The 2021 news of the reboot cancellation hit its fans hard. It had, after all, continued to win its Friday night timeslot for the entirety of its 5 season run and a sixth season seemed almost guaranteed. However, the cancellation had an after-effect that would surprise everyone –
its fans united to fight to get the show back in an inspiring display of unity and devotion. The ‘Save MacGyver’ movement was born with billboard advertising in various locations including Times Square New York and LA, a paperclip mail-in campaign to CBS with hundreds of thousands of paperclips being sent, and an aggressive Twitter promotion to get the #SaveMacGyver hashtag trending. They also started a GoFundMe charity to raise money for the Cancer Research Institute (which got the backing of Lee Zlotoff) and organized a virtual MacGyver Con which had cast and crew members including showrunners, writers, stunt actors, podcasters and some of the main cast actors join in via video calls to chat with fans and answer questions with the $5,500 USD raised all going to charity. The movement was an awesome show of resolve from the fans and although it ultimately failed, it did put MacGyver back in the public eye through news reports on TV generated by the billboards popping up around the country.
Later in the year, fans of the original got a stunning surprise – CBS had released the entire series in their own Bluray box-set – and had done it in style with each season having its own case decorated with the original DVD seasons artwork instead of the bland offering we got with the DVD box-set – and to make it even better, the set was region-free and provided worldwide shipping so it could be purchased and played anywhere in the world. Fans finally had the whole series in an HD package that reflected the value they placed on the show. Despite how good the set looked there were still some problems though – there were still no extras, the two movies were not HD, and most notably, no language selections. These omissions caused some fans to hold off on purchasing while they wait to see what the German Koch Films set will deliver in their promised extras – despite still not having any release date for that set.
Other surprise news came from Lee Zlotoff who announced the development of a MacGyver Musical which would see the lead role of MacGyver picked from audience members each night via a short singing contest from which the audience voted a winner to play the role that night.
The show premiered in 2022 at the prestigious Stages Theater in Houston, Texas where its 5-week run received rave reviews, standing ovations, and sell-out crowds for almost every performance. The success of the show led to a concept album being recorded which is due to be released in the fall of 2022. As with the show, the character of MacGyver was chosen by a singing competition with each competitor asked to send in a video of their best singing performance which was then voted on by the public.
Our latest “official” merchandise item was released in May of 2022 in the form of Greenlight’s latest addition to the MacGyver car collection – the 1986 Jeep Cherokee Wagoneer seen in the Log Jam episode. This was 
released with no fanfare at all and was only discovered when collectors started mentioning it on social media. The use of this vehicle raised some questions for fans as it was only seen in one episode and was clearly just a repackaging of a stock item by Greenlight. However, we do see MacGyver driving both a classic Wagoneer and a Cherokee (of which the 86 Wagoneer is a combination) in season 1 so even though it’s a bit of a stretch we can forgive the indiscretion and be happy to have another collectible item.
It’s hard to say what we’ll see next for MacGyver fans but we do have 2 more books, the Koch Bluray set, and the Musical album all yet to be released and who knows what else will pop up to surprise, delight, or dismay us. Regardless of what happens next, we can say for sure that MacGyver is still seen as profitable for both owners due to its continued popularity which means they will continue to look for ways to capitalize on that popularity, and that can only be a good thing for the fans.
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