You can google it (Part 1): Cast, Characters and Locations

It’s been a year now since I’ve started blogging about the MacGyver Reboot on this WordPress blog. Most people land here via Twitter, but some also by using search engines. The top 3 list of search terms is pretty unspectacular:

1. dashboardonfire
2. dashboard on fire wordpress
3. george eads

Some search engines don’t reveal search terms for privacy reasons. According to WordPress, search engines like Google have been encrypting the vast majority of search terms since 2013. Therefore, WordPress often can’t specify which search terms were used by visitors who found this blog using a search engine. That’s why the majority on my list – almost 2000 by now – are Unknown search terms.

Excerpt of the search engine statistics (retrieved May 20, 2018)

Still, there’s a couple of search terms I want to comment on and throw in some additional education – and maybe help the unknown searching beings in finding an answer. I’m not sure people found exactly the answer they were looking for on here, though. So feel free to comment if I missed something.

Let me say this before we start, though: I’ve never seen so many different ways how you can write “MacGyver” before.

 

macgyver cast
Yes, I write a lot about the MacGyver Cast. If you’re looking for the cast of a specific episode, you might be luckier if you head over to the official reboot page on IMDb.

Not only can you check for the entire cast and crew for the whole series (circled red at the bottom) or for every episode using the Episode Guide (circled left), but you can also rate the episodes and check which episodes are the highest rated. In case you’re interested: The highest-rated one at the moment is Episode 2×12 (Mac + Jack ).

macgyver fanfiction
First, let me explain: FanFiction (FF) is when fans take either the story or characters (or both) of a certain piece of work (whether it be a novel, TV show, a movie) and write their own story based on it. Easy example: The infamous Fifty Shades of Grey movie series is based on books by the same name that were initially Twilight FanFiction. If you write a story about what would have happened if famous wizard Harry Potter had been sorted into Slytherin instead of Gryffindor, that’s FanFiction.

Yes, there’s MacGyver FanFiction as well. Not as much as for other fandoms, but the Reboot fandom is still growing and new stories are published or updated every day. If you’re looking for Original MacGyver FanFiction, you can hit the MacGyverOnline forum. For Reboot FF, I usually check on either Archive Of Our Own (AO3) or FanFiction.net. Many authors post on both archives and some use Tumblr or WattPad.

BtS photo of Episode 2×18: Riley + Airplane (via Sheryl Lee Ralph)

Many stories are so-called Episode Tags, meaning these are scenes we didn’t get to watch in an episode (e.g. what happened after MacGyver was shot in the Pilot Episode or a specific scene told using Jack’s or Thornton’s point of view).

what did sheryl lee ralph get paid for the macgyver episode
I have no clue what actors get paid in general, so I don’t know anything about TV show salaries either. Apparently, it was enough, otherwise she wouldn’t have come back for Season 2.

what episode of macgyver does jack use his sniper rifle who loves you baby
You’re referring to the Pilot Episode (1×01: The Rising). In a flashback to their military days, we see Jack sniping at bad guys while Mac is defusing a bomb. The scene was set up to be a nod to Peter Lenkov’s other show Hawaii Five-0 since Jack has history with H50 main character Steve McGarrett (played by Alex O’Loughlin). In a deleted shot of the episode, you can see the word ALOHA stenciled on Jack’s rifle.

Deleted Shot of Episode 1×01: The Rising. Photo by Guy D’Alema (via TVLine)

The scene caused some controversy; especially with fans of the Original Show. If anyone’s interested about the reasons, I wrote a blog post about it.

macgyver cast 2018 who plays willy mardi
I have no clue who Willy Mardi is, but he sounds interesting. Unless you were looking for Episode 2×14 (Mardi Gras Beads + Chair), I can’t really help out here.

macgyver justine hires cries during agent test
In the first half of Season 2, Bozer (played by Justin Hires) goes to “spy school”. In Episode 2×09 (CD-ROM + Hoagie Foil), Bozer has to pass an interrogation test at the training center which needs him to confront a painful childhood memory. Justin got many compliments on the scene by fans, but also by cast and crew – though he stated on Instagram that this was the most difficult scene he’s filmed so far for the show.

