MacGyver: What You Didn’t Know About The Classic Show

MacGyver and Guns

MacGyver is a unique action hero because he rarely uses guns throughout the show, but not everyone was happy about his anti-gun stance. When the 1988 episode that showed the reason MacGyver didn’t like guns aired, the National Rifle Association went crazy. MacGyver’s boyhood friend was killed by one accidentally.

“They’ve been encouraging people not to watch us and boycott our sponsors,” co-producer Steve Downing said of the NRA in an interview with The Los Angeles Times. “We try to do a decent job of really saying why a gun is dangerous, and they choose to boycott us and put us on their hit list.”

Angus Was Almost Stacey

MacGyver’s first name isn’t revealed until the end of the show in “Good Night MacGyver: Part 2,” when it’s said to be Angus. Apparently, Richard Dean Anderson saw Angus on a billboard in Vancouver and it found its way into the show. Originally though, Mac’s first name was supposed to be Stacey.

An early version of the pilot script lists Anderson as playing Stacey MacGyver. Before the show premiered, Paramount also publicly circulated a flyer that credited Anderson as Stacey MacGyver. To fans, no matter what his first name is, he’ll always be Mac. Still, Angus does seem like a better fit for the resourceful agent.