Is the shot pete pointing at the map in any episode? or was it only in the opening.

You'll find the answer here along with lists showing which episodes all the other scenes in the opening credits are from.

Pete pointing at the map in the credits is from the Countdown episode. From season 5 on till the last episode it was reshot.

It always seemed silly to me that they did "updated" shots for the opening credits. The most obvious ones for me were the updated "Thief Of Budapest" shot (eating the ice cream cone), and the updated "Gauntlet" shot (with him turning around near the door.) Why bother? I can understand that he looked different in the later seasons, and maybe they felt there would be too much juxtaposition between his younger look and his older look, but surely there was enough NEW material from the newer seasons that they could have used for the opening, rather than restaging scenes from early episodes.

Yeah, that's a good point. Some of those updated shots look so different they could have been completely different scenes.

Maybe they really liked those scenes and wanted to keep them kinda like the base, or groundwork for the credit sequence, but just wanted more up-to-date looking versions of them.

MacGyver certainly wasn't the only show to do it, so I guess it was common practice that once you get a sequence you like, you just update it as the show goes on.

I personally liked it and thought it was really cool that they took the time to do it. I think they have a certain feel that works in the beat of the song so that's why they bothered.

I wonder... Mac met Pete at the pilot episode, but in the second season they tell a whole different story. Why?

Dana wasn't Pete in the pilot. He played a different part. "Pete" first appeared in Deathlock. Though he tells a different meeting than the actual Murdoc inspired meeting.

I've just been thinking about this as I fixed up an error on the openeing credits page. Some of those scenes are pretty much iconic of MacGyver. So it would make sense that they didn't want to remove them from the opening credits because they say so much about the character and show, but at the same time they didn't want them looking old and dated.

That was actually Nightmares.

I believe Deathlock was suppose to be his first appearence. They probably filmed that one first even if it didn't air first. Watch how they act and what they say when they first see each other.

Your right they did.

Deathlock was filmed with production number 40191-011 (the eleven notates the episode number) but it aired as episode 12 and Nightmares had prod number 40191-012 but aired as episode 11 so they got switched around.

*Adds to the even increasing "To do list" - Add production numbers to episode lists*

I figured since it feels like his intro to the show:) Thanks so much for the confirmation:)

The only shot that I can think of that's really iconic, though, is the shot of him leaning on the airplane's wing. The rest aren't anything special.
For example:

There's the shot from The Gauntlet where he turns around near the door. That doesn't really showcase anything about his character that couldn't be showcased through an entirely new shot.

There's the ice-cream cone shot. That one DEFINITELY doesn't seem important.

There's the shot of him running through the gate just as it closes. Okay, that's a good action shot, but I have hard time believing there was NOTHING in the later seasons that could have done just as good a job capturing that bit of excitement.

There's the shot of Pete with the map. Granted the new shot is nicer, it has more color, but it doesn't really add anything.

Of course, it doesn't matter to me that they chose to refilm these scenes, but it just seems really weird that they chose to do it when they could have just as easily found clips from more recent episodes and plugged them into the opening.

Then again, these days, most shows don't even have opening credits, so the idea of refilming old scenes for an opening credits sequence feels particularly odd today.

The Turning around at the door is iconic of MacGyver being trapped and having to find an alternative way out.

The running through the gate is iconic of MacGyver escaping just in the nick of time.

The shot of Pete kinda shows that he's the one who plans and gives directions - the boss.

And if non of that works for you there's always the heritage of those scenes being in the opening credits for the past 3-4 seasons already and therefore they are the "base" shots that tell you your watching MacGyver.

Can you honestly say you could see any of the mentioned shots in another show and not think "hey that's from MacGyver"? That's what makes them iconic in my view. The fact that even if it's a different show with different actors, if you see someone jump through a gate you immediately think of the scene from MacGyver.

Also, re-shooting opening scenes was a common industry practice back in the day, so they we're just following standard practice although why they choose those particular scenes to reshoot is anyone's guess.

I wonder if picture quality had anything to do with it? Bearing in mind that video editing is essentially copying from one tape to another, which means you lose a small amount of quality each time you do it, maybe they found that when they edited the new credit sequence, the quality of those older shots was no good, or noticeably worse than any of the other shots?

See, for me, those shots are a bit too generic for me to associate them with any particular character. Now, on the other hand, if I saw somebody sliding down a sand dune on a map, yeah, I'd think of MacGyver.

And if those shots that were redone are ingrained in anybody's mind, it raises a new question-- would they be ingrained if they weren't redone, or are they only ingrained because they appeared in all 7 seasons? In other words, if they stopped showing Mac running through the gate after Season 3 or 4, would you still associate it so closely with the show?

That's a good point. Now that I think about it, I think I recall Knight Rider doing that.

There is (or at least was) a thread around here somewhere which talked about this and mentioned a few other shows which had done it. I remember Star Trek TNG being mentioned, but can't recall the others.