Here's a surprisingly interesting little article about MacGyver and why he's so appealing even in today's world.

It starts off talking about the MacGyber skits and then goes on to look at why MacGyver is still popular today.

MacGyver appeals to our inner heroes

Interesting indeed. It proves MacGyver is very much alive. He has become an icon – as if we didn't know that already..

However, I think she misses the point in this quote:
'And why does he still seem to genuinely excite fans? It's simple: MacGyver was the kind of hero we not only wanted to be, but could be. He didn't live in an alternate universe, and he didn't carry a gun. He wasn't especially wealthy or handsome. He was just a regular, socially conscious guy who happened to be exceptionally quick with his wits and a tape dispenser. If we worked hard enough, the show seemed to promise, we could be MacGyver.'

First: I am positive fans are not attracted to MacGyver because they could be him. They all know Mac is unique. 'There is no one else in the world like you', as Pete says in 'Friends'. The attraction lies in the fact that fans are inspired by him, his macgyverisms and his look on life. That's quite another matter. Mac definitively is not a regular guy.
And uhm, MacGyver not handsome?

The author definitively needs glasses.

Traveller, you took the words right out of my mouth

"He wasn't especially wealthy or handsome..."
Que?!

I cannot really say why he appealed to me when I was only a little lamb... (I'm sure I wasn't into boys already!)
It must have been the adventures, the outdoorsy stuff...

(He saved my wool once during chemistry class, a few years later, too.)

Even till this day I regularly think to myself "what would Mac do..." especially while getting lost in the jungles of Guatemala or getting stuck on an Icelandic volcano, ...
(I'm just a silly sheep getting into trouble constantly)

Actually, I think that IS what attracted a lot of people to him. The writers (and RDA) purposely made Mac somebody who is very human. He hurts himself when he punches someone, for example. He's afraid of heights. He gets nervous. Etc, etc. So the viewer ends up feeling a connection to him that we can't feel to, say, Superman or James Bond or Lara Croft or Jason Bourne, or any other hero who is a bit too over-the-top.

He was supposed to be a regular guy with a knack for getting out of tough situations with his intellect. Again, the point being that he wasn't supposed to be a superhero of any kind. If you read the interview with Zlotoff, you'll find that the name MacGyver came from "Guy," which was because they wanted him to be a "regular guy." Actually, part of what helped Rick get the role as MacGyver was because he had to use his glasses to read the script during the audition, and the casting director liked that down-to-earth human element about him.

Zlotoff doesn't say he wanted MacGyver to be 'a regular guy', he says he wanted him to be 'a real man'. That's something else entirely, and that's why Mac has his weaknesses which make him human, not a super hero, and RDA made him very much a real person.
But a regular guy? No. The fans admire MacGyver because of his unique mind, and they can try to be like him, but they know they can't, because he is one of a kind. That is why all his adversaries, including Dr. Zito and Murdoch, underestimate MacGyver: he may look like a regular guy, but he definitively is not.

And by the way, I don't need to read the interview with Zlotoff, because I'm the one he granted that interview.

I think as the show went on he became more and more regular. We started to see less and less of the Phoenix assignments and MacGyver as the last hope to save the day and more of him getting involved with helping people in their day to day situations. It was part of that nasty "social conscience" turn the show took.

I think though this articles means regular as in he didn't have super powers or invincibility (like Murdoc) he was just a normal human being with an abnormal mind.

I agree. Those social issues were not bad in itself, well, not all of them, but in the end they overshadowed the 'original' Mac.
It wouldn't surprise me by the way if the movie would return to the original Mac.

I think our disagreement just comes down to semantics, really. We both agree that Mac was supposed to be human, not a superhero. He's not James Bond, Jason Bourne, etc. I see him as a "regular guy with a talent." You see that talent as something that separates him from being a "regular guy." But the main point (and I think the point the article was getting at) is that one of the reasons he was popular was because he was relatable to the average viewer. We could aspire to be him, whereas most people can't aspire to be Jason Bourne or Superman.

Semantics, yep, you are probably right. But it is still nice to have a bit of a discussion, don't you agree?

Yup. Especially since I'm right and you're wrong!
(just kidding!!!)

