"Yeah, found some grain dust, treat it right, we got the makin's of a pretty good bomb, I'll betcha!" - Richard Dean Anderson as MacGyver
MacGyver: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Kristen Freilich
Have you ever:
... hot-wired a car with paper clip? (Episode 9: The Prodigal)
... stopped an acid leak with a candy bar? (Pilot Episode)
... used duct tape and a map to fix a hole in a hot air balloon? (Episode 4: The Gauntlet)
MacGyver has.
MacGyver is the unassuming, inventive hero of the 80's. Whereas James Bond uses guns to kills the bad guys and beds the beautiful foreign spy along the way, MacGyver has a different style altogether. He uses unconventional items as weapons and does not kill his enemies (instead, he ties them up or ditches them). And MacGyver barely gets to kiss the women he saves before the episode ends!
MacGyver follows the adventures of Angus MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson), former US Ranger and current agent of The Phoenix Foundation. The mysterious Phoenix Foundation is described as a think tank, but it seems most episodes feature MacGyver on dangerous missions that the US government just doesn't want to do. At the Phoenix Foundation, MacGyver reports to the director of operations, Pete Thornton (Dana Elcar). Pete appears briefly in the Pilot episode, and then is introduced as MacGyver's official boss in the eleventh episode, "Nightmares."
Most of the 22 episodes in season one start with a teaser (called by the producers an "opening gambit") that runs before the credits, completely unrelated to the rest of the episode. For example, episode 12 ("Deathlock") begins with MacGyver sneaking out of East Berlin in a coffin that turns into a wooden-lacquered Jet-ski when hurled into a river.
MacGyver doesn't like guns or heights, yet he consistently finds himself at a high altitude - in a car after parachuting from a plane ("The Heist"), on top of a nuclear power plant ("Flame's End"), and on several mountaintops - in situations where a gun could solve everything. But MacGyver's hook is using brains rather than brawn (read: lethal weapons). MacGyver fells countless foreign spies when they underestimate what he can do with random objects, in addition to his amazing knowledge of chemistry and physics.
MacGyver is a show about these do-it-yourself-on-the-fly inventions, which ultimately became known as "MacGyverisms." In the pilot episode alone, he whips up a gaggle of gadgets and gizmos worthy of Hints from Heloise, including using binoculars to destroy a laser beam, using chocolate bars to stop an acid leak, filling a hose with water to lift and move a steel beam, and, of course, the simple task of disarming a missile with a paper clip.
MacGyver himself narrates each episode. His narration helps viewers understand how his "MacGyverisms" work. For instance, how kerosene, newspaper, cotton, and a ball will create a hot air balloon ("The Escape"). But it is when MacGyver tells a more personal story - about a pony that he wanted to ride as a child or a lost love - that viewers see his tender side.
Season one episodes are a balance between overseas Phoenix Foundation missions and MacGyver's personal causes (mostly helping friends, ex-girlfriends and family). The strongest episodes take place in the United States, and showcase MacGyver's selfless good nature. In "Nightmares," MacGyver helps a runaway catch a fish (using a shiny gum wrapper for a lure) and get a scholarship from the Phoenix Foundation. He reconnects with his estranged and embittered grandfather in "Target MacGyver." When MacGyver is sent on foreign missions, however, the shaky Eastern European accents and poor acting detract from the fun. One wonders if the directors ordered guest stars in these episodes to simply "act foreign and nefarious."
MacGyver is a swinging single and has a bachelor pad on a boardwalk. (Which boardwalk? It's a secret.) He encounters a wealth of well-coifed (well-coifed for the 80s, at least) females, almost all of which he ends up kissing at least once. Two noteworthy female guest stars are Teri Hatcher (Lois and Clark - The New Adventures of Superman, Desperate Housewives) as the bubbly and "popular" Penny Parker in "Everytime She Smiles" and Nana Visitor (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) in "Hellfire."
As a child of the 80s, MacGyver seemed like the consummate male to me: he was smart, funny, non-violent, and so handsome. Watching the episodes again for the first time in 20 years made me fall in love with him all over again. But what of the mullet, you ask? MacGyver barely had a mullet in season one, so save your mullet jibes for season two, if it ever gets released.
The disc menu, while emblazoned with a handsome shot of Richard Dean Anderson and lady-love, has an inexplicable Stargate feel to it. There is no scene selection.
