Editing MacGyver (section)

===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.