Well then why was she still "with" him in a later episode thinking they should move to the next level?

Personally speaking, I would have been outraged if Maria had stayed on any longer as Mac's girlfriend. There are other characters he cared deeply about who would have made better long term prospects. With Maria, it seemed to be only about sex. He didn't seem to have any romantic feelings for her. MacGyver, contrary to popular assumption isn't afraid of letting a woman get close to him and of expressing deep feelings for her (Lisa the Soviet agent, Deborah the near nun, Deborah the negotiator, what's her name from 'Flame's End', maybe even Kate Malloy). The fact that he didn't want to commit to Maria doesn't show that he's afraid of commitment but, rather, that he didn't want to commit to her.

I liked Nikki Carpenter, but not as a match for MacGyver

Mac said that he did want to talk about commitment with Maria, but that it was a difficult topic for him.

Remember when he said "Its hard for me to talk about."

Maria told him to take her home and he stopped her and said "But I will.. I want to talk about it."

Okay, I'm speaking here as a woman with a woman's intuition.

MacGyver has clearly shown that he does not have a problem with commitment with the right woman. Ergo, in the case of Maria, he has a problem with her and he doesn't know how to let her off easy.

Just my 2 cents (Canadian).

Again, speaking from a woman's POV. :-)

It's easier for Mac to say 'I'm afraid of commitment' than to say 'I'm afraid of commitment to you' or 'gee, I just got over a bad breakup because my girlfriend decided to be nun/died (or so I thought)/turned out to be an assassin/got pregnant and didn't want to tell me (etc.) and I'm not ready for anything serious right now.' It also saves face--he takes the 'blame' for not being in a committed relationship so he doesn't have to look like a 'loser' for not being able to hang on to the women he loved and would have like to commit to.

I know MG Nikki and Mac to me seamed more like a Brother/ Sister feel to them not two people that would want to date.

Man talking. Woman watching. No way things are viewed the same way.

Besides, it's not my fault that the writers keep on contradicting themselves.

I know MG Nikki and Mac to me seamed more like a Brother/ Sister feel to them not two people that would want to date.

I think it was more like that with Penny Parker. That he has to act as a big brother.
With Nikki...? maybe yes and no at least she was more mature.

MG Mac and Nikki's interaction remind me of mine and my"big brothers" (there no blood between us) Trevor. That is way I say they have a brother sister relationship.

What was it Patty and Selma said after watching a MacGyver episode? "RDA will be in my dreams tonight" Give Mac a steady girlfriend and you kill that fantasy for women everywhere.

I have to admit something.

I never took to any of the old or new girlfriends they tried to pair Mac with.
I don't know if it was the actress or the character but I never felt that they
found the 'right' one for him.
And I kind of wished they had found the 'right' one for him.

That's just my opinion anyway.

Why does there have to be a fantasy?

Why can't women just watch it for entertainment, instead of a drool-fest?

I'm a woman and I couldn't agree with you more!

It drives me nuts that characters from the shows I watch aren't allowed to have long lasting relationships. It gets to be pretty silly after a while.

Mac

Does anyone think that MacGyver needed a girlfriend who required saving?

That was the problem with Nikki perhaps, she was too 'with it' as opposed to someone like Penny Parker who I know most of you don't like, but at least was an interesting character who added drama and some romantic interest (some sexual tension definitely existed between the two of them in my opinion).

While I was watching through my Season 3 DVD's for the first time I felt something for Nikki. It was like she was the one for him. They should've left her in the series.

I agree, MacGod! Nikki was one of only two female characters I saw who were strong enough (physically and otherwise) and smart enough to keep up with Mac, though I'm not sure if a romantic relationship would have worked between them. The other character who could keep up with Mac was Mike Forrester. I wish they'd kept BOTH Nikki and Mike around, Mike as Mac's girlfriend, Nikki as his close but platonic female friend and sometimes sidekick. That would have been fun to watch. And maybe I'm way off, but I have a feeling that Nikki and Mike would have understood each other and gotten along just fine.

