Little red knife

It was back in 1987. I was 12, and a new television show started that completely grabbed my attention. "MacGyver". It was December 5 1987 when the first episode aired. Actually the pilot episode aired 2 years before, on September 29 1985. But, the first time we saw it here in Portugal (at least where i grew up) was in 1987, on the main, at that time, Spanish TV channel: TVE1.

This newspaper article tells all about it (if you can read Spanish): Comienza 'MacGyver'

Ah, the exhilaration of hearing this tune for the first time...



"The series follows the adventures of Angus MacGyver, or "Mac," as his friends call him. He is a master of improvisation. Using his vast scientific knowledge and unique ability to see items as individual components he can use ordinary objects to get himself and his companions out of trouble. All he carries with him is a Swiss Army knife and, occasionally, a roll of duct tape and some odds and ends having forsaken guns (and firearms in general) after a and tries to avoid violence as much as he can." You can read more here: Macgyver online

The first thing that caught my attention was his pocket knife and the way he improvised solutions. His greatest tool was his brain. And we can see both of them (knife and brain) been used in this scene from the pilot episode:



Short after, my father, that worked in Switzerland at the time, gave me my first pocket knife. It was not a Swiss Army Knife, but it was red. It was (or is, still have it) a German made Solingen pocket knife. I was really happy with that knife. :)

And not just that, MacGyver could survive in any environment. I enjoyed especially the episodes out in nature. It really grew and developed my love for the outdoors. And they always filmed the most amazing and beautiful places. Macgyver was also all about taking care of the planet and environment.

But what really got embedded in our lives and popular culture was another thing, it even got its own expression: MacGyverisms. They are, put simply, things made with simple day to day items to solve a problem.

"While MacGyverisms were based on scientific principles, most MacGyverisms were greatly exaggerated for entertainment purposes. The writers freely acknowledge that many MacGyverisms would require very exact conditions if they were to actually work as shown in the episodes. The writers were always careful to leave out key ingredients of any MacGyverisms which created an explosive or otherwise harmful effect, to ensure that it could not be re-created by viewers." in Macgyver online

But well, all things have an end Everything changes. Or maybe not, like Peter Thornton said "good things don't".

Nevertheless, on April 25 1992 the last episode aired, followed by a "lost" episode, not previously aired, on May 21 1992. A couple of years later, two TV movies came out, both filmed in England. Lost Treasure Of Atlantis and Trail To Doomsday.

Macgyver lives on in our minds and pop culture. Short after Richard Dean Anderson retired from acting and SGA, he made an appearance as Macgyver again, in a MasterCard Commercial. There was also an episode of the MythBusters dedicated to him. And a couple of years ago Mercedes made a short film to advertise one of their models, starring Richard Dean Anderson as Macgyver. You can check all those videos below.

If you want to know more (if you don´t know everything already) check the official Macgyver website: MacGyver online dot com

Have a great day!