MacGyver

MacGyver was an American adventure television series about a laid-back, extremely resourceful ex-special forces 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 29 September 1985 to May 1992 on the ABC network. It was filmed primarily in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Two made-for-TV movies were produced in 1994.

Trivia

• MacGyver's producers had an odd tendancy 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' 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".
• Christopher Judge, who costars 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 "Darren".
• 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.
• 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.
• MacGyver is also known well for his incumbent "mullet" (short on the sides, long at the back) hairstyle which has spawned many popular sites which humour this particular subculture.
• MacGyver, Miami Vice, Magnum, P.I. and Knight Rider are still extremely popular in many countries such as Indonesia, The Philippines, Ukraine, Hungary and Argentina and are regularly aired on prime-time slots.
• In an episode of Family Guy, Peter Griffin writes to MacGyver.
• The theme song was written by Randy Edelman.
• The series was heavily referenced in many episodes of The Simpsons including "The Black Widower" concerning Sideshow Bob's plot to kill Bart's Aunt Selma. 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.
• 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 2-hour pilot episode, MacGyver actually fires an AK-47, during the opening rescue sequence. This is the only time in the entire series that he fires a gun. The concept of MacGyver hating guns was not mentioned in the pilot, and was instead inserted in the show's regular run.