Macgyver

Seven seasons were produced, all of which were broadcast by the ABC Network in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles during seasons 1, 2 and 7, and in Vancouver, Canada from seasons 3-6.

The show's final episode aired on May 21, 1992 on ABC.
The story arc of MacGyver follows the intelligent, optimistic, laid-back, resourceful secret agent Angus MacGyver, played by Richard Dean Anderson. He prefers non-violent conflict resolution where possible, and refuses to use a gun.

MacGyver works as a problem solver for the fictional Phoenix Foundation in Los Angeles. Educated as a scientist with a background as a Bomb Disposal Technician/EOD in Vietnam ("Countdown"), and from a fictional United States government agency, the Department of External Services (DXS), he is used as a resourceful agent able to solve a range of problems along with his ever-present Swiss army knife.
The series was a ratings success for ABC and was particularly popular in the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Two television movies, MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis and MacGyver: Trail to Doomsday, aired on ABC in 1994. A spin-off series, Young MacGyver was planned in 2003, but only the pilot was made.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 (mainly the Huntsman and the Tinker models). 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 praised for generating interest in the applied sciences, and particularly engineering, as well as providing entertaining story lines.

All of MacGyver's exploits on the show were ostensibly vetted to be based 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 create poisons, explosives or other things deemed too dangerous to be accurately described for public consumption, details were altered or left vague.
The use of ordinary household items to jury rig devices shows an influence from The A-Team (though MacGyver eschewed firearms).

The idea has entered United States popular culture; such constructions are referred to as "MacGyverisms" (a term first used in episode 3 of season 2, "Twice Stung"). MacGyver has become a verb, as in "The car broke down but he MacGyvered a fix to get home." The show often dealt with social issues, though more so in Seasons 4–7, versus Seasons 1–3, which were mostly about MacGyver's adventures working for the United States government and then later the Phoenix Foundation.
Format
Several episodes began with a cold open, finding MacGyver already on a mission.

This opening sequence is called in the credits the "Opening Gambit." 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. 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.

Dana Elcar as Pete Thornton, MacGyver's boss and best friend.

Pete is an operative at the Department of External Services (DXS) which is where he is impressed by Mac's ingenuity while tracking down Murdoc, an international assassin. When Pete takes the position of 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, Pete is many times forced to bail MacGyver out of the trouble he gets into. Pete has a son named Michael.
Production
While creating the series MacGyver, John Rich worked on the American series, Mr.

After this Rich teamed up with Henry Winkler and Lee David Zlotoff to create the series which would later be known as MacGyver.
The television series was filmed in Southern California for its first two seasons and again in its final season. From seasons 3-6 it was filmed in various locations around Vancouver, Canada. The estimated budget for each episode was around 1 million United States dollars.
When the series was in pre-production, executive producers Henry Winkler and John Rich were looking for a suitable actor for the lead. After Richard Dean Anderson's appearance in the American television series, The Love Boat, Winkler got Anderson to audition for the part of Angus MacGyver. According to Rich, every auditioning actor "hulked" his way through his audition.Both believed that Anderson would become one of the new "breakout" stars on American television.
Richard Dean Anderson is known for having done many of the stunts on the series, though in later seasons he reduced his stunt participation because of accumulating injuries. He injured his back and required a foot surgery because of his accidents working as a stuntman.
By the sixth season, Dana Elcar who portrayed Pete Thornton in the series was going blind as a result of glaucoma.

This condition was eventually written into the Thornton character.
The producers of MacGyver had a tendency to use the same actor in multiple roles throughout a series run. David Ackroyd appears in the season one episode "Trumbo's World" as Mr.

Elyssa Davalos played Lisa Kohler/Kosov in "Lost Love: Part 1 & 2" in season 3, then just a few episodes later (in the same season) she re-appeared as Nikki Carpenter, a role which she reprised in several more episodes. Dana Elcar first appeared in the pilot episode as the chief of operations for KIVA laboratories under a different character name, Andy Colson. Elcar returns later in the first season to play the main character, Pete Thornton.
Broadcast and release
Syndication, cancellation and future
After a slow start in its first season, MacGyver became a sleeper hit for ABC in its second season. 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. MacGyver was canceled after the seventh season because ABC wished to broadcast a new series, entitled Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, which became a minor success compared to MacGyver. When asked why the series was cancelled, Anderson replied: "The only reason it went off the air was that everybody was ready to move on. Anderson served as executive producer for both films, which were filmed in Europe. Re-runs of the series still air in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.
In 2003, The WB Television Network had a pilot for a possible new Young MacGyver series starring Jared Padalecki as MacGyver's nephew Clay, but opted to pass on it. 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. Lee David Zlotoff, creator of the series, announced on May 3, 2008, that a MacGyver film is in the planning stages. He will produce the film along with Martha De Laurentiis and Raffaella De Laurentiis through her Raffaella Productions. Richard Dean Anderson has expressed interest in revisiting his role, however there is no word on who will be playing the role of MacGyver in the film.
Home releases


MacGyver, The Complete Series collection.

Paramount Home Entertainment has released all 7 Seasons of MacGyver on DVD in Region 1 and shortly will for Region 2.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). Although the commercial indicates Anderson is portraying the role of MacGyver, he is not identified.
The series is referenced in episodes of The Simpsons, primarily detailing Marge Simpson's sisters Patty and Selma's obsession with the show and their crush on the MacGyver character.

One other episode shows him only using a captured gun by taking it apart to use as a kind of wrench, with the trigger guard doing the job of shutting down a valve tap. In the opening gambit of the pilot episode, MacGyver is briefly seen shooting an AK-47 at a group of enemy soldiers before passing the gun off to the man he was rescuing.

When MacGyver introduces himself to her, she uses the term in a manner that suggests other people had used it before:
"Oh I've heard about you! You're the guy who does the whatchamacallits, you know, MacGyverisms; turns one thing into another?"
The show's writers based MacGyver's inventions on items they found on location, concepts from scientific advisers John Koivula and Jim Green, and real events. The show offered a monetary prize to people who sent good ideas for the show. The episode "Bushmaster" was constructed around this trick, and the fan was rewarded (Executive Producer Henry Winkler said in a 2005 NPR interview that that was his favorite "MacGyverism").