Lisa Woodman The daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Lisa came to MacGyver's aid after he was framed for the attempted assassination of a nation's president. She was kidnapped by one of her father's ex-employees and later developed a drinking problem, for which she has sought counseling.

Lisa Woodman is someone who I don't really have an opinion about so I can't really vote. I like the fact she came to Mac's rescue in Cease Fire and how he helped her in Hearts of Steel. But in Twenty Questions... Twenty Questions is a good episode to show in what world a teenager lives in. Was she worth a comeback after Twenty Questions? I don't know, maybe more matured near the end of the sixth season or so.

I liked Lisa Woodman just fine. She did come to MacGyver's aid in "Cease Fire" and struck up a friendship from that point, as MacGyver also helped her with her family situation and encouraged not to give up on her parents or their marriage. And then he came to her rescue in "Hearts of Steel" and we see that Mr. Woodman learned a lesson of his own about what's most important. And in "Twenty Questions", the show explored the problems of drinking and MacGyver was able to keep Lisa from falling in with a bad crowd.
It was nice for Mac to have a teenage companion on the show for a few episodes. Perhaps the writers thought kids would appreciate seeing someone their age working with MacGyver and learning from him. In any case, it's nice to have a character portrayed by the same actress and appear in 3 episodes. This pus Lisa into an upper tier of recurring characters, along the lines of Mike Kiley and Mama Lorraine (who all had three appearances portrayed by the same person.)
And hey, I liked Mayim Bialik on Blossom and she was great on MacGyver too.

Also, I just thought of something. Lisa's parents would also qualify as recurring characters. Joseph Lambie portrays Eric Woodman in "Hearts of Steel" and "Twenty Questions". (At least that's all he's listed for on IMDB.) But I'm pretty positive both Mr. and Mrs. Woodman showed up briefly at the end of "Cease Fire", though they may have been played by a different actor and actress.
Patrie Allen is listed as portraying Catherine Woodman in "Twenty Questions" - and in fact, she also showed up as Marie Morrison in "Renegade"! More recycling!

I guess I don't mind Lisa in Cease Fire, but she does come across to me as a bit of a whiny brat in Hearts of Steel, which I find rather irritating and can't help thinking she needs a good slap at times.

But I guess that means Mayim Bialik did her job in acting the role, and in fact it would be fair to say that she did a better job of playing the part than many of the early season bimbos and the nature of the story lines she appeared in meant we got some depth to the character, unfortunately that depth showed us a spilt little brat with parents who obviously consider children as an accessory rather than a responsibility. I hate parents like that.

So all in all the character has some depth, but unfortunately the depth is very annoying to me, so only gets an OK vote from me.

I voted good. Not because I like her that much, but because she is a "new" recurring character. Other than Jack or Murdoc.

I love Cease Fire, I like Hearts of Steel and I dislike 20 Questions.

But just because she's someone new I rated her good.

Did you find her obnoxiously annoying in 20 questions?

It's impressive on how she grew on like one year time. In Cease Fire she still had a child like face and in Twenty Questions she sure aged a little. She said she was ninth grader so that must have made her like 14 or 15 in Twenty Questions. So that must make her 12 or 13 in Cease Fire.

But what I truly like about the MacGyver-Lisa relationship is and again he proved this in Cease Fire and Hearts of Steel. MacGyver at least listens to Lisa and he can always talk things over.

In Twenty Questions it seemed he couldn't do that anymore. Than again we've all been in that age Lisa was in. Kiley summed up all the attitudes Lisa had. Mood changes, bad grades, slurred speech after drinking. This was that kind of episode where in something bad had to happen before they realized how big the problem was. To think of it all started with a drinking Lisa and a dead landlady and it ended with Lisa caught in a jeep that was ready to fall in the ocean.
I also liked how they showed the warning signs and the symptoms. Coming home late and what I think that was the most important sign. In both scenes where MacGyver is with the Woodmans each time Catherine takes a glass of whiskey. So Twenty Questions ain't so bad after all but I can understand why some people think Lisa is just a annoying spoiled little brat. And in some way she is but I'm sure even after that whole ordeal she can still count on MacGyver.

