I just noticed an interesting similarity between Pete and MacGyver's homes

They both have a bookshelves stocked with lots books.

This raises a few questions...

Are these books reference type books, encyclopedias and such?

Does this point to a similarity, in both men being intellectuals?

Did the producers etc deliberately choose to dress the sets this way to show that both men are similar, or was it done simply to make the houses look lived in?

Has anyone ever stopped to think what similarities Pete and MacGyver have?

With their line of work I don't know if they got much time to read. Perhaps on the plane. I think they are like encyclopedia's.
However Pete looks like the kind of guy that love to read old detective-thrillers like Agatha Christie or Sherlock Holmes. Where the butler always did it.
MacGyver on the other hand likes to read books about science, nature and history I think. He's been on so many adventures like Legend of the Holy Rose, The Treasure of Manco and Eye of Osiris. Maybe he wasn't much up to his Egyptology in Passages but I'm sure he has a big knowledge of his world history. And he support kids into reading those books (The Challenge).

They both got their own taste. If they got similarities: MacGyver likes doing many things Pete doesn't and they like doing things, they both like. I think it was said in Early Retirement that Mac said Pete's doesn't like camping but he did once in The Survivors because it was part of the assignment. And I think it was fishing too. Something MacGyver likes doing as well (Last Stand, Target MacGyver, Birthday) But on that matter Pete seemed to enjoy it in Jack in the Box and Unfinished Business. Maybe something he learned to enjoy. But they both like enjoying gulf (Countdown)

Probably to make to houses looked lived in. They only showed Pete's place once. If they showed it more I'd say they delibrately choose to dress it that way.

Actually not really. I think they just fill in each others gaps.
Or maybe they don't and that's what's making their friendship so special.

Actually that was a code to get Pete on a separate comms-line. Pete knew there was something wrong because MacGyver hates Golf.

He even says something along the lines of "MacGyver, whats wrong?.. You hate Golf."

I think the books where placed there to make the home look lived in. I actually really couldn't imagine Pete having much time for books as he worked just as hard as MacGyver (staying after hours at the office) I think macguver would be more likely to read but I believe he is too busy for it as well.

The episode where I most noticed the similarites between Mac and Pete was 'The Road Not Taken'.

Both men had unrequited relationships with a 'woman of God'.
Both men are single (Pete divorced)
Both men enjoy a particular sport to distraction (Mac Hockey, Pete Golf)
Both men have worked for DSX and now work for the Phoenix Foundation.

Other characteristics and behaviours set them widely apart
Pete drinks and smokes, Mac doesn't.
Pete uses guns, Mac hates them
Mac eats healthfood, Pete *thinks* he hates it (until he tastes whipped bean curd)
Pete wears a tie, Mac can't stand them

There are more... I can't find my notebook *looks under the couch* I'll remember more later when I should be working

Good observation, Rock!

DXS.

Oh, right.

He only smokes in the Pilot ep as Andy Colson, but as far as I recollect not as Pete. Neither does he drinks. Again as far as I can recollect. I can hear Pete say: 'Boy, I need a drink.' But that doesn't mean he really got to it. From all peoples in MacGyver direct environment I only remember Jack drinking (because he needed it)

and I was thinking as I typed it: "Don't misspell DXS!

I guess it was the cigarette incident in 'Blind Faith' when Mr Badguy Agent Stams dumped the cigarettes on the floor when they were staging the 'accident' in the plane hanger. It seemed to imply that Pete used to have the habit, but in truth, it was Colsen who smoked. Props to MGod.

Aw, com'on and give me the drinking! In 'The Eraser' Pete comes to Mac's apartment and says "I could use a drink". In 'Out in the Cold' he tells Mac to meet him in the lodge and they'd have 'a toddy for the body'. Where I come from, a Hot Toddy is made with booze.

They don't show Pete drinking alcohol... but they don't show him using the bathroom, either...

Thank God for that. However I can picture a scene with Mac and Pete doing number 1 with their backs to the camera, looking up and discussing an assignment.

