Who do you think was the best co-star and why?

That's a tough one. They're all good. Just to put them in order.
John Anderson (he's his grandpa and the first one that was introduced so no wonder he deserved the first place, plus he learned MacGyver everything he knows)
Dana Elcar (who else has to give Mac assignments?)
Bruce McGill (no one better to get Mac into troubles)
Michael Des Barres (he's the one who brought them together he deserves the fourth place)
Elyssa Davalos (a feminist not agreeing on Mac's working methodes deserves a well deserved fifth place)
Teri Hatcher (the woman he met in Bulgaria on the sixth place)

I voted for Bruce, because, for me, after they left the espionage storylines behind, he comedic shows had the best flow.

Yikes!! this was the hardest to choose.
First, I considered Dana Elcar a co-star, and the others guest stars, which narrowed down the choice. "Jack Dalton" is my favorite, I love all the misadventures he gets Mac into!!!
Followed closely by Harry Jackson and Murdoc and Penny Parker. I didn't like Nikki Carpenter at all, so she's definately way below the rest.

Bruce McGill for sure! I love how Jack always brings out Mac's 'really smart but not so bright' side.* The two of them are just perfect foils for each other and their banter tends to be priceless. No matter how much Jack annoys Mac sometimes, there is genuine love and a lot of history between them.

(Anyone else notice that RDA usually says 'Jack' in the same whiny way he says 'Daniel' in Stargate? )

Mac
*For example, in Rock the Cradle, Mac comes up with an ingenious plan to open the landing gear. Before executing said plan, he doesn't move from his position on said landing gear. Why, why was he so shocked and upset that he fell out of the plane when a little bit of repositioning would have prevented that?! He just wanted a reason to get mad at Jack!!!

Ok...I misread the question...so now I'm fixing my post!

For some reason I thought it said "guest-star" , not "co-star."

OK.. anyway...

Now tht I've got myself cleared up...I had voted for Jack...but I would've voted for Pete if I'd been paying attention!

I really love the relationship between Pete and Mac...they've been through so much together, getting each other out of impossible situations, irritating each other (I love when they're exasperated with each other! ), and really being family to each other. I don't think MacGyver could've been what it was without Pete!

Murdoc was great...but I love Mac and Jack together...those tend to be in my favorites list! I love how Jack drags him from one disaster to the next and Mac "reluctantly" goes along...you know he loves it!


Penny...I could take or leave her. Sometimes it was fun to see them play off each other, but mostly she was just annoying.

Nikki...I liked her and how she and Mac grated on each other. I would've liked to see her more, but definitely not as a love interest...I couldn't see them lasting for 5 minutes! I thought she was the perfect one in Widowmaker to help snap Mac out of it!

Pete!! he wins hands down for me^^ he just supports mac so well! if mac's like the SAK then pete's the duc tape they just go together

Bruce McGill gets my vote. I watch the episodes with Jack in them the most. Some of the conversations between Jack and MacGyver are just so funny! I just wish he was in more episodes. Whenever we see Jack we know he’s going to get Mac involved in an adventure.

My vote’s for Bruce also. I think he plays the role of Jack brilliantly and he and RDA seem to play off each other so well.

Its as if they have the same kind of warped sense of humor or they understand each others acting style.. Or something.

I've often wondered how Bruce and RDA get on off screen.

I think my vote also goes to Bruce. He and RDA played off each other so well. Jack could get under Mac's skin and drive him nuts, but I think Mac enjoyed being embroiled in Jack's misadventures, or he would have found a way to say no. Of all my favorite eppys, Jack of Lies and Dalton, Jack of Spies are the two I watch most, especially when I want a good laugh. I NEVER get tired of those eppys, no matter how many times I see them.

Dana is a very close second. Pete was almost like a father figure to Mac as well as a good friend. Their banter in Out in the Cold is particularly priceless! And of course, part of why Passages is so moving is because of Pete.

Murdoc was great fun as villains go. I've often considered him to be a portrayal of Mac's flip side... what Mac would be if he were a bad guy.

Nikki is probably my favorite recurring woman. She's actually smart, unlike some of the female characters. And I love how she and Mac get on each other's nerves, but when push comes to shove, they CAN work together pretty well. Nikki is always good for comic relief, too.

Penny... well, you all know what I think of her.

Jack Dalton! (Bruce McGill). To make a show good and interesting, you have to have a yin and yang. Mac and Jack were yin and yang. All the others were just periperal to me. Well, they were necessary (Pete, Nikki, etc....), but not as much as Jack Dalton.

