Richard Dean Anderson Says ‘No Way’ To MacGyver Reboot
Fans of the popular 1980s and 90s TV series MacGyver will be disappointed to find out that there is little likelihood of a reboot. While other popular series like Heroes are reborn anew, MacGyver just ain’t happening, says the former star of the show, Richard Dean Anderson.
For the uninitiated, the television character Angus MacGyver was famous for quite literally making things out of nothing, or whatever was available at the time. He always had incredible ideas in his head, which allowed him to get out of any situation he landed in. The character was dead set against guns, but managed to escape from sticky situations with whatever he made at the time. The popular TV show ran between 1985 and 1992.
Richard Dean Anderson rules out MacGyver return http://t.co/m2F9dSaaYu pic.twitter.com/QlJIk6HgeS
— Stuff Entertainment (@NZStuffEnt) September 26, 2015
The MacGyver show even ended by giving the world the popular saying, “MacGyverism,” still used today by anyone who comes up with a nifty, ingenious, and quick solution to a problem.
In fact, the word has been suggested to, and is under consideration by, Collins dictionaries with the definition, “A person that utilizes any available resources to resolve a situation that they may be in to a successful conclusion.”
According to ABC, Richard Dean Anderson has been in Australia attending the Oz Comic Con, and was recently interviewed by AAP in Sydney.
According to the actor, this is no longer a “MacGyver-friendly world.” Anderson said these days, there is far too much technology available for the whole scope of the show to be relevant in this day and age.
“Part of the reason I’m not interested in starting it (MacGyver) up again is that there is so much technology today that every human being on the face of this side of the planet anyway has got a cell phone.”
Anderson continued by saying that for the character Angus MacGyver not to have a cell phone, and have to “fashion one” out of nothing, is “kind of iffy.”
“He’s a smart guy, he’d be smart enough to have a cell phone.”
Anderson also added that time has gone by, and if he were to play the part of the character MacGyver again, you have to take into account the fact he is quite a bit older, has greying hair and is overweight by 20 pounds and that he is “also slower and maybe a little more clumsy” than he was back then.
If his MacGyver character could be wrapped around his latest image, he said he might just consider going back to making makeshift bombs and incredible escapes. He said that would be fun to play, but rather unlikely.
Q1 Macgyver – The first famous coder and developer of #makerspace #aussieED pic.twitter.com/2TCCMP04Xm
— Adam King (@theworkpad) September 27, 2015
As reported in Stuff.co.nz and thinking back to the amazing and improbable inventions thought up for the show, Anderson said that virtually every MacGyverism was thoroughly tested and completely viable.
“Almost everything MacGyver did was possible; we researched virtually every MacGyverism.”
Anderson did say that as the show went on and became more and more popular, the inventions became even more absurd and a lot of fun. He said he often turned up for work on the set and after reading the script said, “Are you kidding me?”
MacGyver fans will be upset there is no reboot to be had, but those who never saw the show may remember Richard Dean Anderson from another popular show, Stargate, where he played Major Jack O’Neill. Reportedly, Anderson left that show to spend more time with his daughter, Wylie.
Just for fun, a couple of the more famous MacGyverisms are included below, courtesy of YouTube.
[Photo: Richard Dean Anderson (left) with Paul Watson by Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images Entertainment – MacGyver title fair use by ABC Network – Richard Dean Anderson as MacGyver fair use by Brian0918]