That's the way to build realism into the stories!
number 1 maybe- I don't think anyone needs to see number 2

Ah- hem....
getting back on topic-

I don't know if anyone considers this "canon" as such, but if anyone's interested Mark Daniel's "MacGyver on Ice" book gives a description of MacGyver's place with some of the books he owns.

Here's a list, taken from the book's description.


The Bible

Livy

Much-fingered copy of Vegetius on "Preparations for a General Engagement" on a table with cup and saucer and coffeepot

Thurber

Elizabeth David on baking bread

a history of the movies

an assortment of nineteenth century travel books

five or six big files with incomprehensible titles, presumably about chemistry.



(Sounds about right.)

They both got the same "junk"

What the hell kind of argument is that??

Going by that logic we can say that Pete was a Dentist, or a Jewel thief..or anything. Hey, we never saw any evidence of it.. but then we never saw him use the toilet either so it must be true.

We have no evidence that your a murderer.. but then we have no evidence that you use the bathroom either.. which means you must do both??

I would imagine that MacGyver probably has some western novels. He enjoys western movies, so I can see him extending the genre into the novels. He probably also has books on sports (hockey mostly), history, and science books. My mother has a degree in biology, and she has a ton of reference books and old textbooks on the subject, as well as the other sciences (geology, zoology, chemistry, physics). MacGyver's books probably contain some of the same things (old college chemistry textbooks, for example). I could see Pete also enjoying western novels and sports books (mostly on golf instead of hockey).

I don't know how similar the two men are. I always imagined Pete as a Dr. Watson figure to MacGyver's Sherlock Holmes. They almost always characterize Watson as an idiot, but he's not. He plays the role of the curious person who wants to know, and Holmes investigates to provide him with that answer. Watson, in other words, is like the intelligent, probing reader of the mysteries. I see Pete functioning in the same role. He represents us, the viewers, in some sense. He's an intelligent, curious person who justs wants to know. MacGyver helps him understand.

You can say that. Pete always always asks a question during a briefing or a conversation.

For example.
'There's a problem with his eyes.'
'His eyes?'
From The Negotiator or Collison Course. And the usual 'what's this' and 'what's that?' questions.

It's almost in every episode that he asks a question.

I can see that. Pete as Dr. Watson to MacGyver as Sherlock Holmes. That's pretty good. Actually, there is a pretty neat scene from "Kill Zone" where Pete catches on to MacGyver's idea about using freon from the fridge to freeze and seal the leak- and MacGyver nodding approvingly- that was pretty cool to show Pete "getting it" sometimes and not always totally in the dark!

No only in that episode but also, for example in the one with the electromagnetic pulse generator, when MacGyver is out of ideas, it is Pete that actually gets Mac's head rolling...

What the hell kind of argument is that??

Going by that logic we can say that Pete was a Dentist, or a Jewel thief..or anything. Hey, we never saw any evidence of it.. but then we never saw him use the toilet either so it must be true.

We have no evidence that your a murderer.. but then we have no evidence that you use the bathroom either.. which means you must do both??

I never saw Pete in a dentist's office or telling anyone to floss.
I never saw him kill a person or hide a body.
I DID see him make a reference to drink on two occasions.

I think that gives me reasonable doubt to suggest that he might be a person who takes an infrequent libation.

That's the way to build realism into the stories!
number 1 maybe- I don't think anyone needs to see number 2

or hear it as well

Here's the similiarities I see: though both Mac and Pete are hard-boiled operative types (we definitely see that on more than one occasion!) they're also both deeply compassionate; very bright (off the scale, I would say!); and curious about the world around them. I can see both of them reading a little of everything when they have the opportunity: history, novels, science, etc.

But you never saw him use the bathroom either.

Unless he was making a joke to emphasize that he's had a rough day.

I know I've said the same thing on occasion when things have been going wrong. Everything starts turning to custard and I'll say "Man. I need a drink", even though I don't actually drink. It's just a light hearted way of showing that my day isn't going how I would like.