Plot: What’s it about?
There are several things that I could attribute my 1.0 GPA in my first semester of college to, but I think I’ll stick the blame on one man: MacGyver. Yes, Richard Dean Anderson, the God of Patty and Selma (of “The Simpson’s”) among others…you made me do poorly in school! Ok, not really. MacGyver ran for seven years on ABC to a moderate success and launched the career of the formerly named Mr. Anderson. If you ask anyone off the street who remembers the show, they’d probably say that it was the show about a guy who “made stuff out of stuff”. Need a bomb out of gasoline and orange juice? No problem. How about a trap in the woods made with a belt? Sure. The list, as you can imagine, goes on. I originally got hooked on the show when it was in syndication on the USA network. The new episodes were winding down and in 1992 MacGyver’s run came to an end, though I think they did a TV special a few years later (I was over it by then).
The basic plot of the show was pretty consistent throughout the show’s run, MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) whose first name was to be revealed in the final season, was sort of an “independent contractor” who later ended up working for the Phoenix Foundation with Pete (Dana Elcar) as his boss. MacGyver wasn’t really a policeman, FBI agent or anything of that nature, but he always managed to get himself into the middle of things and always ended up cheating death time after time. Part of the allure of the show was that MacGyver was more of a role model. He didn’t drink, smoke or swear and he hated guns. He managed to solve all of the problems by using his mind and if he needed a stick of chewing gum and a paper clip to get out of a jam – well so be it. The first season doesn’t really compare to the rest, MacGyver was later joined by Jack Dalton (Bruce McGill) who always lightened up the mood and in the later days when he was sporting his frosted hair and mullet – well it just didn’t get much better than that (and a Jeep Sahara edition to boot). Hopefully Paramount will end up releasing all of the seasons on DVD, but at the very least we have the first one.
Video: How does it look?
The episodes are shown in their original full-frame aspect ratio (as was concurrent with being a TV show in the 80’s) and for the most part look good. There is a fair amount of grain in a few of the episodes and while it’s not distracting – I’ve seen better from earlier television shows on DVD. Fleshtones seem to be warm and natural and while edge enhancement isn’t a factor, I did notice that on some of the scenes there’s a fair amount of dirt on the print. On the whole, it’s better than you’ll find in reruns but not much.
Audio: How does it sound?
The Dolby Surround track doesn’t really bring the episodes to life as most of the effects (I think something blows up at least once an episode) are pretty weak. For the most part it’s a dialogue-driven action show that doesn’t really challenge your surround system that much. That said, just like the video presentation it sounds as good as it ever has, but that’s still not that great.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Paramount must be hoping for die hard fans only on this one, aside from the average video and audio are zero supplements. Let’s hope that this doesn’t impact sales too much that they don’t release the rest of the seasons on DVD. Paramount…DVD is over seven years old now – we want supplements or at least one supplement!
