It’s hard to believe that it’s been 37 years since MacGyver made his first appearance on our screens. Released at a time when the TV-scape was awash with testosterone-drenched, bullet-riddled action shows, MacGyver was a risky proposition that could easily have gone wrong but ultimately paid off for Paramount and ABC.
As a hero who was the exact opposite of every other hero on TV at the time, MacGyver soon found his fan base of people drawn in by the idea of using your wits and knowledge of science to outsmart the bad guys. It’s an idea that continued to draw the fans throughout its 7-year run – despite ABC’s woeful handling of the series which saw little to no promotion as the show went on and regular episodes dropped in favor of sports events. Parents and teachers gravitated towards having something they could use to encourage and promote learning while others were drawn in by seeing a normal person using everyday things to solve problems. It was this resourceful tinkering that eventually became the definition of the character which still continues to this day.
While most shows quietly disappeared into the archives of classic TV, MacGyver continued to be aired in syndication around the world and with the help of fan groups, mailing lists, websites, and a steady stream of fan-fiction, including virtual seasons, maintained a constant cultural and fan presence long after the show went off air. The ‘Mac Pack’ (as they called themselves) activities didn’t go unnoticed and eventually lead to Warner Brothers planning a spinoff in 2003 called ‘Young MacGyver‘ which would continue on the original show’s timeline to follow MacGyver’s nephew (played by a young Jared Padalecki) as he began working for the Phoenix Foundation after MacGyver had left. The show never made it past the unaired pilot.
Then in 2004 came an announcement that brought the fandom to life. The show was being released on DVD – starting with season 1 in January of 2005. The news was met with much excitement by the fan community – The boxes were well decorated with plenty of MacGyver artwork and even the discs themselves were decorated with everyday items MacGyver might use to save the day along with a list of episodes on the disc. The other sets came in quick succession with 4 more seasons released in the same year and the last two by mid-2006. Fans were delighted – they finally had good quality replacements for their tired and warn VHS home recordings. All was good in the MacGyver fandom.
The cheering continued from fans as the 2 made-for-TV MacGyver movies were released on their own 2-disc set, providing the final piece to the MacGyver DVD collection puzzle – and then a special ‘Fan Favorites‘ DVD was released which contained the top 5 episodes voted for in a public Facebook poll. This separate DVD was seen by many as a collectible or gift opportunity.
The spotlight once again fell on MacGyver in 2006 when Richard Dean Anderson guest voiced himself in an episode of The Simpsons which focused on Richard being captured by Salma and Patti for their own private MacGyver convention.
Things were going great for fans of the show until CBS played the “gravy train” card in 2007 and released The Complete Series box set which contained all 7 seasons as well as the 2 made-for-TV movies. Fans were annoyed that CBS had made them buy each season separately and were now releasing the whole series in a single cheaper set. Many fans believed this was CBS’ plan all along and had only released the season sets to make more money. To rub salt in the wound, the set appeared to have little effort put into it with the discs sitting unprotected and loose in two flimsy cardboard cartoons with a mixture of the original decorated DVDs and a new set of plain grey discs. As it would turn out this set would be the last time we saw the decorated “deluxe” version discs and was the start of a continuing hostility towards CBS by the fans.
2008 saw MacGyver back in the spotlight as the international hit show ‘Mythbusters’ put some of the better-known MacGyverisms through their paces with some interesting and entertaining results, but ultimately proving that much of what MacGyver did had sound scientific principles and was plausible if not fully confirmable.
The following year saw RDA return to the MacGyver role in a Superbowl commercial and later in a Saturday Night Live spoof called MacGruber – which would later lead to a motion picture in the footsteps of films such as Loaded Weapon and Hot Shoots. The film was considered a flop but has since developed a cult following – much to the dismay of many MacGyver fans. The Superbowl appearance lead many fans to consider that RDA could indeed return to the role despite himself stating that he was too old for such a high-action role. This found even more life when the following year saw show creator Lee David Zlotoff announce that he now owned the rights to MacGyver and was planning a feature movie. This news spread around the world like wildfire. Every news blog on the internet seemed to have grabbed the story and run with it – even television news reported on it. Over the following years, we continued to hear news stories ranging from actors being hired to new production companies taking over, but ultimately the movie never happened and the last we heard was it had now been shelved indefinitely.
Despite the film never getting off the ground this marked the beginning of a more productive era for the franchise with Zlotoff at the helm, which we’ll dive into in our next installment.
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