Bushmaster

Episode:  041 (S2.E19)

Production  No.: 40192-041

Airdate: 23 March 1987

Writer: Rob Hedden

Director: Don Chaffey

Nielsen Ratings:   15.5 rating / 23 share / 3rd (35th for the week)

PLOT

When MacGyver is sent to Latin America to rescue a pilot on trial for being a spy, he learns too late that the pilot’s daughter has followed him there.

CAST

MACGYVERISMS

• Threw dirt in fan so it sprayed in the face of bad guy as distraction.
• Tied string to rat so it would pull the string through drain pipe.
• Used shoe string, stick rock and piece of paper to make time delay to make rifle fire by itself.
• Used Freon to shatter cell lock
• Put egg whites in radiator to plug holes
• Put tear gas and bullets found in Kelly’s bag into partially full gas can as explosive to stop the pursuing Jeeps.
• Dragged metal bar on rail track to light rolled up piece of paper as a fuse.

TRIVIA

• The flag we see in this episode has been the Peruvian national flag since 1950.
• The bridge MacGyver and co cross at the end of the episode is the same bridge used in The Lost Boys.
• The “egg whites to fix the radiator” MacGyverism used in this show was sent in by a viewer in response to a contest run by the producers. This was the only MacGyverism used from the contest.

QUOTES

• Pete: you’re defenseless out here.
  MacGyver: No, just weaponless.
• Pete: There it is. There’s your rescue team.  (Pete pointing to MacGyver)
• Moore: What are you doing here?
  Kelly: Relax. I’m just leavin’.
  (as Kelly jumps out of the plane)
• Kelly: I figured, “What would Dad do?”
  MacGyver: He’s quite a guy, huh.
  Kelly: I’ll never be that great, for sure.
  MacGyver (after a pause): Do you have to be?
• Kelly: I guess I’m his daughter and his son.
  MacGyver: Which one of you is here to rescue him?
• MacGyver: She lost her passport. She was scared; that’s why she was hiding.
  Berbero: Let me see. Tear gas. Mini-flares. Ammunition. Everything a tourist needs . . . It seems you have good reason to be scared.
• Raoul: It was my understanding you were coming alone.
  MacGyver: Mine too.
• Kelly: You don’t understand, MacGyver. I want to show him that I can be just like . . . just like . . .
  MacGyver: A son? Did he say that to you? That he wanted a son?
  Kelly: He didn’t have to.
  MacGyver: That’s an awful lot to assume, isn’t it?
• Joe: Hey, come on, MacGyver. You’re not going to catch that rat. We’ve been at it for hours.
  MacGyver: Well, look at it this way: he’s gettin’ just as tired as we are.
• Joe: Do you think there’s enough freon to freeze the lock?
  MacGyver: I’ll tell you when it’s empty.
• MacGyver: There are times you can’t do a job all by yourself. What I needed was a little help from the locals . . .local chickens, that is.

NIT-PICKS

• The parachutes of Mac and Kelly both opened as they jumped out of the airplane. This is normal procedure if they were connected to a static line, which deploys the chute at a predetermined distance from the plane. However, neither one of them were attached to a static line.
• In the scenes along the railway tracks. You can see lots of pylons and power lines in the background. Looks more like the power supply to a city, than the middle of a Central American country side.
• The rat with the string tied around it was clearly a trained rat. A wild rat would have attacked anyone trying to hold it.
• when the jeep crashes near the train bridge you can briefly see that it’s a hollow shell.
• In one scene of Mac and co driving alone the train tracks you can see the bridge they are meant to be heading for behind them (they’re driving away from it).
• Freon is not the same as liquid nitrogen, it would NOT get anywhere near cold enough to break metal

FILMING LOCATIONS

Church Veluzat Motion Picture Ranch Forest Rte 5N28, Santa Clarita, CA	Jeep Location Veluzat Motion Picture Ranch Forest Rte 5N28, Santa Clarita, CA
Train Bridge The Lost Boys Bridge Santa Clarita, CA