Fan fiction writers love writing crossover stories - but occasionally it does happen for real. I will always remember the very weird combination of Magnum P.I. and Murder She Wrote, of all things! Today, we still get them on shows like C.S.I. and N.C.I.S but they're more to promote spin offs.

My question is this - if you could have crossed MacGyver with any other show, past, or even present, what would it be, and why?

MacGyver and Knight Rider! My 2 all-time favorite shows!


Also....

Mac and 6 Million Dollar Man

Mac and Burn Notice

Ah, I'm on the same page! One day I might have to cheekily write one in homage. But, what if we could mix two shows that shouldn't really go together, just like the Magnum/Murder She Wrote offering?

What about putting Mac with someone like Rick Hunter, or Reno Raines from Renegade? How would he react with people like that who stood for justice, but by no means "his way"?

What else could we pit him against to test his metal with his knife and duck tape???

I'm picturing MacGyver and David Puddy at a Flames-Devils game

MacGyver and Magnum. Just because they're opposites. MacGyver's life is pretty much organised, neat, clean, he lives healthy, helps out his friends. Magnum is sloppy, does pretty much whatever he wants whenever he wants, he likes to drink scotch and have a cigar every now and than and he's the one asking for favors. That's why I like both of them so much. Their shows are named after the main character and this is about two men trying to live their lives to the fullest in their own styles.

Would they match? Probably not, but I hope I can ever get to writing their crossover that I have planned for so long now.

MacGyver and Arrow.

Now there's a match made in hell.

A crossover between MacGyver and 24 or with the X-Files would've been cool I guess.

It would make sense to pit mac with someone he could tie with. The Magnum idea is quite good. Even perhaps a Riptide croasover. Imagine Mac and Murray.

Don't get me started... I'll crossover just about anything. I have a bad habit of getting too ambitious with my crossover fanfics. Usually I start stuff I can't finish.

TV wise, I would love to see a MacGyver/Supernatural crossover. Just because it would be not only an interesting to see how MacGyver would handle things, but also what kind of influence he'd have on Sam & Dean. Sam is a very MacGyver-like character in personality, so I could see them getting along rather well.

I've tried to write a crossover for it once, failed miserably though... XD

Having written both, but not together, I think that would be a really difficult mix. How would Mac deal with all the weapons? I don't see him justifying it because the target is dead/demon/creature. And he'd definitely clash with Dean! Interesting...

Phil Sternweis would have to be involved.

Difficult, or a nice challenge? XD

The weapons stance probably wouldn't be that big of an issue. MacGyver can voice his displeasure, but they'll just ignore him. If anything, it would give a good opportunity for Mac to maybe come up with better ways to deal with those enemies, perhaps even humanely. Heck... maybe Phoenix is a modern branch of Men of Letters! lol

The ideas are really endless... and the reason being that MacGyver, as a character, is so versatile.

Mac clashing with Dean would actually be hilarious. I don't think Dean stands a chance though... not with both Sam and Mac teaming up on him. lol Most of the time, Dean doesn't really win against Sam anyway, especially when Sam has a really good point.

There's also the emotional side of the show, where MacGyver would witness just what kind of burden their decisions force them to carry. For instance, take Madison from Heart.... how would Mac react to that situation? Probably a more extreme reaction that he had in Black Rhino.

In all honesty, I think it would be really interesting...

See... now you guys done it... now I'm the mood for some fanfic writing. Anyone want to be my fanfic buddy? XD

You know, I've been thinking of Mac making rock salt bombs all day because of this! I'm halfway through a VS episode, or it just might have happened. How would you work it time-wise, though? Would you not mention the date and just bring them together, or would you make it 2005 so the start of the Winchester adventures, but Mac wouldn't be too old to still be jumping around?

If it were me, I'd go with the latter as I hate things being out of whack, so to speak. (Unless they time travel back to the eighties with the help of Castiel but that would just add to the mayhem! )

You better get writing Jedi!

In this case, I wouldn't even bother with the timeline. It would make the story too convoluted, which would take away from the story itself.

I would generalize the timeline, so... probably Season 3-4 MacGyver meets Dean and Sam in the past five years. Sure, it would throw the timeline out of whack... but sometimes you just need not think about it, and go with it. There are too many times I got hung up on timelines in order to make them work that I lost interest and was unable to finish the story.

I'm the kind of writer that has an idea and I just... write. The story tends to take on a life of it's own after that. So, usually by that point, the timeline is out the window anyway. XD

Still the purpose of defeating an evil spirit is to thwart its intention to harm a living being. The gun just shoots the salt, not a bullet. The intention of the spirits in Supernatural are to harm people regardless of how Mac feels. It would be hard to see the justification that Mac would make over a spiritual entity hell-bent on ending the world, so to speak.

If this was Ghost Whisperer, it would be a different story because ghosts are depicted as suffering spirits that need to see the "light".