Ok I am a Christian, a woman,and a happily married one who loves my husband, so I can say this with integrity: let's be very clear: I never had a problem with Mac dating one woman--I had more problem with him dating an amount of women so large that it was hard at times to keep track of. I understood his fear of commitment stemming from the fear that they would die, but to have the women that he falls for (when he finally does fall in love) be either KGB or Stasi or a hired killer got old. I liked Nikki and I think they could have done a lot with her character, building a friendship between Mac and Nikki (like Jack O'Neill and Samantha Carter) over time. We never learned very much about Kate Malloy except she was pregnant with Sam when she left him and then was killed when Sam was 9--again my point. Then there's Debra Easton who I liked---and while I understand her decision to stay with a commitment that she made--I felt that the melodrama surrounding this issue was overused to keep the series going. Moreover I think the drool fest that some single women have with RDA and MacGyver (outside f enjoyment of the show, and fanfiction reading and writing) is just plain stupid. It's ok to notice, but come on........

Fanfiction is great!!!! You can play with all of the characters, not only did I create a woman for MacGyver, I also created one within my epic for Craig Bannister!! 641 pages so far!!

See, I really wouldn't have cared if Mac was a married man. It's not him being alone that matters but his skills. Of course the lonely hero concept might sound a lot better than the married one. Look at what happened to Jack Bauer's family.

When I started writing I figured Mac, Maria Romburg and Sam would be a great family. I stepped down of that and replaced Maria with Nikki Carpenter. She's a better party for him.

THANK YOU!!! (both about Mac's skills being important and that Nikki would be better suited to him) Mac's compassion are character are also of vast importance, but I wouldn't have thought less of him for being married or getting married to the right person for him.

Ok, I drool over Mac, I admit it. I'm a 31 year old woman whose been in love with him since I was little.
BUT I still love the show. And I watch it for the integrity of the show in addition to loving Mac.
I am OK with him having a girlfriend and always have been so long as it's the right woman. I just hated most of the women who were cast on the show.
Nikki I would have been OK with. The other women on the show just weren't up to her caliber in my opinion. I think it would have been great had they started something there, as long as it didn't take over the show.

I'm actually glad MacGyver was single because I don't think it would have been the same show if he had a partner waiting for him at home all the time.

Definitely--the best agents work solo.

One of the strong character features of MacGyver (and one which particularly "spoke" to me in my teens) was that he was a loner and very much his own person.

That aspect would have been lost if he had an ongoing partnership with someone.

Adventure and Romance is like chocolate and peanut butter...

... two great things that go great together!

Having a lil' wife at home would have changed MacGyver's entire dynamic. He would have hardly been out daring his life and dangling from helicopters if he'd had a family life.

I like the fact that MacGyver has many girlfriends (even if half of them are psycho ) it isn't his lovelife that interests me, it is the way he interacts with people. And things.

As one of the drooling horde, I'd like to defend myself by saying this: As much as I love (or abhor) any of the romantic interests that MacGyver had over the course of the series, I would never have actually protested MacGyver's involvement with a certain woman. I am aware that I am not in control of a TV hero's life or his choices.

(That is what fan-fiction is for!)

If the writers of this TV series decided that they wanted to cultivate their rabid female fan-base by keeping Mac 'on the move' romantically, then I figure it was a very astute judgment on their part. Still, I would have like to seen him find a love that he could hold on to. Literature has implanted in my mind that the ultimate happiness can be found in One True Love... I would have liked to see MacGyver have that.

On the other hand... reality check!

She can always come along too but the same goes for Magnum actually too. And if they are married either they die (24 and various other examples) or divorce (The Shield)

On some occasions it works, look at The Mummy Returns and Indiana Jones.

Yep.

If there's one thing I really can't stand is an overworried wife saying to be careful all the time or always saying no if you have to go again or asking if it's not dangerous or is it safe? Saying or asking it once is enough to realize she's worried about you.

That's why I always say if you have a job where your life is at stake, never get married. I don't mind but it's better you don't. Or marry someone who's got the character of Nikki.

