Young MacGyver

Young MacGyver was a planned spin-off of the MacGyver TV show. The story would follow the exploits of the original Angus MacGyver’s nephew, Clay, as he followed in his uncles footsteps working assignments for the Phoenix Foundation.

The show was to be produced by Henry Winkler/John Rich Productions and Paramount Network Productions for Warner Brothers and was scheduled to start in the fall of 2003. The pilot episode was filmed, but never aired and the show was subsequently dropped before production had started.

The show has been meet with harsh criticism from fans of the original ‘MacGyver’ series over the years much of which is aimed at the protagonist being the nephew of Angus MacGyver when it was made very clear throughout the 7 years of the original show that MacGyver was an only child and had no known living relatives.

SHOW CREDITS

Directed by
Stephen Herek

Writing credits
Samuel Baum……… writer

Cast
Jared Padalecki…… Clay MacGyver
Alan Loayza………..
Lee Burns…………… Firefighter
Tracey McCall…….. Tracy
Ron Canada………… The General
Dominic Golden…… Luke
Kiele Sanchez……… Taylor

Produced by
Stephen Downing… executive producer
John Rich…………… executive producer
Henry Winkler…….. executive producer

Cinematography by
John Newby

Casting by
Lynda Gordon
Judy Taylor

Production Design by
Stephen Storer

Set Decoration by
William Vail

Costume Design by
Rob Saduski

Art Department
Richard Baum    ….     on-set dresser

Sound Department
Brian Harman    ….     sound re-recording mixer
Scott C. Kolden    …. supervising sound editor
Mark Relyea    ….      supervising sound editor
David John West    ….sound re-recording mixer

Visual Effects by
Wendy Allen    ….     visual effects production assistant
Brian Obee    ….       visual effects
Helena Packer    ….  visual effects supervisor
Mark A. Shelton  …  visual effects coordinator
Robert Skotak  ….    visual effects
Dale Tanguay    ….    miniature effects technician

Stunts
Jeff Sanders    ….     stunts

Other crew
Michael Ambrose   ….     gaffer: second unit
Dwayne Barr    ….           dolly grip
Jeff Bova    ….                 driver
Michelle Calderon   ….   casting assistant
Michael Chambliss    ….  remote head technician
Michael Gerald    ….       stand-in
Stephen B. Martinez  …  best boy grip
Joe McLaughlin    ….      production accountant
Errol Reichow    ….        location manager
Jeffrey Shepherd    ….     key assistant location manager
R. Michael Stringer    …. key grip
Sophia Tapia    ….           payroll accountant
Kim Thio    ….                set medic
Gary Katsuya Ushino … first assistant camera: “b” camera
Gary Katsuya Ushino…. steadicam assistant
Jason Zakrzewski    ….  second assistant camera: “a” camera

Music 
Various …………………. Hate To Say I Told You So
U2 ………………………… Zoo Station

NEWS ARTICLES

Meet Hollywood’s New It Guy

TV Guide – Tuesday, April 1, 2003
by: Ben Katner

Out of Harvard for just five years, playwright Samuel Baum already has two series in the works — and, just for good measure, a feature film, too. First up for the scribe — a handsome palooka who looks like he ought to be auditioning to play bashful hunks on Aaron Spelling soaps — is the WB’s youthful MacGyver update, with Gilmore Girls sweetheart Jared Padalecki as Clay, the nephew of Richard Dean Anderson’s character from ABC’s 1985-92 hit, and original executive producer Henry Winkler on board once again. “It’s been an excruciating writing process for me,” Baum tells TV Guide with a laugh, “because I, of course, have to try all these [makeshift gadgets and] MacGyverisms out before I write them. I’ve actually blown off every finger on both hands rigging all the things that Clay uses.” Also on Baum’s drawing board is Hometown, an NBC/PAX dramedy about a young politician who is forced to share quarters with his incorrigible grandmother after she’s kicked out of her retirement community for “gross misbehavior.” “There aren’t as many explosions in this show,” its creator says, tongue in cheek, “but by Season Four, whoa — huge action!” All kidding aside, if Baum’s wit alone doesn’t put Hometown on the map, he could always call on old friends to provide guest-star power: The sometime actor has shared the stage with the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke. For the moment, though, Baum’s head is still spinning from the whirlwind of activity that followed the optioning of his first play, Breakfast All Day (think a modern-day Diner), by the suits behind the sexy indie sleeper Kissing Jessica Stein. “I moved out to L.A., and five months later,” marvels the native New Yorker, “I was writing MacGyver and working with the Fonz!” Can a photo op with Michelle Pfeiffer be far behind?

Dushku, Padalecki to Star in Pilots

ZAP2IT.com – Tue, Feb 25, 2003 11:45 AM PDT Los Angeles

The good news for fans of Eliza Dushku and Jared Padalecki is that they might have regular roles on TV come fall. They just might not be on the shows where viewers are accustomed to seeing them. Dushku, who’s played rogue vampire slayer Faith on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and its spinoff, “Angel,” has agreed to star in an untitled drama pilot for FOX. Padalecki, Dean on “Gilmore Girls,” has taken the title role in The WB’s “MacGyver” pilot, according to The Hollywood Reporter. John Feldman, creator of the FOX pilot, says he had Dushku in mind when writing his lead character, a young woman who discovers she can go back in time and relive a day in order to save lives. “Onscreen and off, she is smart, strong, beautiful and embodies all the characteristics that are imperative to the character,” Feldman says. Dushku will play Faith on three episodes of “Angel” beginning Wednesday, March 5, and is also slated to appear in several “Buffy” episodes later this season. There has been talk of a possible Faith spinoff for UPN, but it apparently has yet to advance past the talking stage. Padalecki, meanwhile, is staying in The WB fold with “MacGyver,” an update of the 1980s series. He will play the nephew of the original MacGyver — played by Richard Dean Anderson on the ABC show — who’s brought into his uncle’s Phoenix Foundation, a think tank/crime-fighting organization.

Coming to the WB: ‘Young MacGyver’

CNN.com – Thursday, October 17, 2002 9:17 am (EDT)
(Reuters)

The man who can short-circuit a nuclear missile with a paper clip and stop an acid leak with a candy bar is back — but this time in the guise of “Young MacGyver.” The WB has made a production commitment with producer Paramount Network Television to pick up a new version of the action drama “MacGyver.” But the new version of the series will focus on MacGyver’s nephew. The original series starred Richard Dean Anderson and ran from September 1985 to August 1992. The WB is a unit of AOL Time Warner, as is CNN. “Young MacGyver” will follow the twentysomething hero as he leaves school and winds up joining the Phoenix Foundation — the good-guy organization his uncle belonged to — on a lark. Once there, he discovers that he’s incredibly adept at stepping into Uncle MacGyver’s shoes. “Our MacGyver will be a little more irreverent than the original,” said Carolyn Bernstein, senior VP of drama development at the WB. “It will have a lot in terms of the same elements of the original series, but with a brand-new cast of characters and updated for present day,” WB and Paramount plan to start casting for the new “Young MacGyver” shortly. It is targeted for a 2003 bow. The original “MacGyver” was the last show to pop a solid number for ABC in the pre-“Monday Night Football” time slot. Indeed, Paramount first approached ABC about the “Young MacGyver” project, but the network passed. “Young MacGyver” comes on the heels of another franchise that the WB reinvented with a young slant — the teenage Superman of “Smallville.” “We would never look a gift horse in the mouth, if given a familiar, adored franchise that came our way and we could age down to make it appealing to our audience,” Bernstein said.