DXS

Top 3 favorite costars and recurring characters:

Dana Elcar as Pete
John Anderson as Harry Jackson
Bruce McGill as Jack Dalton

It's hard to stress enough over and over the impact that these three characters had on Mac's life.

I hadn't seen this thread before -- thanks for resurrecting it, Liz!

Dana Elcar, hands down. Both for the relationship and chemistry between the characters and the relationship and chemistry between the actors. No-one else cane touch that.

I've always had a soft spot for Dana Elcar. He was the best.

Bruce McGill was fun, though. Hard choice...

Beth,
I also resurrected "what was the best two-parter" thread. I thought it was worth discussing for those of us who have joined in the last 2 years, because these two threads were the first 2 and I believe began in 2006. Rock, you can totally correct me if I am wrong. There are some interesting threads at the beginning too.

Since the whole site lost its history and had to be "rebooted" in November 2006, I have no idea what the very first threads must have been at the real beginning! I myself have only been a member for a little less than a year. In fact, my "MOL anniversary" is next month.

Well let me be the first to say Happy Anniversary!! It's a little early, but what the heck.

Has to be Dana, hands down. He was the only real co-star, in my opinion. I love Jack as well, but Pete is like a father figure to Mac.

Thanks, Liz! It's hard to believe it's been such a short time!

I am looking at old threads again and realized that I neglected one very important co-star---Murdoc. I love Pete, Jack and Harry, but Murdoc is Mac's arch-nemesis. Very few of the villians get under Mac's skin and in his mind the way that Murdoc does. Michael des Barres was great.

I'd have to agree with you there--Murdoc definitely provides fodder for many a fanfic!

Okay here's a fanfic question for you MacsChick----If you could write a story and officially kill off Murdoc how would you do it and why?

Oh gosh, that's a difficult question... I'm not sure how I would do it, to be honest with you. Maybe he'd have to go through an explosion, get stabbed, shot, poisoned, run over, eaten by a wild animal, hung, and frozen all at once, and yet he'd probably still survive! I don't mean to make total light of your question, though. You never know--I might sometime in the future devise a clever scheme to kill him off permanently, but I wouldn't count on it yet.

I struggled with this question in my story--but I knew that for Murdoc to be dead and for Mac to have closure there had to be a physical body---and I chose a bullet through the heart--even though now I wonder if I should change that--I don't post my nearly 1000 page work, because I am nitpicking it to death--and correcting and adding--it'll probably be 2000 pages by the time I am actually done!!!

Pete Thorton is the best, but other than that Jack is it! Harry is another one that I love!

I would have to go with Pete he is the constant in Mac's life the others fade in and out, but Jack is a close second

It's really close between Jack and Pete for me.

Jack episodes are easily the most fun, and Bruce often steals the show. I find when I'm watching a Jack episode, I care less about Mac and more about Jack. I wonder why they stopped using that character in the later seasons?

Pete, on the other hand, isn't quite as entertaining, but you need a "normal" character in the mix, and Pete played that role really well. Plus, his friendship with Mac helped make Mac more human (such as when the whole glaucoma storyline came aorund.)

My question is, WHY was it so difficult for the writers to come up with one female character who wasn't either (a) incredibly ditzy, or (b) incredibly annoying, or © both of the above? Throughout the entire seven year run of the show, the only solid recurring female character was Mike, and she got killed off in her second appearance (and they totally changed her character by then anyway, so it wasn't any great loss.) I really can't remember any others.

I liked Murdoc because he's a villain you could love to hate, but he did have this genius and a form of professionalism and planning in his hits. He's like the Rasputin of MacGyver's world - no matter how many times you kill him, he just won't stay dead!

My vote's for Pete, for the same reasons as everyone else.

I liked Penny, but sometimes I wished she'd just shut up for a few minutes as she did have one of those voices that could get shrill and annoying.

As for Nikki, I found her a little off-putting at first, but I did warm to her after a while once we got to see she was human and not just a bureaucrat (I just get this impression that bureaucrats aren't people, they're machines).

I really liked Harry because I felt that the MacGyver-Harry relationship was far more real and believable than most TV shows would portray a grandfather-grandsom relationship.

In all, I think Mac had one of the best casts I've seen on a TV series, even the people we didn't see very often.

I liked everybody, except Nikki, she kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I don't know how I would kill Murdoc. I know he has a heart, because he showed it with Ashton (his sister). I think if I could kill him I would give him an injection of morphine. (Overdose) because it surpresses the respirations.

The only way to kill Murdoc is to lower him into a pit of molten metal.