I was thinking some more about why I see him as a regular guy: He doesn't live in a fancy mansion or a batcave or anything. Sure, the houseboat was kind of cool, but regular folks live in them. He also doesn't dress in any really remarkable way-- i.e, he's not a superspy who always runs around in a perfectly tailored suit, for example. Likewise, his hair gets messed up. And we see him doing "regular guy" stuff: i.e, He goes to the supermarket to buy stuff for his cold (and YES, he gets colds!), he stops at the gas station to refill his tank, he likes to relax by watching old westerns, etc, etc.
Having said all that, obviously he leads a far more interesting life than any "regular guy" I've ever known, but by action-hero standards, he's a pretty normal guy.

Yup. Especially since I'm right and you're wrong!
(just kidding!!!)

I was thinking some more about why I see him as a regular guy: He doesn't live in a fancy mansion or a batcave or anything. Sure, the houseboat was kind of cool, but regular folks live in them. He also doesn't dress in any really remarkable way-- i.e, he's not a superspy who always runs around in a perfectly tailored suit, for example. Likewise, his hair gets messed up. And we see him doing "regular guy" stuff: i.e, He goes to the supermarket to buy stuff for his cold (and YES, he gets colds!), he stops at the gas station to refill his tank, he likes to relax by watching old westerns, etc, etc.
Having said all that, obviously he leads a far more interesting life than any "regular guy" I've ever known, but by action-hero standards, he's a pretty normal guy.

I think you just mentioned everything missing from the reboot.

Well he was a normal guy, but also a genius... professors, etc say throughout the show what a brilliant mind he is. - so besides that, totally relatable...lol. He is pretty down to earth though - it's like if you took RDA at the time (who one could argue was a fairly normal guy) and added the genius/spy elements, you get MacGyver!

it's hard for me to see the article from the perspective of the author saying people wanted to be him, because I never felt that way, and I also think he is super attractive as Mac - I just want to meet a Mac, not become one lol...

I think part of the lasting appeal of the show is that the values overall still hold up well today, where many shows don't fair as well. I sort of love that RDA is carrying on the MacGyver legacy with environmental causes, etc.

I'm actually the opposite. I'd rather be like Mac. I know plenty of people like Mac in various ways, be it his intelligence or his empathy. I was more drawn to his friendliness and empathy. Though I am an empathic, I'm somewhat jaded. lol

I try my best to emulate his optimistic attitude, because I'm not really an optimist either. lol

I do my best though. And not to say that I don't think RDA/Mac is attractive, because that's a given. I'm big time fangirl. XD But since he's not real, all I can really do is try to be like him. The world needs more Macs in it.

Well the line actually says "the kind of hero we wanted to be" So I think he's getting at how people wanted to emulate his morals, healthy lifestyle, intelligence etc. and who doesn't want to be that person who can solve the problem with a MacGyverism?

I'm not sure many people actually wanted to BE MacGyver, I know I sure didn't, but I did want to be LIKE him in the sense of his values and way he thought about things.... To that end I emulated him quite a lot right down to dressing like him... in the absence of an active father figure, MacGyver became my role model and has remained so for much of it. In later years I've strayed off course to become my own person, but still try to live by the What Would MacGyver Do? creed.

I hope you stuck to the earlier seasons for this one....


I agree that his healthy lifestyle and political ambitions are quite admirable, and in that sense I too feel like emulating him. He really is a great character, and as much as RDA brought to it (which was a lot), I vastly prefer Mac to the other characters RDA has played (and RDA considers himself more a Legend or O'Neil), so there is something special about the fictional concoction of MacGyver. Which is why I think the show still has such a following after so long - unless there is a similar A-Team Online group I don't know about

Yup. Especially since I'm right and you're wrong!
(just kidding!!!)

I was thinking some more about why I see him as a regular guy: He doesn't live in a fancy mansion or a batcave or anything. Sure, the houseboat was kind of cool, but regular folks live in them. He also doesn't dress in any really remarkable way-- i.e, he's not a superspy who always runs around in a perfectly tailored suit, for example. Likewise, his hair gets messed up. And we see him doing "regular guy" stuff: i.e, He goes to the supermarket to buy stuff for his cold (and YES, he gets colds!), he stops at the gas station to refill his tank, he likes to relax by watching old westerns, etc, etc.
Having said all that, obviously he leads a far more interesting life than any "regular guy" I've ever known, but by action-hero standards, he's a pretty normal guy.

