The Golden Triangle

Episode:  002

Production No.: 40191-003

Airdate:   06 October 1985

Director:  Paul Stanley

Writer:    Dennis Foley

Gambit Director:  Donald Petrie

Gambit Writer:  Terry Nation

Nielsen Ratings:  12.2 rating / 19 share / 3rd (51st overall)

OPENING GAMBIT

“CRUSHER”

While trying to retrieve stolen top-secret pentagon missile launch codes, MacGyver is caught and tied up in a car about to be crushed. After making a hasty escape from the car he uses the wreckers magnet to get the briefcase and pins the thieves car against a phone pole, with the thieves inside.

MAIN EPISODE

MacGyver is sent into the heart of opium country in Burma, to retrieve a poison-filled canister from a crashed plane. His mission is made considerably more complex when he is mistaken for a DEA agent by local opium producers who are holding the local villagers as slaves to harvest their opium fields for them.

CAST

MACGYVERISMS

Used electromagnet to pick up a briefcase.	Used tire wrench to pop open car trunk.
Used forklift to trap thieves in a car.	Inflating raft pulls the string on a signal flare to create an explosion.
Used a signal flare to blow up a jeep.	Used mirror and whistle as a signal.
Dropped snakes into jeep to scare away passengers.	Leaves on the ground looked like a covered hole so jeeps would drive around and fall into a hidden pit.
Branch laying across the road connected to a string which pulls triggers on guns (when the branch is moved) to shoot jeep tires.	Log hanging on ropes swings down to knock solders out of jeep.
Giant Bamboo “flute” is connected to jeeps exhaust to blow homemade tear gas made of fire-ash and rice alcohol.	Attached jeep winch to Helicopter to “wind in” the chopper.

TRIVIA

• The canister MacGyver retrieves is labeled “Controlled Materials SFT-42 Danger.”
• The general who gives MacGyver his mission brief on the beach has a name tag of Hawkins.
• MacGyver refers to his cousin Allie, but this contradicts the later backstory of MacGyver having no living family or relatives.
• In the close-up of MacGyver holding his SAK, we can see the tweezers and key-ring are missing.

QUOTES

• Now, you may find this hard to believe, but there have been times when I’ve had a lot more fun in the back seat of a car. – MacGyver
• Missiles come in all shapes and sizes. I’ve always been partial to round. – MacGyver
• My mom used to make a great broiled chicken. One of my favorites. Funny, I’m starting to feel real sympathetic towards them chickens. – MacGyver
• It’s my humble opinion that old Alexandra Graham Bell has a lot to answer for. – MacGyver

NIT-PICKS

• When the guard comes to check on MacGyver tied on the rack we can see Mac’s belt on his pants. The camera then cuts to show his SAK on the ground, when it cuts back to Mac his belt is missing.
• In the opening gambit, MacGyver suspends the bad guys in mid-air inside their car, the driver has a clear shot at him out the driver’s side window but doesn’t shoot.