I love Harry Jackson a lot and John Anderson is a wonderful actor. Even though my own grandpa wasn't exactly like Harry (seems more like my dad), he reminds me of the time we spent together, fishing and all. It's easy to identify to MacGyver as he spends time with his grandpa Harry, it evokes a lot of memories. I absolutely love how he calls Mac as "Bud", because my own grandpa also used to call me with a nickname.

Target MacGyver, Phoenix Under Siege and Passages belong to the best of episodes on my list.

I'm a big fan of 1960 Psycho also and I love this scene between John Anderson and Janet Leigh

I like Harry, even if I don't know exactly why. He seems a grouch, but he's a good heart and loves Mac. I like episodes with him.

What a coincidence: RDA's real grandpa's name was John Anderson, but he wasn't this John Anderson.

I like him too. He reminds me of my grandfather.

A really loveable character. Too bad "passages" was his final episode.

John Anderson stood just over 6'5". Richard Dean Anderson is just under 6'2". Yet in all the MacGyver episodes that John appears in as Harry, it seems that Richard is always at least as tall and sometimes taller than John. This has always puzzled me for years. Anyone else notice this?

According to IMDB he was 6'2", same height as RDA.

People tend to shrink with age too, due to change in posture so that may have attributed to the appearance of height difference in some scenes.

This is true. I'm actually the tallest of my family (5'10"), though my Dad was shorter then me by an inch. He's now 75 years old, and I tower over the poor man.

In a discussion on KateR's forum somebody says MacGyver build a wall around himself due to the early passing of his father and the upbringing of Harry. Then that same person also says that Harry didn't seem nice all the way.

Saying that Harry wasn't nice all the way, is something I don't agree with. We all love the old grouch but it makes me wonder, do you think Harry was nice? Can you describe him as nice?

Yes, he did just leave for years without telling anyone and may have been grumpy but in the way how Mac talks about him, I just can't see Harry not being nice. He taught him everything he knew but I think he and Mac are the same. They don't like to talk about their emotions, because they're hurting over the losses of their loved ones. To be honest, do you think Harry ever got over Celia's death?

Just curious here but hearing someone say that Harry wasn't nice, don't really fit the idea I have of Harry.

I just rewatched Phoenix Under Siege last night and I figured out something rather worrying about Harry. Harry got lost twice in a rather short time span! When he enters Mac's apartment Mac says: "You've been gone for an awful long time." Then later when they're talking in the Phoenix lab Harry says that the reason why he was gone for so long was because he couldn't remember where he was. Mac dismisses it as Harry doesn't know the neighborhood but then Harry tells him he was ploughing last month and couldn't remember his way to the barn after working the land for 20 years. Harry got lost twice in two months time! Once at home and once in L.A. Could you imagine Harry having to find his way back to Mac's apartment in a storm? The scene in the lab is one of my favorite scenes in the episode, it's so heartfelt and especially that moment when Harry opens up about being scared and Mac saying that Harry used to tell him it's a lot worse feeling scared when you're alone and Mac reassures him he's not alone. "You're not alone, Harry." That could get the waterworks going. But after watching this episode for over thirty years now and realizing what Harry is telling Mac about getting lost twice, I find this so worrying actually knowing Harry lives alone by himself on the farm near the woods, feeling alone, isolated and lonely. Sounds like he's better not alone by himself.

Did anyone ever put this together? I never realized that Harry was telling Mac he got lost in L.A. That never got through until now, I only got the part when he said he couldn't find his way back to the barn. It shows that Harry is getting older and seemingly getting confused on his surroundings. Maybe even the first signs of dementia. Harry got lost twice in a matter of weeks!!!

I didn't, no. Very good take!

The show has been quite good for the time about his gruff individualism. They showed some problems with it, and went to lengths to show that was just who he was. But even so yeah, there should have been something better than being alone in the remote wilderness for an old person in the 1980s. All while the type of desert episode has some special appeal to us.

I think Harry was just a old fashioned straight talker due to having a hard life.

In the flashback scenes in Phoenix Under Siege he seems like a normal pleasant Grandpa, playing checkers with young Mac and teaching him stuff. We see him and Mac laughing and joking on the way to the Phoenix building to get the tickets to. Even in Harry's Will he doesn't get angry at Mac when he cheated in the hockey game, he just used it to teach a life lesson, so defiantly wouldn't say he wasn't nice.

They are right about building the wall though. Mac even says something to that effect in an episode. Says something like "save yourself. People that get close to me die."

It was definitely an interesting scenario, with the entire family lost except Harry and Mac. Harry was a typical grandpa from those days, in my experience. They typically kept their feelings and emotions bottled up inside.