For Christmas, I got a blast from my past, MacGyver Season One on DVD! It didn't take long after getting re-aquainted with good ol' Mac to realize that he could relate VERY well to the subjects of survival and preparedness...

IMO, he could be seen as our 'ideal' that no real person could ever acheive - having the tools but more importantly the SKILLS and KNOW-HOW to get out of any situation.

I think they should do another MacGyver movie. I'm pretty sure that Murdoc was still alive when the show went off, maybe a REAL final fight between the two old enemies. I just wonder if it would be blasphemy to suggest that Mac put down his faithful SAK in favor of a 'hipper' Leatherman...! <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Heh, anyone else here a fan?

I was. Richard Dean Anderson came into a Hardware store I was working at PT . After he got LOST I helped him with an invitation to drop by our forum and say hello. He was nice enough to look over ETS. The next time we spoke he mumbled something about our promotion of firearms in survival and walked away, only to get lost in plumbing. <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Another hero dashed against the rocky shore of reality <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

"...having the tools but more importantly the SKILLS and KNOW-HOW to get out of any situation."

He had something even more important--a script. That and 60 minutes will get you out of darn near anything. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Regards, Vince

I always find it amusing to find the people of Hollywood, who have made their livings from years of shoot-em-up movies and TV shows, so in favor of gun control. Do they really think that the REAL use & need for guns would disappear if all the taxpayers gave up their weapons? The silly fools can't even tell the difference between real life and a script!

Sue

Gah...I knew that Mac was anti-gun, didn't realize that RDA was in real life too... <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Too bad, considering all of the really cool firepower he got to use in Stargate. And I am not counting the alien weapons!

Jeez!

And I am SURPRISED when any discussion of any gun is found on this site. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

This isnt exactly "American Survival Guide". He must REALLY be anti gun (except when it suits his bottom line).

My middle daughter gave the set to me for my last B-Day. We love to watch them together as a family and in fact watched two of the episodes New Year’s Day. While it would be great if RDA were true to his role parts, the fact that in real life he has little interest, in no way (at least for us) diminishes our enjoyment of watching these episodes. We realize that many of his “solutions’ are Hollywood effects and would not really work. However, it stimulates us to think outside the box and lets us play “what would we do” games.

Instead of dropping the SAK, just add a Leatherman (redundancy). I carry both and to date neither has let me down.

Pete

You mean Snickers bar, SAK and duct tape can't stop leak from the tanker carrying radioactive liquid? Damn. I'm screwed now. I based my entire Hazmat training on this guy.

Still it was one of the first shows I watched as a 12 yo who just came to the US.

Aside from this rather curt reaction Anderson was always personable and friendly. His shows are fun. I miss the brief series Legend.

Richard Dean Anderson is pretty much an antigun fanatic, from what I've read.

As far as I know, he refused to use one in any of his show's episodes, even where picking one up would have been the smart and practical thing to do under the circumstances.

-- Craig

Interesting, he did so at least once:

In one of the episodes we watched the other day, at the start of the show he rescues an Army General. He decoys the two “thugs” into the kitchen (using a bunch of pans on a block of ice which he had sitting next to a toaster oven) and drags the General who was handcuffed to the chair out the door. McGyver trips the two when they went after them and clearly pick s up the gun of one of the kidnapers and holds them at bay.

Although, latter he fails to pick up the weapon of another pursuer he renders unconscious.

Pete

Really? Didn't know that. I stand corrected.

If memory serves me correctly:

McGyver, in one episode has a flashback to an event in his childhood, in which a friend is killed by a gun McGyver or another kid was “playing” with and thus his “distain” for firearms. I believe in various episodes he does point out his dislike of firearms.

It is interesting that in SG1, RDAs use of guns and other weapons is paramount to his character and his character’s survival.


Pete

At least James Spader (Daniel Jackson in the Kurt Russell Stargate) helps maintain the gun/anti-gun balance:

James Spader target practice link

I also clearly recall him using a revolver frame, minus the cylinder, as a wrench on a large fire-hydrant type fitting.

In the pilot, he actually picks up an assault rifle he 'borrowed' from a guard and opens fire around a group of them to buy a little time to prepare a parachute. He dosen't hit anyone, though you can't tell if he's just shooting to scare (as I'd imagine the case is) or he's just a lousy shot! <img src="/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> And a favorite trick of his I've seen is to rig up guns to shoot on a delay or tripwire. First few discs alone I remember he set off a rifle for distraction, and set off a LOT of rifles to blow the tires out of a bad guy's jeep. And in one mid-first-season ep, he clobbers a killer with an M-16. The killer pulls out a knife and Mac picks up the rifle and uses it to block the stab.

I did some research and read about the flashback episode...where I read it claimed that Richard was going to do an anti-gun PSA at the end of the ep, but backed off because the NRA didn't want him to? Sounds fishy, did the NRA steal the script or something? <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />