonly recurring opponent, a master assassin who never failed—except when MacGyver got involved. Murdoc is a master of disguise, as well as highly skilled and creative in the use of booby-traps. He is also very fond of heavy weapons, including flamethrowers, bazookas, and dynamite. Murdoc's professional signature for each hit is to take photographs of his victims at the moment of their deaths. His first appearance in the series was presented as his second run-in with MacGyver. Murdoc returned for revenge for their first encounter—to the surprise of MacGyver, as Murdoc had apparently been killed while escaping on that occasion. Murdoc's revenge scheme not only failed, but resulted in him being apparently killed again. This became a recurring theme: each of Murdoc's subsequent appearances ended in another "death", which we learn in a later episode that he had incredibly survived.
- Murdoc always screams "MACGYVER!" at the moment of his death, except in the episode "Halloween Knights", where he and MacGyver act as allies.
- Murdoc is scared of snakes (as revealed in Halloween Knights).
- Murdoc was associated with the Homicide International Trust (HIT), an organization of assassins, until being excommunicated for his failures at MacGyver's hands.
- Penny Parker (Teri Hatcher)
- Penny Parker and MacGyver met in line in an airport in Bulgaria ("Every Time She Smiles") when she tried to smuggle some jewels out of the country in his pocket. Of little talent but with big dreams, her pursuit of a show business career got her into trouble more than once; she was sometimes used by Murdoc as the unwitting pawn in his plans to eliminate MacGyver.
- The Coltons (Della Reese, Cleavon Little, Richard Lawson, Cuba Gooding Jr.)
- A family of bounty hunters (Mama Colton, Frank, Jesse & Billy), introduced one at a time—the only episode in which more than one appeared was their collective final appearance in the final season, on which occasion they took over the episode entirely, relegating MacGyver to a cameo appearance. This episode, called "The Coltons", was actually intended as a pilot for a spin-off which would star the Coltons, but nothing ever came of it.
- Harry Jackson (John Anderson)
- Harry Jackson, MacGyver's grandfather, became MacGyver's "father" after his grandmother and real father were killed in a car accident. Seven years later, he left MacGyver. After another sixteen years, Harry and MacGyver met again in the season one episode, "Target MacGyver", in which MacGyver and his grandfather worked together to defeat an assassin named Axminster (played by D'Mitch Davis). Sometime between the fifth season episode "Passages" and the sixth season episode "Harry's Will", Harry died of a heart attack.
- Nikki Carpenter (Elyssa Davalos)
- Nikki Carpenter joined the Phoenix Foundation in the third season.
- Mei Jan (Michele Chan)
- Initially calling herself Sue Ling, the name of MacGyver's foster daughter, Mei Jan enlisted MacGyver's help in completing her mission for the Chinese student movement.
- Wilt and Milt Bozer (Robin Mossley, Robert Donner)
- Milt Bozer's brother, Wilt, was MacGyver's neighbor at the marina.
MacGyver's vehicles
Throughout the series, MacGyver drove a number of vehicles; most frequently a Jeep Wrangler (YJ) of grayish-green color (actual color unknown). Among the other vehicles he drove in the series were a Jeep Grand Wagoneer, a Jeep Cherokee Chief, a 1942 Chevrolet pick-up truck, and a 1957 Chevrolet Nomad willed to him by his grandfather Harry in the episode "Harry's Will". And a 1980s Chevy truck in the episode about the city's blackout.
Influence on culture
MacGyverisms
-->The spontaneous inventions have come to be nicknamed MacGyverisms and even led to the verb, 'to MacGyver' or 'to MacGyver-ize'. This word was used in Richard Dean Anderson's project, Stargate SG-1, in a postmodern moment in the first episode, when the character Samantha Carter (portrayed by Amanda Tapping) comments on the time and effort that had been required "to MacGyver" a replacement for the Stargate's long-lost control system. However, "MacGyverism" was used long before that, in, appropriately enough, a MacGyver episode. It was used by Joanne Remmings (played by Pamela Bowen) in the second-season episode #3 "Twice Stung", in which MacGyver must con a con man. (The episode title is a reference to The Sting, with Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and, strangely enough, Dana Elcar.)
