That pilot season, I had just booked a series lead on the CBS remake of MacGyver. I had already been planning on going to Scotland so I knew that I’d either be in Scotland celebrating my contract pickup or licking my wounds from a contract cancellation. When the show was picked up but my contract wasn’t…getting off the grid was my way through the scary spaceship with the alien on it.
Getting cancelled was actually not that bad.
I think because everyone got canned, the creative team and all but two of the series regulars, I hadn’t really gotten my hopes up in the first place. Anytime someone congratulated me on the job, I’d shrink and nod and say, “well, it’s not over yet.” I’ve been in this business long enough to know that in this business, the ground is sometimes…not the ground. And maybe because they fired everyone, I felt, at least, I was in good company. Had I been the only one, I probably would have been eating my shame soup in a C rated San Gabriel Valley strip mall cafe with the bathroom that doubles as a chicken coop…and not the beautiful isles of Scotland.
That's always a sign you might be in trouble if your dashboard is on fire... Currently blogging about the MacGyver Reboot on Dashboard On Fire
So after seeing the photo Dashboardonfire posted the other day from the unaired pilot something quite interesting caught my attention......
The way MacGyver is standing in the photo is identical to the stance of the comic MacGyver int his image released by Lee Zlotoff prior to the comic books being released.
It has a very Indiana Jones vibe, I think. I'm assuming it had been his father's or grandfather's place. I think this is the only set photo where we see Joshua Boone (as Mac's best friend and roommate Hunter) and Addison Timlin (as Mickey). Not sure who the Person on the left is.
(I put an overview of the photos on my blog as well.)
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QUOTE (MacGyverOnline @ 22 July 2018 - 10:57 PM)
Looks like the only thing they changed was his name and the actor.
They really didn't have much time to rehaul the Reboot, so I guess they focused on Mac and Jack and then the core Phoenix Team (so Riley, then Thornton) and kinda neglected Mac's best friend. Though considering they had completely new crew and therefore a new Costume Designer, it wasn't necessary to take over the clothing choices of the Unaired Pilot Characters.
Also, Justin looks good in casual clothes or suits. I don't see him having a typical style, though. it's shirts and vests and dress shirts and aloha shirts... I don't remember seeing him in specific, defining pieces (contrary to Jack who always wears band-t-shirts in Season 2).
Funny thing: The way they dressed the roomie in the Unaired Pilot, he kinda doesn't look like he fits into this Indiana-Jones-like living quarters. The leaked character description said that "Gunner" worked as a handy man. Maybe they tweaked the character a bit when they re-named him "Hunter" and started filming. He still seems kinda out of place a bit?
That's always a sign you might be in trouble if your dashboard is on fire... Currently blogging about the MacGyver Reboot on Dashboard On Fire
Funny thing: The way they dressed the roomie in the Unaired Pilot, he kinda doesn't look like he fits into this Indiana-Jones-like living quarters. The leaked character description said that "Gunner" worked as a handy man. Maybe they tweaked the character a bit when they re-named him "Hunter" and started filming. He still seems kinda out of place a bit?
Yes I never really felt like he and MacGyver had the kind of connection best friends should have had.
Jack feels like MacGyver's best friend... Bozer just feels like someone MacGyver works with.
Not really suprising, huh. Pretty much what we had expected, but sort of disappointing all the same how CBS treated the reboot of one of its famous properties.
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Prolific television director David Von Ancken, who also helmed the feature Seraphim Falls, passed away July 26 at his home in Agoura Hills, CA after a two-year battle with aggressive stomach cancer. He was 56.
David Von Ancken directed the Unaired MacGyver Reboot Pilot.
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Ex-Showrunner Peter Lenkov keeps answering fan questions as Instagram stories. This week, he posted some stories about the Unaired MacGyver Pilot; adding some excerpts of the script (presumably the revised version that has been used for filming).
I will probably update my previous blog posts about the Unaired Pilot Script to incorporate the new information about some of the characters. Might take a while, though
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After another deep dive into Vimeo archives, I found a short BtS video of Lucas filming the parachute scene for the Unaired MacGyver pilot (filmed in April 2016). The clip is mostly wind machines and offers only a glimpse of Lucas. (But we take all what we can get about this mysterious pilot, right?)