I think you just mentioned everything missing from the reboot.

I finally saw the last ten minutes of an episode last week. In the middle of a rescue mission, one of his co-workers (Jack Dalton I believe, now reinvented as a black ops badass), warns a couple of bad guys to stay down, casually shoots them when they don't comply, then turns an exchanges a high five with Mac.

I was like "yep - this ain't MacGyver, and not watching it is the smartest decision I've made in some time."

Yup. Especially since I'm right and you're wrong!
(just kidding!!!)

I was thinking some more about why I see him as a regular guy: He doesn't live in a fancy mansion or a batcave or anything. Sure, the houseboat was kind of cool, but regular folks live in them. He also doesn't dress in any really remarkable way-- i.e, he's not a superspy who always runs around in a perfectly tailored suit, for example. Likewise, his hair gets messed up. And we see him doing "regular guy" stuff: i.e, He goes to the supermarket to buy stuff for his cold (and YES, he gets colds!), he stops at the gas station to refill his tank, he likes to relax by watching old westerns, etc, etc.
Having said all that, obviously he leads a far more interesting life than any "regular guy" I've ever known, but by action-hero standards, he's a pretty normal guy.

One of the things I loved about MacGyver was that he felt a low-rent version of heroes like Indiana Jones or James Bond. "Low-rent" here specifically is meant as a compliment. Indy and Bond run around dealing with world-altering plots and battling ultimate evils. Mac can play in that league too, but he's also a guy who will apply just as much effort to helping farm workers being exploited, inner city dwellers being evicted, homeless people being cheated - or even more small-scale, a depressed kid or teenager whose life feels terrible right now - as he does to saving the world. No problem is too small to deserve his attention.

The regular house and clothes and down-to-Earth persona are a big part of that.

Yup. Especially since I'm right and you're wrong!
(just kidding!!!)

I was thinking some more about why I see him as a regular guy: He doesn't live in a fancy mansion or a batcave or anything. Sure, the houseboat was kind of cool, but regular folks live in them. He also doesn't dress in any really remarkable way-- i.e, he's not a superspy who always runs around in a perfectly tailored suit, for example. Likewise, his hair gets messed up. And we see him doing "regular guy" stuff: i.e, He goes to the supermarket to buy stuff for his cold (and YES, he gets colds!), he stops at the gas station to refill his tank, he likes to relax by watching old westerns, etc, etc.
Having said all that, obviously he leads a far more interesting life than any "regular guy" I've ever known, but by action-hero standards, he's a pretty normal guy.

I think you just mentioned everything missing from the reboot.

I finally saw the last ten minutes of an episode last week. In the middle of a rescue mission, one of his co-workers (Jack Dalton I believe, now reinvented as a black ops badass), warns a couple of bad guys to stay down, casually shoots them when they don't comply, then turns an exchanges a high five with Mac.

I was like "yep - this ain't MacGyver, and not watching it is the smartest decision I've made in some time."

As much as I love the reboot, I hated that scene too, for the same reasons as you did.

Yes this rebooted MacGyver has no humanity. He doesn't even flinch when people are shot dead in front of him.

The real MacGyver was always shocked, hurt, even haunted by the death of anyone including people out to kill him. To him life was precious, not just human life but all life.

This rebooted MacGyver couldn't give a rats ass about people being killed.



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I keep getting this notion that new!MacGyver is the result of some disastrous monkey's paw wish from the old series...like they're all around a campfire or whatever, gossiping about what they wish had happened in their lives differently. So Mac says "well, I just wish my dad hadn't died in that car crash, and was still alive," and Jack says, "well, I wish I'd had a chance to connect with my dad, and grow up in Texas, and hey while I'm at it why not be a Hollywood handsome dead-eye shot with nice abs?" Nikki says, "hey, I'd like to be such a good spy nobody would ever know if I was telling the truth or not." Pete just says, eh, he's pretty happy, but, oh, might be fun being a girl next time instead...

Everybody laughs, and then, boom! they wake up the next morning and Everything's Different.

And it all goes horribly wrong...

He has humanity, but not nearly as much as the original. Between the two characters, this is why I'll go with RDA's Mac every time.


I think you mean rat's pajamas

Is that the same monkey the wished he knew who shot his paw?

Ahahahahahahaha!!!!

Lol!