Editing MacGyver (section)

==''MacGyver'' (1985–1992 original series, 1994 specials)==
===Personality===
MacGyver is a non-violent problem solver and typically eschews the use of guns.{{efn|group=loweralpha|In the first episode of the series, MacGyver fires an [[AK-47]] at some Soviet soldiers. His dislike of firearms was established in subsequent episodes.<ref name="pilot">Season 1, Episode 1 – "Pilot"</ref>}} His violent actions are performed in [[Self-defense (United States)|self-defense]], and he takes non-fatal action when possible.

MacGyver is depicted as an ally to social and environmental causes. He aids vulnerable populations throughout the series. During vineyard worker strikes, MacGyver assists Latino protesters against vineyard owners.<ref>Season 6, Episode 9 - "[http://www.tv.com/shows/macgyver/bitter-harvest-47311/ Bitter Harvest]"</ref> MacGyver appears to have a strong connection with children, filling the role of "big brother" at the series' inception.<ref name="pilot" /> MacGyver demonstrates his allegiance to children by assisting a mountain excursion for delinquent youths.<ref>Season 2, Episode 5 – "[http://www.tv.com/macgyver/final-approach/episode/47230/summary.html Final Approach]"</ref> MacGyver also conducts hearing research at a school for deaf children.<ref>Season 2, Episode 9 – "[http://www.tv.com/macgyver/silent-world/episode/47234/summary.html Silent World]"</ref> In regard to the environment, MacGyver strives to protect endangered species such as eagles,<ref>Season 2, Episode 8 – "[http://www.tv.com/shows/macgyver/eagles-47233/ Eagles]"</ref> the [[black rhino]],<ref>Season 5, Episode 8 – "[http://www.tv.com/shows/macgyver/black-rhino-47290/ Black Rhino]"</ref> and wolves.<ref>Season 6, Episode 18 – "[http://www.tv.com/shows/macgyver/faith-hope-and-charity-47318/ Faith, Hope & Charity]"</ref> At an unspecified date during the series, MacGyver begins practicing [[vegetarianism]].<ref>Season 7, Episode 6  – "[http://www.tv.com/shows/macgyver/walking-dead-47324/ Walking Dead]"</ref>

MacGyver is persistent and spontaneous. He employs improvisation to evade anticipatory countermeasures, and his plans are difficult to thwart on account of their unpredictability. This constant spontaneity challenges MacGyver as well as his adversaries. Because MacGyver continues to operate in this manner, it is assumed the tactical advantage of spontaneity outweighs its disadvantages. This is observed by MacGyver's nemesis [[Murdoc]].

MacGyver demonstrates [[mood congruence]], exhibiting grief in tragedy, fear in peril, and pain in suffering.<ref>Season 5, Episode 14 – "[http://www.tv.com/shows/macgyver/log-jam-47296/ Log Jam]"</ref> This stands in contrast to exaggeratedly [[machismo|macho]] or stoic action heroes. MacGyver is introspective, and takes responsibility for personal losses and tragedies. He experiences guilt when duty prevents him from attending his mother's death and funeral. He experiences depression when his best friend suffers a fatal climbing accident.

MacGyver's most-used item is his [[Swiss Army knife]]. He usually carries a roll of duct tape in his back pocket, flattened out to make it fit. Other items he often has on hand are: an ID card, a [[Timex Group USA|Timex]] Camper watch, [[Match#Varieties of matches today|strike-anywhere matches]], a few paper clips, chewing gum, and a flashlight. He also has a toolbox in his [[Jeep]].<ref>Season 1, Episode 18 – "[[Ugly Duckling (MacGyver Episode)|Ugly Duckling]]"</ref> MacGyver initially used a [[Jeep Cherokee]] and then a [[Jeep Wrangler]] beginning with Season 2, but in Season 5 he began driving his grandfather Harry's "classic" 1946 [[Chevrolet]] pickup truck.<ref>{{Cite episode|title=The Black Corsage|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=October 1989|season=5|number=3|language=en}}</ref>

