Lance (aka MacFan092985) and I talked to Pat O'Brien, property master.
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Another great interview! The Gold medal story, a classic. You could actually have asked him a hockey question as in - Can you describe the impact that RDA/MacGyver's hockey enthusiasm had on the sport as a whole and in that era when it was looking to gain exposure in the US market? Maybe you can still sneak that in. I can tell you that the influence was huge, the sports media was abuzz and I don't for a second have any doubt that Bruce McNall, the soon to be majority owner of the LA Kings, was taking notes on the popularity of the series and the hockey angle it promoted.

Wow. This is really interesting.

Good work guys.

Ah, I enjoyed reading this one too. Very cool. Very insightful too.

Great interview....thanks for sharing!

Very good interview! When Pat mentions the line from Black Rhino was cut, I could have sworn it was actually still in the episode. I remembered it when MacGyver was talking with Billy and Kate regarding the ground up Rhino horns. I went back and found it. He does say a similar line: "They make dagger handles out of it as a symbol of virility. Nice, huh?"

I just kinda found it interesting that they managed to sneak it back in, though a bit softened. Not sure if that was intentional though.

I was surprised the show had to purchase the s used on the episodes. I would have thought Victorinox and Wenger would have given them to the show with perhaps the promise of product placement (making sure the the swiss shield or a particular tool was seen on screen).

Yes, agreed. Would be interesting to know exactly where/what shop they purchased them from in Vancouver ? .... couldn't have been too, too many retailers of them circa 1986 .... especially compared to today where every tom, dick, harry & internet outlet seems to peddle them.

Really? I remember seeing them in practically every sporting goods store I went in to. I always noticed them because of MacGyver.

Geesuz, yes really! We had 'authorized' dealers in Canada and there wasn't the big box stores that there is today that sold everything to everybody, and the internet hadn't happened yet. In my home town, the 14th largest in Canada, there was only one dealer who sold them, a jewelry shop that also sold & .... serviced the (newly launched) watches through a watch repair company in Montreal. Sporting goods shops may have (eventually) sold a model or two but only the authorized dealers carried the full updated product line.

Sounds like we had it a lot better than you then.

In the small town I grow up in we had a general sports store which had a whole counter full of knives which included a range of Victorinox SAKs.

20 minutes away in the next town over there was a bigger sports store which had a good SAK collection on sale.

Neither of them had official cabinets or anything they where just on display under the glass counter top. I remember seeing a store in the city (a good hours drive away) which had a Victorinix cabinet full of SAKs.

But as you say, they were only available in the knives sections of sports stores, not like now were you see them all over the place.

They were marketed more as a prestige pocket knife/multitool back then and, accordingly, you would most often
find them in higher end shops. Their stock has fallen a lot since then and I even see Wenger accessories for sale in the Dollar Stores these days. Anyway, I'm guessing that Pat would have picked those famously screened knives up from the same store. Perhaps it is still in business. Would be a cool thing to know where it was.

Yeah that's true. They were the top notch best of the best and you paid accordingly.

They're still considered high end and a quality product in my part of the world, but they sure are available in a lot more places now.