MacGyverism is a derivative of the "robinsonade" genre, named after Robinson Crusoe (1719). In this genre, the protagonist is suddenly isolated from the comforts of civilization and must improvise the means of his survival from the limited resources at hand.
In the media
As of 2005, he is the subject of a hoax Presidential campaign, as a spin-off of a similar and popular hoax concerning actor Christopher Walken. The campaign started at the website [MacGyver 2008].In 2006, Anderson appeared in a MasterCard television commercial for Super Bowl XL. The spot poked fun at the character's inherent ability of using everyday objects to perform extraordinary feats: In it, Mac 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 zipline, and somehow repairs and hotwires 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 somewhat extravagant purchases to accomplish some mundane task, MacGyver is here 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 Mac seems to always have items he needs on hand no matter where he goes).
MacGyver is frequently referenced—usually somewhat parodically—on The Simpsons, as being the favorite television show (and Richard Dean Anderson the frequent object of lust) for Patty and Selma Bouvier, Marge Simpson's sisters. Anderson himself provided his voice for an episode of the show titled "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore", which first aired April 6 2006.
In the late '90s, an American girl was reported to have escaped from her kidnappers by using a technique which she recalled from an episode of MacGyver. [[Citing sources citation needed]]
Trivia
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- The first episode was directed by Alan Smithee, the pseudonym used when a director does not want to be credited.
- MacGyver's producers had an odd tendency to use the same actor in multiple roles through the series. Actor Kai Wulff played "Stepan Frolov" in season one's "Every Time She Smiles", "Hans Visser" in season four's "Collision Course", "Ladysmith" in season five's "Black Rhino", and "Nicolas Von Leer" in season six's episode "Eye of Osiris". Actor Gregory Sierra appeared in the season one episode "The Gauntlet", playing "General Antonio Vasquez", the season two episode "Jack of Lies", playing "Colonel Antunnez", and the season five episode "The Treasure of Manco", playing "Captain Diaz". Actress Nana Visitor of fame appeared in the season one episode "Hellfire" as "Laura Farren", and in the season two episode "DOA: MacGyver" she appears again as "Carol Varnay". Actor David Ackroyd appears in the season one episode "Trumbo's World" as "Mr. Trumbo", and in the season three episode "The Negotiator" as "Mr. Knapp". Actress Elyssa Davalos played "Lisa Kohler/Kosov" in "Lost Love: Part 1 & 2" (Season 3), then just a few episodes later (in the same season) reappeared as Nikki Carpenter, a role which she reprised in several more episodes.
- Christopher Judge, who co-starred in Stargate SG-1 along with Richard Dean Anderson, appeared in the season five episode "'Live and Learn" as a high school football player named "Deron".
- Don S. Davis (also on Stargate SG-1) appeared on MacGyver multiple times, in the season three episodes "Blow Out" and "The Endangered", as a cement truck driver and Wyatt Porter, respectively. Additionally, he was Dana Elcar's stunt double.
- Peter Jurasik, MacGyver's short-lived ornithologist friend from "Trumbo's world", became Londo Mollari on Babylon 5.
- MacGyver's Swiss Army Knife went through a few changes over the early episodes. His first and most often used knife was a "Tinker" model from Victorinox. In "Thief of Budapest" he gives it away; in the next episode he is using a "Traveler" model from Wenger. He is soon back to his "Tinker." At one point he uses an Orange Peeler blade; probably from a Victorinox "Executive." He may have used an older model "Explorer" from Victorinox later in the series. He also used the Sportsman "Lost Love pt. 1 and 2", the Recruit "GX-1", and the Climber "Three for the Road." In "Tough Boys" he uses a Tinker (with the key ring removed) to unlock a large padlock. He also had a couple of non-production models that were obviously modified for the series. In "Serenity," he has a knife with wood handles on it, to flow with the time setting of the episode. In "Strictly Business" he used a knife with the Victorinox shield on the back handle of the knife instead of the front. He seems to have used all of the slimmer models available at that time. The Tinker was (and still is) available in a slightly smaller model, which he may have used. The Sportsman, Tourist, and Spartan are virtually indistinguishable with the blades closed, so he may have used any one of these three, or only one.
