MacGyver - Series Overview

Series Overview

The series revolved around MacGyver, whose main asset is his practical application of scientific knowledge and inventive use of common items – along with his ever-present Swiss Army knife. The clever solutions MacGyver implemented to seemingly unsolvable 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, particularly engineering, and for 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 to the public, 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 eschews 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", and was even used in Stargate SG-1, a later show featuring Richard Dean Anderson as a protagonist. The show often dealt with social issues, though more so in seasons 4–7 than 1–3, which were mostly about MacGyver's adventures working for the United States government and later the Phoenix Foundation.