All Fun and Games in a BtS of Episode 2×09: CD-ROM + Hoagie Foil (via Justin Hires)

FunFact: The memory is a nod to the Original Show (Episode 4×02: Blood Brothers) since a similar childhood drama involving a gun happened to Original MacGyver and his friends. The storyline of the episode is all about MacGyver returning to his hometown to find himself haunted by the memories of that fatal shooting accident.

what did the trampoline w ballons have to do w the beginning of mcguver
The scene you’re talking about is not only a nod to the animated movie UP, but also part of the so-called Opening Gambit for Episode 2×19 (Benjamin Franklin + Grey Duffle). The Opening Gambits were implemented in the Original Show and usually written and directed by another crew than the rest of the episode. They were longer than in the Reboot, so you had a mini MacGyver adventure within the episode that usually had no ties to the main storyline. Because of the high production costs and time issues, they dropped these kind of opening sequences pretty soon. Some of them have become pretty iconic, though and feature some of the most favorite MacGyverisms of the Original Show.

BtS picture of Episode 2×19: Benjamin Franklin + Grey Duffle (via Steven Serna)

what episode of macgyver season 2 does jack wear chaps
The chaps make an appearance in the Opening Gambit of Episode 2×18 (Riley + Airplane). Crew member Kate Roberson posted a funny BtS video on Instagram; revealing what these chaps looked up close. As you can see, nobody had to freeze their buttocks off.

macgyver was tied up
Oh yes. That happens quite often, both in the Original Show and in the Reboot. Not that often in the Reboot, though since sometimes it’s Jack that gets tied up. Thinking about it without any kind of research, I can refer to Episodes 1×07 (Can Opener) and 2×04 (X-Ray + Penny) where Mac is the one getting tied up to a chair.

 

BtS Instagram Live Story video screenshots of Episode 2×18: Riley + Airplane (via Kate Roberson)

was latest macgyver episode filmed in purrto rico
This person is referring to Episode 2×21 (Wind + Water), written by MacGyver creator Lee Zlotoff. Though the episode is set in Puerto Rico, the cast filmed in Atlanta and Georgia Area. It is possible that the crew produced some recent aerial shots of Puerto Rico via drone, but it’s also possible they bought already existing material for the landscape sequences. As far as I know, the only time the main cast actually travelled to another country to film scenes was for Episode 1×18 (Flashlight), the crossover episode with Hawaii Five-0. It was only Lucas Till and George Eads filming in Hawaii, though – the rest of the scenes were filmed in Atlanta as well.

For Season 2, the crew and the stunt doubles for Lucas and George travelled to Cuba to film the Opening Gambit of Episode 2×01 (DIY or DIE). The scenes involving Lucas and George themselves were also filmed in Atlanta, in front of blue and green screens. A TV show simply doesn’t have the budget to do all the oversea travelling required for filming on location. To save money, many TV shows set in California are either filmed in Vancouver or in Atlanta.

BtS of Episode 2×01: DIY or DIE (via George Eads)

what do i watch first hawaii 5 o bulletproof or macgyver flashlight?
Good question. Since the episode titles for Hawaii Five-0 are in Hawaiian, it wasn’t that easy to find out which episode this visitor was looking for. In fact, I still don’t know: Despite Wikipedia helping out by providing the English titles, I couldn’t find an episode named “Bulletproof”. In general, I’ll advise watching the episodes in the same order as they premiered on American TV. In this case, that means first MacGyver and then H50 plus following the airdates, so 1×17 (Ruler), 7×18 (Handle with Care), 1×18 (Flashlight), 7×19 (Exodus), 1×19 (Compass) and so on. I’ve watched the whole first Season of MacGyver before starting Season 7 of H50 (without having seen Seasons 2 to 6, actually) and although both shows are set in the same Universe, I was fine (besides probably missing some Easter Eggs).