In this interview RDA reveals that he was the one who stopped the name Stacey from being used for MacGyver.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-ra...-his-first-name

In all honesty, Angus is not a bad name. Never knew why he hated it so much. If it was something like "Doofus" then I'd understand.

I agree. It's got class!

Yeah I've always thought Stacey would have been a much more cringe-worthy name than Angus. At least it's a mans name.

Angus is a cool name I agree.


So it's obvious Mac has scottish ancestry , right? That's interesting.

'Stace' was used in Zlotoff's pilot script, so I'm not certain that Winkler did in fact have any initial influence on the character's first name. The Angus Reid name was indeed everywhere you looked in Canada back then. But he wasn't a mayor, he was a market research entrepreneur. Still alive and well today, and (ironically) living in Vancouver.



Angus_Reid

while I agree in the reboot MacGyver should still hate his first name and be reffered to as MacGyver....

in fact what annoyed me so much about Young MacGyver was how Clay MacGyver branded about his first name in the elevator scene (though when after the cave explosion he introduced himself as only MacGyver not gonna lie was supper happy)

I love the fact that Mac hates his name - lots of people hate their name, and it made him seem even more human. That aside, I LOVE Angus and am VERY happy Stace/Stacey wasn't used!

He may have been the one who wanted a first name used though, so RDA would have had to convince him that no first name was a better option.

I tend to think of Stacy as a female name. Would Mac have disliked it solely for that reason? Or because he didn't mind his name but he was fed up with getting teased for it? Would he have changed his name? We will never know.

Since his father's name wasn't Angus, I wonder if that was his paternal grandfather's name. Do we ever find out about his paternal grandparents?

Well, at least his mother's parents... Harry and Celia Jackson. But no, they never mentioned his father's parents at all... you'd think they would... but I always assumed "Angus" was a typical name in his family. But, that's just me.

It took me a second to realize that paternal grandparents are the father's side. I was like... wait a minute, duh!

The name Stacy was discarded and never used. But during pre-production for the final season, RDA suggested that the name, Angus be used, so the name was later revealed in the episode "Good Knight MacGyver Part 2."

As stated the name was discarded during the development of the series, it was never used.

These days, I think Angus is a pretty cool name. But, when I was a kid, I remember first hearing the name when my cousin got engaged to a guy named Angus, and I thought it was hilariously awful. My brother and I both said it sounded like the name of a foot disease. Then, about three years later, it was revealed that MacGyver's first name was Angus, and because we had laughed so much at the name before, we again thought it was hilarious. What can I say? We were teenagers (I think I was 14 when I first heard the name.)

But anyway, over the years, it grew on me.

As for Stacy... I always think of it as a female name, but when I first saw Jack Dalton, I remember thinking, "Hey, that guy looks a bit like Stacy Keach!"

My brother-in-law is named Angus!

My theory is that they alternated names - assuming they were all a first-born son, Mac's great-grandfather could have been James MacGyver and his paternal grandfather Angus - with the notion Mac would dutifully name his first-born son James and instruct said son to name his first-born son Angus.

Of course, it's anyone's guess what Mac would actually have named a baby had he been given the opportunity to do so.

I believe in Good Knight MacGyver, there was a tradition to name all first born boys Angus. If his parents were keeping with tradition, then his father wasn't the first born, meaning Mac had uncles. He did mention having a cousin named Allie in the first season in Golden Triangle.

So, he apparently had other relatives other than Harry that were still alive. In later seasons, they always made it seem that MacGyver never had any other living relatives after Harry... that always kind of bugged me, but eh... this show is known for not being consistent... what can ya do? lol

The idea his father had an older brother would fit ... yes.

I didn't realise that they'd mentioned a cousin ... that's annoying that they would mess around with the back story.

This is probably why it constantly amazes me when I read interviews with actors and they come across as intelligent. I think in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, "But you said those lines that contradicted your character's back story. And then you said those other lines that didn't make sense. You managed to keep a straight face during a totally ridiculous story. And got the CPR wrong."

One of my least favourite lines from any series, I think I've heard it in both "CSI" and "NCIS" is something about there being no such thing as coincidence? Oh, really? So, un-related events fall into neat patterns?

On the general topic of Mr Winkler, am I right in thinking that he (aided by scriptwriters, etc) is responsible for giving the world the phrase "jumping the shark"?

Actors often know less about the stories they're in than the diehard fans do. It's had nothing to do with their intelligence, though. I think it's more about the fact that they're approaching the material from a very different angle than the viewers are. We're sitting on our couches, stuffing our faces with snacks while watching intently, and the fictional worlds feel real to us. For the actors, on the other hand, they're filming a whole bunch of scenes out of order, they don't always see scenes that they're not in, and they're seeing everything from a "behind the scenes" vantage point, so the characters, settings, etc, are a whole lot less real to them than they are to viewers.

Actors often know less about the stories they're in than the diehard fans do. It's had nothing to do with their intelligence, though. I think it's more about the fact that they're approaching the material from a very different angle than the viewers are. We're sitting on our couches, stuffing our faces with snacks while watching intently, and the fictional worlds feel real to us. For the actors, on the other hand, they're filming a whole bunch of scenes out of order, they don't always see scenes that they're not in, and they're seeing everything from a "behind the scenes" vantage point, so the characters, settings, etc, are a whole lot less real to them than they are to viewers.

That is an excellent point.

And you've probably uncovered the reason why I should never, ever try to meet any of the actors/actresses I admire most. Instead of telling them something about how much I valued their work, I'd probably go off on an irrelevant tangent about plot holes in something they were in several years ago.

And that would be so far from what I would actually want to say.

I think they're fairly safe from the prospect of having to meet me. As long as they stay in the USA. I have issues around flying, so I doubt I'd end up in the USA any time soon.

Hey, at least you'd have something to talk about... I'd be lucky if I'm able to speak and say my name. XD

I once met someone from an Australian soap opera. They were rehearsing for pantomime near where I live (oh no, they weren't, etc). And I asked for their autograph for someone in my family. Someone I have known all my life, with a 6-letter name, and all I could get out was "it's not the usual spelling". And I couldn't even get the letters right for the spelling of the name of the family member.

Luckily, Australian soap guy knew which spelling I meant!

I was almost tongue-tied even though I didn't have massively strong feelings about him or his soap character.

I think I also got the autograph of someone from a British soap (also in said panto) for a friend of mine. But someone else got it for me, I didn't have to speak to him personally.