Dean and Sam fight fire with fire. That's because they cannot negotiate with their opponents. Making a rock salt bomb would be pointless as it would only pleasure Mac's inner opinions. Unless it actually was to work better than the approach they are currently on, they would just end up discarding it.

Then of course we come to the finances. Dean and Sam don't exactly have steady jobs. They use stolen credit cards for food and accommodation. Mac would definitely not approve of this.

I think Jedi should have a bash! We don't get much MacGyver fan fiction at all now, so it would be cool. If I'm honest, I think I'd lean towards the Knight Rider cross more - it was a favorite of mine back in the day, and I think the two would gel well, as Michael didn't have guns all that often either, if you think about it. Not to mention, no tinkering with the time frame required!

As an interesting note, there is a cool Quantum Leap crossover in the first MacGyverism fanzine. It's extremely short, and the "real" Mac is hardly in it, and yet it works really well!

If the network had done a real crossover, what other shows did CBS have in that era to do it with?

I haven't written anything in years. I think the years with nothing but Mac on my mind are over. But that does not have to mean I can't write.

I've already got a story idea in my head, but I'm not sure how well it would work. I've got a base outline and a start so far.

It's been a while since I wrote anything, so I'm a bit rusty... if I manage to write it, anyone willing to be my beta-reader?

Believe it or not, I've tried to re-watch Knight Rider... I didn't get into it as much as I had liked to. I remember it was another favorite of mine back in the 80's, and I watched reruns in the 90's. MacGyver just seemed to have a more personal impact on me, I suppose. lol

To be fair, Knight Rider isn't the show MacGyver was/is. It was the first show I got REALLY into, though, and I'm afraid it's the show (season 4) that was on at the same time as Mac in the UK - so I didn't get to see Mac when it first aired. I'm sad about that now, as MacGyver was definitely better in a whole host of ways.

KITT definitely made me a car nut, though, and I can see several ways I could get Mac interacting with both Michael and his charge.

I "could" beta/proof read for you, but I'm a Brit, so I'm not sure how good I'd be. I do try to write my own stories in US spelling and grammar as I know the most people reading will be your side the pond, but I'm afraid I do sometimes still slip into Brit! (And sometimes pure gibberish!

What about the Riptide suggestion?

I've never seen Riptide 😲 Did we get it here in the UK?

Not from the UK. But it would work 100% IMO.

Here's the shows opening and theme - One of the best themes ever in my opionion.






And here's a whole episode if you're interested. I think it may have actually only gone for 1 season?

Riptide went on for 3 seasons. When it first aired, it was huge.

It's weird, I don't remember the show at all - except for that helicopter in the credits. So I guess I've seen it at some point, but I have no recognition when.

(As you could probably guess I was gonna say from my name): MacGyver and The A-Team. Because they're my two favorite shows from that era, but also because I think they've got enough similarities and differences to make it interesting.

Similarities; well, they're both Vietnam veterans. They both (partly because of this) have issues with the authorities and especially with the military, police, and intelligence community (even though they've both served there and will still often dabble in that world). They're both suckers for an underdog who spend an enormous amount of time helping people who've fallen through the cracks, the ones that society should have helped but couldn't be bothered to. They're both tinkerers and improvisers, who know how to come up with on-the-fly solutions to the worst problems. And finally, they're both people with (apart from B.A. but in some ways even him) a pretty sunny, laid-back and optimistic approach to life despite having seen so much crap that you'd kind of expect them not to.

A few differences to go with that, though: well, the most obvious one, MacGyver hates guns. The A-Team loves them some guns. That alone's a difference that would probably never be resolved all the way. Another important one: they're on different sides of the law. MacGyver knows not to blindly trust the authorities, he will stand up to them and even go outside the law if he thinks it's necessary, but it's not his default setting and he doesn't particularly like doing it. Whereas the A-Team are not only outlaws (not by choice), but absolutely delight in flashing their @$$ at the law every chance they get, Hannibal especially. They're both Good, but I'd put down MacGyver as Neutral Good in contrast to the A-Team's cheerful Chaotic Good.

So, yeah. That's for my money my all-time favorite Crossover That Never Happened, and if I ever got down to writing fanfic that's probably where I'd start. Have a few ideas, but I'm lazy.

George Olsen, Leonard Mordente, Andy Colson and Pete Thornton all in the same room

You could say the same with Knight Rider. Patricia Mcpherson and Edward Mulhare were both in MacGyver too 😋

This would create a paradox, and the universe as we know it would implode.

I would just need someone to read it over to make sure that the story flows okay and that the characters are in character... those are usually my biggest worries. Normally I wouldn't ask, but none of my friends are interested in reading it before posting. They're not MacGyver fans... lol

I don't mind reading over it. I don't know how good I'd be, but I would certainly try if you want. I have the same issue. I don't have anyone who knows enough Mac to proof read for me, so goofs go right on in he he.