While Upfronts Week is imminent, the MacGyver cast isn’t attached to any upcoming TV shows yet. We still got some news in the last few days.
(For daily news and to discuss your favourite topics, you can find me on Twitter and on the MacGyverOnline Forums.)
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MacGyver The Musical
MacGyver the Musical had premiered in February in Houston; running several shows a week for a month. Back in March, MacGyver-creator Lee David Zlotoff revealed that they’re going to put together a concept album of the songs.
Last month, the official Instagram account asked the fans who they would like to hear on the album; no matter if the singer is famous or not. The posts have been deleted by now; but I do remember us fans suggesting anyone from the MacGyver cast (rebooted or original version). On May 9, Tristin Mays announced that Lee asked her to sing a song for the album.
I did see some stories of the musical cast rehearsing this week, but nothing from Tristin (or any Tristin sightings during rehearsals). There’s no release dates yet for the album or the next iteration of the musical.
MacGyver on ionTV
ICYMI: On May 2nd, the MacGyver Reboot premiered on ion Television. They’ve scheduled about 16 episodes each Monday. There was more advertizing on social media than CBS did for Season 5. On April 24, ionTV tweeted about the main characters; providing some info for new viewers unfamiliar with Team Phoenix. They also changed the Twitter header and their profile photo for the occasion. On the following days, they posted posters and trailers. Some of the cast joined the promotion; e.g. Tristin Mays with a BtS video of Episode 5×09.
For the second batch of episodes, they kept posting on social media; e.g. a short trailer about Jack Dalton.
MacGyver Profits Lawsuit (encore)
ICYMI: The 2018 profits lawsuit stems from a TV producing deal in the mid-1980s (involving several producers, Paramount and Major Talent Agency) that preceded the original MacGyver show. After the series was rebooted in 2016, Hanzer Holdings and Arlita sued CBS; claiming they’re entitled to a share in profits for MTA’s work for the OG show.
An April trial was pushed back for settlement discussions. As The Hollywood Reporter stated on May 9, terms of the agreement to resolve the lawsuit have been fully executed. A notice of settlement to dismiss the case will be filed by June 23.
It’s not clear if we’ll ever know the nature of the settlement and if it has any impact on further use of the MacGyver brand.
What are Cast and Crew up to?
ICYMI: A few weeks ago, we got a new Lucas Till sighting in Atlanta. He met up with MacGyver Writer Teresa Huang and TV writer Helen Shang.
While we haven’t seen much of Levy Tran, a first poster for her upcoming movies Expend4bles has been released at CinemaCon.
Justin Hires is still doing regular stand-up comedy shows. Meanwhile, Reign Edwards (who played Leanna) did a lot of promo for Season 2 of The Wilds before the Premiere on May 6.
Ex-Showrunner Peter Lenkov keeps answering fan questions as Instagram stories. Sadly, he mostly uses the opportunity to rant about Lucas or “that paperclip show” (forgetting that Lenkov himself was the one making the rebooted Reboot all about paperclips) but every now and then, he posts interesting tidbits (e.g. the budget for Hawaii Five-0 being 100 million dollars every year). This week, he posted some stories about the Unaired MacGyver Pilot; adding some excerpts of the script (presumably the revised version that has been used for filming).
(Note: I will probably update my previous blog posts about the Unaired Pilot Script to incorporate the new information about some of the characters. You can find an overview of the posts regarding the Unaired Pilot here.)
Otherwise, there wasn’t much going on regarding cast and crew. Stunt Coordinator Daniel Hargrave posted a new BtS photo of Episode 5×06.
MacGyver on DVD
You might have missed some of the DVD news. Here’s an overview of all the upcoming DVD releases:
- In German-spaking regions, the Season 5 DVD will be released on June 30. The listed bonus material says there will be deleted and extended scenes. You can pre-order it here. For the US, there’s no release date yet for a single Season 5 DVD edition.
- In the US, the Complete Series DVD Box (including Season 5) with 21 discs will be released on June 14. There’s no bonus material listed. You can pre-order it here.
- The German version of the complete series box set with 24 discs will be released on June 30. There’s three language options (German, English, French). So far, the bonus material listed is the same as for Seasons 1 and 2.
- In Japan, the Special Selection Season 4 DVD Box and the Season 5 DVD will both be released on July 6.
- In France, the Season 4 DVD will be released on August 17. There is no bonus material listed.
CBS Pilot Season
In the Spotted Ratings forum, the Thursday before Upfronts Week is called Bloody Thursday (because traditionally, cancellation news come on Thursday and Friday). And bloody it was, indeed. In total, CBS and their affiliate network The CW cancelled almost a dozen shows within the last few days (CW even more shows than in the last 5 years combined).
CBS also cancelled Magnum PI, the last of the Lenkoverse shows. That means that Levy Tran won’t be back as a guest star in her Magnum PI character (unless they bring her back to another show in the same universe; e.g. one of the NCIS shows).
CBS ordered three rookie drama shows to series while passing on all the comedy pilots. The definite schedule will be presented at the Upfronts on May 18. So far, none of the former MacGyver cast members is attached to any of these new shows.
There’s also no news about The Spook who sat by the Door (which Lucas Till filmed a pilot for) or the Flashdance series (which Tristin Mays was interested in; taking ballet lessons). It looks like both projects are still in re-development and might not be ready to get back on track this year.
Other MacGyver-related News
Check out the official SaveMacGyver website and their social media accounts to keep up with news about the #SaveMacGyver movement. Other MacGyver-related news you might have missed:
- Teri Hatcher attended German Comic Con in Dortmund (April 23 and 24).
- Background actor Tony Morgan re-posted some BtS photos of Episode 1×17 (Ruler) this week.
- Henry Ian Cusick is now attached to 8 upcoming projects on his IMDb page. He’s a busy man.
Dashboard On Fire 