MacGyver is proficient in [[Russian language|Russian]], [[German language|German]], [[French language|French]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]],<ref>Season 2, Episode 15 – "[http://www.tv.com/shows/macgyver/pirates-47240/ Pirates]"</ref> and [[American Sign Language]], and knows how to use [[International maritime signal flags]] and [[Morse code]].<ref>Season 3, Episode 8 – "[[The Widowmaker (MacGyver episode)|The Widowmaker]]"</ref> He is an avid outdoorsman with skills that include [[skiing]] and outdoor survival. Despite an acute fear of heights, he is skilled at mountain/rock climbing, hang gliding, and parachuting - static line, ripcord  and [[high-altitude military parachuting]]. His other hobbies include ice hockey and racing, and he has shown interest in painting and guitar.<ref name="The Madonna">{{Cite episode|title=The Madonna|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=December 1989|season=5|number=11|language=en}}</ref>

His haircut is a [[Mullet (haircut)|mullet]], in a clean-cut, lightly gelled variation on the classic hairstyle.

While never being in a long-term on-screen relationship, he has relationships with several women in individual episodes and several past long-term relationships are mentioned, from which he has one child. He is on good terms with his past romantic acquaintances.

===First name===
MacGyver's first name was originally intended to be Stacey, as seen in a press release from Paramount.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/5723/why-was-macgyvers-first-name-kept-a-mystery |title=Why was MacGyver's first name kept a mystery?|website=Movies.stackexchange.com |access-date=July 25, 2016}}</ref> However, it was never confirmed in any episode, and remained a mystery until the seventh season; whenever he is asked about it, he says he dislikes his first name and quickly changes the subject. His grandfather, Harry Jackson, calls him "Bud" or "Buddy".  Most of his friends and colleagues call him by his last name MacGyver or simply "Mac". In the final season, his first name is canonically revealed to be Angus when, while knocked unconscious and hallucinating, he meets a 7th-century man named Ian M'Iver ("son of Ingmarr") whose son has the same first name.<ref>{{Cite episode|title=Good Knight, MacGyver|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=Nov 1991|season=7|number=8|language=en}}</ref> This revelation is repeated in the series finale, which introduces MacGyver's son as having the middle name Angus, as well as on the packaging of the ''MacGyver'' DVD season sets.

===Biography===
MacGyver's birthdate is first seen as January 23, 1951<ref>January 23, 1951, per his [[passport]] in {{Cite episode|title=Every Time She Smiles|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=February 1986|season=1|number=16|language=en}}</ref> but was then revised in season 2 as March 23, 1952,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.macgyveronline.com/macgyververse/timeline/|title=Timeline|website=MacGyver Online|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-27}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.macgyveronline.com/forums/index.php?s=4a4dc3b3651427bf22c0bb1e32e36e68&showtopic=2814&st=0&#entry4518|title=MacGyver Online Forums -> Time line|website=MacGyver Online Forums|language=en|access-date=2020-01-27}}</ref> the date which continued to be used for the rest of the series. (However, in Series 6 Episode 12 ''Jerico Games'', he looks at a 1968 high school yearbook when he was supposedly 18.) He was raised in Mission City, [[Minnesota]]. MacGyver was in the [[Cub Scouting (Boy Scouts of America)|Cub Scouts]]. A Den Mother by the name of Mrs. Fryfogel taught him "backwoods common sense" and the motto "Be prepared."<ref>"[[The Gauntlet (MacGyver episode)|The Gauntlet]]"</ref> At the age of 7, his grandmother Celia Jackson and father James MacGyver ([[Martin Milner]]) were killed in a [[Traffic collision|car accident]] in which they both drowned, and MacGyver grew up with his mother, Ellen MacGyver.<ref>In {{Cite episode|title=Runners|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=March 1989|season=4|number=13|language=en}} MacGyver states he was 7 years old when the accident occurred, however it is later confirmed that he was 10 {{Cite episode|title=Passages|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=April 1990|season=5|number=21|language=en}}</ref> His grandfather, [[Harry Jackson (MacGyver)|Harry Jackson]] ([[John Anderson (actor)|John Anderson]]) acted as his father, but moved away when MacGyver was 16, working for a time in [[Alaska]] while sending money to MacGyver and his mother, and eventually settled down as a [[farmer]] in Minnesota.<ref>[[Phoenix Under Siege (MacGyver)|Phoenix Under Siege]], stated by MacGyver as "it's been six..seven...eighteen years"</ref> At about 12 years of age, MacGyver had a traumatic experience of the accidental shooting death of a friend by a bullet from a falling gun.<ref>{{Cite episode|title=Blood Brothers|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=November 1988|season=4|number=2|language=en}} MacGyver returns to his home town and meets two childhood friends, wherein a series of flashbacks the accidental death of friend Jesse is shown when MacGyver takes his dad's revolver for the boys to play with. When their friend Neil attempted to shoot a bird, MacGyver knocked the cocked gun from his hands which resulted in it discharging and firing a bullet into Jesse's chest.</ref> MacGyver is a lifelong player of [[ice hockey]], having played in his local hockey leagues and coached for a minor league team; he is also a supporter of the [[Calgary Flames]] and believed he could have made the NHL.<ref>{{cite web|author=E. Blair |url=http://vivamacgyver.blogspot.com/2007/10/macgyver-hat-calgary-flames.html |title=Macgyver Hat: Calgary Flames |publisher=Vivamacgyver.blogspot.com |date=2007-10-04 |access-date=2009-03-28}} MacGyver has a discussion where he claims to have had a chance to join the NHL and was disappointed he did not take it.</ref> He met [[Jack Dalton (MacGyver)|Jack Dalton]] while in high school.

