So my girlfriend has me watching all of the old Scarecrow & Mrs. King episodes with her, and we just watched an episode called "Utopia Now" which reminded me so much of MacGyver, I felt compelled to mention it:
The two protagonists (Lee and Amanda) find themselves locked in a prison. There's a swiss army knife on a table outside of the prison cell, but it's too far away from them to reach. So Lee takes off his boots, ties them together and uses them to lasso the SAK. He then picks the lock with the SAK, and they escape to one of the prison guard's cars, which, naturally, Lee is able to hotwire. They drive for a while, but then they somehow get stuck in some water, so now they're trying to escape on foot, with their pursuers close behind. Still in MacGyver-mode, Lee uses some twine to make a trip wire, temporarily halting his pursuers. Etc, etc, etc. I swear, I felt like I was watching MacGyver. Incidentally, this show was made BEFORE MacGyver existed.
Anyway, kind of a pointless post, I guess, but it was just fun seeing the old "boot-as-a-lasso" trick being used in another show, not to mention all the other stuff.

I used to love watching Scarecrow and King before Macgyver. I had forgotten about that episode! Too funny. I loved watching the Scarecrow but dreamed of one day actaully meeting Mac. Give me Mac's brains over Scarecrow's looks anyday.

Yeah that sounds pretty much like a MacGyver episode.

Kinda makes you wonder if there was any influence of earlier shows in the MacGyver episodes.

Another coincidence: A few episodes earlier, Elyssa Davalos played Lee's girlfriend. And a few episodes before that, Dana Elcar played one of the bosses in the agency that Lee works for. Small world, huh? Oh, and Kai Wulff appeared as a villain.

Which season of S&K are you watching? First? I don't remember Dana Elcar being on S&K....but it has been a while since I saw the show.

now all we need is RDA to show up in an episode!

Dana Elcar's episode was in Season 2, I think. It was called "Spiderweb," and his character's name was Mitch Larner. Amanda gets framed for treason, and Mitch wants her out.

Elyssa Davalos shows up in the Season 3 episode, "Dead Men Leave No Trails" as Leslie Conner. Actually IMDB also has her credited for two episodes in Season 2, but I don't recall her being there.

Kai Wulff shows up in Season 1.

And I just remembered another-- John Anderson (Harry Jackson on MacGyver) showed up in one episode as an old agent named codenamed "Humbug."

Didn't Elyssa Davalos play the blind girl on Knight Rider?

yeah she's been in lots of things (43 to be exact )

Yeah. John Anderson and Dana Elcar have also had extremely prolific careers.

I saw the dripping-paint-can-under-the-car trick that Mac used in 'Blow Out' in an early B/W episode of The Saint.

I find it very easy to imagine that MacGyver watched 'The Saint' as a kid.