The marriage dynamic does work in some cases. In the second half of my story, the Mac novel (now at 643 pages) it is set from 1996-2000 (the first part is in between seasons 6 and 7, and from 1992-1996) Mac is in his late forties, and getting a little too old to be a troubleshooter. Plus the heroine in the story who becomes Mac's wife in the middle of the 2nd half, joins the Phoenix Foundation, (she's like a female MacGyver) so it is possible. No having Mac be married from 1985-1992 is improbable, but creating the 8 years following the end of season 6 was fun. I had to create a strong woman though who could match Mac in smarts, looks, courage and character. I also wanted to do lots more with Nikki, Jack, Pete, Bannister, Murphy and yes Penny (who is a problem in the start of the relationship--because yeah I agree Mac is not interested in her, but what if she was interested in him and came onto him while he was dating someone). But there's lots in between. Mac meets her on page 10 and they get married on page 500+? Lots of time to get to know her and for them to suffer (melodrama).
Plus I created a whole slew of other characters and developed them real thoroughly which is no small task.

Don't you think it's time sharing with us?

As far as Mac’s girlfriends went: I never had a problem with the serial relationships (although the growing roster of ex-girlfriends became rather silly). In the TV-verse of the day, it was all but impossible to add an ongoing relationship into an established series. Certainly Mac’s amours were nothing on the babe-a-week model of shows such as Star Trek (yes, I know, different decade; same Hollywood).

I did have a major problem with the relationship with Nikki: I found it blatantly contrived. Lo, the executives on high declared, “Moonlighting has great ratings, therefore we shall throw in a smart, beautiful woman, and MacGyver will bicker with her constantly, and everyone will love it.” Not.

I dislike bickering: I think it’s usually very poor storytelling. It’s a poor means for revealing character, a poor means for advancing plot, a poor means for communicating sexual tension. Bickering shows people at their worst and most petty. Shakespeare pulled it off in its quintessential form with Beatrice and Benedick, and made it work – and it’s been copied badly thousands of times since then, by thousands of writers who, simply put, aren’t Shakespeare. It’s a cheap staple of cheap romance novels.

One of the many things I love in MacGyver is the positive energy. Bickering is negative energy. Ongoing bickering that’s externally mandated purely for its own sake is lousy plot mechanics. I liked Nikki best when they let her be a consistent character and backed off on the idea that she and Mac were supposed to be imitating Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd; and that wasn’t nearly often enough. She could have been an interesting character if they hadn’t felt obliged to make her a type.

I agree, MacBeth. If Nikki had just been a co-worker and friend, and they didn't fight all of the time, it would have been best.
Liz, are you going to let us read the fanfic? I'm dying to!

Well said, 'Beth!

Well, you can't always like each other but sometimes that has to grow first. If Nikki was in the fourth season, I think their bickering would've lessened and that already seemed like the case in The Negotiator.

I may let you read it when I get it done (whenever that is).

My husband is earnestly waiting for that day, and I have been working on it for 3 years, first writing it in notebooks, then in the computer. My husband is a strong wonderful man, but at times I have to break fromthe kids, the house, this book and focus on him. I got him liking Stargate SG1, but he is not a MacGyver fan, which is ok; I am not a die hard football fan and he is. Chicago Bears!!

When I get the story done and I am happy with it, I may consider it. Right now this is one thing that I have that is just for me. Even watching MacGyver is not just for me--my kids love it--which I am glad!!My 1 year old son jumps up and down during the theme music!!!

Let's see the women:

Confirmed:
Debra Easton (Road Not Taken)
Lisa Kohler (Lost Love)
Kate Malloy in 1972 (the Stringer)
Deborah
Maria
Karen in college (the Endangered)
Amy Austin in college (Flames End)
Ellen Stewart in high school (Jerico Games) I don't think that he slept with her.

And then onenighters quite possibly: Kate Connelly in the Gauntlet, Chris Rhodes in the Heist, in the past the Russian woman in Gold Rush

The I hope not category: women we either liked as Mac's friends and hope to heck that he didn't sleep with because that would be bad or weird, or women that were bad girls:

Friends: Mike Forrester, Kate Murphy, Penny Parker, then new friends like the defector woman, Victoria in the Enemy Wthin the most likely that he didn't was Nikki at that stage, too bad they didn't develop it more. Fanfiction rocks!!

Bad girls: Natalia in Trail to Doomsday. If you haven't seen it, you can watch the tv movies on youtube.

Which is why his relationship with Kate Malloy shouldn't come as a shock to anyone. Mac's a single, straight, vigorus, healthy man. I would have liked to see him a relationship but this is the way the scripts and storyline was written