Not sure of this has been done before but...

We know Mac likes Westerns.
What else might be in his film collection?

I'm thinking videos of ice hockey games and wildlife/nature documentaries.
Probably not action films - he gets enough of that in his day job and they're a bit gun-heavy.

Any other thoughts?

Yes - for hockey flicks, he definitely have 'Slap Shot' and 'Miracle on Ice'(the 2004 remake 'Miracle' with Kurt Russell is excellent!) in his movie library. 'Mystery, Alaska' is another good hockey film starring Russel Crowe.

Judging by his parody of the McKenzie Brothers in 'Flames End', I'm sure he'd also have a copy of 'Strange Brew' handy as well. For wildlife, he'd probably have a stash of NatGeo documentaries and wouldn't that most excellent BBC series - 'Planet Earth' - be right up his alley as well?

And Westerns aren't??

Are you talking about MacGyver in the series, or now?

I know!
Always seemed a bit of an odd one that - for someone who hates guns and uses violence only when every other option has failed to like Westerns so much!
Maybe because the violence in Westerns is less 'real' looking, which I'm not sure is true of a lot of action films. Or maybe on-screen violence of any sort is far enough removed from the real thing that Mac would like action films too...

Thoughts, anyone?

I've watched the first three seasons and I don't believe there's been any references by Mac towards a passion/preference for Western film genre. Maybe's it's something the creators only felt a need to 'cook up' in the later years and so to help alleviate the ubiquitous shortness of ideas cum writer's cramp onset.

Season 3 - The Odd Triple.

Jack Dalton records over the start of one of MacGyver's Classic Westerns.

That's the only one I haven't seen yet(Murphy's Law ). Is that the only reference in the first 3 seasons?

I think Westerns are MacGyver's security blanket (so to speak). He is seen falling asleep to Westerns in several episodes (Serenity-Season 5, MacGyver's Women - Season 6, and Obsession - Season 7).

He probably grew up watching Westerns, so it's probably a comforting childhood nostalgia feeling. Things are so much simpler when you're a kid, not to mention exciting.

He does mention he saw Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in Legend of the Holy Rose Part 1 (Season 5). I know RDA is an Indiana Jones fan, so I think he does like some action films.

He doesn't strike me as a horror fan, but probably likes mysteries or anything like that. Comedies for sure. Probably owns Ghostbusters... XD

I think he likes adventureous movies like Indiana Jones, Back To The Future, National Treasure and Sahara. Maybe he likes The Mummy movies too. Movies that in some way connects to his life. Or movies about conning the con with a touch of comedy to it.

It's not because he hates guns in reality, he hates them in movies because after all they're movies. In almost every Indy movie, Jones fires his gun at least once.

Maybe he also likes disaster movies on survival like Alive or The Grey.

Yes it's the reference which starts the ball rolling because MacGyver makes such a big deal about his Classic Western Movie Collection. It's obvious that it's something he cherishes.

Well, to be honest - there was not too many of us North American kids growing up in the 50s & 60s ,who didn't sit on their dad's knee, hold a toy gun in their hand and enjoy an 'Oater' or two on Saturday mornings.

Wasn't just North American kids. I think the wild West theme pretty much traversed the whole western world, probably because Hollywood back then was the only source of films for many countries so we all go the same.

TV being the operative word. In 1959, there were 26 westerns airing in prime time in the USA. That's incredible/ Certainly western films were popular in many other countries but I can't imagine that that genre, so specific to North America, would have got as much prime time arings elsewhere. Certainly that heyday was well within in RDAs most impressionable years and thus the fond memories. A distant second to hockey though and judging by the overall references/props.

While watching the episode "Children of Light" I took note of the VHS tapes Mac had. They are as follows:

The Untouchables
The Presidio
Beverly Hills Cop II
Hamburger Hill
Cousins
Distant Thunder
El Dorado
The Guns of Laredo

All of these films, except one, are produced by Paramount Pictures, which produced MacGyver . . . no surprise there.

As far as I can tell, "The Guns of Laredo" is not a real movie.

Thats great! Quite a good selection of movies there. Untouchables at the top for me!

This is interesting because the tune that MacGyver whistles in the pilot episode is called "The Streets of Laredo"

There is also a western mini series by the same name which was made in 1995.

Are you sure it's not Streets?

Positive. It's "Guns of Laredo". When Mei Jan tells Mac and Pete that she has something she wants to show them, she picks up a VHS tape and the cover, which looks custom made for the show, shows a cowboy standing beside his horse and the title "Guns of Laredo".

I searched for images online and couldn't find any. I will be hitting a computer store here in the next couple of days and buying screen capture software of some kind, as it looks like I could use it.

Most DVD player software have snapshot options or you can just hit PrtScn key (in windows) and then paste into any graphics or drawing program to paste the screen image.

Yeah, that's what I do with the PrtSc tab. I have Photoshop, so I just paste the photo there and save it as a JPEG. As long as you had MSPaint, you can do the same thing (well, assuming you use Windows). I dunno how to do with a Mac (as I seem to crash Mac's every time I attempt to use one).

I went ahead and did a screencap showing what MacFan is referring to. I left the video marker in on purpose so people know where in the episode to look for it... if need be. Just click on the image to make it larger. It's 1024x768, so rather big. LOL

I never noticed that. Well I'm not into Westerns that much. Frankly I just got into that genre this year a little more. Once Upon A Time In The West and For A Few Dollars more were just so awesome.

Interesting that he has The Untouchables, Beverly Hills Cop II and Hamburger Hill.

I wonder why they made up a movie name instead of just using a real movie cover?

Thank you, Jediferret.

Does anyone know what westerns Mac was actually watching? I dunno if this has discussed on here before, but I'm half expecting someone to post a link. lol

The one he was watching in the episode "Serenity" was the 1957 movie "Gunfight at the OK Corral" starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas.

That has crossed my mind why Mac liked westerns so much but hated guns. I think that probably was something that the writers just sort got inconsistent with in his character, and was just a way to bring in episodes of Mac dreaming about being in the old west, Serenity and MacGyver's Women. But if I was to reconcile it, I would say that maybe Mac might be such a history buff and found an outlet for entertainment based upon storylines that had a basis of history to it. Plus, life in the past was much simpler then, and there is a level of innocence and simplicity in westerns, which was something that was probably a bit therapeutic to his complex and stressful life of danger around every corner.

I think Mac would probably like Clark Grizwald and have some Vacation movies on the shelf. I bet he would have James Bond movies as well.