The Final Episode #51: MacGuyver (1985 - 1992)

 

Well it's 3 Final Episodes in a row! You know me I kinda like to talk about other things to keep the blog fresh and there's other things I enjoy other than Final Episodes of television shows from the past, but I'm doing this for two reasons. I really really REALLY do not want to talk about the Marvel Comic I have planned for the next Comic Review seeing as every single person I've ever seen say anything about it have said it's the worst comic book Marvel ever published and that you know scares a person. The other reason is well Portnoyd a jerklord I argue with over the internet was probably right about one thing: I should watch at least more than one episode of a tv show I haven't seen before to get a good idea of what the show was like overall, and that's a good idea to be completely fair because I would have probably written MacGyver off if I had only seen the Final Episode, but we will get to that when we can.

MacGyver for those who know nothing about it was an action-adventure show that ran from September 29th, 1985 to May 21st, 1992. It starred Richard Dean Anderson as MacGyver who would solve mysteries and problems for people in mostly non-violent means. He probably gets captured in most episodes but always escapes from these traps. What I'm saying is that MacGyver is Batman without the suit. And less punching. It was created by Lee David Zlotoff (what a cool name) who worked on other shows such as Hill Street Blues and Remington Steele  One other name that worked on the show was Henry Winkler! That's right the damn Fonz worked as executive producer!

So this is where I usually regal you with memories of the show from my youth. Tell you how I loved or liked or hated it. Something even a really dumb boring story but the best I can do is this. I thought MacGyver was a made up show for the Simpsons. I thought Richard Dean Anderson was made up. I had never seen the show when it was on and if I did it was so brief that I didn't remember it from the seventy thousand mentions it got on the Simpsons due to Patty and Selma loving MacGyver and wanting to kiss Richard Dean Anderson. It was a pretty good running joke. Oh and since this is the internet and I mentioned The Simpsons I'm contractually obligated to mention how the show hasn't been good in two decades even though I have no idea how good an episode of the Simpsons even is these days. It was pretty bad the last time I watched it though.

I figure I should talk about the first of two episodes of MacGyver I watched. It was called "A Lesson of Evil" and was first shown on October 29th, 1990. Had I known I would be mentioning Halloween I would probably have waited till October till I watched this. Still It was a really great episode in which Mac goes up with the crazy Dr. Zito. He only shows up in two episodes and you'll wish he had shown up more because W. Morgan Stewart is a great actor and is clearly having a great time playing this guy. It's rated one of the best episodes of this show and I don't see how any episode can beat this one! I've only seen two and I already know what the best episode is! It's got a bunch of Halloween stuff in the episode too. It's a really well done fun episode that made me want to see more.

Sadly, as I've mentioned earlier in this article I was not a fan of the Final Episode of MacGyver entitled "Mountain of Youth". After the pretty serious episode we get this weird pseudo fantasy episode that was honestly pretty boring. I guess watching whats rated one of the best episodes wasn't the best idea in the end. Probably should have picked an episode rated #32 instead. I dunno if I'd have liked this episode anyway because it feels so hokey and not very fun. It starts with Mac landing from jumping off a plane. He throws away his parachute and then some guy comes up. At first I thought this was Stacy Keach and was instantly going to put this on my top 10 Final Episodes. I love Stacy Keach THAT much. That man could make ANYTHING better. Not many actors can do that but Stacy is one of them. Sadly this guy was not Stacy Keach but Bruce McGill. He's a fine actor but he's no Stacy. 

Mac and Not Stacy Keach have an argument. Mac is here to bring him back because Not Stacy Keach is a con-man of sorts I guess? Give me a break I've only seen two episodes of this show. Not Stacy Keach is there just because he wants to get the fancy youth water from a place I will call Very Stereotypical Asian Land. This guy wants the youth water that shows up. You've seen an episode of something that involves water that will make you young. It's pretty done to death by 1992. You've also seen something with this Stereotypical Asian Land before. Nothing new is really done with any of these ideas and we just get some blah stuff.

Mac, Not Stacy Keach and some lady find themselves captured by the EVIL ARMY that somehow hasn't taken over the Stereotypical Asian Land for like 200 years but they decieded to do that now because they want to create a hydrogen bomb with the magic water because they are EVIL and want to kill the world or some shit. Of course they save the day and find proof of the hydrogen bomb to give the UN and even blow up the pump. Not Stacy Keach decides to be a good guy and drop the water he has for a sample he was going to give to a company (and for only like 200 grand if I recall correctly, not only is Not Stacy Keach kind of a dickhead but he's bad with money. Magic water that turns you young SHOULD GET MORE THAN 200 GRAND! JESUS!). It ends on a freeze frame of Mac being happy. This Final Episode is dumb and I wish I had talked about that Marvel Comic instead.

FINAL VERDICT: I think you should check out the episode A Lesson of Evil because it was a lot of fun to watch. I think MacGyver is probably a fun show that just had a last episode that just feels out of place. I don't know. Did fantascial stuff show up in this show more often, you know like the magic water? Also I don't think I'm going to like this Not Stacy Keach character either. Anyway this episode sadly ends near the end of Final Episodes. I do believe that Portnoyd was a fan of this show because he mentioned that he liked it when he complained about the MacGyver reboot was bad. So I guess it's up to port to talk about some stuff to do with MacGyver. Oh and on the website where people rate tv shows rate this episode at #42 out of 139. That feels way too high for this episode. I bet port loves this episode.