Every week I will be posting a new topic titled "Episode Discussion". In this we will discuss an episode, what we liked about it, what we didn't like, etc.


Episode 097 - Log Jam

MacGyver heads to the pacific northwest to infiltrate a logging company on behalf of an environmentalist friend to help expose the management's illegal activity.

Some of the background story in this episode, like Mac working the logging line to pay for college, and even his friendship with Amy, seem a little hinky. Like it was just dreamed up to fit the episode.

Mac doesn’t strike me as a logging worker type.

I recently saw a copy of the National Geographic (or was it Autobahn Society?) documentary in which RDA was the celebrity narrator/investigator of a logging conflict.

I swear, some of the scenes in 'Log Jam' were echoes of the actual footage. The airplane ride over the decimated trees, the people sitting in the road in front of a logging truck--the spit-fire argument between the truckers and the activists--just to name a few examples. There are several more. Clearly the writers of this ep used that documentary as a model.

When was the documentary made?

I'm remembering RDA talking, in the Gatecon panel, about the writers on MacGyver using his own personal interests as inspirations for stories -- and he specifically mentioned National Geographic, although he referred to reading the magazine rather than being in a documentary.

It was the 'World of Audubon 10th Anniversary Special', made in 1994. When the actual documentary footage of him being involved with the logging issue was filmed, I cannot discover.

It would be weird if 'Log Jam' had been made before the documentary... talk about life imitating art!

Log Jam was made in 1990.

It sounds as if the documentary could have included footage from any time in the previous ten years. Based on how RDA looked in it, what year would you guess?

The footage of the original documentary, called 'Rage over Trees' was filmed 5 years before the documentary that RDA hosted. That would put it at about 1989.

RDA is wearing a red 'lumberjack' style shirt and jeans, and is looking very 'late season MacGyver' with his long blond hair.

see image:
http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/pp209/L...os/audubn1x.jpg

Was RDA in the 1989 section of the documentary, or just in the 1994 compilation?

If the original story dates from 1989, then it's entirely possible -- and quite likely -- that "Log Jam" was based on the events of the time. I had only just moved back to the Northwest in 1987, and the "owl wars" got started over the course of the next few years -- I remember a good deal of the strife from that time. The key fights happened in 1989-90 -- which means that MacGyver was tackling a highly controversial subject while it was front and centre in the news. Pretty damned gutsy.

I remember a visit to Forks, WA, the heart of logging country, in 1990 -- I was careful to park my car with its rear bumper against the building, so that my treehugging-dirt-worshipper bumper sticker wouldn't be noticed and make me a target.

RDA was in the 1994 documentary with Audubon, not the original doc 'Rage over Trees'.

To be honest I never quite understood what the problem was with tree farms.

You grow trees

You cut them down to use for housing, paper etc

You grow new trees all over again in and endless cycle.

To me it seems like a stupid waste of time to be fighting over a tree farm while a non-renewable resource such as the Amazon jungle is being cut down and not replaced.

I don't get it. and obviously nether did MacGyver, otherwise he wouldn't have worked there during his college years.

It was a good episode. At first I thought log jamming was going to be a tree hugger don't cut them down and recycle, it didn't go that way.

For me the best part of this episode was the fight at the sawmill. It had everything a MacGyver fight should have: An over the top bad guy with funky fighting skills, moments when it looks like Mac is going to get battered before he rallies and wins, scary machinery, improvisations that don't quite go as planned, a damn-the-torpedoes flying leap or two and the look of infinite regret when he sees that he's probably killed his adversary...


Outside of that, a decent story but Amy's character was a bit one-sided and really needed to calm down! She comes across as Mad Tree Woman and as such, shouldn't be surprised when people don't listen to what she has to say. It's a bit like when the nutter on the bus chooses to sit next to YOU...

That's because she was a mad tree women! So obsessed with her cause that she couldn't see the bigger picture... you could say she couldn't see the wood for the trees. :lol

This is actually one of my favorite episodes. It feels sort of cozy to me. I like the small town and the working in the forest feel this episode has.

This episode aired at a time that logging was in the headlines. Fights between the logging companies and the environmentalist was making front page news. MacGyver goes to work for a logging company to discover illegal practices on behalf of his friend Amy who was an environmentalist. She was one sided in her views and refused to see the logging point of view. This episode was one of the few where Mac's adversary end up being killed after a fight. Mac is regretful even though his enemy was trying to kill him with a chainsaw and a knife. The fight seen was great.

I just took 4 screenshots of 4 different hats in this episode. Is it okay to post them here?

Better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission.

Hehe, well, I'm sure that I'll be forgiven with any Mac photos right?

Okay, they are

I don't think I've ever noticed that he wore his hat backwards before.

I love that look

Jack O'Neill wears it a few times that way in SG-1. I can go find those episodes and screenshot them too

Yes but they're continually knocking down old growth forests and replacing them with cookie cutter tree farms that are planted for the sole purpose of being whacked down again & again. These farms don't have the same flora diversity and thus cannot sustain the same variety of wildlife that a more natural deciduous/coniferous woodland can. And that's just for starters.

It's been a pretty good time, I'm not a big fan either, but it's nice to watch. I really like the final scene, because the sawmill is very pretty, well done and operated. The supporting roles are also good especially the role of the Japanese, it is virulent and effective. 5⭐️

id like to rewatch Considines shows , got his autograph a while ago