MacGyver went to Western Tech where he graduated with a dual degree in [[chemistry]] and [[physics]].<ref>Season 3, Episode 9 – "[[Hell Week (MacGyver episode)|Hell Week]]".</ref> After graduating from college he turned down an offer to work at the nearby [[nuclear power plant]] and it is later revealed that he briefly served during the [[Vietnam War]] in a [[bomb disposal|bomb-defusing]] team.<ref>Season 1, Episode 14 – "[[Countdown (MacGyver episode)|Countdown]]." Talking with his old friend Charlie about the past and other references to Vietnam in the episode.</ref> Five years before the start of the series, MacGyver worked as a "Hell Fighter," fighting oil well fires in [[Sumatra]], Indonesia.<ref>Season 1, Episode 8 – "[[Hellfire(MacGyver episode)|Hellfire]]"</ref> Sometime during this time MacGyver's mother died of a stroke while he was in Afghanistan on assignment, though no specifics are given other than it being after Christmas.<ref>MacGyver shares the details of the death of his mother with a runaway girl, specifically mentioning being on assignment in Afghanistan in {{Cite episode|title=Runners|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=March 1989|season=4|number=13|language=en}} The time frame of after Christmas comes from {{Cite episode|title=The Madonna|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=December 1989|season=5|number=11|language=en}}.</ref> Eventually he moved to [[Los Angeles]] where he held numerous jobs until he accidentally meets Peter Thornton, an agent at the [[Organizations in MacGyver#Department of External Services|Department of External Services]] (DXS). When MacGyver saves Thornton's life using a [[paper clip]], a [[wrench]] and [[shoelaces]], MacGyver is offered a job as a field agent at the DXS.<ref>{{Cite episode|title=Partners|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=March 1987|season=2|number=18|language=en}}"</ref>

In the first episode of Season 2, Thornton takes a job as [[Chief operating officer|Director of Operations]] at the [[Phoenix Foundation (MacGyver)|Phoenix Foundation]],<ref>{{Cite episode|title=The Human Factor|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=September 1986|season=2|number=1|language=en}}</ref> and MacGyver follows, where he is hired as a "sort of troubleshooter."<ref>According to Peter Thornton in several episodes throughout the series and MacGyver himself in {{Cite episode|title=Runners|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=March 1989|season=4|number=13|language=en}}</ref> He is assigned to a variety of tasks, usually field operations such as conducting environmental surveys and testing security systems. In the fifth season, Harry dies of a heart attack,<ref name="Passages">{{Cite episode|title=Passages|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=April 1990|season=5|number=21|language=en}}</ref> at which point MacGyver believes he has no remaining relatives.<ref>{{Cite episode|title=Target MacGyver|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=December 1985|season=1|number=10|language=en}}. MacGyver reveals that Harry is his only living relative.</ref> In the second to last episode of the show, it is revealed that MacGyver has a son, Sean "Sam" Angus Malloy. Sean's mother is the photojournalist Kate Malloy who MacGyver had met after college. Kate had been murdered in China several years prior to MacGyver meeting their son for the first time. After discovering and reuniting with Sean, MacGyver decides to resign from the Foundation in order to spend time with his son.<ref>{{Cite episode|title=The Stringer|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=April 1992|season=7|number=13|language=en}} Sean is revealed as MacGyver's son.</ref>

