A guide listing the titles AND air dates for episodes of the TV series MacGyver (1985).
I used to watch MacGyver all the time with my dad when i was little so this was a great christmas present for him. I recently popped in one of the dvds and the changing of the times really makes this show seem kinda cheesy, but still very enjoyable. If you were once a fan of MacGyver, you'll enjoy this dvd set.

Created by Lee David Zlotoff. With Richard Dean Anderson, Dana Elcar, Bruce McGill, Robin Mossley. The adventures of a secret Agent armed with almost infinite scientific resourcefulness. There is an arsonist, called Prometheus, loose in MacGyver's neighborhood. Naturally, the Fire Inspector and the police are clueless, and have enlisted MacGyver has to do all the real work to catch the arsonist.

MacGyver
Season 1
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	22
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	September 29, 1985 – May 7, 1986
Season chronology
Next → Season 2
List of MacGyver episodes

The first season of the American television series MacGyver, consisting of 22 episodes, began on September 29, 1985, and ended on May 7, 1986, and aired on the ABC network. The region 1 DVD was released on January 25, 2005.^[1]

Summary[edit]

In this season, the show introduces MacGyver, described as 'an action hero who practiced non-violent methods and fought with his mind instead of his hands or weapons.' It follows MacGyver and his friend Pete, as they use tools and cleverness to deal with difficult and often dangerous situations.^[2]

Episodes[edit]

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	1	'Pilot'	Jerrold Freedman (as Alan Smithee)	Thackary Pallor	September 29, 1985
On top of a vertical rock face encampment, MacGyver rescues a captured Air Force pilot and reacquires a component from a top secret missile in Central Asia from the armed captors. Although MacGyver doesn't believe in using guns, he carries one (a Valmet rifle disguised as an AKM) in order to appear like one of the guards and later rigs it to fire off as a distraction in the opening gambit of the pilot episode. Extremely out-of-character for later MacGyver episodes he also shoots twice at the guards pursuing them, then hands the weapon over to the Air Force pilot he is rescuing while he prepares their escape. After coming home, he is called in to rescue a group of scientists trapped in an underground New Mexico laboratory after a major explosion. The explosion causes a sulfuric acid leak that puts MacGyver in a rush with time before the acid leaks into the aquifer. It turns out that this explosion was not an accident; it was planned by one of the trapped scientists to prevent his ozone research from getting turned into a doomsday weapon. MacGyver survival techniques include using chocolate bars to plug the sulfuric acid leak (the sugar forms a sticky paste when it reacts with the acid) and making an alkali metal (sodium in a cold pill) and water bomb to blow a hole in a wall. Note: Dana Elcar appears in this episode as a guest star playing Andy Colson, not as his later regular role of MacGyver's boss Peter Thornton.
2	2	'The Golden Triangle'	Donald Petrie (opening gambit) Paul Stanley	Terry Nation (opening gambit) Dennis Foley	October 6, 1985
MacGyver is in a junkyard trying to stop the transaction of top secret missile launch codes by corrupt Pentagon officials. MacGyver has 24 hours to get in and out of Burma to retrieve a canister of deadly toxin from a crashed American jet. However, during his mission, he gets captured by a local opium drug lord, Truang, who mistakes him for a narcotics agent. Truang and his General, Narai, have the local villagers enslaved to produce the drug harvest. MacGyver escapes and then completes his initial mission by returning the poison canister to his escape helicopter. However, instead of fleeing, MacGyver decides to stay in Burma to help the villagers fight the drug lords and their henchmen. Survival techniques include creating a choking gas by igniting fire ash and alcohol inside bamboo and creating a diversion using foliage in the road that looks so phony, the enemy takes a detour route, leading them into the real trap: a dug out pit that incapacitates their vehicles.
3	3	'Thief of Budapest'	Lee H. Katzin (opening gambit) John Patterson	Terry Nation & Stephen Downing (opening gambit) Joe Viola	October 13, 1985
MacGyver's mission is to retrieve a very valuable horse from Arabian tribesmen who stole it. After a wild horse chase along a beach, a helicopter airlifts him and the horse away to safety. MacGyver goes to Hungary to meet with his Russian double-agent friend Grotsky. Grotsky has valuable intelligence information about Russian spies infiltrating the US hidden inside his pocket watch. However, before MacGyver can obtain possession of it, the watch was pick-pocketed by a little Gypsy girl named Jana. MacGyver's new mission now is to retrieve the stolen watch from the girl before Russian agents, who want to reacquire the information, do. The car chase from this episode, featuring three Mini Coopers, was taken from the British caper film The Italian Job, which was filmed in Turin in 1969.
4	4	'The Gauntlet'	Lee H. Katzin	Judy Burns (opening gambit) Stephen Kandel	October 20, 1985
MacGyver's mission is to sneak into a compound in a Middle Eastern country and retrieve a planning map that reveals target locations marked by terrorists. He is spotted when he tries to escape and uses the map in various resourceful ways to aid in his escape, eventually eluding his pursuers by lifting off in a hot air balloon. When he returns, he is sent to Central America on a mission to bring an American journalist, Kate Connolly, back home. Kate agrees to go home but only when she completes her big story which is an American criminal with a personal grudge against MacGyver named Dave Reyerson and a military general named Vasquez negotiating a deal over weapons with evidence of a brewing coup d'état. After Kate photographs her incriminating evidence, MacGyver and she must now escape from Vasquez men by fleeing to the Mexican border.
5	5	'The Heist'	Alan Smithee	Story by : Larry Alexander & James Schmerer Teleplay by : James Schmerer	November 3, 1985
MacGyver helps a politician's daughter steal back $60 million in diamonds that were stolen by a ex-militia leader casino owner. Both this episode and the pilot credit Alan Smithee as director. Alan Smithee is a pseudonym directors use when their work is taken away from them and heavily cut against their wishes. It is also an anagram of 'The Alias Men'.
6	6	'Trumbo's World'	Lee H. Katzin (opening gambit) Donald Petrie	Stephen Kandel	November 10, 1985
MacGyver must rescue a kidnapped scientist from foreign mercenaries. MacGyver and a wildlife photographer friend must uncover the reason for the strange happenings in the Amazon rainforest. Then, in a story based on Leiningen Versus the Ants, MacGyver helps a man in the Amazon jungle defend his plantation against billions of ants. Some footage from the 1954 film The Naked Jungle was used in this episode.
7	7	'Last Stand'	John Florea	Judy Burns	November 17, 1985
Armed thieves take MacGyver and a small group hostage at a rural airport. He has to figure out how to defeat the thieves and free the hostages

Macgyver 1985 All Seasons