- MacGyver is also known well for his "mullet" (short on the sides, long at the back) hairstyle which has spawned many popular sites which poke fun at this particular tonsorial subculture.
- MacGyver, Miami Vice, Magnum, P.I. and Knight Rider are still extremely popular in many countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Finland and Ukraine and are regularly aired on prime-time slots.
- In the season one episode titled "" from Family Guy, Peter writes a letter to Richard Dean Anderson asking him to save his dog using the enclosed items from the envelope: a rubber band, a paper clip and a straw. Anderson puts these together and hits himself in the eye with the rubber band.
- The theme song was written by Randy Edelman.
- The series is referenced in many episodes of The Simpsons, primarily detailing Bart Simpson's aunts Patty and Selma's obsession 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. In the episode "The Black Widower" Sideshow Bob plots to kill Selma by taking advantage of this rigidity of routine. The plan was foiled when Bart realised Selma's post-MacGyver cigarette (her only cigarette of the day, as well as after meals, since "quitting" for Bob) would ignite the gas left on by Bob. Coincidentally, Anderson is a fan of The Simpsons, as is his Stargate SG-1 character, Jack O'Neill. In the episode "Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore", Selma and Patty actually kidnap Richard Dean Anderson and hold him hostage, and he says he had no interest in the show, and was just doing it for the money. He escapes using a very MacGyver like method. He then comes back, stating that he loved the feeling of escaping, and made them hold him hostage in many different ways (after giving them a list of "normal household items" that need to be left in the room) so he could escape.
- Richard Dean Anderson's future Stargate SG-1 co-star Michael Shanks decided to become an actor after seeing an episode of MacGyver being filmed.
- During the pilot episode, MacGyver actually fires an AK-47 in the opening rescue sequence. His unwillingness to use guns was not yet included in the pilot, and instead became a staple of the show's subsequent episodes. (Although he refuses to fire on other people, MacGyver frequently triggers a weapon remotely, to act as a distraction for enemy guards or otherwise uses guns for inventive results.)
- In the pilot episode, MacGyver apparently lives at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California.
- In South Korea, Swiss Army knives are commonly called "MacGyver knives."
- In Bangladesh, MacGyver-isms are called MacGyver-giri.
DVD releases
| # | US DVD release date | DVD cover | Tagline |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | January 25 2005 | 
| Always prepared for adventure |
| 2 | June 7 2005 | 
| His mind is the ultimate weapon |
| 3 | September 6 2005 | 
| Saving the day is all in a day's work |
| 4 | December 6 2005 | 
| He acts fast and thinks faster |
| 5 | March 14 2006 | 
| The right man when things go wrong (it was originally He has a mind for adventure) |
| 6 | June 13 2006 | 
| Braver than most—smarter than the rest |
| 7 | October 24 2006 | 
| Back in action—ready for danger |
See also
International
- In Ireland, the show was shown on RTE Network 2.
- In Finland, the show was shown on MTV3.
- In France, the show was shown on TF1.
- In Germany, the show was shown on Pro7, Sat.1, Kabel1 and Premiere Serie.
- In Greece, the show was shown on ERT and ANT1.
- In India, the show was shown on Star World.
- In Indonesia, the show was shown on RCTI.
- In Italy, the show was shown on Italia1 and Rete4.
- In Norway, the show was shown on TV 2.
- In Poland, the show was shown on Polonia 1 and Polsat.
- In Slovenia, the show was shown on Kanal A.
- In Spain, the show was shown on TVE, Antena 3 and Calle 13.
- In Sweden, the show was shown on SVT and Kanal 5.
- In Taiwan, the show was shown on TTV.
- In Uruguay, the show was shown in Canal 12.
- In Saudi Arabia, the show was shown on Saudi TV Channel 2.
External links
- [MacGyver Online: The complete MacGyver resource and community.]
- [A wiki collection of MacGyvered items]
- [MacGyverLand- a fan site]
- [] at TV.com
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