Trivia for
"MacGyver" (1985) More at IMDbPro »

• Michael Des Barres, who plays Murdoc, MacGyver's archenemy, actually composed the song "Cleo Rocks" for the same-named episode.
  
  
• MacGyver's first name changed several times over the years. Series creator Lee David Zlotoff says that the character he created was named Stace MacGyver. (The script for the series pilot also gave MacGyver's first name as Stace). In the 13th episode of season four, the episode titled "Runners", MacGyver's Grandfather's Son-In-Law's (MacGyver's Dad's) first name is mentioned as "James" in a flashback to his youth. In the last season, his first name was given as "Angus".
  
  
• Angus MacGyver's birthday is January 23, 1951. Richard Dean Anderson's birthday is January 23, 1950.
  
  
• MacGyver's Swiss Army Knife went through a few changes over the early episodes. His first and most often used knife was a "Spartan" model from Victorinox. The knife seen in the opening credits of each episode was a Wenger, as noted by its long keychain.
  
  
• When the onset of glaucoma began robbing co-star Dana Elcar of his sight in real life, his TV character was given the same condition.
  
  
• The "MacGyverisims" shown in the series are all based on scientific fact, but not all of the steps needed to create the experiment were shown. This was done to prevent children who were watching the show from duplicating the experiments themselves and possibly getting injured.
  
  
• In the late '80s, two teenage boys made a bomb in their garage which went off, killing one of them. The surviving boy said they learned how to make the bomb from an episode of the show. However, the show was quickly exonerated after it was discovered no such episode existed.
  
  
• Kai Wulff played 4 different characters in 4 different episodes
  
  
• Richard Dean Anderson won the role of MacGyver when the casting director noticed he was unafraid to use his glasses during his audition, showing a lack of pretension that the creative team wanted in their lead.
  
  
• Throughout the entire run of the series, MacGyver states many times his opposition to using guns because of a childhood event. However, in the pilot episode, "Pilot", he does in fact fire a gun, an AK-47, and then quickly hands it to the pilot he's rescuing to provide cover fire. This aspect of his character was probably added after the pilot as he makes no mention of his distaste for guns.
  
  
• MacGyver grew up in Minnesota.
  
  
• Several episodes (including the pilot episode) were directed by Alan Smithee, a pseudonym commonly used by directors who don't want their real names associated with a project.
  
  
• The surname "MacGyver" is of Scottish origin, first found in early times in Dumbarton. The clan motto, "Numquam obliviscar" translates as "I will never forget."
  
  
• At the end of the final episode of the series' original run, Richard Dean Anderson did a voice over telling the audience "Thank you, for seven great seasons". This voice over was omitted during its rebroadcasts in syndication.
  
  
• Dana Elcar's Stunt Double was Don S. Davis. Don S. Davis became "Gen. George Hammond", Richard Dean Anderson's superior officer on "Stargate SG-1" (1997).
  
  
• MacGyver's favorite sport was always ice hockey. He is often seen wearing a Calgary Flames hat. There was even an episode where MacGyver coached a young high school hockey prospect.
  
  
• The first season of the show was shot entirely in the Los Angeles area. However, as an adventure series, ABC was ready to cancel after one year due to the price of location filming and time spent moving the production crew over a 6-day shoot schedule. With threat of cancellation, the Producers, including Henry Winkler decided to send the show to Vancouver where location moves could be made within an hour. In one day an episode could move from an ocean scene to a forest scene to a metropolitan scene. It allowed writers to put the character of MacGyver into a faster paced action/adventure series.
  
  

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