I vote good. Lisa was a good tool for the show. Her character developed as she grew up from a lonely schoolgirl to a spoilt brat and then to a troubled teenager. The background to Lisa’s character made all this seem realistic to me. At each step she had different issues that MacGyver attempted to help her or her family with. You would have thought her family would have learnt something in their first 2 encounters with MacGyver but it seemed not. I wonder if they ever got their act together after 20 questions.

I agree. In 20 questions Lisa was an obnoxious brat but I quite liked the way that she turned against MacGyver and thought he was acting like he was so perfect. It showed that MacGyver isn’t infallible and can find himself in situations where he means well but can’t always make things work by saying or doing the right thing. If Lisa hadn’t been nearly killed she would have continued to drink with those older kids. Nothing MacGyver said to her or her parents during the episode seemed to make the situation better.

Lisa Woodman is a good character. She showed up in three episodes that each had a different lesson for her and for the people around her.

In Cease Fire, she is a lonely pre-teen trapped in her pain over her parents pending divorce and her isolation at the boarding school. She internalizes these feelings by declaring that the divorce is "her fault". Lisa'a insecurities are really evident when MacGyver asks her for help and she tells him that she can't because she is no good at doing anything. Mac gives her a little encouragement, she tries and succeeds and in doing so builds her confidence to the point where she can speak up and confront her parents. Girls in this stage of their life are often very vulnerable when they find themselves confronting the twin demons of biology and social constraints. The writers captured this vulnerability and Mayim Bialik did a good job of portraying it.

In Hearts of Steel, Lisa is a little older and a little more confident. In this episode, we get a better feel for her parents, especially her father. Lisa'a attitudes and obnoxiuosness come from her parents, with the stronger influence from her father. He has a level of arrogance that definetely rubs off on Lisa.

In Twenty Questions, Lisa is navigating that new hideous social experiment we call high school. She doesn't see drinking as a problem, since she is blinded by the "coolness factor" of hanging around with seniors. When I was in high school, freshmen served one purpose, to be tormented by seniors for the amusement of other seniors. Lisa uses alcohol to "fit it" and to solve problems. This is not uncommon, especially since we see Lisa's mother with a glass in hand whenever she is stressed or trying to deal with bad news.

This episode was written during the time of increased awareness of teen drinking in the United States and is characteristic of the "issue of the week" flavor of the later episodes of MacGyver. Lisa's interaction with Mac changed in this episode. She no longer sees him as the good guy influence in her life, but rather as an anchor holding her back from having fun with her new friends.It is here too, that we learn why MacGyver doesn't drink. lisa doesn't see anyhting wrong with her drinking, until her actions cost someone their life. True, Lisa is not the one that pushed the maid down the steps, but she was there and gace the other people access to the house. It was not until she jeopardized her own life and MacGyver's that she woke up to reality that she is out of control. It was at this time that her parents also opened their eyes.

This episode felt a lot like one of those public service announcements, but it also makes a nice morality play about doing what is right vs what is easy or popular. The pressures that Lisa faced haven't changed much in the last 20 years. Kids today feel just as much pressure to conform to society's standards as Lisa did. And they use the same crutches, drugs and alcohol, to make it easier. Again, Miyam did a good job with a tough topic. She gave a credible, believable performance as a teen in trouble.

Although I didn't care for her much in Blossom, I thought she was a decent actress and she did a good job on her appearances in MacGyver.

She's good. It was funny when she was dancing in that store in "Hearts of Steel."

Lisa is one of my favorite reoccurring characters. She's very thoughtful in my opinion, for being a spoiled rich kid (she didn't seem to inherit her dad's selfishness or love of money). And I really like seeing MacGyver interact with kids. I hadn't realized she was in only 3 episodes. I know her character didn't appear until season 5 but wish they would've put her in another episode or two.