Epic Win: MacGyver
Submitted by CY Costa
MacGyver is even more bad-ass then Chuck Norris, since MacGyver could not only make just about anything out of a box full of household items, but he also injected applied science into the lives of his unwitting audience. That’s right, most of the things that MacGyver created on the show were vetted by his producers to make sure it was possible in real life. That means if you were a hardcore fan and could remember all of the things he created, you could make an explosive device out of rubberband a toothpick and a bouncy ball.
First!
Best show ever, i own all 7 seasons on DVD
Even though I didn’t exactly grow up with this show, I have watched enough reruns with my mom to agree with her when she says Richard Dean Anderson is a stud! Also, I always did like the opening theme song…
So do I! I have his autograph too!
Heh, I mean I too have all 7 seasons on DVD.
I’ll always associate McGyver with Selma Bouvier (Tewilliger Hutz McClure) and Patty Bouvier.
Sideshow Bob: First of all, he’s an actor. Second, he’s not a very good one…
MacGuyver was the best show evah! ::screams like a fangirl::
My 14 yr old daughter discovered this online and has watched ALL of the eps. Maybe having a science teacher for a Dad has paid off. We still both think Mac is hot in that black tank shirt.
I used to watch MacGuyver with my parents as a little kid, and I had such a crush on him….
It was an awesome show though, over the years I’ve occasionally caught a rerun on TV and I just had to watch it.
I read that they always left one critical step or ingredient out of what they showed to make sure that nobody tried it at home, or if they did it wouldn’t work.
I don’t remember ever reading that, but I remember the Mythbusters saying so whenever they did a Macgyver show… usually right before they did the step they couldn’t show us.
They only left out key ingredients or steps for things like explosives or poisons. All of his other impromptu inventions were legit and replicable.
yep, I remember reading they tested the stuff at UCLA’s science labs.
Although it’s noteworthy that, while many things he did are THEORETICALLY possible, most would only work with lots of luck and/or ideal circumstances…
THAN Chuck Norris, not THEN Chuck Norris. Nobody knows English anymore.
Look, it`s the rare and endangered Grammar Nazi.
and I have to disagree, while Macgyver was good, NOBODY beats Chuck Norris, except maybe Bruce Lee.
Ha, David Belle tops them all off.
I’m so glad you said MOST of his tricks, because the Mythbusters (the ULTIMATE MacGyver fanboys, and I dare any of you to tell me different) have some tested his devices (even with the secret ’skipped’ step added) and they were ALWAYS busted. I’ve yet to see a Macgyver device on Mythbusters that worked.
tested some of his devices*
I have no idea where that grammatical nightmare I originally typed came from. Sorry.
not ALL of his devices failed, re-watch the show.
but making an airplane out of bamboo, a cement mixer and a fan didn’t work obviously, the smaller stuff did however work.
That’s true: picking a lock with the filament of a lightbulb worked, thought it took the Mythbusters WAY longer than Mac (let’s face it, it would have been a pretty boring show if they just showed him picking a lock for 50 minutes).
Blowing a hole in a brick wall using sodium, a gelatin capsule and water didn’t work at all.
The cement mixer-bamboo-garbage bags ultralight was pretty hilarious.
Every Mac Mythbusters show I ever saw had an element of failure to it. Yes… you CAN pick a lock with a light bulb… but you’re not going to do it in sixty seconds or less, and to me, that’s a FAIL, as they did not replicate the circumstances as well as the result. Sorry if we’re operating from different definitions of failure.
Why couldn’t you luck into it in sixty seconds or less? There’s no operation in picking a lock that actually takes more than sixty seconds – you just have to do the right actions and the lock can open.
Unlikely, sure, but it’s definitely possible.
Lock picking is pretty technical. if you’re just poking around inside a lock with a vauge idea of what you’re doing, it’s going to take a while. If you’re familiar with the inner workings of the lock you’re trying to pick, you’ll succeed alot faster.
How about stopping an acid leak with chocolate bars?
I could use that right now.
well to stop an acid leak, you’ll need to take some more acid, to insure you have more than enough due to leakage…
My chocolate bars are leaking, can I stop them with some acid?
More bad-ass than Chuck Norris?
Chuck Norris doesn’t need chewing gum, a Q-tip and the hair off a chimp’s back to blow up a door. He just gives it the icy stare…
DAMN STRAIGHT
No one is more bad ass than Chuck Norris!
No one WAS more bad ass than Chuck Norris. Since news came in 5 hours ago he committed suicide in his ranch in Texas…
Um, I don’t know where you heard that.
I miss MacGyver. One of the best things about him though is the list of random things to make unlikely objects that we often make up when describing what he does.
“Why are you threatening me with a yardstick?”
“In twenty minutes I can make it into a death-dealing sword!”
“I made this airplane out of skate board and a Frisbee, but it only has two seats”
Richard Dean Anderson’s most famous characters were popular for their intellectual brightness. I don’t need to explain why McGyver was bright, and a lot of clever humor was injected in Jack O’Neill (and the humor is why O’Neill got so popular with his fans. Let’s face it, he was not that badass with violence in Stargate SG-1.
I don’t know what other series Anderson played an major role in, but I don’t think any of those series were as popular as McGyver (I could be wrong… Honestly I only heard of McGyver and Stargate, and I think I would had heard about anything else he did if it was very popular).
I really wish they would make another show like McGyver. I’m tired of series with dumb characters who blow holes into doors because they can’t figure out how to operate the knob. These days only comedy shows are not boring to me.
There was that one movie where he played a bad guy… that was… disturbing… you could compare it to Leslie Nielson in ‘Patriot’ (if I remember the title right)…
Tow movies actually. “Through the Eyes of a Killer” and “Beyond Betrayal”.
RDA was in General Hospital, Legend (a show on UPN) and a whole bunch of movies in between! Aaaandd, he was a “badass” in a few of these movies.
I’ve honestly never seen this show… but I still know what the phrase “MacGyver it” means. Funny, I figured the theam song would be less gay sounding. o0
That was standard fare for ’80s action shows.
OOH! I have a rubber band, a toothpick, and a bouncy ball!
You forgot the hockey tickets and gum wrapper… I never leave home without them.
You can watch them all on CBS: http://www.cbs.com/classics/macgyver/index.php
I’m such a geek, I have that link bookmarked
‘MacGyver, half the red army is coming against us!’
‘No problem, I got some pins and chewing gum’
The MacGyver theme song was the coolest. I once arranged it for string quartet. But even better was the montage. Richard Dean Anderson in a black wife-beater is simply priceless. I had a bit of a MacGyver obsession way back. . . . enough to know MacGyver’s first name in the show. Anyone?
Angus. His first name is Angus. Angus MacGyver. …and for the love of God it’s MacGyver people! MacGyver! Not McGyver, or MacGuyver… it’s MacGyver!
Did you also know that Richard Dean Anderson composed the song “EAU D’LEO” that MacGyver played (on his guitar) in the episode “The Negotiator”? Hmm?
Never watched this show, probably never will. XP
MacGyver is sooo badass
When the first episode aired in my country I clearly remember no promotional video was made and no one knew what the show was about. It aired at 7 p.m. on Sundays, right before the news, so a lot of people were watching – of course, on Monday every kid in school was talking about how that guy on TV had stopped an acid tank from leaking using a chocolate bar.
The most biggest and epic win ever. Except for David Bowie.