Two [[television special]]s featuring the character followed, both occurring and released in 1994, two years after the series ended. In the first one (''MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis''), MacGyver teams up with his former college [[archaeology]] instructor, Professor Atticus ([[Brian Blessed]]), to help him prove his theories about ancient [[Atlantis]] while dodging the bullets of genocidal [[Yugoslavia|Yugoslav]] troops, a [[Greece|Greek]] revolutionary and a ruthless treasure hunter. Soon thereafter (''MacGyver: Trail to Doomsday''), he investigates the murder of a friend in Britain, and eventually traces it to an unscrupulous businessman who sells nuclear arms research for profit. No mention in either special is made of Pete Thornton, Jack Dalton, MacGyver's son Sean or any of the show's other regulars.

===Family===
*Harry Jackson ([[John Anderson (actor)|John Anderson]]) – MacGyver's maternal grandfather. Harry is introduced in season 1.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0026930/|title=John Anderson|website=IMDb|access-date=2016-11-16}}</ref> Harry usually calls MacGyver "Bud", and MacGyver refers to him as "Harry", but why is never revealed until the episode "Phoenix Under Siege".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088559/|title=MacGyver|date=September 29, 1985|via=IMDb}}</ref> Harry had cut ties with Mac and his mom, and was living a life of solitude until MacGyver came to him while trying to keep a low profile due to a bounty on his head.<ref>{{Cite episode|title=Target MacGyver|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=December 1985|season=1|number=10|language=en}}</ref> After this they kept in regular contact, with Harry appearing in several more episodes until he dies of a heart attack in the fifth season. MacGyver's grandmother was mentioned several times but never portrayed in the series, though her name was revealed to be Celia.<ref>{{Cite episode|title=Runners|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=March 1989|number=13|language=en}}</ref>
*James ([[Martin Milner]]) and Ellen MacGyver (Shelia Moore) – MacGyver's parents. Both of MacGyver's parents are deceased before the series begins. James MacGyver died, along with MacGyver's grandmother, when their car went off the road and they drowned in a creek when MacGyver was 7.<ref>The date is revealed to be December 14, though no specific year is given. {{Cite episode|title=Phoenix Under Siege|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=January 1987|season=2|number=11|language=en}}</ref> His mother, Ellen died from a stroke the day after an unspecified Christmas, but Mac was not able to make it home to see her.<ref name="The Madonna"/> James appears in two episodes.<ref>{{Cite episode|title=Thin Ice|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] | date=February 1985|season=3|number=13|language=en}} and {{Cite episode|title=Passages|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=April 1990|season=5|number=21|language=en}}</ref> Ellen appears in one.<ref name="Passages"/>
*Sean "Sam" Angus Malloy ([[Dalton James]]) – MacGyver's first son. Sean is the son of MacGyver and photojournalist Kate Malloy, who had a relationship after college before the series began. Unknown to MacGyver until several years after Kate's death, he fathered a child with Malloy, Sean. Sean appears in only one episode.<ref>{{Cite episode|title=The Stringer|series=''MacGyver''|network=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|date=April 1992|season=7|number=13|language=en}}</ref>

===Cultural impact===
{{Main|MacGyver in popular culture}}
The term "MacGyver" has now become part of the colloquial American English lexicon. When one "MacGyvers" a solution to a problem, one finds a simple yet elegant solution using existing resources.<ref name=britton>Britton, Wesley, ''Spy Television'', Praeger/Greenwood, {{ISBN|0-275-98163-0}}, p. 212.</ref><ref name=rich>Rich, John, 2006, ''Warm Up the Snake: A Hollywood Memoir'', {{ISBN|0-472-11578-2}}, p. 167.</ref>  This is in contrast to a [[kludge]], which has a meaning relatively close to "MacGyver" but generally considered more insulting, or with the implication that it's prone to fail or very temporary; or a [[Rube Goldberg]], which is a solution that's overly complicated.