Target MacGyver

Episode:  010

Production No.: 40191-010

Airdate: 22 December 1985

Opening Gambit Writer: Terry Nation

Opening Gambit Director: Lee H. Katzin

Teleplay: Mike Marvin, Stephen Kandel, & James Schmerer

Story: Mike Marvin

Director: Ernest Pintoff

Nielsen Ratings:  13.2 rating / 21 share / 3rd (49th overall)

OPENING GAMBIT

MacGyver is assigned to find and rescue General Kenney who he finds is being held captive in a house at the edge of a public beach. Once there MacGyver sneaks into the kitchen and sets up a timed distraction of crashing pots and pans to allow him to evacuate the general from the house and then set up a trap to catch the two captors.

EPISODE

After being identified as the saboteur of a Middle Eastern nuclear plant, MacGyver has a hit ordered against him and is ordered to “lay low”. He decides to use this time to visit his estranged grandfather, whom he hasn’t seen for eighteen years and lives in the backwoods of Colorado.

CAST

MACGYVERISMS

Used SAK to pick a door lock.	Set tray with pots and pans sitting on a bag of ice being melted by toaster oven as a timed distraction.
Tipped cooking oil over the kitchen floor so bad guys would slip over.	Used garden hose to trip bad guys as they ran out through door.
Used beach chair to hold both bad guys down while disarming them.	Used reeds stuck bark floating on the lake to look like he and Harry were under the water.
Made blow dart from reeds, stick carved into darts, and anesthetic-like sap from a plant.	Used sharp rock to cut branch.
Made “land mines” from Pine cones and pine pitch.	Used clay and pyrite mixture to make antibiotics for Harry’s wound.
Poured grain dust down a funnel into the room which exploded when lit.	Sawed halfway through roof support so it could be easily

TRIVIA

• This is the first appearance of MacGyver’s only living relative, his grandfather Harry.
• This is the first episode where we get information about MacGyver’s past and family
• We see that Harry also carries a Swiss Army Knife
• MacGyver says that he hasn’t seen his grandfather since he was ten and then observes to Harry that it’s been “sixteen, seventeen, eighteen years” since they last saw each other.
• MacGyver calls his grandfather “Harry.”
• Harry calls MacGyver “Bud.”
• Harry lives on a farm just out of Ouray, Colorado.
• Harry and MacGyver hide from Axminster in a deserted town called Evermore.
• We learn that after MacGyver’s mother died, Harry avoided seeing MacGyver because he didn’t want to be reminded of the loss.
• MacGyver recalls that Harry would take him out to pick a tree for Christmas.
• When he was “about ten” MacGyver made a duck call for Harry, who says it still works well for him.
• MacGyver says that as a kid, he chewed pine pitch “like it was gum”

QUOTES

• Home. Enough is enough. I will not, under any circumstances, for any reason whatsoever answer the phone … probably … again. – MacGyver
• I like to take care of my own messes. – MacGyver
• Big on aliens in Alabama. – MacGyver
  No lie, full of strange people. That’s why I’m goin’ north. Back to see my family for a while. – Guy on bus
  Makes sense. – MacGyver
• I hadn’t seen my grandfather since I was ten. He was all the family I had – and we were strangers. – MacGyver
• Hi. MacGyver here. When you hear the beep, let me know what’s on your mind. – Answering machine message
• What a beautiful part of the world. It has everything but people. – MacGyver
• I never forget a grandfather. – MacGyver
• You haven’t changed. – MacGyer
  Haven’t had to, and I don’t plan to. – Harry
• Still tough as a dirty boot, aren’t ya? – MacGyver
• C’mon, Harry. You’re the one who used to tell me: “you don’t fish for fish, you fish for fishin'”. – MacGyver
• You sure that’ll work? – Harry
  Nope.  – MacGyver
  Bud, you are a comfort – Harry
• When I was a kid, I used to chew pine pitch like it was gum. It tasted alright – but it burned a lot better. – MacGyver
• They’ve been falling for your foolishness; I figured I’d try some of my own. – Harry
• I just hope it’s worth losing that trout. – Harry
• You gotta hit ’em just right! – Harry

NIT-PICKS

• When MacGyver in cutting the tree branch, first he’s sitting up on the branch cutting with one hand then the next shot he is somehow standing behind the branch using both hands.
• When you look at the outside of Harry’s cabin, the fireplace is at the right-hand end of the building, but when we see inside the cabin, the fireplace has magically moved to the opposite and of the cabin.
• Where did MacGyver get the bag from to collect pine cones in?
• MacGyver says he is blowing up a brand new Middle-Eastern nuclear refining plant, but one of the trucks visible in-shoot has a German emblem on it.

FILMING LOCATIONS

Beach House Private Home 25036 Malibu Road, Malibu, CA.	Harry’s Cabin Building no longer exists Century Motorway, Malibu Creek State Park, CA
Fishing spot Century Dam Lake, Malibu Creek State Park, California	Jeep Scene Crags Road, Malibu Creek State Park, California
Landmine scene Box Canyon Box Canyon, Ventura, CA	Evermore Town Bell Location Ranch (no longer exists) Box Canyon, Ventura, CA